STA vs. Virgina

Spinner18 · Post by **Spinner18** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 8:53 pm

yeah i know what you mean. its a longshot at the finals lol. But we should win STA, and the warroad game should be a thriller. sorry about some of my comments, im just so joyful that its our first time to show what we have. sorry yall

olde tyme hockey 9 · Post by **olde tyme hockey 9** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 8:58 pm

im not trying to be negative here, i see virginia is excited, but does everyone really think virginia is actually gonna win by like 3 or 4 goals?

Hillfan · Post by **Hillfan** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:01 pm

Well, some think so. Just remember, they are used to their team. They have had a very solid season. Also, they haven't seen or heard much about STA, so they figure with a record of 18-10, STA will be a game where they should/are able to win.

zorba · Post by **zorba** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:05 pm

thats right olde tyme hockey 9, comments on here are not coming from any coach, player, or fan that has any knowledge of the game,its just someone getting a little bit to excited for our first trip down<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... /happy.gif ALT=":D"> I can speak for Devil fans, and say coaches, fans and the virginia hockey team know how hard it is to get in the state tournament and will not look down at any team regardless of schedule record or otherwise, i just think they are all playing there best hockey at the right time of the year and deserve to be where they are <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... /happy.gif ALT=":D"> Good Luck to all teams, i'll enjoy watch and cheering for the Devils Blue Devils #1

4checker · Post by **4checker** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:06 pm

Spinner Don't apologize for your enthusiasm. Enjoy your trip. The first time is the best. Some of us are still waiting. Some of us take it for granted, and that is a lot worse than what you are doing. Virginia has a nice team, they play the game the way it is supposed to be played. Their team speed is much improved, and Niskanen is worthy of the hype. At this point, everyone you see at State will be good - no - very good. STA has the advantage of a much stronger schedule and will be hard to beat. Let it play out Wednesday. But most of all, enjoy the moment. Even if Virginia loses two, it has been a step they needed to take. Enjoy.

Spinner18 · Post by **Spinner18** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:11 pm

ive been down before watching, just not rooting for my own team. hey now, i have alot of hockey knowledge, go to every va game, lots of UMD games, season tickets for them next year, and the NHL, exception to this year. but i will enjoy my time down there.

CameronCamry · Post by **CameronCamry** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 10:06 pm

I for one, am concerned about STA. The way I see it, VHS can skate with STA, but I wouldn't pick either team to win. It's state tourney, neither team have playered eachother=anything can happen

puck4ever · Post by **puck4ever** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 11:16 pm

you're right, anything can happen, we see that every year. the fact is, no one really knows how these two teams match up, well judging by the fact that no one has responded to the other thread regarding this topic anyway. it's virginia's exuberant fans against some nay-sayers that have seen STA play. i can't wait for the game, should be a great one. and judging from the wonderful work puckranger has done with his section 7 website and the stats he has on there about both teams, it leads me to believe virginia will come out on top. they will come out flying, like always, and i dont think nisky willlet them take a shift off the entire state tourny, just the kind of great leader and person he is. since i dont know much about and haven't seen STA play this year, i have no score predictions, all i will say is virginia by 2+ goals, based on how well i know the virginia players, coaches, and their enthusiasm this year. good luck to both teams. GO DEVILS!!

PuckRanger · Post by **PuckRanger** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:41 am

I keep seeing the same stuff I saw before the Hibbing game popping up about Virginia's strength of schedule. I'll say again, what I said then: It doesn't matter if you play a tougher schedule when you don't WIN any of the games against those "tough" teams. STA is 2-7 against ranked teams, and one of those ranked teams they beat has a losing record (Richfield). Virginia is 6-0-1 against ranked teams. Yeah, they played 2 less games, but a few more wins and no losses... Edge: Virginia STA is 4-8 against winning teams. That means that 16 games were against losing teams. Virginia is 12-3-2 against winning teams. That leaves 10 games against losing teams. Edge: Virginia The average record of the opponents STA plays is 12-13-2. In other words, they average out to losing teams. Virginia's opponent's records come in at 13-12-1. A winning record. Edge: Virginia The only big wins that really jump off the page at me for STA are an overtime win over Tartan and maybe the win over Cretin-Durham Hall. Other than that, I don't see anything special. Virginia can match those with its wins over Hibbing and Hermantown. The only stat that I can find that contradicts this is the pagestat2 ratings for each team, which gives STA the edge in schedule strength. From the stats I listed, I struggle to agree with it. I think Virginia's schedule is just as tough as STA's, but they won a few more games along the way. A couple of other notes: Virginia is undefeated in Class A play this year (17-0-2) and is also undefeated when scoring more than 1 goal (20-0-3). They also come into the STA game with an 14 game unbeaten streak. Just from looking at the numbers, it looks like if STA allows 2 goals, they will struggle to get a win, more than 2 and they will not win. But we all know the game must be played on the ice, and all the papers & numbers mean nothing come Noon on Wednesday! <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... /happy.gif ALT=":D">

4checker · Post by **4checker** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 4:04 am

Patrick Reusse: Virginia's long wait is over Patrick Reusse, Star Tribune BOYS' HOCKEY TOURNAMENT VIRGINIA, MINN. -- There were 5,000 people in the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center for the Section 7A boys' hockey championship game last Wednesday. The Virginia estimate is that 60 percent were there to cheer for their Blue Devils. Hibbing scored twice late in the second period to take a 3-2 lead. Was there a feeling of doom in the Virginia sections? Dave Hendrickson rolled his eyes at the question and said: "There were probably a few people mumbling, 'Here we go again.' " Keith Hendrickson, Dave's son and in his 18th season as Virginia's coach, had no time for painful flashbacks. "I told the team we had stopped moving -- that we weren't playing to win but not to lose," he said. "I told 'em, 'Play the next 17 minutes like you can, and we'll be OK.' " A minute into the third, Virginia's Nico Sacchetti got the puck behind his net. The freshman took it through his zone, through mid-ice, walked around two defenders and scored, making it 3-3. Midway in the period, Kyle Altobelli and Mark Gillvray scored 16 seconds apart to give Virginia a 5-3 lead. Keith Hendrickson almost vaulted from the bench on McGillvray's goal, as apprehension turned to celebration for the Virginia faithful. Eight minutes later, it was done, 5-3. Virginia had waited 50 years, since a dormant program was reborn in the winter of 1954-55, and now the Blue Devils had reached their first state hockey tournament. Range traditions The sign adorning Oaky's Arrowhead Bar in Virginia's downtown reads "Curse Is Over/Best of Luck Devils." This was an edited version of what some oldtimers at Virginia's Miners Memorial Arena have referred to as the Hendrickson Curse -- more in honor of Dave than his son. "I coached here 10 years, although most people think it was 30," he said. "We had some terrific teams, but the Range back then ... you were fighting for your life every night." Dave Hendrickson grew up on Summit Avenue in Eveleth. "Johnny Mayasich and his brothers were neighbors," he said. "We had 13 kids from our street play what's now Division I hockey." Hendrickson played at Michigan State. He coached at Crookston High. In 1967, he was hired to coach at Virginia. "It was as close as I could get to being back home," he said. It was only 5 miles from the Eveleth Hippodrome to Miners Memorial Area -- but it was light years in hockey tradition. "Virginia had some excellent individual players, but we weren't much of a threat compared to the Range powerhouses in my first few years here," Dave Hendrickson said. That changed in the early '70s, when the Carlson brothers -- Jack, Jeff and Steve -- led a charge that put Virginia among the Range's best. The new hockey excitement was such that, in the winter of 1971-72, a Virginia student named Steve Begich started bringing his keyboard-style organ to Blue Devils games. He was surrounded by a group of fellow students billed as "the Hombres." They filled Miners Memorial with amps. They turned "When the Saints Come Marching In" to the "Blues" marching in. Officiating crews were serenaded with "Three Blind Mice." Keith Hendrickson was a four-year starter in this era. "You had crowds hanging from the rafters, and Beggie banging on that organ and those amps blasting," he said. "Thirty years later, I've never seen an atmosphere at a high school hockey game -- any hockey game -- that approaches what we had then in Virginia. "Beggie started taking the organ to away games. The band directors in those towns went crazy. They started putting up signs at the arenas: 'No organs allowed.' Really. There were signs banning Beggie's organ." Help from Mountain Iron Mountain Iron and Buhl have been sending their hockey players to Virginia for more than a decade. There have been occasional contributors, but now Mountain Iron has added a genuine star in Matt Niskanen to Virginia's first state tournament team. Niskanen is a 6-1, 195-pound defenseman. The Gophers wanted him, and they wanted him to play junior hockey -- at least, in fall and spring around his senior season. Niskanen was the quarterback on Mountain Iron-Buhl's football team. He also will pitch and play on the infield for that school's baseball team. He wasn't going to pass on playing his final seasons with his Mountain Iron teams. As for hockey development, Niskanen said: "I have a great coach here in Keith Hendrickson. I can get all the time I want on the ice. There's a lot of open hockey in Virginia. How good I wanted to get has been pretty much up to me." Niskanen has gotten so good that Dave Hendrickson puts him in the same class as Billy Baker, Grand Rapids' star of the '70s, among all-time Range blue-liners. Scott Sandelin, the Minnesota Duluth coach, encouraged Niskanen to go ahead and play three high school sports. That was among the reasons he signed with the Bulldogs last fall. 'Super Sophs' There were eight sophomores skating with Virginia's strong 1972-73 team, including Keith Hendrickson, Dave Joelson, Tony Sacchetti, John (Bah) Harrington and Greg Harrela. John Gilbert of the Minneapolis Tribune started referring to this group in print as the "Super Sophs." The name soon was adopted for the entire athletic Class of '75, including a basketball team led by the magical Pat Foschi, a four-year Virginia starter. Gary Friedlieb played hockey and basketball through junior high. Foschi had been his closest friend since kindergarten. "I finally chose basketball over hockey because I wanted to be on Patrick's team," he said. "That's how close we were as friends. That's also how good he was as a player." In 1975, the hockey team fought its way to the Iron Range Conference title, winning at Grand Rapids in the last week of the season. Soon, the Blue Devils were again facing Grand Rapids in the Region 7 semifinals. This was a Rapids team that had Baker, John Rothstein, Aaron Roth, Pete DeCenzo, goalie Danny Clafton and still more Division I recruits. There were Hendricksons coaching both teams -- Dave with Virginia, younger brother Gus with Rapids. Virginia, leading 1-0, put a puck in the net with one second left in the first period, and went hooting its way to the locker room. A few minutes later, the referees called out the captains -- Keith and Joelson -- and said the second goal wasn't going to count. "One said it was knocked in with a high stick; the other said it came after the period ended," said Dave Hendrickson, sadly shaking his head 30 years later. Keith smelled a rat -- namely, lobbying from his uncle Gus to get the goal disallowed. The nephew stormed after his uncle outside the locker rooms before the second period. Grand Rapids rallied for a 5-2 victory, beat Eveleth in the Region 7 final, and cruised to a state championship. Toughest loss? "That one, by far," Dave Hendrickson said. After a pause, he said: "Gus and I didn't talk to each other until August. That's when our mother called and said, 'Enough is enough.' She made us get together and put it behind us." Painful though it was, that hockey defeat was more noble than the elimination suffered by the basketball team of Virginia's Super Sophs class. This was coach Richie Olson's last season before becoming the full-time athletic director, and he dreamed of going out with a second state title (to go with one he earned at Edgerton in 1960). Foschi had become friends with Jim Garrett, a New York city transplant, in the summer of 1974. Garrett was a 6-4 leaper. He moved to Virginia. Suddenly, with two superstars, there was a shortage of basketballs for the Blue Devils. "We were seeded No. 1, and Duluth Denfeld was 2-17 and seeded eighth in the section," Friedlieb said. "We were up eight or 10, and then Garrett was given a technical for touching the rim. Patrick had one or two technicals for complaining. Then, coach Olson got one or two. "We wound up with seven technicals in the second half, and suddenly we were down six. We had a very talented team, but we lost our composure. We deserved to lose." The Super Sophs still hold a notorious place in Iron Range athletic history, as demonstrated by this story from Keith Hendrickson: "A bunch of us from that class were duck hunting with a fellow named Carl Pineco a number of years ago. We were a little hung over, sort of sleeping in our blinds, when this lone hen mallard flew over. We all popped up, six or seven of us, and started firing away. That mallard just turned and flew to the other side of the lake. "And the next thing we hear is Pineco yelling, 'The Super Sophs choked again.' " Family history The Super Sophs have some bloodlines with this state tournament team. The coaches from '75 and '05 are father and son, of course. Nico Sacchetti, the triggerman for Wednesday's comeback, is Tony's son. Defenseman Evan Friedlieb is the son of Gary, an ex-basketball player with a great appreciation for what this hockey journey means to his hometown. "It was tear-evoking stuff when we won that game last Wednesday," Gary said. "I've known Keith all my life -- and his dad, Dave, a great person, all my life. They deserved this. Virginia deserved this

BCtheFan · Post by **BCtheFan** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 7:15 am

Well by reading these posts it seems like Warroad has already beat Albert Lea. Did they play this game already????? J/K <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... /smile.gif ALT=":)"> Is Warroad really that good???? J/K <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... s/roll.gif ALT=":rollin"> Edited by: <A HREF=http://p074.ezboard.com/bmnhs.showUserP ... CtheFan</A> at: 3/1/05 7:18 am

olde tyme hockey 9 · Post by **olde tyme hockey 9** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:57 pm

Does this sound ridiculous to anyone else now how cocky the Virginia guys were going into the state tournament?

blackeye · Post by **blackeye** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:06 pm

Sounds about as ridiculous as an STA supporter/player coming here and ripping Virgina. Ya won one more game than Virgina, get over yourselves and grow up.

VABlueDevilsfan · Post by **VABlueDevilsfan** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:42 pm

old time, how many of the posts on here do you REALLY believe to be from Blue Devil hockey players? I'd say the posts were hopefuls from supporters. This was a huge step for the Virginia program. 50 years, they waited for the day. Do you think people would come on here and say " Uh, Virginia is goin' come out flat" They are goin' lose big time". Yeah, right! Look @ the numbers that showed up to both of Virginia's games. They broke records! Virgina MIB just had some real excited fans. Now PLEASE give it up!

Hillfan · Post by **Hillfan** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:46 pm

Must agree VA. It's too bad you couldn't make it farther, but just experiencing the tournament(especially your first) is amazing. Heck who knows, maybe you'll be back next year!

topshelf11 · Post by **topshelf11** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:28 pm

speaking of ridiculous, Virginia lost to STA 8-2 now that's ridiculous, STA nothing special

HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

STA vs. Virgina

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Strib Article on Virginia

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does this sound ridiculous to anyone else now?

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