Best Rochester Team

[hawkhockey]

Say what you want about recruiting and private schools but of the 4 schools they are the only ones fulfilling their dreams this year. Claim whoever you want to be the best rochester team but in the last 6 years i can tell you which team i would play for given the opportunity and that would be the eagles

I think this best supports the position that a school that draws from the pool of THREE other schools that are all in 1AA should also be playing in AA, not single A. Lourdes, the STA of southeast Minnesota. Its all about getting to St. Paul, continuing to draw a good percentage of the top end talent, and not about fair (beyond the letter of the law) competition.

They may be in the same area as those schools and draw from the same population, but the difference is no one is told "you go to lourdes" like they are with the public schools. Therefore i don't think you can rightfully say they should be in AA. To go to lourdes you must make a conscious decision to go there, unlike the other public schools in rochester so they dont necessarily draw students from 3 schools

[OU812]

West Fan Comment:

West is one of the few teams that played all four Roch schools this year, and Lourdes play last night was easily the best effort a Rochester team put up against West this year; West had five losses, all by one goal, up until last night, which was a 6-1 blowout.

(I'd add the obvious; West played a hell of a lot better against Mayo in the late regular season than they played last night). I'm guessing both JM and Century will be better next year. Mayo is going to miss G Hanson most of all next year, imho.


Lourdes also rolled out Funk and Samuelson for big minutes last night and they were as strong at the end as at the beginning, and at the level they are playing right now I'd expect them to make some noise in St. Paul. Hope so.

[goldy313]

Way to cherry pick stats....How about using Eau Claire Memorial? Oh forgot that didn't you? How about West lost to Owatonna and barely beat Faribault to end the regular season. One game is just a snapshot, nothing more. To be honest the West team that showed up in playoffs and the regular season wwasn't the same West team from earlier in the year, New Prague should have beat West at least by 3 on Saturday.

Comparing Lourdes to the public schools is apples and oranges since they don't actually play, using a run through 1A vs losing in 1AA is also silly. Lourdes played nobody in the section on par with either Lakeville school. Would Lourdes beat either Lakeville school? Maybe, maybe not they don't have to though so we'll never know. Lourdes has the top 2 players in Samuelson and Funk in Rochester but after that the Eagles aren't very deep.

All the teams in Rochester struggle to score against good teams, Mayo and Lourdes included. I hope Lourdes does well at State but they will have to significantly up their level of play because they're not in Kansas anymore. They'll be a 4 or 5 seed at best and worse case be unseeded.

Hawkhockey, you're right they don't draw from 3 schools, they draw from more

[goldy313]

West Fan Comment:

West is one of the few teams that played all four Roch schools this year, and Lourdes play last night was easily the best effort a Rochester team put up against West this year; West had five losses, all by one goal, up until last night, which was a 6-1 blowout.

(I'd add the obvious; West played a hell of a lot better against Mayo in the late regular season than they played last night). I'm guessing both JM and Century will be better next year. Mayo is going to miss G Hanson most of all next year, imho.


Lourdes also rolled out Funk and Samuelson for big minutes last night and they were as strong at the end as at the beginning, and at the level they are playing right now I'd expect them to make some noise in St. Paul. Hope so.

When did Goettl get hurt? He came out for the third limping pretty badly.

[HockeyRoch]

Way to cherry pick stats....How about using Eau Claire Memorial? Oh forgot that didn't you? How about West lost to Owatonna and barely beat Faribault to end the regular season. One game is just a snapshot, nothing more.

I'm not cherry picking. I'm picking a common opponent that both Mayo and Lourdes played that is within the last 3-4 weeks. I'm fine with talking about Eau Claire Memorial as well. Mayo barely beat them 4-3 OT and Lourdes barely lost 7-5 (open net goal). That could have gone either way pretty easily.

At least we can agree that at this point of the season, Lourdes is the best team in Rochester.

[The Talon]

omparing Lourdes to the public schools is apples and oranges since they don't actually play, using a run through 1A vs losing in 1AA is also silly. Lourdes played nobody in the section on par with either Lakeville school. Would Lourdes beat either Lakeville school? Maybe, maybe not they don't have to though so we'll never know. Lourdes has the top 2 players in Samuelson and Funk in Rochester but after that the Eagles aren't very deep.

For what it is worth, Lourdes pretty much handled LV North this summer 5-3 May not be worth much, but pretty save to say Lourdes could play with LV North also since they beat Prior Lake, who beat North.....

[SEMNHOCKEYFAN]

So with the talks/rumors of century possably moving down to Class A next year it kind of makes me curious and wonder if we could see an all Rochester Class A section final in the near future between Century and Lourdes kind of like what Duluth recently had with Denfield and Marshall....What do you guys think of that possabillity?

[goldy313]

Century opted up in boys and girls hockey for the next 2 years.

[grandmeadowhockeyfan]

Would love to know where a person can find the Sections realignment results. Where can a guy find those. Anxiously awaiting results. Always a big talker in my club level at the xcel.

[BadgerBob82]

Still no question that LHS is best Class A team in Rochester! AND, no question that Alex Funk is the best player to come out of Winona in many years. 4 G's 1 A in a 6-1 game? Man that kid can fly and put the puck in the net! The Red Wing goalie was shaky in game 2 but played much better vs. West!

As for common opponents. Even JM beat West! West faultered when Goetl got hurt down the stretch. He was not the same player at the end of the season.

Century remains too big to play Class A. They are asking for a coop with LHS, but LHS will never want to actually move up to Class AA, so that won't happen.

[mayohkyfan]

Fact of the matter is no one will ever know. Mayo was the best AA team in Rochester this year. Could Mayo have beaten Lourdes this year? Probably not. No one will ever know. In my opinion, no Rochester school will schedule a game against Lourdes due to the possibility of Lourdes beating them. Along with Lourdes bringing in kids from each school. Why would Lourdes want to face the Rochester schools anyway? scheduling three games against them possibly takes games away from Totino, St. Thomas, Duluth Marshall, breck etc. which will give them much more experience come the end of the season. As far as common opponents, I don't buy that. Teams whether your St. Thomas or Austin, have good games and awful games. (Clearly Austin has many more bad than good) Which is why High School hockey here is fun to watch. You just never know what the outcome will be.

[PeterDenton]

This just in! Badgerbob makes yet another excuse

Alex Funk's family has had residency in Rochester for 6 years now if you didnt know. BTW century, one of your beloved public schools, and only other Rochester program to make state in the last 10 years can thank winona for one of there two state tournament berths as well. There two best players in 04-05, Travis Peterson (top 5 in assists in AA that year) and Skippy Holland (who I believe led AA in goals that year) were winhawks as well. They got them to the tourney and of course then the Kangas show occurred where he made a D1 name for himself. Without those two century would not have even made the tourney in all likeliness didn't hear the Winona excuse then?

[SEpuck]

Although Holland and Peterson did move to Rochester, they were not THE reason Century made it to the state tournament. Wilcox was 2 points behind those two and they had the talented class with Little Wilcox, Frischmann, kneopke, grimstead, etc. And to say that Kangas didnt show up till the state tournament is lunacy. Ask goldy, he was known for a Century basher back then. He will tell you the same. Would they have made the tourny? who knows but without those two, no other team in that section was light years ahead of them.

It happens everywhere, kids move, live with their grandparents, friends, etc to try and further their development and hockey career. Its a little bit diff down here than it is in the cities where its more common

[hawkhockey]

The funk's have lived in rochester since 2008. I've been to their place. Funk was going to be an eagle before his freshman year and we all knew it. Taylor started playing in rochester since 2005 during bantams so its been even longer than that. SEpuck are you claiming funk is the reason lourdes won the section? If you aren't im misreading but if you are just look at samuelson and other guys from past years. If you're gonna include travis peterson in that list of winona transplants you might as well add cole peterson in there too as a winona product. anyway I believe that Lourdes still takes 1A even without funk with many of those players that have been around for awhile.

[urban iceman]

The funk's have lived in rochester since 2008. I've been to their place. Funk was going to be an eagle before his freshman year and we all knew it. Taylor started playing in rochester since 2005 during bantams so its been even longer than that. SEpuck are you claiming funk is the reason lourdes won the section? If you aren't im misreading but if you are just look at samuelson and other guys from past years. If you're gonna include travis peterson in that list of winona transplants you might as well add cole peterson in there too as a winona product. anyway I believe that Lourdes still takes 1A even without funk with many of those players that have been around for awhile.

LAST CALL!!

[SEpuck]

The funk's have lived in rochester since 2008. I've been to their place. Funk was going to be an eagle before his freshman year and we all knew it. Taylor started playing in rochester since 2005 during bantams so its been even longer than that. SEpuck are you claiming funk is the reason lourdes won the section? If you aren't im misreading but if you are just look at samuelson and other guys from past years. If you're gonna include travis peterson in that list of winona transplants you might as well add cole peterson in there too as a winona product. anyway I believe that Lourdes still takes 1A even without funk with many of those players that have been around for awhile.

Wasnt saying Funk was the reason they won this section at all. My post was about Century, had nothing to do with Lourdes. All 3 families relocated because Winona hockey was not going to get them the recognition they needed. So they came to Rochester. The older peterson and holland kid moved into the century district but could have also gone to Lourdes if they wanted. It just so happened Century was better at that time.

[Justshutup]

Some of you Rochester people are nuts, passionate about hockey yes, but spend way too much time debating worthless things about who's the best, who was the best, etc. Face it transfers are part of hockey life, everyone can make this debate, yea Peterson(s), Holland, Funk(s) transferred up from Winona, both Century and Lourdes benefited. Amundson transferred from JM, Samuelson, Bahnaman and Hexum transferred from Century, Owens moved to Rochester, all moves benefiting Lourdes, Owens moves away (another benefit?) it happens! Lourdes does pull people from the publics, can you blame the player / parents if they have the money and want what's become an automatic state berth? They also pull in from the satellite towns. Why don't you all just drop this and pull for your respective teams, if you're from Rochester why don't you pull for Rochester, stop the bickering, you look lame. I'm glad the cities isn't posting these debates, we'd look bleak too if we did. By the way Lakeville North is better than South...

[BadgerBob82]

Did somebody say Alex Funk isn't the reason LHS got out of Section 1A? 12 points in 3 games? And Samuelson has 1 Goal? My word. Alex Funk has proved to be a terrific HS player! Now, it is true that Section 1A is an easy road. But even St Peter-Henderson-LeSeuer-etc would have giving them all they'd have wanted without Funk. Had they won that game, their season would have come to a quick end. Period.

Please don't bring up the Funk family history. The family did not move to Rochester! Everyone knows his billet family. But you are correct, they haven't owned anything orange-black for over 5 years!

[PeterDenton]

Did somebody say Alex Funk isn't the reason LHS got out of Section 1A? 12 points in 3 games? And Samuelson has 1 Goal? My word. Alex Funk has proved to be a terrific HS player! Now, it is true that Section 1A is an easy road. But even St Peter-Henderson-LeSeuer-etc would have giving them all they'd have wanted without Funk. Had they won that game, their season would have come to a quick end. Period.

Please don't bring up the Funk family history. The family did not move to Rochester! Everyone knows his billet family. But you are correct, they haven't owned anything orange-black for over 5 years!

Bob, if you're going to provide insight on the "Funk family history" as you've called it, maybe you should have the facts straight before posting.
Dr. Funk owns a practice in Winona the family has a home there, they also purchased a town house in the summer of 2007 that they live in, in Rochester. I'm not going to state its exact location if you'd like to know so you can ceritfy this pm me?

Taylor played varsity his 8th grade year for Winona, then rochester bantam A his freshman year before enrolling at Lourdes his sophomore year. When he was a senior Alex was in 8th grade playing for Winona however we all knew he was going to end up at Lourdes since the family had already been living in Rochester with Taylor for two years prior. Lourdes proved to be a great fit for Taylor and provided a better overall oppurtunity (education and hockey) for Alex as well. Alex would've been ineligible had the family not had residency so I'm not really sure why you think they don't live there?

As for the "billet family" you speak of, they are simply very kind and generous people who have offered Alex a bed if for some odd reason Dr and Mrs Funk both get caught up in Winona (i.e. if shes helping him at the Dentistry or weather etc.) nothing more. The kid is still in high school so I'm guessing his parents would feel more comfortable if he had supervision. Heaven forbid family's have friends who are there to help in situations I mean thats just too crazy!

[BadgerBob82]

Pete, a simple you are correct sir would have been fine. I asked to NOT bring up the family history!

[PeterDenton]

Pete, a simple you are correct sir would have been fine. I asked to NOT bring up the family history!

Mr. Madison,
Just correcting some false statements of yours that is all.

[hawkhockey]

Did somebody say Alex Funk isn't the reason LHS got out of Section 1A? 12 points in 3 games? And Samuelson has 1 Goal? My word. Alex Funk has proved to be a terrific HS player! Now, it is true that Section 1A is an easy road. But even St Peter-Henderson-LeSeuer-etc would have giving them all they'd have wanted without Funk. Had they won that game, their season would have come to a quick end. Period.

Please don't bring up the Funk family history. The family did not move to Rochester! Everyone knows his billet family. But you are correct, they haven't owned anything orange-black for over 5 years!

What makes you say the family has not moved to Rochester? I will tell you right now, you are wrong.

[SEpuck]

Did somebody say Alex Funk isn't the reason LHS got out of Section 1A? 12 points in 3 games? And Samuelson has 1 Goal? My word. Alex Funk has proved to be a terrific HS player! Now, it is true that Section 1A is an easy road. But even St Peter-Henderson-LeSeuer-etc would have giving them all they'd have wanted without Funk. Had they won that game, their season would have come to a quick end. Period.

Please don't bring up the Funk family history. The family did not move to Rochester! Everyone knows his billet family. But you are correct, they haven't owned anything orange-black for over 5 years!

What makes you say the family has not moved to Rochester? I will tell you right now, you are wrong.

Who cares though really??

[goldy313]

wasn't it the older Funk that went from Winona to Lourdes to Holy Angels or was that a differnt kid?

At least now the Lourdes kids, for the most part, go there for their entire high school career, it was strange when they'd have kids who were at Century, JM, and Mayo their freshman year while they were playing bantams then go to Lourdes their sophomore year because their families suddenly found Catholicism, because you couldn't transfer purely for athletic reasons.

[SEpuck]

wasn't it the older Funk that went from Winona to Lourdes to Holy Angels or was that a differnt kid?

At least now the Lourdes kids, for the most part, go there for their entire high school career, it was strange when they'd have kids who were at Century, JM, and Mayo their freshman year while they were playing bantams then go to Lourdes their sophomore year because their families suddenly found Catholicism, because you couldn't transfer purely for athletic reasons.

I believe the player you are talking about is Kevin Huck