3A predictions

[6thMan]

Another season, another chance for 3A to prove they belong. How does everyone look for the coming season?

I think NU wont repeat as section champs.. beyond that im lost as how to call this one. Its just the nature of this section to just surprise everyone

Im sure everyone else has an opinion radically different than mine

[Bettman's Bender]

I think Redwood will easily come away with the Section, they had a fantastic showing in mankato league... borrowing players from other teams while top players from their squad left to other towns. After all they did beat marshall last year who beat new ulm twice, who beat hutch who beat litch.. But wait, luverne beat redwood...

Luverne cardinals are going to state.... NOT.!!! haha

Its gonna be a toss up for now..

Hutch- no swenson, hahn, hantge.. still have grina.. i do believe.. goaltending will be questionable after losing 3 year starter swenson.. they will be tough, but not as tough.

Litch- No adams (now plays in the MnJHL) or johnson this year. still have impolla. goaltending will be a question mark here as well. solid squad though

New Ulm- Looking to return pretty solid... kept burgau, banal, peterson, juntunen... but lost the big guy and a few role players.

Marshall- Didnt lose hardly any scoring and lost their 3rd D pair. and grinders. Lost their tender Campion. Should be pretty strong, didnt lose much on the offensive end. Vanderziel anchors the team along with haukom

Windom- Will be pretty brutal year i think. Lost big eisenmenger, hunter johnson, their tender and cody mischke.. a weak team got weaker..

Redwood- down year... lost their goalie, eric miller to warroad, lost a foreign exchange student, but they will probably get another. lost amberg. eric hanson will have to be a stud for them.

Sleepy eye- will be steadily improving. numbers are going up in youth levels and are starting to reach high school. wont contend for years to come but may be on the blocks to win a few more games. return their goalie.

Luverne- weak, lost only one person to name. Meyer. goaltending is pretty bad. Not a whole lot to work with. good senior class this year.. but goaltending holds them back from any success.

Worthington- will be very weak. new head coach, lost jensen and bensen, the only talent they really had.



thats the spin.



1. Marshall
2. New Ulm
3. Litch
4. Hutch
5. Luverne
6. Redwood

sleepy eye might be the best of the rest.... sleepy eye gets the 7 seed this year.... whoa... unless i forgot someone...

[bardown27]

litch returns impola on the blue line who will be a big impact for them. graduated 11 seniors, the big losses are adams, johnson and forsman(both varsity tendys from last year) danielson and wold.

as for hutch. they lost grina, hantge(sp) and swenson. hahn is still there along with trace adams and jordan johnson. johnson will have to have a big year between the pipes for hutch to contend.

marshall lost campion. other than that i have no idea what they have coming in for a tendy. could be a rough year for them if they cant figure it out between the pipes.

NU lost there big body in fischer(sp) but still have banal and juntunen who should do alot of the scoring. burgau is a good body to have between the pipes.

after these 4, the rest of thr section is a toss up..

i see it coming out:
1.NU
2.Litch
3.Marshall
4.Hutch

[hero12]

I don't know much about the rest of the section, but I think Luverne will surprise you this year. No I don't think they will go to state, but they only lost one senior and he wasn't that big of an asset for the team anyway, easily replaced. If they can find a replacement for the two goalies they had last year they will improve dramatically.

[blueblood]

I'm all for expanding hockey opportunities, but c'mon. 3A = 2 & done

[6thMan]

I'm all for expanding hockey opportunities, but c'mon. 3A = 2 & done

Just because you got cut from your Jr Gold team doesn't mean you have to take your pathetic anger out on 3A. I'm not even going to get into how the 3A team that goes to state always COMPETES with its competition, even if they are hopelessly outmatched. Respect the heart and determination of these kids, they go out and play their hearts out every game. But if you really have a problem with 3A ill suggest you just get bent, 3A isn't leaving.

[hero12]

I'm all for expanding hockey opportunities, but c'mon. 3A = 2 & done

Nowhere has anybody said 3A was going to win state, nobody even said the 3a team would win a game at state. This is a Minnesota high school hockey forum, not a blueblood's favorite section forum, go away.

[blueblood]

bb is here to stay. just ask my buddy FF

[blueblood]

Who says I played jr gold?

As for your personal attack, get ready....

[Bettman's Bender]

I was not impressed with luverne in the Mankato league, i had originally thought they could be a darkhorse, which they still could...but realistically they arent any closer to contending than they were last year., (11-0 loss to New Ulm). It will be a few years before luverne is a top dog contender in 3A. Strong squirt and peewee classes.

Prior to last season Marshall had 4 tendys that would have started for any other team in this section, and most teams in the state for that matter. One now plays for shattuck st. mary's ). . Campion is gone. the other two remain, (both seniors) one of whom was on the USHL draft list a a few years back. (NOBLE).. and McCoy who would also be a #1 tendy for any team in this section. Marshall will be good between the pipes, this year at least.

[jackstraw]

The former Marshall goalie at SSM is on the lowest of the midget teams, AA. Not a bad goalie at all, just clarifying.

[blueblood]

Yo, GaryBettman Bender:

I think you have me confused with you, rookie

[Goldy Gopher]

I'm all for expanding hockey opportunities, but c'mon. 3A = 2 & done

Just because you got cut from your Jr Gold team doesn't mean you have to take your pathetic anger out on 3A. I'm not even going to get into how the 3A team that goes to state always COMPETES with its competition, even if they are hopelessly outmatched. Respect the heart and determination of these kids, they go out and play their hearts out every game. But if you really have a problem with 3A ill suggest you just get bent, 3A isn't leaving.

11-1 loss to Breck and a 7-2 loss to Lourdes for New Ulm last year.

That's competing

[observer]

Remember, in a lot of these small towns, north and south, the entire hockey team plays football. Never mind that there are only 15-20 of them anyways. Several will play baseball in the spring too. In big association metro hockey communities sometimes only a couple players play a fall sport. Single sport specialists. The number of multisport athletes is shrinking yearly as specialization becomes more prevalent in the metro. Give these small town athletes some credit.

[hutchtostate]

the section will be interesting this year...lots of dark horses, but a lot of talent left the section.

Hutch lost a great goalie, as did Marshall; Burgau is still around, so if you go by goaltending, New Ulm has an advantage. don't know much about marshalls other goalies, but thats all they had last year for a team.

redwood - way down this year
luverne - all talk, no team
Sleepy eye will win a few
Litch will be strong and tough - they bring it
Hutch - altheltic kids - more athletic than most teams in the section
windom- joke
worthington - who do they even have?

early prediction -
Hutch, Litch, New Ulm, Marshall
Hutch and marshall play early in the season
Marshall and new ulm play early in the season

lets face it- Hutch and litch play tougher schedules and they will be better

[sssample54]

thanks to the person or persons that deleted Bettman's last post. He embarrassed himself, and his team. This isn't the first time.
Someone from marshall should talk to his parents

[Bettman's Bender]

My parents don't care about me enough. I am an embarassment, but hey, i embrace it. Im just a big hack, big time bender.

[hutchtostate]

Hey Bettman who does Marshall have that can actually put the puck away this year...........way I see it, they couldn't score last year and the goalie kept them in the games they hardly put up any shots last year and didn't lose much great talent barring the goalie how exactly are they going to win this year???? Do they have any talent to beat teams that aren't in their conference? way I see it, the conference down there is very weak this year - no challenges Marshall should win that, but the section - they need someone that can score who is going to do that? they have to actually put up a shot to score - how many shots on Hutch last year??? New Ulm???

[MajorBender]

Marshall is bringing back three of their top scorers last year and two senior goalies that could both easily start for any team in the section. Also two very experienced defensive pairs. It doesnt matter about how many shots you get. The shots marshall had last year were quality. They had about the same number of shots in every game last year and never went above thirty some unless they played sleepyeye or worthington which even the bantam teams from the better teams in the section could beat. But they still constantly put in goals with quality shots against good teams. If i recall marshall beat new ulm 3-1 and had 20 some shots and beat them again 4-3 with again 20 some shots while both times they had close to 40. That says that they are producing great shots and have good goalieS.

[hutchtostate]

Marshall HAD a good goalie. That is the only reason they stayed in any game last year at all.
They didn't have good shots - lucky goals. I don't know who can score there. Yes - they have two good defensemen returning - 1 senior 1 junior. I remember 1 good forward - small, but good. their goals were lucky. now if you can find someone to score, you may actually be fun to play this year. Lets see in December!!!

[new2coachin]

Here's how I see it from top to bottom:

Hutch
Litch
New Ulm
Luverne
Marshall
Redwood
Windom
Sleepy Eye
Fairmont
Worthington

The big suprise in my opinion will be Luverne. Not alot of overly talented individuals but they play well together, were very competitive in association hockey when this group was growing up, & if they can solidify their goal tending, they will be tough to beat. The last couple of years their season has been delayed due to state tournament football appearances, which has affected the hockey team early in the season. Last year Marshall did not play their #1 goalie against Luverne and lost. Luverne loses 1 player from last years team. Redwood, Windom, SE, & Fairmont will be interesting to watch against each other as they are comparable in talent. Should be another fun year to watch 3A hockey!

[Bettman's Bender]

Hey mr new to hockey. I'm not sure what kind of hockey you are watching. If you are trying to tell us that luverne plays good hockey then you need to leave your home ice arena and watch real hockey. Luverne does not play good hockey. That is the funniest thing I have heard on this board. Those kids don't even know how to run a powerplay, in fact nobody in sw conference plays real hockey. Especially luverne. 11-1 loss to new ulm is good hockey give me a break. Don't even get me started on luverne goaltending. Somebody please teach luvern goalies to butterfly. It bothers me to see such bad goalies getting to play when towns like Marshall have 3 goalies that would love to start. Luverne will go nowhere this year

[new2coachin]

Bender, I'm not from Luverne, I coached in this area for a while and watched the majority of these kids grow up (Dist 4). Spent some time with some AAA teams throughout MN during the summers, so I know how SW MN stacks up as a whole againt the state, dont let my moniker trip you up. Not trying to compare 3A teams with the state, just sticking with the 3A topic. Luverne beat Marshall last year against one of Marshalls backup goalies, my prediction is with the number of returning players Luverne has this year vs Marshall, plus you add in the Bantams moving up, the Cardinals will be ahead of the Tigers.

[6thMan]

Luverne like most of the smaller teams in this section has only ONE line that can compete and skate with the larger teams (marshall, hutch, nu) so while they might be able to pull of an upset from time to time they can never be consistent. Until they either get a large class, or improve the other 2 lines i dont see Luverne actually competing for the section. Not knocking on the team but the logistics just dont work well for them.. Id love to be proven wrong but a team with just one good line will always struggle.

[hutchtostate]

i would like to see Luverne's schedule. I don't think we play them, but I would like to show them what a real hockey game looks like. I can't imagine you really play anyone good - do you play New Ulm? Willmar?

new2coaching - have you really seen AAA hockey? Really? And you think Luverne is quality? ok AAA south dakota or wyoming or maybe arkansas...

How did luverne do in your little mankato league summer thing you refer to?

I think Luverne should show us what they have and come scrimmage Hutch. We will put our Bantam team out there for you.