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DULUTH MARSHALL VS. #3 HERMANTOWN
1:00 Wednesday
-These two Duluth area schools, both members of the Lake Superior Conference, have a long history. Hermantown won the regular season meeting 4-3 and leads this series 6-3-1 in recent years, including the last five meetings and the 2007 championship game. Given the rivalry and close regular season game, this should be an entertaining quarterfinal.

Duluth Marshall (16-12, #13, 2-seed in 7A)
State appearances: 7 (2 in a row)
Key section wins: 3-2 over #16 Hibbing, 3-2 over #9 Duluth Denfeld
-The Hilltoppers return to State with a fairly young team that used its above average depth to get through Section 7A. Jeremy Lopez (7) and Kris McKinzie (8) lead the attack, and goaltender Caden Flaherty (31) was strong down the stretch. The versatile Anthony Miller (15) also played an important role on a fairly deep squad. Their defense and lower lines are young, but they have some upside to them, and though their record is not stellar, most of their losses were relatively competitive games with quality teams. With a big game from Flaherty and some timely scoring, they could snag an upset here.

Hermantown (23-4-1, #3, 1-seed in 5A)
State appearances: 9 (4 in a row)
Championships: 1 (2007)
Key section win: 4-1 over #8 St. Cloud Cathedral
-The Hawks are led by a pair of stalwart defensemen in Neal Pionk (9) and Jake Zeleznikar (4), and the top line of Travis Koepke (27), Bo Gronseth (5), and Chris Benson (20) is among the state’s most prolific. Goaltending, which was an early-season concern, has been noticeably better since junior Adam Smith (35) took over the job. The Hawks aim for revenge for last year, which saw an undefeated season come to a crashing halt in a 5-1 championship game loss to St. Thomas; the talent is there to make it happen, and their chances may ride on the ability of their lower lines to match the private school powers of Class A.

As I hate to see 2 local teams matchup in the first round, I think it will be a good one. Hermantown by 2

Duluth Marshall pulls off the upset. Playing very well as of late

I just want a good seat for the presser with Bruce afterwards.

So you can get seats at the post game interview? Where do I buy my ticket? And I was going to go to the comedy gallery after the game!

Going to be a pretty good game. Marshall could pull of an upset. But I see Htown winning by 3.

HockeyBum wrote:So you can get seats at the post game interview? Where do I buy my ticket? And I was going to go to the comedy gallery after the game!

By comedy gallery do you mean the STA vs. Apollo game? Pretty funny stuff there.

I think that both teams are starting to play their best hockey as of late and it will be the best game on Wednesday. Goaltending has been Hermantowns issue in the past but it seems like that has been getting better as of late. Ill take Hermantown 5-3

Perhaps the most interesting Class A quarterfinal; I think Marshall has a fighting chance if they can play solid defense like they did against Denfeld and uses their depth to their advantage. Of course, I thought the same thing about their match-up with Breck last year, and we saw how that ended. And though Denfeld beat the Hawks early in the season, the second meeting suggests they're in a different league than the Hunters. So I'll stick with:



in a game in which the score will be much closer than the shots.

Hawks have looked stellar the two times I saw them. Saw them play Totino grace and Denfeld. Go hawks and take down the trophy chasing cadets.

this game right here has the makings for an upset as marshall has turned it up at the right time and their goalie was hot during playoffs, with that being said though I feel this game will go to the hawks as they have a team that is heavy with experience and are just a talentedly gifted team as the second and third line could line up with some of the best lines in the league (in my biased opinion)

hawks kickoff state flying high above the competition 5-2

Hermantown 4-2

Not at all interested in hearing anything Captain Goofy has
to say at this year's press conference's...I hope Hermantown is two and done..

I'm gonna go with Hermantown 6-2

bemused wrote:Not at all interested in hearing anything Captain Goofy has
to say at this year's press conference's...I hope Hermantown is two and done..

I agree, but they will most likely beat DM, then lose to Breck. They can play EGF or Lourdes for the Class 1A Public School Championship in the 3rd place game.

Atmosphere already a ton better than last game. Hermantown always has a great student section, good amount of them and they're involved in the game

Nice plug for the car dealership from the Mckinzie brothers in the intro.

Detlef wrote:Atmosphere already a ton better than last game. Hermantown always has a great student section, good amount of them and they're involved in the game

The "Welcome to Duluth" sign is about 4 miles from the rink. Of course they bring kids, they are a AA school. (or should be)

Ogie wrote:Nice plug for the car dealership from the Mckinzie brothers in the intro.

The next player introduced after the McKinzies was a Krenzen. No idea if he's from the Krenzen family which owns a different auto dealership in Duluth, but it was a nice touch.

Lee

whos_it wrote:

Detlef wrote:Atmosphere already a ton better than last game. Hermantown always has a great student section, good amount of them and they're involved in the game

The "Welcome to Duluth" sign is about 4 miles from the rink. Of course they bring kids, they are a AA school. (or should be)

yeah i grew up just outside Duluth.

Could they compete with the big schools? Sure. My opinion is to have a lot less AA schools. The AA tourney wouldn't suffer and the A tourney would get better.

Detlef wrote:

whos_it wrote:

Detlef wrote:Atmosphere already a ton better than last game. Hermantown always has a great student section, good amount of them and they're involved in the game

The "Welcome to Duluth" sign is about 4 miles from the rink. Of course they bring kids, they are a AA school. (or should be)

yeah i grew up just outside Duluth.

Could they compete with the big schools? Sure. My opinion is to have a lot less AA schools. The AA tourney wouldn't suffer and the A tourney would get better.

Interesting .... I have gone to both A and AA games every year for years and both tournies are very enjoyable as is. As a matter of fact my favorite game may have been Warroads state championship a few years back. But it is still an interesting thought.

Monthly emergency test during the some of the only live programming this channel ever has? Get real.

whos_it wrote:

Detlef wrote:

whos_it wrote: The "Welcome to Duluth" sign is about 4 miles from the rink. Of course they bring kids, they are a AA school. (or should be)

yeah i grew up just outside Duluth.

Could they compete with the big schools? Sure. My opinion is to have a lot less AA schools. The AA tourney wouldn't suffer and the A tourney would get better.

Interesting .... I have gone to both A and AA games every year for years and both tournies are very enjoyable as is. As a matter of fact my favorite game may have been Warroads state championship a few years back. But it is still an interesting thought.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the A tourney a lot. The big reason why I have that idea is all the talk about "well so and so should be playing up". well if everyone played up who everyone said "should" play up the A tourney would be a lot less enjoyable.

Plus if you had a lot less AA schools they'd be more attendance at the A tourney since they'd be bigger schools.

here is the link for the game highlights from DM vs Hermantown.

http://pointstreak.com/flashapp/index_h ... id=2159889

As usual folks thanks for your support! I will be clipping throughout the entire tourney.

Please pass the word along to all hockey fans you know!

Sid @ MnHockeyCenter/Prep45

I'll give Hermantown 6 out of 8 on the spectator ratings. I don't see a mascot and don't see anything worth them getting the misc point.