Western College Hockey Blog

Hobey Baker Finalists

2010-03-19T05:34:36Z

The 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award were announced today. Here they are:

Bobby Butler, New Hampshire

Marc Cheverie, Denver

Blake Geoffrion, Wisconsin

Gustav Nyquist, Maine

Mark Olver, Northern Michigan

Chase Polacek, RPI

Rhett Rakhshani, Denver

Cody Reichard, Miami

Ben Scrivens, Cornell

Brendan Smith, Wisconsin

Dalpe Signs with Carolina

2010-03-19T02:44:06Z

Ohio State forward Zac Dalpe, who just completed a successful second year with the Ohio State Buckeyes signed with the Carolina Hurricanes today. Dalpe proved he was ready for the pros with his play this year, and with head coach John Markell not being retained by Ohio State, it was pretty much a given that Dalpe would make the move to the pros.

Bishop Signs with Montreal

2010-03-18T21:22:30Z

Ohio State forward, and former North Dakota forward Hunter Bishop signed a two-year deal with the Montreal Canadiens today. Bishop was a free agent, but had participated at the Montreal Canadiens prospect development camp last summer.

All-WCHA Teams

2010-03-18T21:12:15Z

The WCHA also announced their All-WCHA teams today.

2009-10 All-WCHA First Team

Pos Name Team Ht Wt Yr Hometown Pts

F Rhett Rakhshani Denver 5-10 180 Sr Huntington Beach, CA 358

F Blake Geoffrion Wisconsin 6-2 188 Sr Brentwood, TN 333

F Jack Connolly Minnesota Duluth 5-8 160 So Duluth, MN 256

D Brendan Smith Wisconsin 6-2 190 Jr Mimico, ON 372

D Patrick Wiercioch Denver 6-4 185 So Maple Grove, BC 243

G Marc Cheverie Denver 6-3 180 Jr Cole Harbour, NS 364

All-WCHA Second Team

Pos Name Team Ht Wt Yr Hometown Pts

F Justin Fontaine Minnesota Duluth 5-11 175 Jr Bonnyville, AB 173

F Ryan Lasch St. Cloud State 5-7 175 Sr Lake Forest, CA 140

F Tyler Ruegsegger Denver 6-0 185 Sr Lakewood, CO 138

D Ryan McDonagh Wisconsin 6-1 216 Jr Arden Hills, MN 149

D Nate Prosser Colorado College 6-2 210 Sr Elk River, MN 144

G Brad Eidsness North Dakota 6-0 175 So Chestermere, AB 143

All-WCHA Third Team

Pos Name Team Ht Wt Yr Hometown Pts

F Michael Davies Wisconsin 5-8 175 Sr St. Louis, MO 109

F Joe Colborne Denver 6-5 195 So Calgary, AB 100

F Garrett Roe St. Cloud State 5-9 175 Jr Vienna, VA 78

D Garrett Raboin St. Cloud State 5-11 175 Sr Detroit Lakes, MN 111

D Chay Genoway North Dakota 5-9 175 Sr Morden, MB 83

G Dan Dunn St. Cloud State 6-5 200 Jr Oshawa, ON 88

All-WCHA Rookie Team

Pos Name Team Ht Wt Yr Hometown Votes

F Danny Kristo North Dakota 5-11 180 Fr Eden Prairie, MN 77

F Craig Smith Wisconsin 6-0 195 Fr Madison, WI 52

F Rylan Schwartz Colorado College 5-10 182 Fr Wilcox, SK 50

D Matt Donovan Denver 6-0 190 Fr Edmond, OK 65

D Justin Schultz Wisconsin 6-1 185 Fr West Kelowna, BC 29

G Joe Howe Colorado College 5-11 190 Fr Plymouth, MN 55

Cheverie is WCHA Player of the Year

2010-03-18T21:07:16Z

The WCHA announced their award winners for this year:

Player of the Year: Marc Cheverie, Denver

Outstanding Student-Athlete: Eli Vlaisavljevich, Michigan Tech

Defensive Player of the Year: Brendan Smith, Wisconsin

Rookie of the Year: Danny Kristo, North Dakota

Scoring Champion: Rhett Rakhshani, Denver

Coach of the Year: George Gwozdecky, Denver

Clark Signs with Manitoba

2010-03-18T06:07:10Z

Alaska-Anchorage senior Kevin Clark signed a tryout contract with the Manitoba Moose of the AHL. Clark had a pretty good senior season with the Seawolves, netting 23 goals.

Clark will be an interesting player to watch in the pros. Like Jordan Schroeder, he probably has the talent to make it pretty far in the pros, but it's a question of whether his head will let him get there. Unless he continues scoring goals at the same pace he did in Anchorage, I can't see a coach being as tolerant of all the penalties he takes. He was third in the WCHA in overall penalty minutes at 89 Clark didn't rack those up the easy way either. He only had one 10-minute misconduct on a check from behind, but did have 5 different unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

He'll also be in a league where guys have the option to drop the gloves with him, which might force him to check his temper a little more often. Guys that are 5'9" and get into fights every night don't tend to have the longest careers.

Meanwhile, on his way out, Clark gave this rousing endorsement of UAA:

"A lot of teams really didn't know me because you're playing in Alaska and they only see you on the road, and you're playing for a second-division team,''

Ouch. That's not one for the recruiting brochure.

Schroeder Signs with Vancouver

2010-03-17T19:22:19Z

Minnesota forward Jordan Schroeder officially signed with the Vancouver Canucks today. For much of this year, it seemed like Schroeder had pretty much checked out on the Gophers and was just waiting until he could sign with Vancouver. He's definitely got the physical abilities to make it big in the NHL, but will also have to answer some questions about whether he's got what it takes mentally.

Linkorama

2010-03-16T19:27:51Z

Paul Kelly of College Hockey Inc. seems to have already made an impact north of the border, and the CHL plans to complain about it this summer. It's an interesting tact taken by the CHL. Last year, for the first time ever, USA Hockey got a bunch of money from the NHL for player development purposes--money that the NCAA, for some dumb reason, turned down--and now the CHL is arguing that money should be taken away because part of it is helping fund Kelly, who keeps saying mean things about the CHL. I'm sure other topics presented at that summit will include Windsor and Kitchener finally rolling out that big defamation lawsuit against Jeff Jackson like they promised they would, David Branch's fairness czar announcing the OHL Draft is as clean as a whistle, and announcing a 50-game suspension for a player you've never heard of, and a 2 game suspension for a player you have heard of.

This didn't get as much attention in the college hockey world this time around since all the high-profile projects have already been funded, but Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bunch of stuff out of the Minnesota state bonding bill that included renovations to the Mankato Civic Center and All Seasons Arena, which are the city's two indoor ice arenas. The plan for renovations came after a plan to build a new ice arena, which would have taken some burden off the aging All Seasons Arena was vetoed by the governor in the bonding bill last year.

It's particularly frustrating to see given that the state had resources to build a state-of-the-art arena for Bemidji State, a state-of-the-art arena for Minnesota-Duluth, an incredibly unnecessary state-of-the-art gift shop for St. Cloud State--if you're charging $25, $30, even $40 for a ticket that the WCHA prices at $12, I think you can buy your own glass doors-- and a new arena for Minnesota-Crookston, which doesn't even have a team anymore. Minnesota State's facilities meanwhile remain the only ones among Minnesota schools in D-I to not receive any sort of funding from the state of Minnesota.

USA Hockey announced the names of the players that will try out for the NTDP. It's a very Chicago-heavy camp this year.

ISS released their March Draft Rankings. I count ten current or future college players on the list, with Derek Forbort again leading the way.

Ohio State Looking For a New Coach

2010-03-16T17:35:31Z

Ohio State announced today that they will not renew the contract of head coach John Markell. Markell coached at Ohio State for 15 seasons, including leading the school to its first and only Frozen Four appearance in 1998. The Buckeyes have struggled in recent years, and there have been rumors of this happening for some time now. In fact, it was strongly rumored that this almost happened two years ago.

So now the Buckeyes join Western Michigan in the search for a new coach. You'd think a Big Ten school would be able to draw some pretty serious names for their coaching search, and there's a ton of viable candidates out there.

Frattin Suspended One Game

2010-03-16T04:04:57Z

Matt Frattin was suspended for one game by the WCHA today, for the hit mentioned like two posts below this one. He'll miss North Dakota's Thursday play-in game against Minnesota-Duluth, but is now in no danger of missing an NCAA tournament game.

Wellman to the Wild

2010-03-16T02:11:11Z

One of the first(and maybe one of the only?) top free agents in this year's college class seems to have found a home in the pros. UMass forward Casey Wellman will sign with the Minnesota Wild and likely go straight to the NHL. He won't be eligible for the playoffs, but he'll get some NHL experience.

It's quite a change to see the Wild going after a top college free agent, and nice to see that Wellman will be making the jump so quickly.

Matt Frattin's Hit Draws Discussion

2010-03-16T01:29:19Z

There's a lot of talk today about a hit by North Dakota's Matt Frattin in the second period of Sunday's game against Minnesota, and lots of rumors that Frattin will be suspended for it. Here's the video to judge for yourself...

Frattin was assessed a five-minute major penalty on the play. He later came back to score the third goal in a 4-1 win for the Sioux.

If I had to judge the hit, I'd agree with the five-minute major--though probably for charging, since he leaves his feet--and would have tacked on a game misconduct. I'm surprised the officials didn't go for that, because it's easier to hand out the game misconduct and then look at the tape after the game and make a determination on upping it to a game disqualification, and that probably would have drawn less controversy than the WCHA having to put out a press release saying they're giving him a suspension. Mark it down as PR Fiasco #87 on the year for the WCHA.

All politics aside, I'd be fine seeing that hit be called just a five-minute major and game misconduct. He tried to hit a guy hard, and went a little overboard by leaving his feet. That said, the idea of equitable, or even logical discipline decisions went out the window long ago for the WCHA. If Aaron Marvin's hit on Blake Geoffrion was worthy of missing 8 games or whatever it was that the WCHA originally wanted, I don't see how Frattin can get less since his hit looks worse. Granted some of Marvin's suspension--ok, let's be honest, all of it--was because of what happened earlier in the year with Chay Genoway. Additionally, I'm sure the WCHA has received 10,000 whining emails from a certain fanbase over the course of the season saying that those types of hits deserve more than a one-game suspension.

So there you go, Frattin could either be in the lineup on Thursday night, or he could be done for the duration of North Dakota's season, and into next season. It's difficult to tell when the league has shown no semblance of consistency when it comes to additional discipline.

Who Is In and Who Is Out

2010-03-15T19:56:35Z

Without delving too deep into the finer points of the stupid number system used to pick the tournament, this is what I'm coming up with for which teams among the western conferences are looking good to be in the tournament, and which teams are done for the year.

In the Tournament: Denver, Miami, Wisconsin, North Dakota, St. Cloud, Bemidji State

On the Bubble: Ferris State, Minnesota-Duluth, Northern Michigan, Alaska, Michigan

Thanks for Coming Out: Alaska-Anchorage, Colorado College, Michigan Tech, Minnesota, Minnesota State, Bowling Green, Lake Superior, Michigan State, Nebraska-Omaha, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Western Michigan

Michigan--along with a handful of eastern teams--only remains on the bubble in the sense that they can get an automatic bid by winning their conference tournament. Of the teams still with a shot at an at-large, Alaska is the only one not playing next weekend--along with Yale, out east. They'll spend the weekend hoping Cornell wins the ECAC tournament, Anybody But Michigan wins the CCHA, and they probably need some specific results to fall their way. I mentioned last week the farce of their comparison with Massachusetts. Currently, the Minutemen sit at 26th in the RPI, and thus aren't a factor. I have no idea if next weekend's results could be enough to push them back to 25th, but if so, that could be potentially damaging to Alaska's tournament hopes.

Minnesota High School Tournament Wrap-Up

2010-03-14T08:23:49Z

Edina won the Class AA title. The Breck School, as expected, is bringing the small school Class A title back to their sleepy little town of Minneapolis.

Here's a few final thoughts on the end of the season...

-If you were to compare Class A-sized schools, who should feel prouder of their accomplishment: Breck for winning their second straight title, or Hill-Murray for their epic overtime loss against Minnetonka?

-For all the complaints about how bad the first two days of the tournament were, the MSHSL got what they wanted when they decided to start seeding teams, with some fantastic semifinals on Friday. I feel like all I've done is complain about tournament so far, but the Mahtomedi-Hermantown game and Minnetonka-Hill-Murray were everything that's great about high school hockey.

-I'm not surprised Edina won the state tournament this year. I maybe underestimated them to start the season, as a lot of people did, but they were extremely impressive every time I saw them this year. It's high school hockey, so you can't really pick the types of players you have available--hold your private school recruiting jokes, please--but Edina changed from being a one-line, fairly soft team last year, to a team with three or four solid lines that came out and played tough, in-your-face style of hockey.

-Minnetonka was a ridiculously talented team, but I felt like they were never able to make the whole better than the sum of their parts. They had a lot of kids that could skate and shoot better than anybody, but they had very few puck movers, and that luck of puck movement caught up to them in the tournament.

-Breck didn't quite have a cakewalk through the tournament. I felt like they really kept the semifinal game against Warroad closer than it should have been by putting some mini-breakaways right into the Warroad goalie's stomach, and taking some dumb penalties to keep the game close. The final against Hermantown was legitimately close--Hermantown is an extremely well-coached team--but it was only a matter of time for a team like Breck with that type of depth before they were able to break through.

-The state of Minnesota got their first chance to meet Apple Valley freshman Hudson Fasching. I have a feeling that won't be the last time we're hearing from him. He could be a special player.

-I don't know that the state tournament did a lot to move anyone's draft stock. Some might say the opening day loss might hurt Bjugstad a little, but I doubt it. I was impressed with Adam Krause's play. I thought he was borderline to get drafted, and this probably helped. Maybe Hill-Murray's Chris Casto will get a longer look too.

Niagara Ruins Everything for Everyone

2010-03-13T07:43:05Z

The nightmare scenario is complete. Niagara, playing at home, upset Bemidji State tonight in the semifinals of the CHA conference tournament, meaning that more than likely, the CHA will send two of the conference's four teams to the NCAA tournament, and an extra team from a real conference hoping for an at-large bid will be left on the outside looking in.

Interesting Stat Work

2010-03-12T21:18:22Z

SB Nation's Michigan State blog The Only Colors put up an outstanding preview for this weekend's Michigan/Michigan State games, that may be of some relevance if you're one of the 2700 people planning on going to this weekend's games.(Seriously, look at the attendance they're going to get for a playoff series--against Michigan, no less--and then consider INCH's assertion that MSU will boost attendance at a Fort Wayne regional.)

Some really good stuff, including this chart:

I have no idea what that means, but I think the colors on the left are way prettier. Wait, what's that? It means a sizable advantage for MSU? Oh.

2009-2010 All-WCHA Ballot

2010-03-12T07:25:51Z

As promised, here is who I would have voted for on the All-WCHA ballot. No, I did not follow Roman Augustoviz' lead and choose David Fischer. You can also view the carnage from my Pre-season awards. Actually, not that awful minus Jordan Schroeder's disappearance this year, and Chay Genoway's injury problems.

Everyone is going to look at this a different way. My own personal criteria was a combination of looking at stats--yeah, I'm one of the biggest anti-stats guys out there, but for something like this, I think it's worth considering--what I saw from these players when I saw them play, and how they play the game--some things that disgrace the game like atrocious dives, and getting pulled out of handshake lines for picking fights definitely counted against a couple guys when tough decisions had to be made.

Anyway, here is who I selected:

First Team

F-Blake Geoffrion, Wisconsin

F-Jack Connolly, Minnesota-Duluth

F-Rhett Rakhshani, Denver

D-Brendan Smith, Wisconsin

D-Patrick Wiercioch, Denver

G-Marc Cheverie, Denver

Pretty easy choices here. The only real decision for me was between Connolly and Justin Fontaine, and I think Connolly was a little more consistent and played a little better in the second half of the season.

Second Team

F-Justin Fontaine, Minnesota-Duluth

F-Derek Stepan, Wisconsin

F-Joe Colborne,Denver

D-Garrett Raboin, St. Cloud

D-Mike Montgomery, Minnesota-Duluth

G-Brad Eidsness, North Dakota

St. Cloud is a much different, much better team when Raboin is in the lineup. Montgomery is a rock on defense. Colborne might have been on the first team in a different year with the way he dominated in the second half of the season.

Third Team

F-Ryan Lasch, St. Cloud

F-Brett Olson, Michigan Tech

F-Chris VandeVelde, North Dakota

D-Ryan McDonagh, Wisconsin

D-Jake Marto, North Dakota

G-Joe Howe, Colorado College

Howe maybe isn't the most popular pick here since his numbers are as great, but there was no clear-cut candidate, and I think he deserves a ton of credit for making CC so much better than most people predicted they would be. Lots of good candidates for the last couple spots among the forwards. I went with Olson over guys like Jason Gregoire or Michael Davies because I was impressed with how many goals he was able to put up with little to no supporting cast. Defense was a little harder. McDonagh had to be somewhere on this list, but after that, nobody really stood out. I went with Marto since he had a solid year on a nice team.

Rookie Team

F-Danny Kristo, North Dakota

F-Rylan Schwartz, Colorado College

F-Craig Smith, Wisconsin

D-Matt Donovan, Denver

D-Steven Seigo, Michigan Tech

G-Joe Howe, Colorado College

I'm surprised I didn't pick Tyler Pitlick too. Nobody has more respect for him, or enjoyed watching him more this year than me, but if we're just judging on this year alone, and not what they're going to do in the future, I think these three had better years. I was very impressed by Seigo this year and thought he was criminally underrated. This is a pretty tough lineup to crack when Nick Leddy, Andrew MacWilliam, Justin Schultz and Dylan Olsen all miss out.

Player of the Year: Marc Cheverie, Denver

I was the only person touting Blake Geoffrion as a player of the year candidate back in October, and I would have loved any excuse to vote for him, but when you compare how dominant Denver was with Cheverie in the lineup to how shaky they were while he was injured, I don't see any way I can vote for anyone else.

Rookie of the Year: Danny Kristo, North Dakota

North Dakota won their last seven league games, and Kristo had points in all seven games. There were some guys close to him statistically, but I don't think any of them had the same impact on their team's fortune as Kristo did.

Coach of the Year: Bob Motzko, St. Cloud

I almost went with Scott Owens for the same reason I mentioned above with Howe. CC may have run out of gas at the end of the year, but he got more out of his team than anyone possibly expected. An accurate preseason prediction of where CC finished this year probably would have been laughed at in September.

Instead I went with Bob Motzko. First, because of a tradition I started last year with George Gwozdecky, where my coach of the year choice goes to the coach most outspoken against WCHA officiating, and Motzko was the only coach to earn a formal censure from the league. But more seriously, St. Cloud was projected as a middle of a pack team, because of a terrible defense, and they had some guys on defense take huge strides forward which is what made them such a strong team.

Patrick Leaves Wisconsin for USHL Job

2010-03-11T22:11:59Z

Wisconsin assistant Kevin Patrick will leave Wisconsin at the end of the season to take the head coaching gig with the new Muskegon USHL franchise.

Patrick has been a finalist for a number of head coaching jobs in recent years. It looks like he'll be following Mike Guentzel's lead by trying to shed the image of "just an assistant coach," by taking the reigns of his own program.

Top Minnesota High School Players By Class--March Edition

2010-03-11T20:09:29Z

I posted my first edition of this list back in December, and it was fairly popular. This is the peak week of high school hockey interest in the state of Minnesota, and it brings a lot of traffic here(It helps when you're Out-Googling the Star-Trib. Maybe they're the ones that don't deserve a credential to cover the tournament.) So I figured I would post my player rankings once again after a season's worth of adding and adjusting all the names on it.

Standard disclaimer that I'm just including players I've seen play personally, so there's probably a couple out-state kids that I've missed. The list is posted after the jump.

Seniors

Nick Bjugstad-F-Blaine(Minnesota)
Brock Nelson-F-Warroad(North Dakota)
Zane Gothberg-G-Thief River Falls(North Dakota)
Adam Knochenmus-F-Roseau
Jacob Meyers-G-Benilde
Max Gardiner-F-Minnetonka(Minnesota)
Cal Decowski-F-Andover(Minnesota-Duluth)
Caleb Herbert-F-Bloomington Jefferson(UMD)
Andrew Prochno-D-Minnetonka(St. Cloud)
Max Gaede-F-Woodbury(Minnesota State)
Mark Alt-D-Cretin-Derham Hall(Minnesota)
Justin Holl-D-Minnetonka(Minnesota)
Adam Krause-F-Hermantown(Minnesota-Duluth)
Brett Stern-D-Centennial(Minnesota State)
Chris Casto-D-Hill-Murray(Minnesota-Duluth)
Troy Hesketh-D-Minnetonka(Wisconsin)
Joe Faust-D-Bloomington Jefferson(Princeton)
Tyson Fulton-F-Breck
Christian Isackson-F-St. Thomas(Minnesota)
Archie Skalbeck-F-Hopkins(Colorado College)
Justin Crandall-F-St. Thomas(Minnesota-Duluth)
Willie Corrin-D-International Falls
Brett Patterson-F-Benilde
Joey Benik-F-St. Francis(St. Cloud)
Dan Fick-D-Forest Lake(Harvard)
Michael Morin-F-Breck(Colorado College)
Jeffrey Pauluk-D-Bloomington Jefferson
Brett Hebel-F-Warroad
Ryan Reilly-F-Holy Angels(Minnesota)
Andrew Pitts-D-North Metro
Connor Reilly-F-Holy Angels(Minnesota)
Joe Rubbelke-D-North St. Paul
Charlie Taft-F-Edina
Mitch Rogge-F-Eden Prairie
Garrett Orhn-D-Greenway
David Jarrett-D-Edina
JP Graveline-D-St. Thomas
Jordan Lovick-F-Centennial
Jesse Nemgar-F-Bemidji
Walker Hyland-D-Woodbury
Chad Hennum-F-Elk River
Ryan Wolter-F-White Bear Lake
James Hansen-D-Osseo
Jordan Johnson-D-Hill-Murray
Eric Scheid-F-Blaine
Tyler Larson-F-Moorhead
Ben Jaremko-F-Elk River
Jordan Palusky-F-St. Cloud Cathedral
Sam Windle-D-Osseo
Willie Faust-F-Hill-Murray

Juniors

Kyle Rau-F-Eden Prairie
Ben Marshall-D-Mahtomedi(Minnesota)
Dan Molenaar-D-Eden Prairie
Andrew Welinski-D-Duluth East(Minnesota-Duluth)
Adam Wilcox-G-South St. Paul(Minnesota)
Ryan Jaremko-D-Elk River
Taylor Fleming-D-St. Thomas
Garrett Hendrickson-F-Virginia(St. Cloud)
Tanner Lane-F-Detroit Lakes
Brandon Wahlin-F-White Bear Lake
Ben Bahe-F-Hill-Murray
J.D. Cotroneo-D-Hill-Murray
Derek Frawley-F-Minnetonka
Tyler Heinonen-F-Delano
Steven Fogarty-F-Edina
Zach Schroeder-F-St. Thomas
Shane Omdahl-F-Roseau
Patrick Steinhauser-F-Benilde
AJ Reid-F-St. Thomas
Andrew Ford-G-Eden Prairie
EJ Faust-F-Blake
Tony Camaranesi-F-Wayzata
Joseph LaBate-F-Holy Angels
Ross Luedtke-F-Orono
Max Birkinbine-F-White Bear Lake
Max Everson-D-Edina
DJ Jones-D-Wayzata
Kevin Becker-F-Hill-Murray
Thomas Schutt-F-Minnetonka
Curt Rau-F-Eden Prairie
Nic Oxton-D-Moorhead
Tim Bonner-F-Osseo
Patrick Daly-D-Benilde
Ryan Siiro-F-Bloomington Jefferson
Max Smith-F-Eastview
Zac Schendel-F-Duluth East
Ethan Prow-D-Sauk Rapids
Luc Gerdes-F-Eden Prairie
Patrick Moore-F-Grand Rapids
Cullen Hurley-F-Holy Angels

Sophomores

Christian Horn-Benilde-St. Margaret's
AJ Michaelson-F-Apple Valley
Brady Skjei-D-Lakeville North
Brock Kautz-G-Rochester Century
Michael Zajac-F-Eagan
Jordan Jancze-F-Hill-Murray
Gage Torrel-F-Monticello
Nate Arentz-F-Lakeville North
Mike Reilly-D-Holy Angels
Eric Schurhammer-D-St. Thomas Academy
Austin Rudnick-D-Breck
Derek Smith-D-Apple Valley
Anders Franke-G-Elk River
Matt Pilot-D-South St. Paul
Peter Krieger-F-St. Thomas Academy
Aaron Dolby-D-Osseo
Eric Brenk-F-Moorhead
Austyn Young-F-South St. Paul
Charlie Sampair-F-Hill-Murray
Tony Paulson-F-Maple Grove
Erik Baskin-F-Minnetonka
Spenser Bell-F-Maple Grove
Jake Oborsky-F-Red Wing
Lucas Kohls-F-Forest Lake
Taylor Bryan-D-Elk River
Paige Skoog-G-Forest Lake
Andrew Commers-F-St. Thomas
Jake Horton-D-Benilde
Jonah Johnson-D-Hill-Murray
Sam Rothstein-F-Minnetonka

Freshmen

Hudson Fasching-F-Apple Valley
Grant Besse-F-Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Jacob Horton-F-Tartan
Parker Reno-D-Edina
Zach Lavalle-F-Hill-Murray
Max Coatta-F-Minnetonka
Lance Carney-D-White Bear Lake
Dan Labosky-F-Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Frank Mork-D-Holy Angels
Dylan Adler-D-Anoka
Mario Bianchi-F-Holy Angels
Zach Hartley-F-Holy Angels
T.J. Moore-F-Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Kris Manthey-D-Anoka
Lou Nanne-F-Edina
Jake Peterson-D-St. Cloud Tech
TJ Roo-F-Totino-Grace
Chase Broten-F-Roseau
Austin Sattler-F-St. Thomas
Colin Hernon-F-Bloomington Jefferson

Brutal Start to the State Tournament

2010-03-11T09:07:27Z

I went to a game at Breck's Anderson Ice Arena this year. The rink doesn't face the road, and I ended up missing the turn for the arena. Before I was able to turn around, I had driven into the city limits of the 47th most populous city in the United States.

This always rung true with me. Feel free to substitute Breck, with an enrollment of nearly 1200 students in place of St. Thomas:

Speaking of classifications, when I was looking at the Hill-Murray / St. Thomas Academy matchup, I felt kind of bad for the Cadets. After all, they're a 1A school, and they have to try to beat 2A Hill-Murray to win the Classic Suburban title. Then they showed this stat on the broadcast: Hill-Murray's enrollment, grades 9-12, is 861 students. St. Thomas Academy's, freshmen through seniors, is 1082. I don't think I feel bad for STA any more; might be time to play up a level, don't you think, fellas?

-Jon Marthaler

_______________________________________________________________________________________

The Class A quarterfinals kicked off this year's Minnesota state high school tournament, and none of the games were all that compelling. The four seeded teams all advanced by a combined score of 29-3. The only close game was the second game of the day when Hermantown beat Virginia 2-1, in a game that was pretty thin on excitement despite the close score. It wasn't unexpected. Ever since the tournament started seeding the top four teams a few years back, it's taken some of the drama out of the first day of the tournament, but made for more exciting semifinals on Friday.

The lowpoint of the day was the game between Breck and New Ulm, which managed to combine my two least favorite things about the Class A tournament. First, when the state redrew the section lines thee years ago, the southwestern part of the state did not need its own section with Section 3A. I'm all for non-traditional areas getting their shot at the state tournament, but I'd much rather see parts of that section absorbed into Section 1A and 6A and that extra bid going somewhere else that at least has a chance of sending a competitive team to the state tournament. Sections 1 and 6 are weak enough as it is--their main draw record in the tournament is pretty bad--but Section 3 took the worst teams out of each of those sections and gave them their own bid to the tournament.

That's nothing against New Ulm personally. I thought they played hard and played very well in the first period of their game. But the second problem was that they were up against a team that had no business playing in the Single A tournament for small schools. The idea behind starting the Class A tournament was to give smaller towns and schools the opportunity to play in the state tournament. New Ulm didn't get to play in the state tournament. They got to say hi to their mothers and grandmothers on television, and then got slaughtered by an all-star team made up of kids from the Wayzata youth hockey program, and Champlin youth hockey program, and any number of other AA-sized youth hockey programs in the western suburbs of the Twin Cities. The number of students these private schools have to chose from is way more than important than the amount they actually let in.

I'm not just picking on Breck either. Yes, Rochester Lourdes got blown out today, but I'm still not keen on them being there either. This is the second year in a row that the representative of the small schools from southern Minnesota has been a school from the only city resembling a large city in southern Minnesota. I would have much rather seen a Red Wing or Faribault get beaten up by Warroad this evening.

You'd like to see some of these private Class A powerhouse teams be like Hill-Murray and Benilde-St. Margaret's and play up in Class AA, but for whatever reason, they seem unwilling to take the challenge. Forcing private schools from the state's biggest cities to play up in AA instantly makes the Class A tournament more entertaining, and closer to what the tournament was actually intended for.

In any case, the real tournament starts tomorrow with the big schools, where everyone is on a little more level footing, and now that the ugliness of the first day is over, hopefully the semifinals of the Class A tournament should produce some entertaining hockey as well.