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Tryouts start Mon. I'm picking WBL/CDH/rosville/Stillwater/then the rest !!

One other question. Is this the best conference in the state ? If not who is ??

1. No
2. Are you kidding me?

I appreciate your sense of humor, too, oldgoalie - good one!

Girls are hard to judge. Because some have 14's-some don't. Are you saying Stillwater/Roseville are bad girls programs?? WBL sucks ??? Help me out here ! !!

old goalie85 wrote:Tryouts start Mon. I'm picking WBL/CDH/rosville/Stillwater/then the rest !!

Roseville had a great team last year, but 1/2 of the team graduated, including most of their talented players. WBL & Stillwater always have good numbers and will be in the mix.

Mounds View lost 5 seniors last year, only one of which was talented. Two of the graduating seniors played some JV last year. If you look at the line-ups, they lost only 2 players from their top 3 lines. They have great goaltending, very talented defense and lots of experience at forward. MV has 5 new players (3 from U14 teams) and 2 transfers that will add to the depth. They finished 2nd to Roseville last year, won sectional championship and gave Edina a great game in the state tourney.

MV will be in the running for the top stop in the SEC.

I saw MV play a few times last year they really only played two lines most of the time and one of those kids on that top line whop graduated was very good. Their goalie played well down the stretch and one D played all the time #10. So to say they are deep my be a stretch they have a few top end kids who play all the time other kids just get to watch the game.

Yes I forgot MV. Just starting to get into the girls side of things.[my daughter is a 7th grader] From what I have seen in the past this always has been a top conference.

old goalie85 wrote:One other question. Is this the best conference in the state ? If not who is ??

Old goalie take too many pucks to head in younger years.

The question of best conference in the state was settled last year by elkpower. http://www.ushsho.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28144

This year will be no different.

[quote="Goalie-DadMounds View lost 5 seniors last year, only one of which was talented. Two of the graduating seniors played some JV last year. If you look at the line-ups, they lost only 2 players from their top 3 lines. They have great goaltending, very talented defense and lots of experience at forward. MV has 5 new players (3 from U14 teams) and 2 transfers that will add to the depth. They finished 2nd to Roseville last year, won sectional championship and gave Edina a great game in the state tourney.

MV will be in the running for the top stop in the SEC.[/quote]

Goalie Dad, your facts are wrong. One senior on first line, two on second and one in top four D. All were All Conference or All Conference HM and probably accounted for 140+ points. The fifth played sparingly.

First line this year will be good. Second and third will be more balanced but young. They will need to get production out of that group. D and goalie will be very good. They will contend for the conference again after finishing second last year.

old goalie85 wrote:One other question. Is this the best conference in the state ? If not who is ??

My vote would go to the Lake Conference. Small in terms of the number of teams, but there are no weak links. To start the season Minnetonka will be ranked No. 1. Then Edina should be ranked in the Top 5, probably 3 or 4. If not right away, it shouldn't take them long. Eden Prairie looks to be improved over last year, and I look for them to be in Top 10. Wayzata will definitely be improved, and should be ranked somewhere between 11-20, and will probably move up higher once they start to win a few. Last but not least, Hopkins has a solid nucleus back and I wouldn't be surprised if they don't get ranked as the season progresses.

Bottom line is I'd put all five of the Lake Conference teams up against the Top 5 of any other conference, including the SEC!

I'll copy the addendum from the link shown earlier:

"Lake Conference - 40% of its teams made it to state each of the last 3 years. 2 state titles, 2 second place finishes, and a 3rd place finish in the past 3 years. Agreed, not even close, . . ."

No guarantees this year, since Tonka will have to get by Benilde, but Edina has another easy track to State. My humble prediction, 100% of Lake teams will be ranked in the top 20 at regular-season end, and the bottom 3 (EP, Wayzata, and Hopkins) should be ranked higher, but they'll each have 3-4 losses (maybe less??) to Tonka and Edina, and that will drag down their rankings as some rankers will look only at records, not SoS. Absolutely no gimmees for any Lake team on any night like you'll find in all other conferences.

It looks like my assessment is pretty close to MNHockeyFan's, at the risk of insulting MHF's prognosticative abilities.

So lake then SEC ??? Top five SEC vsLake ??

old goalie85 wrote:So lake then SEC ??? Top five SEC vsLake ??

That argument is flawed because a conference is only as good as it's bottom teams. So you would take the bottom 5 of the lake vs the bottom 5 of the SEC

As expected all 5 times in the lake made the pre-season top 20, not that preseason rankings are worth more than the paper they are printed on, that does show a certain amount of respect that coaches pay to these teams, and therefore with no off nights in conference play, no blow out games on the conference schedule my vote would easily go to the lake for toughest/best conference top to bottom.

If the goalie from Eagan can play right away, I think Cretin could come in and surprise everyone. CDH looked pretty good against Stillwater in sections last year, but the goaltending was shaky.

hockey21 wrote:I saw MV play a few times last year they really only played two lines most of the time and one of those kids on that top line whop graduated was very good. Their goalie played well down the stretch and one D played all the time #10. So to say they are deep my be a stretch they have a few top end kids who play all the time other kids just get to watch the game.

MV is in Roseau this weekend for a 3 game tourney. Good start to the season with victories over Thief River Falls, Warroad and tie against #9 rated Roseau.

Goalie-Dad wrote:MV is in Roseau this weekend for a 3 game tourney. Good start to the season with victories over Thief River Falls, Warroad and tie against #9 rated Roseau.

Congratulations, but I take it you meant to say scrimmages, not games.

MNHockeyFan wrote:

Goalie-Dad wrote:MV is in Roseau this weekend for a 3 game tourney. Good start to the season with victories over Thief River Falls, Warroad and tie against #9 rated Roseau.

Congratulations, but I take it you meant to say scrimmages, not games.

I am not sure of the game format. I received the scores via texts.

Goalie-Dad wrote:I am not sure of the game format. I received the scores via texts.

Just checked the Hub and Mounds View's first real game isn't until Thursday, against Spring Lake Park. So the scores you received via text were for scrimmages only. Great omen for the team, though, if they're accurate.

FL 2 Cloquet 0

FL 7 St frances/N.Branch 0

FL 3 Duluth 3

Why are you posting every FL score?

As follower of Minnesota girls hockey and the especially the SEC, I enjoy seeing posts regarding some of the underdog teams like Forest Lake. I have been to a few of their games over the past couple years and being young and energetic this year it is their best start ever. They also have a very very talented goalie. Thanks Old Goalie 85 for posting Forest Lake scores

Because I want to !!