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The win against Duluth East 5-2 is telling me something about this team. I think they are getting better and better every week. They started a little slow but they are starting to roll..

They have tough forwards in the Growosky bros, Anderson, Sina and Pitlick to name a few and possible the most under-rated goaltending in Patrick Munson in the state. (he was the 95's Blades goalie for a long time)

I look for them to make some major damage in the weeks to come. Might be the "sleeper" team to win big...watch out for the Cougars...

Splash!! Might be time for Centennial to hit the the top ten!! Nice to
see some more new blood.quite a few goals for DE to give up..

I mentioned this a week or two ago but Patrick Munson is best goalie that u don't hear anything about. He is very athletic and is tall and long. He will be in USHL next year and great chance to be D1 tender.

I thought East goalie was supposed to be so 'great' 77% save percentage?! The defense was the strength of the team? Sounds like a long year in 'Easy' country. Maybe section 7AA a tad over hyped by 'Karl the doorman' at start of the year.

northwoods oldtimer wrote:I thought East goalie was supposed to be so 'great' 77% save percentage?! The defense was the strength of the team? Sounds like a long year in 'Easy' country. Maybe section 7AA a tad over hyped by 'Karl the doorman' at start of the year.

Ya think.

I agree about the Munson kid. He played solid and was very fundamentally sound especially not allowing many rebounds. Really liked the way he challenged and cut angles down too using his size to advantage to take away shooters angles. Definately earned his #1 Star of the game on our broadcast.

Must say this thought the Hounds never quit and Randolph did a Dean Blais by pulling his goalie with 3+ minutes left on the clock and they kept coming even after the open net goal.

I look forward to seeing Centennial down the road. Should make for some interesting sectional games which I can look forward to covering this year.

Awfully quiet...Internet problems North of Cloquet?

Centennial is definitely going to make some noise in section 5AA. It's too bad they only play Blaine once this year (not until February). Not sure this is even going out on a limb, but I expect to see Centennial in the final of the Schwan Cup Silver Division next week. They have a good shot to make it to State this year. Also, I think Elk River and Grand Rapids (as of right now) are the top two seeds in 7AA.

I laugh at how people jump on a goalie like the comment about the "77%" save percent. I know this has been discussed before, but save % can be very misleading. I didn't watch the game so I have no idea on how good the goals were or not. In reality, goalie A may face 10 quality shots and allow 2 goals; goalie B may face 10 easy shots and allow no goals. Statistics will look very different, but don't necessarily speak to the quality of goalie. Over the course of a season save % and goals allowed are good measures, but in one game not so much.

I am not with east and don't know Parker at all but I do know he is a very good goalie.

joris016 wrote:Centennial is definitely going to make some noise in section 5AA. It's too bad they only play Blaine once this year (not until February). Not sure this is even going out on a limb, but I expect to see Centennial in the final of the Schwan Cup Silver Division next week. They have a good shot to make it to State this year. Also, I think Elk River and Grand Rapids (as of right now) are the top two seeds in 7AA.

I would definitely say Centennial will be a top 2 seed as of now. Blaine eat them in OT a couple weeks ago but the Centennial goaltender made around 50 saves (I want to say over 50). Duluth East can never be counted out of 7AA but it'd nice to see a new face at the tourney such as Elk River who hasn't been to St. Paul since 05'

My fault on the Blaine v Centennial comment. I'm not counting out East at all, especially since it's only December. But Elk River is really good this year as is Grand Rapids. Those 3 will battle it out.

BodyShots wrote:

northwoods oldtimer wrote:I thought East goalie was supposed to be so 'great' 77% save percentage?! The defense was the strength of the team? Sounds like a long year in 'Easy' country. Maybe section 7AA a tad over hyped by 'Karl the doorman' at start of the year.

Ya think.

7AA was highly rated in all rankings and for good reason. There was plenty of solid logic at the beginning of the season to think 7AA would be very strong. I would never count out any team coached by Mike Randolph or Dave Esse in mid-December. I think Karl provides the most in-depth and accurate analysis on this board. You 2 simply state the obvious after everything has happened and pretend you knew something before hand.

TheHockeyDJ wrote:

BodyShots wrote:

northwoods oldtimer wrote:I thought East goalie was supposed to be so 'great' 77% save percentage?! The defense was the strength of the team? Sounds like a long year in 'Easy' country. Maybe section 7AA a tad over hyped by 'Karl the doorman' at start of the year.

Ya think.

7AA was highly rated in all rankings and for good reason. There was plenty of solid logic at the beginning of the season to think 7AA would be very strong. I would never count out any team coached by Mike Randolph or Dave Esse in mid-December. I think Karl provides the most in-depth and accurate analysis on this board. You 2 simply state the obvious after everything has happened and pretend you knew something before hand.

I would add that Karl also is the last person to go off on a sarcastic rant in belittling another writer on this forum. He consistently is about class.

What other team this season put up 44 shots on Centennial while fighting off 25 minutes of penalty time? Perhaps a greater majority of East's shots will find the back of the net, perhaps not. However, if they do, they are a legitimate top 5 club. No question.

bemused wrote:Awfully quiet...Internet problems North of Cloquet?

I posted some thoughts in the scores thread, and don't want to hijack a thread on Centennial too much, but if you want a more complete report:

The biggest issues for East last night were the penalties, and the inability to finish. The defense is fine, really. Parker wasn't great, but he also wasn't awful. They haven't had penalty trouble in their other games, so that's probably correctable. The scoring issues are the real issue here, and will decide whether this team is a legitimate threat at State or a team ripe to be beaten in a section semifinal.

The five Centennial goals came:
1. On a bad line change by East (ugly, but probably not something that will repeat itself often)
2. On the PP
3. On the PP
4. On a shorthanded breakaway, with East already down 3-0 and the defense pinching too high.
5. An empty-netter shot from the Centennial zone.

During the MNHockeyCenter broadcast, Pete Waggoner said he thought this was the second-best puck-moving team in the state, after Edina. That might be a stretch, but they are very good in this regard. As mnmouth points out, 44 SOG with 25 minutes of penalty time against a likely top-10 team is pretty impressive. But across the board, the goals are not coming--one line hasn't produced at all against anyone other than Cambridge, and another is pretty much being carried by one player. There is a lot of inexperience on those two lines, so we'll have to see if they step it up as the season goes along.

The top line has its flashes, is scoring some goals, and has moments where they look like last year's top line, when they set up in the offensive zone and go to work with mesmerizing passing. However, sometimes I think they're trying to be that group from last year with some of the stuff they do, and they're not quite that talented. Also, a lot of their goals run through the defensemen. In part this is understandable since that top defensive pairing is among the best out there, but if they get caught in too deep, it's going to cause problems on the other end. I wonder if it might make some sense to break up that top pair and have each of them partner up with someone on the second pair, as they are both more of the stay-at-home variety. That might help spread the wealth without hurting them on the back end, though they should stay together on the PP.

All that said, Centennial earned themselves that win last night--their goaltender was brilliant, and they finished when they had the chances.

TheHockeyDJ wrote:

BodyShots wrote:

northwoods oldtimer wrote:I thought East goalie was supposed to be so 'great' 77% save percentage?! The defense was the strength of the team? Sounds like a long year in 'Easy' country. Maybe section 7AA a tad over hyped by 'Karl the doorman' at start of the year.

Ya think.

7AA was highly rated in all rankings and for good reason. There was plenty of solid logic at the beginning of the season to think 7AA would be very strong. I would never count out any team coached by Mike Randolph or Dave Esse in mid-December. I think Karl provides the most in-depth and accurate analysis on this board. You 2 simply state the obvious after everything has happened and pretend you knew something before hand.

Go back and read my posts. You will notice I have always said that 7AA was ranked too high. Yes they have some good teams, but not to the point where Karl had 4 teams in the top 10 and 5 teams in the top 12. 6AA has 4 or 5 teams better than most of 7AA, then there is Edina, HM, Eagan, and Blaine to begin with.

Now based on current results, I would maybe have three 7AA teams in the top 15 (DE, GR, ER).

BodyShots wrote: Now based on current results, I would maybe have three 7AA teams in the top 15 (DE, GR, ER).

Based on CURRENT results the number is one (Grand Rapids #10).

Elk River & Duluth East are respectable at 16 & 17 respectively.

http://myhockeyrankings.com/rank.php?y=2012&a=4&v=702

minnscout wrote:I mentioned this a week or two ago but Patrick Munson is best goalie that u don't hear anything about. He is very athletic and is tall and long. He will be in USHL next year and great chance to be D1 tender.

I agree he is under the radar but I disagree he is more an NAHL guy- look at last years top goalies-majority in the NAHL- not many stepped into the USHL. He tends to leave to many rebounds- (Edina Game all scored within 5 feet of the net) needs to play quieter as well. He has potential and seeing all these shots will only help him get better

Click below for our Game Live Highlights Package and you can watch the highlights from this game:

http://www.pointstreak.com/flashapp/ind ... id=2093854

Yes, rebound control is something Munson will have to work on but the Edina game was 1st or 2nd game of season and Munson has not played a lot of games in past 3 years so it was more game time than anything (made HM as 9th grader played 1 game, sat out 10th grade transfer, got some games last year). If u keep watching his games his control is much better and he is much more sound and squared. Anyway bright future for Munson.

minnscout wrote:Yes, rebound control is something Munson will have to work on but the Edina game was 1st or 2nd game of season and Munson has not played a lot of games in past 3 years so it was more game time than anything (made HM as 9th grader played 1 game, sat out 10th grade transfer, got some games last year). If u keep watching his games his control is much better and he is much more sound and squared. Anyway bright future for Munson.

FYI- Munson played for the U18Blades this fall along. He split with with Ciaccio from Minnetonka.