Class A QF: St. Cloud Apollo vs. #1 St. Thomas Academy

Post by **karl(east)** » Sat Mar 02, 2013 5:04 pm

ST. CLOUD APOLLO VS. #1 ST. THOMAS ACADEMY
6:00 Wednesday
-Apollo will face an uphill battle in this game, as St. Thomas has outscored its first-round opponents 20-2 in the past two Tournaments. It does not appear that these two teams have ever met before.

St. Cloud Apollo (18-10, unranked, 2-seed in 6A)
State appearances: 2 (first since 1984 one-class tournament)
Key section win: 6-3 over #12 Little Falls
-The Eagles are a surprise entrant to this year’s tournament, and knocked off Tourney regular Little Falls to earn a berth. They were carried all year by the top line of Jared Christen (10), Paul Kenney (22), and Jason Omann (13), which put up some gaudy numbers, albeit against fairly weak competition. Freshman goaltender Nick Althaus (31) is likely to face at least 40 shots against St. Thomas. As with Marshall, simply keeping this game somewhat close would be an accomplishment.

St. Thomas Academy (24-2-2, #1, 1-seed in 4A)
State appearances: 8 (3 in a row)
Championships: 4 (2006, 2008, 2011, 2012)
Key section win: 3-0 over #4 Totino-Grace
-The Cadets are heavy favorites to win a third consecutive Class A title before making the jump up to Class AA next season. Sophomore Tom Novak (15) is among the state’s finest talents, while Christiano Versich (20) and Alex Johnson (19) round out the top line; their lower lines can pack a punch as well. Jack Dougherty (2) and Tony Bretzman (6) headlines a deep defensive corps in front of veteran goaltender David Zevnik (30). Dominant as they are, the Cadets are not invincible; the offensive output has not been overpowering this season, and if they expect to coast to a title or play selfishly, they could find themselves in a battle. With a win, they will be the first Class A team to win three straight titles, and their 5 trophies would move them out of a tie with Breck and Warroad for the most in the small-school Tourney.

GordonBombay99 · Post by **GordonBombay99** » Sun Mar 03, 2013 4:22 pm

Good luck to Apollo, those boys earned this opportunity and should embrace getting to face probably the top team in the state. Its all about the experience of getting to play in the state tournament, embrace the underdog role Eagles!

Mite-dad · Post by **Mite-dad** » Sun Mar 03, 2013 7:22 pm

Congrats to Apollo. Not only did they take down Little Falls, they did just like Little Falls in drawing the #1 seed almost every time they went. Good luck Eagles, I hope you pull the giant upset!

EliteHockeyMind · Post by **EliteHockeyMind** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 2:14 pm

This is going to be a slaughter. STA has been here before and will walk all over Apollo. I just don't see Apollo having any bit of a shot to even keep it within 5 goals. STA is way to deep, too experienced even as a young team, and a goalie with back to back championships.

STA 9-0 1st round.
STA 6-2 2nd round over EGF.
STA 4-2 Championship over Breck.

STA will go for the 3 peat, feel good about beating Breck, a very good top 10-15 team in the state. They will finally move up and not get chirped for being in the JV tournament anymore. They will just go back to being chirped for being a private recruiting all boys academy.

deacon · Post by **deacon** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 3:30 pm

The haters are already furious.

fivehole628 · Post by **fivehole628** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 6:43 pm

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES!?

DKS1962 · Post by **DKS1962** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 11:59 pm

Metro all star team against a public school that loses kids to SCC.

What do you expect.

Go Apollo!!!!

elliott70 · Post by **elliott70** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:23 am

deacon wrote:The haters are already furious.

No one is 'hating' STA here.

They are rooting for the underdog.

EliteHockeyMind · Post by **EliteHockeyMind** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:17 am

deacon wrote:The haters are already furious.

I'm not hating either, just making a point that the ignorant STA haters will go back to trash talking STA for the same old things they have been for the last 100 years before they were dominating Class 1A hockey.

Haters gon' hate.

BobSaget · Post by **BobSaget** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:48 am

DKS1962 wrote:Metro all star team against a public school that loses kids to SCC.

What do you expect.

Go Apollo!!!!

Heck, here in Saint Cloud even we northsiders that were "lost to SCC" are rooting for the Eagles.

I'm happy for Peter and the boys. This was once an extremely proud AA program that was spitting out Division 1 players regularly. Saint Cloud has seen its' affluence travel to the south side of town which obviously has had a negative affect on Apollo's hockey program. Regardless of the outcome, it's pretty cool to watch this group make it. They are a very hardworking and well-coached team that has earned their way to the tournament.

Good luck to Peter and the Eagles.

elliott70 · Post by **elliott70** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:54 am

EliteHockeyMind wrote:
deacon wrote:The haters are already furious.
I'm not hating either, just making a point that the ignorant STA haters will go back to trash talking STA for the same old things they have been for the last 100 years before they were dominating Class 1A hockey.

Haters gon' hate.

No, you were not hating, just being realistic.

Everyone believes this will be a one-sided game, but some are hoping that the SCA boys can give them a game.
Cinderella Story.

GordonBombay99 · Post by **GordonBombay99** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:16 am

Apollo is deeper and more talented than people give them credit for, they have some guys who can put the puck in the net and nearly everyone on the roster has played varsity hockey in some form since their freshmen year. Also goalie Nick Althaus played JV as a 8th grader and has improver leaps and bounds since then, this game has the potential to be closer than people are giving it credit for.

Gotta find a way to slow STA down and get one past the brick wall they call David Zevnick.

elliott70 · Post by **elliott70** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:20 am

GordonBombay99 wrote:Apollo is deeper and more talented than people give them credit for, they have some guys who can put the puck in the net and nearly everyone on the roster has played varsity hockey in some form since their freshmen year. Also goalie Nick Althaus played JV as a 8th grader and has improver leaps and bounds since then, this game has the potential to be closer than people are giving it credit for.

Gotta find a way to slow STA down and get one past the brick wall they call David Zevnick.

A lot of us hope it is an exciting game and would like to see the upset.
Not many of us believe it will happen.

GordonBombay99 · Post by **GordonBombay99** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:26 pm

elliott70 wrote:
GordonBombay99 wrote:Apollo is deeper and more talented than people give them credit for, they have some guys who can put the puck in the net and nearly everyone on the roster has played varsity hockey in some form since their freshmen year. Also goalie Nick Althaus played JV as a 8th grader and has improver leaps and bounds since then, this game has the potential to be closer than people are giving it credit for.

Gotta find a way to slow STA down and get one past the brick wall they call David Zevnick.

A lot of us hope it is an exciting game and would like to see the upset.
Not many of us believe it will happen.

Theres no doubt STA is a deeper and more talented team in every area of the game, I do think Apollo is going to play this game as if they have nothing to lose because thats the only way to view it, I think they make the game alot closer that most people expect. Thats why they play the games on the ice and not paper.

Sats81 · Post by **Sats81** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:28 pm

Cadets 8-1

Green&Black · Post by **Green&Black** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:16 pm

would love to see Apollo pull off the upset, but just can't see it happening. STA wins by 5

Post by **karl(east)** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:45 pm

Apollo isn't a bad team, so if that top line can pop one or two early, this game could be interesting for a little bit longer than everyone might expect. Unfortunately, they got the unlucky draw, and I have to go with:

Probably in running time.

thestickler07 · Post by **thestickler07** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:02 pm

Catholics: 6
Greeks: 0

grandmeadowhockeyfan · Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:03 pm

STA will call off the dogs after two and win by seven. B

elliott70 · Post by **elliott70** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:25 am

Go Apollo!

Post by **east hockey** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:49 am

elliott70 wrote:Go Apollo!

+1

Lee

dherman8 · Post by **dherman8** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:49 am

I can't wait until next year when we have a better chance of seeing less lopsided games in the first round of class A than we have in so many years. I think these predictions for Apollo/STA are off. I don't want to rip Apollo because I believe they were playing the best of any team in 6A this last month. With that said, STA beat Little Falls 7 to 0 in the quarterfinals last year and Apollo is no better than last years LF team while 2013 STA is quite superior to their 2012 version. Also, Apollo gave up over 30 shots to an average at best LF offense in the section championship while only getting under 20 shots total themselves. And if that isn't enough they have a freshman goalie. I wouldn't be surprised to see STA have 50+ shots even with calling off the dogs in the first period. I hope I'm wrong, but I also see no way Apollo gives up less than 10 goals and scores more than 1, if that even.

EliteHockeyMind · Post by **EliteHockeyMind** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:20 am

dherman8 wrote:I can't wait until next year when we have a better chance of seeing less lopsided games in the first round of class A than we have in so many years. I think these predictions for Apollo/STA are off. I don't want to rip Apollo because I believe they were playing the best of any team in 6A this last month. With that said, STA beat Little Falls 7 to 0 in the quarterfinals last year and Apollo is no better than last years LF team while 2013 STA is quite superior to their 2012 version. Also, Apollo gave up over 30 shots to an average at best LF offense in the section championship while only getting under 20 shots total themselves. And if that isn't enough they have a freshman goalie. I wouldn't be surprised to see STA have 50+ shots even with calling off the dogs in the first period. I hope I'm wrong, but I also see no way Apollo gives up less than 10 goals and scores more than 1, if that even.

Right on the money here. I agree, IF Apollo can pop one or two in early on and keep it close, they will build on that throughout the game. But let's not forget STA is one of, if not the best team defensively in the state. STA might not bury them with goals, but they will not give many goals either. I can only see STA and Zevnick giving up 1 goal, maybe 2 at max.

Mite-dad · Post by **Mite-dad** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:56 am

I hope Apollo pulls a "miracle on ice" type upset, but lets not forget STA is one of the best high school hockey teams in the United States. I don't honestly think it will be very close. But I can hope.

Post by **karl(east)** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:21 pm

STA student section with a "this one's over" chant in the first ten seconds of the game...

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Class A QF: St. Cloud Apollo vs. #1 St. Thomas Academy