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Couldnt have said that better myself. Nice review goldy.

I don't know how you can say Lourdes has a weak schedule they play Breck, Blake, Totino, st. thomas, little falls, st.cloud cath. and new prague, red wing seems to me there schedule gets tougher every year! Plus they go up to play roseu, warroad, egf and i for got how else they play up there for there games at the beginning of the year! Goldy know the facts! I don't know how an inflated schedule gets you a 21-4-1 record against most of those teams! You must be a Century guy or Mayo!

Goldy and Jackstraw, nice reviews and here are some addititional things that I know regarding the West schedule. They will not play Windom and Waseca next year and of the top contenders in 1A the only team that they do not currently have scheduled is Red Wing who I have heard they were trying to schedule. They will play NP, Lourdes, Far (2) AL (2) plus the regular Big 9 schedule. They are heading back to the Fergus Falls Holiday tournament also.
I'm guessing come Section time there will be enough head to head comparisons to properly seed the Section

Goldy's comment about Amundson is totally inappropriate for this forum. Amundson is a very talented player and to bash him on this forum is immature. He had an serious injury that kept him out of most of his senior year and he would have contributed to the team had he been healthy. Amundson would have contributed in a big way to that first line they had.

I don't think Lourdes had any more headcases than any other team this year and in fact I'm not aware of any issues with any players. Goldy, what challenges did the Lourdes coach have this year with that group of players? Really, what are they? Who did you hear that from?

I don't care what team you support; don't bash an individual kid here. Show some class.

alright i know that lourdes has one pretty good line right? well waht do they have for defensemen and 2nd 3rd and 4th lines?

i personally think that Lourdes' top line will be the top line in all of section 1A. all of them being juniors

Basically the way I see it is that 7 teams from section 1 can beat the best team in section 3 next year. WOW thank you MSHSL!!!

You are absolutley right Slapnasty. That at least 7 teams from Section 1A will be able to beat the best team in Section 3. We however already know who will be playing or beating Section 3 and that is going to be Albert Lea and that is a guarantee.

well i agree with you but they should change that as soon as they can it is just a waste of a spot at state they will go 2 and out every year but anyone know how willmar is maybe they will be DECENT but i doubt it.

Has this turned into a bash sec 3 site? You 1a used to get bashed and now that the sections have changed it is fun to bash another section? The state came up with the sections and we have to live with it so shut up about it. West was going to kill everone in 1a last year to. What happened?

West? Umm ya not gonna happen...i didnt see much in that team, they only had 3 forwards, no defense, they lacked a lot of discipline, and have 2 of the most inconsistant goalies in the section. Wests year?.....not last year or this year.

This is suddenly and interesting and deep section.

AL, Lourdes, Red Wing, Northfield, New Prague, Faribault, and West are all good to great teams. (not necessarily in that order)

It will be interesting to see who takes it....they will be battle tested by the time state rolls around so whoever it is could make some noise.

slapnasty wrote:West? Umm ya not gonna happen...i didnt see much in that team, they only had 3 forwards, no defense, they lacked a lot of discipline, and have 2 of the most inconsistant goalies in the section. Wests year?.....not last year or this year.

Slapnasty, we'll see, alot can happen over the summer.

Lets just all agree that this section is a toss up the top 4-7 teams can beat each othere anytime on any given night which will make next year fun so we will jus t wait and see what happens all this arguing is meaningless untill next year when we are able to scout teams by the games they actually play, not by looking at how good they did 06-07 but how they will do 07-08.

Changing topics a bit....

anyone know where the semifinals and finals will be held?

Will they be a the Rec Center in Rochester?

I have heard that is where they will be. I think it is the best place to hold such an event that is somewhat neutral for the teams now.

Only other place I can think of, and maybe a little more neutral, would be Owatonna's rink.

hockeydad wrote:Only other place I can think of, and maybe a little more neutral, would be Owatonna's rink.

Yes, but I am not sure that place will hold even half of the Rec Center capacity? I am not exactly sure what the capacity for each is but I would guess Owatonna is around 1500 and the Rec Center is around 3,000.

southernmnscout wrote:

hockeydad wrote:Only other place I can think of, and maybe a little more neutral, would be Owatonna's rink.

Yes, but I am not sure that place will hold even half of the Rec Center capacity? I am not exactly sure what the capacity for each is but I would guess Owatonna is around 1500 and the Rec Center is around 3,000.

Owatonna is Approx. 1500 and Rec Center is 2508. Gustavus is also 1500 and seemed to be a good fit for the old 1A as far as size goes.

Mankato Civic Center seemed to be too large as for atmosphere.

I think Owatonna is the best you could do for central location.

Rec Center's players benches are TERRIBLE. But, is this about the players or spectators?

Is there a new coach in New Prague?

Not yet...

They MSHSL hasn't assigned anyone to administative sections as of yet and there is some talk of the MSHSL taking over section finals, not for financial reasons but for consistancy reasons (some sections used 3 officals for basketball, some 2. Also assigning of officials would be more streamlined) The administrative section committee decides where section tournamnets will be played, odds are hockey section 1A will be assigned to administartive section 1AA as 6 of the 12 teams are in that section, 3 others are in 1A. The 1AA tournamnet is run by Red Wing and plays at the Rec Center because it's cheap, has the best seating, it can handle 2500+ people, and is a very nice facility. In the past 1A played at the Rec Center and split the gate with 1AA, which was a good deal for the 1A teams. If they do a similar situation as they did years ago you can count on 2500 a session at a minimum for the semi-finals, which is a very good gate. Rochester is also the most centrally located venue and is a neutral site for all 1A teams.

Not to make it all about money but when the section committee is cutting out $2000 checks to it's member schools at the end of a tournament something is working right. 6000 fans @ $6 a head = $36,000 minus $2000 for building rental and officials and that's a nice profit for 2 semi-final sessions and a final session. There are sections that don't make any money.

The Rec Center seats 2508 but there is also standing room, though when Century and Austin played in the section championship a few years ago they counted 3200 and quit counting due to the Fire Marshall, but they didn't exactly lock the doors after that either.

I think it is official now that they gave the job to Troy Ward.

Goldy - Do you think they would play all four semi-final games in one day?

That would be great.

Imagine

Red Wing vs. Northfield
Lourdes vs. Albert Lea
Mayo vs. Lakeville South
Century vs. Lakeville North

(or something to that effect)

All in one day...what a great day the Rec Center!

They used to, 12 & 2 and 6 & 8. A followed by AA at each session. A long day of hockey but a good one. The last year I remember was 1999 when West and Lourdes played a 2-1 thriller followed by Albert Lea getting absolutley screwed by Wallace and one of the Ethan brothers at the end of their loss to JM. Ethan even threw out at least one of the guys at the scorers table during that fiasco. If I remember right AL was a man down real late in the game and was still putting on pressure when he blew an offsides call, where the puck never came out of the zone. The AL kid in the box says something to Ethan and Ethan comes over to chew out the kid, in doing so he asks someone at the scorers table to back him up and the guy says the ref blew the call, Ethan goes bananas and throws out the timekeeper. The game was stopped while Ethan and the scorers table jawed at each other, and this was JM's home rink mind you.