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Semifinal Saturday is only 6 weeks away. Here is how I see the seedings of the relevant teams so far.

1. Duluth East - Undefeated in section
2. Grand Rapids - East is only 7AA loss
3. Cloquet - Beat Forest Lake 6-3, only 4 losses
4. Elk River - Inconsistent, have nice win over Holy Angels
5. Forest Lake - This teams seems to be fading fast.

So there you have it, I fully expect a semifinal noon matchup at Amsoil Arena to be Duluth East vs. Elk River, and 2:30 matchup of Grand Rapids vs. Cloquet. I think it's about as set as you'll ever see. The only thing that might see marginal arguing is who gets the home game for the 4/5 quarterfinal.

No disagreements here. East will have to lose 2 of their 3 games against Flake, Cloquet, and ER to lose top spot. GR is pretty much cemented in as #2. If Cloquet slumps and/or ER goes on a roll, there's a chance they could flip. Barring an upset against East or in their second meeting with Cloquet, Flake will be the 5 seed.

Andover will be #6, St. Francis will be #7, and Cambridge will be #8 and have a first-round rematch with East.

Poor Cambridge.

I realize that few care about this, but at what point do you put Cambridge up a spot to 7? Though they had a horrible game against SF, they have overachieved since and SF and has certainly underachieved.

Starting to look more and more like things wont change from the way they look right now. Elk River and Forest Lake are terribly inconsistent. I don't see the winner of that quarterfinal game giving East any competition at all. I doubt either of them will bring more than 300 fans to the semi-finals.

Looking like a GR v DE rematch in the final?? Cant wait!!

14hockey wrote:Looking like a GR v DE rematch in the final?? Cant wait!!

Odds are it will be a DE vs GR final, but there are still 3 teams who can pull out an upset come playoffs.

As for a rematch, didn't GR get knocked out of the playoffs in the 1st round last year.

Who is the better team right now? Elk River or Forest Lake?

pipersniper12 wrote:

14hockey wrote:Looking like a GR v DE rematch in the final?? Cant wait!!

Odds are it will be a DE vs GR final, but there are still 3 teams who can pull out an upset come playoffs.

As for a rematch, didn't GR get knocked out of the playoffs in the 1st round last year.

Yes they lost bad to forest lake... but the duluth east GR game a couple weeks ago was a hell of a game. That was the rematch I was referring too.

elks have been on a roller coaster, only 2 loses to be ashamed of are to armstrong. just hoping that they can put it together at the right time, which they can, one thing that i noticed with the game stats is they need to improve pk under .80 and pp under .15 this team can't afford to go to the box over 25% of the goals scored against them have been powerplay goals. if they stay out of the box, they can win, until they figure that out, they will continue to lose. you don't have to play your best hockey now, but in a month is when you need to peak and i think that could happen with this team.

slyer wrote:elks have been on a roller coaster, only 2 loses to be ashamed of are to armstrong. just hoping that they can put it together at the right time, which they can, one thing that i noticed with the game stats is they need to improve pk under .80 and pp under .15 this team can't afford to go to the box over 25% of the goals scored against them have been powerplay goals. if they stay out of the box, they can win, until they figure that out, they will continue to lose. you don't have to play your best hockey now, but in a month is when you need to peak and i think that could happen with this team.

I hope you are right. I know I'll be cheering for Elky if they're playing East that day.

rapidsrapids wrote:

slyer wrote:elks have been on a roller coaster, only 2 loses to be ashamed of are to armstrong. just hoping that they can put it together at the right time, which they can, one thing that i noticed with the game stats is they need to improve pk under .80 and pp under .15 this team can't afford to go to the box over 25% of the goals scored against them have been powerplay goals. if they stay out of the box, they can win, until they figure that out, they will continue to lose. you don't have to play your best hockey now, but in a month is when you need to peak and i think that could happen with this team.

I hope you are right. I know I'll be cheering for Elky if they're playing East that day.

Don't want Rapids to miss the chance to play the best, eh?

Lee

rapidsrapids wrote:

slyer wrote:elks have been on a roller coaster, only 2 loses to be ashamed of are to armstrong. just hoping that they can put it together at the right time, which they can, one thing that i noticed with the game stats is they need to improve pk under .80 and pp under .15 this team can't afford to go to the box over 25% of the goals scored against them have been powerplay goals. if they stay out of the box, they can win, until they figure that out, they will continue to lose. you don't have to play your best hockey now, but in a month is when you need to peak and i think that could happen with this team.

I hope you are right. I know I'll be cheering for Elky if they're playing East that day.

Betraying the north?

ER is in a little rut right now, but I think they've shown more potential than Flake (a win over AHA proves that). They're also deeper, which will probably help them in the long run, and they have the sort of goalie who could steal a semifinal game. So I think they're still #4, unless they continue to tank, and Flake surges.

east hockey wrote:

rapidsrapids wrote:

slyer wrote:elks have been on a roller coaster, only 2 loses to be ashamed of are to armstrong. just hoping that they can put it together at the right time, which they can, one thing that i noticed with the game stats is they need to improve pk under .80 and pp under .15 this team can't afford to go to the box over 25% of the goals scored against them have been powerplay goals. if they stay out of the box, they can win, until they figure that out, they will continue to lose. you don't have to play your best hockey now, but in a month is when you need to peak and i think that could happen with this team.

I hope you are right. I know I'll be cheering for Elky if they're playing East that day.

Don't want Rapids to miss the chance to play the best, eh?

Lee

Like to see Rapids play Cloquet in semi and if good fortune prevail play East in the 7AA title game. Will have to see who brings it to the table in late February should be good section battles.

I have to say, an East/Rapids final would be epic this year. It's just instinct to cheer against a rival.

I agree that east/rapids would be a better game. But no offense to rapids fans. But an east cec final at amsoil would just be to sweet. And probably a packed house

Cloquet is at Forest Lake the day before the seeding meeting the coaches have. If Forest Lake wins that game would they be seeded higher than CEC because games closer to the playoffs have more weight? Just curious on peoples thoughts of that scenario.

rapidsrapids wrote:Cloquet is at Forest Lake the day before the seeding meeting the coaches have. If Forest Lake wins that game would they be seeded higher than CEC because games closer to the playoffs have more weight? Just curious on peoples thoughts of that scenario.

Only if Flake has a strong finish to the season (they'd have to beat WBL, and probably Roseville too), and/or if Cloquet slumps unexpectedly. Otherwise, I think Cloquet's season has been good enough relative to Flake's that a loss there wouldn't matter too much.

Rapids fan cheering for East is like Red Sox fan cheering for Yankees.

I think the FL kids need to win out to be fourth. Rangers got WBL, STill, Creitin[Who just beat Edina], Cloquet, Not an easy run. Hasting tonight is no pushover. Looks like #5 seed.

Important week for everyone. Looks like East & Rapids still heads above. East loss to maple grove means very little. We play Cloquet at home next week. Going to be fun Feb. Good luck to everyone. I know we plan on sitting in Duluth for the semis no matter who is playing.

It'll be fun come section time as always.

ER/East final.

Booooooring. East/cec final

has cec played anyone rated?

slyer wrote:has cec played anyone rated?

Rapids (lost 4-1)
East (lost 4-0)
Bemidji (are they rated?) (won 4-3)
Rapids (lost 4-3)

Lee

i see they have a difficult end to there schedule