2023 Ms. Hockey Semifinalists

[InThePipes]

Zero transfers in the final group. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Of course correlation does not imply causation, but at some point it probably becomes difficult for the selection committee/voters to completely ignore it.

[Lace'emUp]

Zero transfers in the final group. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Of course correlation does not imply causation, but at some point it probably becomes difficult for the selection committee/voters to completely ignore it.

Agree with both of you.
Item to note / watch: Of the past 27 award winners, only once has a NON-future Gopher won the award 2 years in a row (happened in 2006 & 2007). Of the 27 award winners, 20 have went onto play with the Gophers. The only other colleges that can claim a Ms Hockey MN is Wisconsin (3 times), Quinnipiac (1), Harvard (1), Boston College (1), and Princeton (1). Last year it went to Jungels (Wis).

Boerger - St. Thomas
Hause - St. Thomas
Higuchi - Yale
O'Hara - Gophers
Van Batavia - Mankato

[jg2112]

Zero transfers in the final group. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Of course correlation does not imply causation, but at some point it probably becomes difficult for the selection committee/voters to completely ignore it.

It's probably not a stretch to suggest the 2-day delay in announcing the finalists might have had to do with the articles about HS transfers that were in the Star Tribune this weekend. Hemp and Lindsay were mentioned, Volk was interviewed, and as skatez said, four of the girls who transferred high schools are absent from the final 5 (yes, I know Retrum moved before Grade 9 when she's allowed, but that still probably looks like a transfer to most people).

So now we really have to ask what the objective is with Ms. Hockey, because they didn't pick the top 10, they certainly haven't picked the top 5, and their voting was potentially affected by news reporting. Going forward - "We pick the best Senior non-goalie in Minnesota, provided she didn't transfer during her high school career and didn't go to a charter school?"

[Eagles93]

It's probably not a stretch...

Seems like a big stretch, I'm sure the winner was already determined prior to Feb 10, and they don't have 3 rounds of voting. Whether it's a simple "select one girl to be Ms. Hockey" or "rank your top 5 girls for Ms. Hockey" and then they tallied it up based on that prior to Feb 10. The actual unveiling of the results (top 10, top 5) is just for web clicks and social media excitement. It would be neat to see the results of the vote, like Jungels received 78% of first place votes or something like that but ultimately don't care, most years, the consensus favorite wins the award.

We likely way overthink what goes into this, the voters likely are not "fans" like us and study how each team did and how many points each girl had against top 10 teams. A player has to be nominated by the player's coach with a "resume" of the girl's career, accomplishments, GPA, community service, etc. Does each voter actually read through all of those nominations? Do they care about off-ice stuff? How many voters are there?? College coaches vote, I can't help but think the Gophers/Badgers/Mavericks/Tommies coach (if they vote) vote for their commit(s)? Transparency would help but again, I don't care, they usually get it "right". This year there doesn't seem to be a consensus favorite or even two or three so that's likely why the results are somewhat surprising to us.

[Lace'emUp]

It's probably not a stretch...

Seems like a big stretch, I'm sure the winner was already determined prior to Feb 10, and they don't have 3 rounds of voting. Whether it's a simple "select one girl to be Ms. Hockey" or "rank your top 5 girls for Ms. Hockey" and then they tallied it up based on that prior to Feb 10. The actual unveiling of the results (top 10, top 5) is just for web clicks and social media excitement. It would be neat to see the results of the vote, like Jungels received 78% of first place votes or something like that but ultimately don't care, most years, the consensus favorite wins the award.

We likely way overthink what goes into this, the voters likely are not "fans" like us and study how each team did and how many points each girl had against top 10 teams. A player has to be nominated by the player's coach with a "resume" of the girl's career, accomplishments, GPA, community service, etc. Does each voter actually read through all of those nominations? Do they care about off-ice stuff? How many voters are there?? College coaches vote, I can't help but think the Gophers/Badgers/Mavericks/Tommies coach (if they vote) vote for their commit(s)? Transparency would help but again, I don't care, they usually get it "right". This year there doesn't seem to be a consensus favorite or even two or three so that's likely why the results are somewhat surprising to us.

Per both the LPH and MGHCA website: "The selection of the top 10 candidates, then the five finalists, and ultimately the winner, is based on consultations with a panel of Division I and III college women’s coaches from the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as a panel of high school coaches."
It doesn't talk about voting, only "consultation" from a college panel and a high school panel. Who knows, it could be one person making the final decision, or 20. There's no committee or panel members listed on either site.

[jg2112]

It's probably not a stretch...

Seems like a big stretch, I'm sure the winner was already determined prior to Feb 10, and they don't have 3 rounds of voting. Whether it's a simple "select one girl to be Ms. Hockey" or "rank your top 5 girls for Ms. Hockey" and then they tallied it up based on that prior to Feb 10. The actual unveiling of the results (top 10, top 5) is just for web clicks and social media excitement. It would be neat to see the results of the vote, like Jungels received 78% of first place votes or something like that but ultimately don't care, most years, the consensus favorite wins the award.

We likely way overthink what goes into this, the voters likely are not "fans" like us and study how each team did and how many points each girl had against top 10 teams. A player has to be nominated by the player's coach with a "resume" of the girl's career, accomplishments, GPA, community service, etc. Does each voter actually read through all of those nominations? Do they care about off-ice stuff? How many voters are there?? College coaches vote, I can't help but think the Gophers/Badgers/Mavericks/Tommies coach (if they vote) vote for their commit(s)? Transparency would help but again, I don't care, they usually get it "right". This year there doesn't seem to be a consensus favorite or even two or three so that's likely why the results are somewhat surprising to us.

Per both the LPH and MGHCA website: "The selection of the top 10 candidates, then the five finalists, and ultimately the winner, is based on consultations with a panel of Division I and III college women’s coaches from the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as a panel of high school coaches."
It doesn't talk about voting, only "consultation" from a college panel and a high school panel. Who knows, it could be one person making the final decision, or 20. There's no committee or panel members listed on either site.

Thanks for putting this information into the discussion. Why include Wisconsin but not, say, Massachusetts, Ohio and New York?

[bodyup88]

My belief is that it will be won - and deserved - by Ella Boerger. Although she actually moved to Andover before ninth grade, she apparently doesn't "count" as a transfer because she didn't start her HS hockey career at Sartell, as Nora Sauer did the following season.
I'm looking forward to two fantastic AA semifinal games on Friday night, much like last year.