2012 Schwan Cup- Gold Division

[tonkafan77]

I know it's early but I thought I'd get this thread started....

Minnetonka
Hill-Murray

Burnsville
Blaine

Duluth East
Breck

St. Thomas
Edina

Anyone want to make any early predictions?

Also, I noticed that all games will be played at Ridder this year. After attending all of the quarterfinals last year at Ridder, I am extremely happy about this change. The atmosphere of a 3/4 to full Ridder arena is 10x better than that of a 1/8 filled lower bowl at the X. Any thoughts on this change?

http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/docu ... racket.pdf

[BP]

Quarters:
Tonka 5, Hill 1
Burnsville 4, Blaine 2
Duluth East 6, Breck 1
Edina 3, STA 2, OT

Semis:
Tonka 4, Burnsville 3
Edina 4, Duluth East 2

Finals:
Edina 5, Tonka 3

[tonkafan77]

Another topic to be discussed....the "Schwan Cup Curse" still has not been broken. With Edina as a strong state champion contender, this "curse" could be a talking point later in the year if they win.

[East Side Pioneer Guy]

Jeez, they finally took the hint from the X and left? They were the Guest That Won't Leave. Glad they finally figured it out. Ridder is a very nice venue.

As for the curse, did everyone forget about Centennial?

[old goalie85]

St. T vs Hill for the ship. Hill in overtime for the private state championship.

[hockeyrocks]

Edina wins it in a tight one against HM....and why is Breck in the gold division this year? They aren't going to win a game and may not even be able to keep any close.

[East Side Pioneer Guy]

Suck BSM out of that St. Louis Park tournament, drop Breck for a better private, and have a private bracket and a public bracket.

We should really reconsider moving from the X. You know, it may harm their delicate self esteem if they aren't "playing where the professionals play." This may lead to untold numbers of sessions on the couches of therapists. Or are these kids somehow different from girls or boys who are on class squads?

[old goalie85]

I like having it in St. Paul for personal reasons.[Mpls sucks] But, Ridder is a nice place.

[DrGaf]

Tonka Vs. Hill

Bville Vs. Blaine

Deast Vs. Breck

Edina Vs. STA

--------------------------------

Tonka Vs. Bville

Deast Vs. Edina

-------------------------------

Tonka Vs. Edina

[BP]

Suck BSM out of that St. Louis Park tournament, drop Breck for a better private, and have a private bracket and a public bracket.

We should really reconsider moving from the X. You know, it may harm their delicate self esteem if they aren't "playing where the professionals play." This may lead to untold numbers of sessions on the couches of therapists. Or are these kids somehow different from girls or boys who are on class squads?

Breck is in the Gold because they won the Silver last year.....much like two years ago.

[HShockeywatcher]

After starting to look at rosters, I thought Edina was a shoe in to win Schwan's Cup and maybe state with only graduating one senior last year who contributed on offense (12th in scoring) and their back up goalie.
Then I saw the thread on Edina with who they are losing. So I also looked at the list on the thread: http://www.ushsho.com/forums/viewtopic. ... &start=100

If I missed any that aren't returning let me know:

Player loses:
-Minnetonka Seniors (7)
Returns 62.1% of scoring
-Hill-Murray Seniors plus Blake Heinrich, Jimmy Tich and Jake Guentzel (9)
Returns 39.1% of scoring

-Burnsville Seniors (10)
Returns 32.4% of scoring
-Blaine Seniors plus Michael Brodzinski [8]
Returns 66.37% of scoring

-Duluth East Seniors plus Connor Valesano (9)
Return 44.1%
-Breck Seniors plus Keegan Iverson (11)
Return 34.7% of scoring

-Edina Seniors plus Jack Walker and Louie Nanne (3)
Returns 84.3% of scoring
-St Thomas Seniors (4)
Returns 66.5% of scoring

Obviously what teams are getting from Bantams/JV will play a huge role this year, so it is hard to tell a lot.
-Edina and St Thomas lost the least members of their teams. While my prediction is biased, I think the winner of the St Thomas/Edina quarterfinal match up should win it all.
-While they lost 8 varsity players, Blaine only lost 2 of their top 11 scorers.

My prediction:
Tonka over Hill
Blaine over Burnsville
East over Breck
St Thomas over Edina

Blaine over Tonka
St Thomas over East

St Thomas over Blaine

[Reg7]

After starting to look at rosters, I thought Edina was a shoe in to win Schwan's Cup and maybe state with only graduating one senior last year who contributed on offense (12th in scoring) and their back up goalie.
Then I saw the thread on Edina with who they are losing. So I also looked at the list on the thread: http://www.ushsho.com/forums/viewtopic. ... &start=100

If I missed any that aren't returning let me know:

Player loses:
-Minnetonka Seniors (7)
Returns 62.1% of scoring
-Hill-Murray Seniors plus Blake Heinrich, Jimmy Tich and Jake Guentzel (9)
Returns 39.1% of scoring

-Burnsville Seniors (10)
Returns 32.4% of scoring
-Blaine Seniors plus Michael Brodzinski [8]
Returns 66.37% of scoring

-Duluth East Seniors plus Connor Valesano (9)
Return 44.1%
-Breck Seniors plus Keegan Iverson (11)
Return 34.7% of scoring

-Edina Seniors plus Jack Walker and Louie Nanne (3)
Returns 84.3% of scoring
-St Thomas Seniors (4)
Returns 66.5% of scoring

Obviously what teams are getting from Bantams/JV will play a huge role this year, so it is hard to tell a lot.
-Edina and St Thomas lost the least members of their teams. While my prediction is biased, I think the winner of the St Thomas/Edina quarterfinal match up should win it all.
-While they lost 8 varsity players, Blaine only lost 2 of their top 11 scorers.

My prediction:
Tonka over Hill
Blaine over Burnsville
East over Breck
St Thomas over Edina

Blaine over Tonka
St Thomas over East

St Thomas over Blaine

Hill over Tonka
Burnsville over Blaine
Breck over East
Edina over St Thomas

Hill over Burnsville
Edina over Breck

Hill over Edina

[starmvp]

I really don't understand what everyone sees in Hill Murray after losing most of their best players. Dugas is strong between the pipes but I see Edina or Tonka taking the Gold title.

[Wallyworld]

After starting to look at rosters, I thought Edina was a shoe in to win Schwan's Cup and maybe state with only graduating one senior last year who contributed on offense (12th in scoring) and their back up goalie.
Then I saw the thread on Edina with who they are losing. So I also looked at the list on the thread: http://www.ushsho.com/forums/viewtopic. ... &start=100

If I missed any that aren't returning let me know:

Player loses:
-Minnetonka Seniors (7)
Returns 62.1% of scoring
-Hill-Murray Seniors plus Blake Heinrich, Jimmy Tich and Jake Guentzel (9)
Returns 39.1% of scoring

-Burnsville Seniors (10)
Returns 32.4% of scoring
-Blaine Seniors plus Michael Brodzinski [8]
Returns 66.37% of scoring

-Duluth East Seniors plus Connor Valesano (9)
Return 44.1%
-Breck Seniors plus Keegan Iverson (11)
Return 34.7% of scoring

-Edina Seniors plus Jack Walker and Louie Nanne (3)
Returns 84.3% of scoring
-St Thomas Seniors (4)
Returns 66.5% of scoring

Obviously what teams are getting from Bantams/JV will play a huge role this year, so it is hard to tell a lot.
-Edina and St Thomas lost the least members of their teams. While my prediction is biased, I think the winner of the St Thomas/Edina quarterfinal match up should win it all.
-While they lost 8 varsity players, Blaine only lost 2 of their top 11 scorers.

My prediction:
Tonka over Hill
Blaine over Burnsville
East over Breck
St Thomas over Edina

Blaine over Tonka
St Thomas over East

St Thomas over Blaine

Nice work on post but what about gains. Hill Murray lost Guentzel to USHL but SSM transfer (jr) Mitch Slattery should fill in nicely on the first line with Lavalle and Willie Brown. Nice young second line as well with Funk (who made one of the Elite League all star teams) plus Soph. Zach Mills who played as a 9th grader.. Add to that, 4 returning D and great Goalie in Dugas and I don't think your stats capture the true situation since % were all about proven Offense and not gains, young talent, along with D & G. I still agree that Edina will probably win it....
Thanks for the post, I appreciate posts that have some data to back them up.....

[HShockeywatcher]

Nice work on post but what about gains. Hill Murray lost Guentzel to USHL but SSM transfer (jr) Mitch Slattery should fill in nicely on the first line with Lavalle and Willie Brown. Nice young second line as well with Funk (who made one of the Elite League all star teams) plus Soph. Zach Mills who played as a 9th grader.. Add to that, 4 returning D and great Goalie in Dugas and I don't think your stats capture the true situation since % were all about proven Offense and not gains, young talent, along with D & G. I still agree that Edina will probably win it....
Thanks for the post, I appreciate posts that have some data to back them up.....

Thanks. I know little about what they gained, and it's really hard to say definitively what those players will contribute. I know, for example, that St Thomas has a player who was pretty good in bantams last year who will be on their team this year. That doesn't necessarily equate to success at the high school level.

I just think any time you can add a little perspective it's good. Even with these numbers, they don't mean a lot all the time, taking a good player off some teams generally would mean someone else could've scored. Ultimately, it's all about speculation and perspective.

I'm looking forward to the game in late December.

[HockeyGuy952]

They need to stop changing Breck and Holy Angels. AHA got killed in Gold last year with a bad team, while Breck won silver. The year before AHA won silver while Breck was destroyed in gold. They need to figure out that they always have worse teams when they play in gold.

[UntouchableFlow]

I really don't understand what everyone sees in Hill Murray after losing most of their best players. Dugas is strong between the pipes but I see Edina or Tonka taking the Gold title.

This gets said at some point, by someone, at some point, every year. In my opinion, Lechner is the best coach in the state at putting a team together. Hill-Murray certainly wasn't supposed to be the second best team in the state last year after the losses that they had from their 2011 senior class. Guentzel and Heinrich are obviously big losses for the Pioneers, but there is always someone coming up who can step into a big role for Hill. Lech does the best job of finding role players and creating great teams. They'll be at the big dance in March, and be a big threat, just like they are, every single year.

[keepyourheadup]

Lech is a great coach, but the guy has talent every year!

[BodyShots]

So much talent, that if the JV team loses a game, it is considered a down year.

[54fighting]

If Lechner was even an average coach he would have more than (1) state title. The amount of talent that comes in there year after year is crazy. Of coure they will be there in March, they play in the weakest section in AA. He is the most over rated coach in the state. That being said, Hill still has a chance to win this but my money is on Edina.