7AA Final - #1 Grand Rapids vs. #2 Rock Ridge

[ryguyMN]

Thurs, 7 pm, Amsoil Arena, Duluth
Stream: WDIO-TV https://www.wdio.com/section-7a-7aa-boys-hockey/

Semifinal results:
Grand Rapids 5, Forest Lake 0
Rock Ridge 5, Duluth East 4 (2 OT)

[ryguyMN]

I like Rapids game down the home stretch, so I'll take them. I'm not as well versed on 218 hockey as others on here, so not much to add.

[ryguyMN]

My apologies, Lee. Didn't realize you had set up a poll in another thread.

[east hockey]

My apologies, Lee. Didn't realize you had set up a poll in another thread.

No problem. I'm not the one ordered by me to do 50 push ups!

Lee

[north_bear]

Should be a fun one! In late January Rock Ridge edged GR 4-3 in Virginia. I would say GR is peaking right now but will it be enough? Rock ridge has some higher end players.

I'll take GR 4-3 this go around.

[grindiangrad-80]

I’m going Rapids. I really like how they’ve looked the last 6 weeks. Early on this year they were pretty inconsistent finding the back of the net. They have shown they can score as the season wound down. They also played 4 goaltenders a lot this year. All of them were solid when they got the chance. I like where they are at right now.

I’ll be surprised if it’s not a 1 goal or EN or OT kind of game.

[grindiangrad-80]

Winner of this game likely gets a Thursday game with either Moorhead, Minnetonka ( Chanhassen has a say yet), or possibly Edina.

Whoever wins tonight will need to play even better next week.

I’ll be following as close as possible tonight while waiting for my first grandson to be born. He could show up before the final whistle.

[Teak]

Rock Ridge better in first period, 1-0 lead. But in 2nd, back to back penalties gave Rapids a 5-on-3 and they scored 2. Now 2-1 for GR.

[Teak]

Now 3-1 for GR with 10 minutes left.

[north_bear]

Winner of this game likely gets a Thursday game with either Moorhead, Minnetonka ( Chanhassen has a say yet), or possibly Edina.

Whoever wins tonight will need to play even better next week.

I’ll be following as close as possible tonight while waiting for my first grandson to be born. He could show up before the final whistle.

Awesome congrats to you and your family!

[Teak]

GR 4-1 with an empty netter, start the bus.

[east hockey]

Went to the game, meeting up with Karl and a couple of his friends. Was fun. As with Saturday, Rapids started slow but took over in the 2nd. Rock Ridge looked a bit gassed late in the game. The better team won tonight but could be fodder for someone on Thursday.

Lee

[grindiangrad-80]

Winner of this game likely gets a Thursday game with either Moorhead, Minnetonka ( Chanhassen has a say yet), or possibly Edina.

Whoever wins tonight will need to play even better next week.

I’ll be following as close as possible tonight while waiting for my first grandson to be born. He could show up before the final whistle.

Awesome congrats to you and your family!

Thank you sir. He was born at 7:22.

Not a bad day.

[grindiangrad-80]

Went to the game, meeting up with Karl and a couple of his friends. Was fun. As with Saturday, Rapids started slow but took over in the 2nd. Rock Ridge looked a bit gassed late in the game. The better team won tonight but could be fodder for someone on Thursday.

Lee

I agree they could be fodder. Tonka and Moorhead are really good.

This will be GR’s 18th trip to state and are 14-3 on Thursday.
Their 3 losses on Thursday since 1972 are 6-4 in 1979, and 4-3 in OT in 1981 and 4-3 in OT in 1988.

Again, they might get smoked. But I bet your computer doesn’t kick out a better winning percentage than that with at least 17 appearances. Even if they are fodder.

[elliott70]

Went to the game, meeting up with Karl and a couple of his friends. Was fun. As with Saturday, Rapids started slow but took over in the 2nd. Rock Ridge looked a bit gassed late in the game. The better team won tonight but could be fodder for someone on Thursday.

Lee

I agree they could be fodder. Tonka and Moorhead are really good.

This will be GR’s 18th trip to state and are 14-3 on Thursday.
Their 3 losses on Thursday since 1972 are 6-4 in 1979, and 4-3 in OT in 1981 and 4-3 in OT in 1988.

Again, they might get smoked. But I bet your computer doesn’t kick out a better winning percentage than that with at least 17 appearances. Even if they are fodder.

I believe Int'l. Falls has made 18 trips and is 15 and 3 on Thursday.

[east hockey]

Went to the game, meeting up with Karl and a couple of his friends. Was fun. As with Saturday, Rapids started slow but took over in the 2nd. Rock Ridge looked a bit gassed late in the game. The better team won tonight but could be fodder for someone on Thursday.

Lee

I agree they could be fodder. Tonka and Moorhead are really good.

This will be GR’s 18th trip to state and are 14-3 on Thursday.
Their 3 losses on Thursday since 1972 are 6-4 in 1979, and 4-3 in OT in 1981 and 4-3 in OT in 1988.

Again, they might get smoked. But I bet your computer doesn’t kick out a better winning percentage than that with at least 17 appearances. Even if they are fodder.

I believe Int'l. Falls has made 18 trips and is 15 and 3 on Thursday.

15-4

https://leepagen.com/zzinternationalfalls-2.htm

Lee

[SEC Scotty]

Grand Rapids fans are a lot of fun! Lots of good memories from 2017 at the X.

[elliott70]

Grand Rapids fans are a lot of fun! Lots of good memories from 2017 at the X.

They were a lot more fun when the cheerleaders wore the "native American" outfits.
I will probably get in trouble for bringing this up, but it's the truth.

[karl(east)]

After Wednesday night I was prepared for a bit of a letdown, and this was indeed not one of the more memorable 7AA finals in history. Rapids did what it needed to do, especially on the PP, and Rock Ridge never really mounted much sustained offense that suggested they could make it interesting after they fell behind. At any rate, it was still fun to see two teams with deep hockey roots collide at Amsoil, and catch a game with Lee for the first time in a bit.

Funny that, for all the hype around parity, 7AA wound up going chalk. The distinctions were narrow, but in the end I think things did fall as one would expect, looking at overall talent and experience. Rapids took a half step ahead of the rest around midseason and took care of business. State will be a different animal, especially if they're playing Edina (or Tonka or Moorhead) in the first round, but I admire what coach Clafton has built here since taking over and know he'll have a plan, so I wouldn't count them completely out.

[CrimsonCakeEater]

Went to the game, meeting up with Karl and a couple of his friends. Was fun. As with Saturday, Rapids started slow but took over in the 2nd. Rock Ridge looked a bit gassed late in the game. The better team won tonight but could be fodder for someone on Thursday.

Lee

I agree they could be fodder. Tonka and Moorhead are really good.

This will be GR’s 18th trip to state and are 14-3 on Thursday.
Their 3 losses on Thursday since 1972 are 6-4 in 1979, and 4-3 in OT in 1981 and 4-3 in OT in 1988.

Again, they might get smoked. But I bet your computer doesn’t kick out a better winning percentage than that with at least 17 appearances. Even if they are fodder.

Eveleth is 13–2. 12–2 if you exclude the Tier II year and 11–2 if you exclude Class A too. Not quite 17 appearances, but close enough. Warroad is 21–4, but Class A obviously quite different.

[grindiangrad-80]

I like that the up north teams are all in the running here.