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Took in both games in Plymouth yesterday. A few thoughts...

Game #1 - Holy Family vs. Edina
Goals
HF #1 - Shot from beyond the face-off circle and there was a big rebound. Almquist pretty much skated around the defense, right to the open puck and scored. There was a lot of open space for him to maneuver.
HF #2 - They had a good amount of 5 on 3 time. There was a big shot from the right side and a pile up then the puck came out of to the left side. Reddan was right there and fired the puck into an open net just before the diving goalie and defensemen.
Edina #1 - Edina won an offensive zone face-off right to Vorlicky. He fired in a wrister.

Holy Family Takeaways
- The defensemen and goalie are as advertised. Anderson was impressive throughout the game in his own end and on a few offensive rushes. Tabor was paired with him and was impactful.
- Offensively I didn't see anything overwhelming. They capitalized on their opportunities and cashed in on the PP. They did have 29 shots though.
- I watched the game focusing more on Edina, so I didn't have too many takeaways.

Edina Takeaways
- The top line shifted play into the offensive zone the majority of the time they were on the ice. Walker-Scheerer-Malmquist is the 1st line. Walker and Scheerer were noticeable, as always, particularly Walker.
- The top D pair was Johnson-Vorlicky followed by Brinkman-Boltmann. Brinkman was aggressive with the body. He pushed the puck a little bit offensively, but did get walked around a couple times on defense. The first pair seemed solid.
- The 2nd line was Crosby-Jungels-Nevers. They had a couple breaks, but nothing too extraordinary.

Overall, Holy Family did a nice job pushing Edina to the edge in the offensive zone and taking advantage of their offensive opportunities. The Edina student section taunted Tabor a number of times before the start of the 2nd period when he would skate by. Holy Family seemed to be quite excited to win the game.

Game #2 - Maple Grove vs. Wayzata
Goals
Wayzata #1 - Schmidt got the puck on a nice feed as he was breaking toward the net with a defender kind of on him. As they were moving toward the right post, he fired it back toward the left. Nice goal.
MG #1 - Kelley was breaking in and it looked like he was going top shelf. He missed the puck but his shot attempt opened up the five hole and the puck slid in.
MG #2 - House scored on the PP. I don't remember the details.
MG #3 - Cammarata picked up a rebound, weaved around the D, deked the goalie and slipped it into an open net. Great moves and a gigantic celly at center ice.
MG #4 - About 40 seconds later, Huff broke into the zone with a man in front of him. He sniped the top corner and knocked the water bottle off.
Wayzata #2 - The were on a 5 on 3 and Carlson fired it in from the point with 6 mins left. The momentum was shifting to the Wayzata side.
MG #5 - Cammarata with the ENG.

Wayzata Takeaways
- These guys are big. Lots of size throughout the lineup.
- Schmidt was very impressive individually. Excellent stickhandling and a laser of a shot.
- Waszczenko looked good in net despite giving up 4 goals. He made several big saves to keep Wayzata in the game.
- The vaunted defense from last year didn't look great. MG has lots of odd man chances and stretched the D out.

I expected Wayzata to win so I didn't focus as much on Maple Grove. As shown by the result of the game, they played a great game. It seemed well rounded and they didn't seem to be intimidated by the state champs.

The place was packed for both games with people lining the glass all the way around the rink. There were strong student sections for both teams in the 2nd game. A great start to the season.

My only takeaway is A+++ coverage by twelve.tv wow really nice watching HD HS hockey on the big screen with a bevvy. Thank u!!

Good stuff, helpful updates...I've been traveling this weekend and didn't catch any of the games for the first time in a while. Slow start for the defending champs, it seems, and HF and Edina are about where one might expect, and not a bad showing for upstart MG...too early to conclude too much, though.

Wondering if anyone had some early thoughts after the Trot. I only watched Championship game. Team speed of Holy Family was evident. Not sure if the big sheet at Plymouth had anything to do with that or not. Would like to see them on regular rink. They are physical and look to have some nice depth after Anderson went down. D and goalie as advertised. Maple Grove was good in the 1st period then ran out of gas. Sam Huff looked very good. After that, MG looked a bit slower than HF and not a lot of firepower. I did get a glimpse of Edina at end of their game with Wayzata and was also impressed with their team speed. I thought goalie would be a problem for Edina, but they only gave up 3 goals combined to HF and Wayzata so that problem may be solved. Anyone who saw Wayzata for much of the Trot, curious what went wrong (8 goals in 2 games - and they supposedly have 2 good goalies and good D).

ReTund; I saw both Wayzata games. My quick thoughts. Goaltending was fine in fact he made some big breakaway saves in both games that could have made scores more lopsided. Short sample size but Wayzata looks like they will be challenged to score. Even though they will outshoot most opponents. Scoring chances were very limited. Lots of shots from the outside or dump ins. The defense appeared as if they wanted to be forwards more than play defense. This resulted in getting caught out of place and many odd man rushes. OLeary played seven defense and three plus lines and it appeared a lot of mixing of lines throughout both games. As you recall Oleary did this last year up until late January. Interesting note, Wayzata had three defensemen on the powerplay. This should explain my first comment that Wayzata may be challenged in the offensive production side. The three sophs played a lot and looked pretty good. GB

I say Goaltending was fine, however save percentage was around 80% so significant improvement in that area is needed, with help from the other five on the ice. GB

GB,

Skipped seeing the Trojans last weekend ( but saw HF/Edina Friday and then STA/Mtka Saturday. )

Will be there Friday night for the battle of the AA Champs vs A Champs.

As usual, HT is a top 5 team, or close to it, on a merged AA/A ranking again this year. So right in the same preseason range as the Trojans.

Should be interesting game in terms of Trojans physicality with more size, vs Hawks physicality with more speed. Edge to HT on snipers, so Waszczenko will have to be ready with improved save %.