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Two top teams in the state meet at the St Thomas Ice Arena on Thursday. The only common opponent they have is Hill Murray, who Benilde has lost to and St Thomas has beaten and tied.

Benilde has scored 69 goals to St Thomas' 54, while Benilde has allowed 32 GA and St Thomas has only allowed 15 GA.
Benilde has 3 skaters with more points than St Thomas' leading scorer.
Benilde's leading scorer Grant Besse is #4 in the state in scoring.
St Thomas' goalie David Zevnik is Top 3 in the state in both save percentage and GAA.

Benilde clearly has the edge in scoring and St Thomas the edge in defense, should be a great battle of two top teams!

Should be a great game but I've gotta go with the home team, who up to this point has shown the better defense and goaltending:

STA 4, BSM 2

Will this game be streamlined I hope?

Gems wrote: Will this game be streamlined I hope?

http://www.mnsportsnetwork.com/ has it on their schedule.

STA has very young players that use their battery to take advantage over the other teams. watch out

As in most of the STA games it will be low scoring. Could be a battle of 3rd lines. Advantage Cadets 2-1

STA has been really, really good this year, whereas BSM seems a bit hot & cold. Call me crazy but this is the game I think Benilde re-establishes themselves as an absolute team to beat this year. IMO they win this game and go on a serious run.

I'll take BSM 4 STA 1

STA 4-2

hondo98 wrote:As in most of the STA games it will be low scoring. Could be a battle of 3rd lines. Advantage Cadets 2-1

I would be surprised if STA keeps them to 1 I would also be surprised if BSM holds to 2 goals. I have BSM 5-3 with an open net.

STA 3-1

STA has a better goalie, they do not have better defense. If BSM goalie plays well, they win. 3-1

Zevnik is better than sprang and STA has better defensema.. Benilde is having an on and off year but against STA they must bring the fire. STA 5 BSM 2

St. Thomas scored two goals early and are leading BSM 2-0 after one.

3-1 STA final.

Puck was in the Benilde end the majority of the night.

First goal (STA) was 49 seconds into the first. Seemed like the goalie had the side of the net blocked and it somehow managed to get in.

Second goal (STA) was a good shot from the middle.

Third goal (BSM) came after a couple missed opportunities, the puck was knocked out to Heimbold, good shot, but a Benilde player was laying on the STA goalie. STA defenseman likely knocked him down, anyone with a better view know what happened?

Fourth goal (STA) puck was out to the side of the net and Novak was in the right spot at the right time and tipped it up and in.

Interesting no goal for Benilde in the third. Shot was high, looked like Zevnik caught it, ref behind him whistled it, puck fell out into crease and Benilde player knocked it in. STA players stopped at the whistle, but hard to argue it wouldn't have been a goal not for the whistle.

Good game!

STA's next 4 games:
@ Duluth Marshall
Breck
@ Shattuck
@ Hill

Brutal

HSHOCKEYWatcher- your analysis was brutal. Zone play was 50 50. Sprang let in 2 soft goals early, Benilde had double the scoring chances. The no goal was not put in by another player the initial shot hit goalie glove and went in. I don't like to complain about refs but this was one of the worst officiated games I have seen. St Thomas plays a good team game and play their trap very well, difficult to generate speed in neutral zone. Benilde needs some secondary scoring to emerge or else it could be early exit.

minnscout wrote:HSHOCKEYWatcher- your analysis was brutal. Zone play was 50 50. Sprang let in 2 soft goals early, Benilde had double the scoring chances. The no goal was not put in by another player the initial shot hit goalie glove and went in. I don't like to complain about refs but this was one of the worst officiated games I have seen. St Thomas plays a good team game and play their trap very well, difficult to generate speed in neutral zone. Benilde needs some secondary scoring to emerge or else it could be early exit.

Yes, the official clearly blew his whistle way too early as Zevnik did not catch the puck cleanly. It appeared that he had it momentarily, but somehow it trickled in behind him after it hit his glove. Just a bad call by whichever official blew his whistle that made it a no-goal.

On the overall play, I would say that STA had a clear edge in the 1st, BSM in the 2nd and the 3rd was about even.

MNHockeyFan wrote:

minnscout wrote:HSHOCKEYWatcher- your analysis was brutal. Zone play was 50 50. Sprang let in 2 soft goals early, Benilde had double the scoring chances. The no goal was not put in by another player the initial shot hit goalie glove and went in. I don't like to complain about refs but this was one of the worst officiated games I have seen. St Thomas plays a good team game and play their trap very well, difficult to generate speed in neutral zone. Benilde needs some secondary scoring to emerge or else it could be early exit.

Yes, the official clearly blew his whistle way too early as Zevnik did not catch the puck cleanly. It appeared that he had it momentarily, but somehow it trickled in behind him after it hit his glove. Just a bad call by whichever official blew his whistle that made it a no-goal.

On the overall play, I would say that STA had a clear edge in the 1st, BSM in the 2nd and the 3rd was about even.

Good recap. The refs blew a number of calls. Not only the called off goal but a clear hand clutch in the crease by a STA player with only a dead whistle. I think in general the speed of top end games is beyond the current stable of refs to keep up. They are getting run over and cannot keep up with play. Something for the mhsl to look which is unlikely.

St Thomas is best team I have seen play this year, it felt like they had an extra player on the ice the whole night. They do an amazing job of not allowing good clean shots from anywhere in the zone. It's a shame that because of their schools resistance to moving up to AA that these boys wont get to play for a Real championship like they deserve. Cancel the single A tourney, St Thomas already has it wrapped up. I am not a big fan of the private schools, but I am a fan of good hockey and the Tommies are very impressive.

minnscout wrote:HSHOCKEYWatcher- your analysis was brutal. Zone play was 50 50. Sprang let in 2 soft goals early, Benilde had double the scoring chances. The no goal was not put in by another player the initial shot hit goalie glove and went in. I don't like to complain about refs but this was one of the worst officiated games I have seen. St Thomas plays a good team game and play their trap very well, difficult to generate speed in neutral zone. Benilde needs some secondary scoring to emerge or else it could be early exit.

I was there as well...minnscout not sure you are very accurate either. I am a fan of both teams and love watching Benildes 1st line. The problem was Benilde has zero depth and even had Besse playing D at times to maximize his time on the ice. The first two goals were soft but Sprang made a glove save midway throught the first to prevent it from being 3-0 that was great. I think there is a huge disparity in coaching...big edge to the STA guys. I hope this game becomes a yearly tradition. Talk all you want about Gersich, malmquist,etc.. the best sophomore in the state could be novak.

I thought Novak was the most Dangerous player on the ice last night, kid has got crazy puck skills.

[quote

I was there as well...minnscout not sure you are very accurate either. I am a fan of both teams and love watching Benildes 1st line. The problem was Benilde has zero depth and even had Besse playing D at times to maximize his time on the ice. The first two goals were soft but Sprang made a glove save midway throught the first to prevent it from being 3-0 that was great. I think there is a huge disparity in coaching...big edge to the STA guys. I hope this game becomes a yearly tradition. Talk all you want about Gersich, malmquist,etc.. the best sophomore in the state could be novak.[/quote]

+1

Wside wrote:

MNHockeyFan wrote:

minnscout wrote:HSHOCKEYWatcher- your analysis was brutal. Zone play was 50 50. Sprang let in 2 soft goals early, Benilde had double the scoring chances. The no goal was not put in by another player the initial shot hit goalie glove and went in. I don't like to complain about refs but this was one of the worst officiated games I have seen. St Thomas plays a good team game and play their trap very well, difficult to generate speed in neutral zone. Benilde needs some secondary scoring to emerge or else it could be early exit.

Yes, the official clearly blew his whistle way too early as Zevnik did not catch the puck cleanly. It appeared that he had it momentarily, but somehow it trickled in behind him after it hit his glove. Just a bad call by whichever official blew his whistle that made it a no-goal.

On the overall play, I would say that STA had a clear edge in the 1st, BSM in the 2nd and the 3rd was about even.

Good recap. The refs blew a number of calls. Not only the called off goal but a clear hand clutch in the crease by a STA player with only a dead whistle. I think in general the speed of top end games is beyond the current stable of refs to keep up. They are getting run over and cannot keep up with play. Something for the mhsl to look which is unlikely.

Addressing ONLY the point about refs not being able to keep up: I've seen this quite a bit lately, most recently in the Maple Grove game against Edina. And I'm not talking about an official carrying a few extra pounds. Not sure what can be done, but I'd be interested in hearing some more on this topic.

St Thomas has a much older team wherew Benilde plays nuch younger players and sometimes it shows. All this they got out coached is just crap. It was a even game that could have gone either way. Benilde needs some production from Jungels, Baer, Hale.

Minnscout,

Thou doth protesteth too much about coaching criticisms while scapegoating Sprang, Jungels, Baer, Hale, etc. As someone so close to the BSM program, you really shouldn't throw these kids under the bus on these forums when the team loses. Pauly will have them ready for playoffs.

You said it yourself in prior posts. BSM plays an exciting game and as a result leaves their team (goalies and defenseman) exposed defensively (I believe you were comparing that style to Wayzata's "boring style" prior to the 7-1 loss). You stated STA coaches played a great trapping game last night. Sounds to me like their coaches employed a better strategy for that one game and were successful. It happens...Move on to the next game.

Best coached BSM game I saw was vs Tonka last year in Sections where BSM implemented a neutral zone trap and used their speed in transition to devastate Tonka. Dust that one off the final weeks and BSM should do fine with their talent through the end of the year.