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What team has a legitimate shot to win the class A tournament this year? What team will shock everyone? What time will consistently be in the top 10?

1. Hermantown- I think without question they are the team to beat. They will have two excellent lines, 3 elite defenseman, and a proven goaltender who put up outstanding numbers last year. They play 11 games vs AA teams this year and also face many top A teams, so they will be battle tested.

2. Breck-Don't know too much about them but they have 3 Eilte League kids and are likely to be re-loaded.

3. Mahtomedi-If Becker comes back, they may have a chance to push Hermantown, but I thought I saw he was headed to the USHL.

4. EGF-They will still have an outstanding top line, but depth behind that will be a concern for a team that lost its goalie and most of its defense.

5. Hibbing-I would give them a shot at winning state this year, but they have to get by Hermantown in 7A first.

6. St. Cloud Apollo-Have 3 players in the Elite League and I see they just got a transfer from Wadena. (Not sure how good he is, but if it was worth noting I imagine he is likely a decent player.)

7. TRF-A couple high end kids on the team should keep them close to EGF in 8A.

rainier wrote:1. Hermantown- I think without question they are the team to beat. They will have two excellent lines, 3 elite defenseman, and a proven goaltender who put up outstanding numbers last year. They play 11 games vs AA teams this year and also face many top A teams, so they will be battle tested.

2. Breck-Don't know too much about them but they have 3 Eilte League kids and are likely to be re-loaded.

3. Mahtomedi-If Becker comes back, they may have a chance to push Hermantown, but I thought I saw he was headed to the USHL.

4. EGF-They will still have an outstanding top line, but depth behind that will be a concern for a team that lost its goalie and most of its defense.

5. Hibbing-I would give them a shot at winning state this year, but they have to get by Hermantown in 7A first.

6. St. Cloud Apollo-Have 3 players in the Elite League and I see they just got a transfer from Wadena. (Not sure how good he is, but if it was worth noting I imagine he is likely a decent player.)

7. TRF-A couple high end kids on the team should keep them close to EGF in 8A.

I agree. I think that Hermantown finally breaks through again this year. EGF may or may not even make it to state.
But if they do, I do not believe they will contend.
In the last 2 years they have lost too many good players.
As ranier states, Breck and Mahtomedi should be the main contenders.

rainier wrote:1. Hermantown- I think without question they are the team to beat. They will have two excellent lines, 3 elite defenseman, and a proven goaltender who put up outstanding numbers last year. They play 11 games vs AA teams this year and also face many top A teams, so they will be battle tested.

2. Breck-Don't know too much about them but they have 3 Eilte League kids and are likely to be re-loaded.

3. Mahtomedi-If Becker comes back, they may have a chance to push Hermantown, but I thought I saw he was headed to the USHL.

4. EGF-They will still have an outstanding top line, but depth behind that will be a concern for a team that lost its goalie and most of its defense.

5. Hibbing-I would give them a shot at winning state this year, but they have to get by Hermantown in 7A first.

6. St. Cloud Apollo-Have 3 players in the Elite League and I see they just got a transfer from Wadena. (Not sure how good he is, but if it was worth noting I imagine he is likely a decent player.)

7. TRF-A couple high end kids on the team should keep them close to EGF in 8A.

Goalies are going to be a struggle for EGF, Hibbing, and Breck

I don't think Hibbing should be included in the discussion yet. Some quality players back, but until they can consistently beat the better teams they are unproven. Perunovich is good enough to carry this team to a lot of wins. An important concern is their lack of size. Hermantown knocked them off the puck and pushed them all over the ice in the section game last year. They have a schedule that contains a lot of opportunities to prove they belong. I hope they do and at least make Hermantown sweat a little come sections.

greenway1969 wrote:I don't think Hibbing should be included in the discussion yet. Some quality players back, but until they can consistently beat the better teams they are unproven. Perunovich is good enough to carry this team to a lot of wins. An important concern is their lack of size. Hermantown knocked them off the puck and pushed them all over the ice in the section game last year. They have a schedule that contains a lot of opportunities to prove they belong. I hope they do and at least make Hermantown sweat a little come sections.

I can't argue with your take; they didnt have a signature win last year. I'm basing my prediction on them returning 85% of scoring from a team that played Mahtomedi, Duluth Marshall, Grand Rapids, Hermantown (the first meeting) and Hill Murray tough. They were mostly sophomores and freshmen last year, so they should come back with more size.

And the goalie will be young, but he is dominating the bantam elite league right now.

My dark horse pick: St. Paul Academy. Top 10 Class A team a year ago (in the computerized rankings, anyway), return practically everyone, some genuine top-end young talent. They're filling the east metro private school gap left by St. Thomas's graduation to AA.

Not saying they'll win the thing, but they'll be a serious threat to beat a Becker-less Mahtomedi and get one of the higher seeds at State.

Overall, same story as last year: Hermantown has the most talent, but there are a handful of good candidates (namely, Breck) who could beat them if they pull another Hermantown.

I thought I heard Hermy was going to be a little thin next year too. I see they have a pretty good goal tender returning, but they lost a lot of scoring. I don't know who they have coming up, but I imagine they are reloading. I want to see them in the title game again, hard to imagine how heavy that weight would be.

Does anyone have any information on section 6? Will it be as competitive as last year with Alex, Fergus, Cathedral, and Apollo?

karl(east) wrote: Overall, same story as last year: Hermantown has the most talent, but there are a handful of good candidates (namely, Breck) who could beat them if they pull another Hermantown.

Exactly. Never underestimate Plante's ability to screw it up. Last year he had his top line log huge minutes in the third period of the opening round, running time blowout so they could polish off their hat tricks and run up the score. When he had to lean on them in the third period and overtime against EGF you could see they had no legs. They did get the hat trick patches though. No word yet on whether or not they will hang those from a banner in the arena.

Froggy Richards wrote:

karl(east) wrote: Overall, same story as last year: Hermantown has the most talent, but there are a handful of good candidates (namely, Breck) who could beat them if they pull another Hermantown.

Exactly. Never underestimate Plante's ability to screw it up. Last year he had his top line log huge minutes in the third period of the opening round, running time blowout so they could polish off their hat tricks and run up the score. When he had to lean on them in the third period and overtime against EGF you could see they had no legs. They did get the hat trick patches though. No word yet on whether or not they will hang those from a banner in the arena.

rainier wrote:

greenway1969 wrote:I don't think Hibbing should be included in the discussion yet. Some quality players back, but until they can consistently beat the better teams they are unproven. Perunovich is good enough to carry this team to a lot of wins. An important concern is their lack of size. Hermantown knocked them off the puck and pushed them all over the ice in the section game last year. They have a schedule that contains a lot of opportunities to prove they belong. I hope they do and at least make Hermantown sweat a little come sections.

I can't argue with your take; they didnt have a signature win last year. I'm basing my prediction on them returning 85% of scoring from a team that played Mahtomedi, Duluth Marshall, Grand Rapids, Hermantown (the first meeting) and Hill Murray tough. They were mostly sophomores and freshmen last year, so they should come back with more size.

And the goalie will be young, but he is dominating the bantam elite league right now.

I saw him play a couple of games and he looked like a quality varsity goalie.