2011 State Tournament - Pick the Winners Challenge

[MNHockeyFan]

Final score tonight:

Eveleth-Gilbert 5, Red Wing 2

A very entertaining game until the end, when Eveleth-Gilbert put it out of reach. Too bad for me they got that last one, as I had the score at 4-2! Nobody had Eveleth-Gilbert scoring more than 4 goals - no bonus points awarded tonight.

The three leaders from earlier all had Eveleth-Gilbert and therefore maintain their position, for now. Seven others thought Red Wing would win and they lose a little ground.

1. MNHockeyFan - 14
KRACH (ghshockeyfan) - 14
SuperStar - 14
4. rink101 - 12
hockeychamp01 - 12
Silent But Deadly - 12
TeamFirst - 12
sinbin - 12
hockeyfan87 - 12
OntheEdge - 12
Hansonbrother - 12
mnhock10 - 12
hockey_rocker - 12
14 - 20. Seven with 9

Looking forward to some great AA action tomorrow!

[MNHockeyFan]

We're back! Standings update to be posted right after tonight's final game (and it's a real good one).

[MNHockeyFan]

Some excellent AA action today! If you watched all of the games today you have had to be impressed with the quality of play; all of the teams played very well IMO and it was great fun to watch.

Since the web site was down for much of the day I won’t go into a lot of detail in terms of how we got to where we’re at, other than to say the standings are very close.

Speaking for myself only - since somehow (of all miracles) I’m ahead (barely) at this juncture - I totally missed Hill-Murray’s big win over Lakeville South. But I did manage to predict Minnetonka’s 3-0 win (exact score) over Elk River/Zimmerman. I fully realize that there is a huge amount of luck in all of this, but as long as I am ahead (temporarily at least) I will post the standings as of the end of Thursday evening:

1. MNHockeyFan – 25 (for now)
2. rink101 – 24
2. hockeychamp01 – 24
2. Silent But Deadly – 24
2. Sinbin – 24
2. Hansonbrother – 24
2. mnhock10 -24
2. hockey_rocker – 24
9. homer – 23
9. KRACH (ghshockeyfan) – 23
9. SuperStar – 23
12. TeamFirst - 21
12. hockeyfan87 -21
12.OntheEdge -21
12. joehockey - 21
12. Nordic - 21
17. Sparlimb - 20
18- 20. Three tied at 18

[MNHockeyFan]

South St. Paul beats Breck in a real thriller, 1-0. Both goalies were exceptional, turning aside numerous great chances.

As for our contest, well I knew my being in 1st Place wouldn't last! Like 14 others I had Breck winning this one! This one definitely could have gone either way, but give credit to SSP who converted on their lone power play opportunity in the 3rd period.

The five contestants who predicted the SSP win get a big 5 point boost which gives our standings a whole new look:

1. hockey_rocker – 29

2. KRACH (ghshockeyfan) – 28

3. TeamFirst – 26
hockeyfan87 – 26
Nordic – 26

6. MNHockeyFan – 25

7. Rink101 – 24
hockeychamp01 – 24
Silent But Deadly – 24
sinbin – 24
Hansonbrother – 24
mnhock10 – 24

13. Homer – 23
SuperStar – 23

15. OntheEdge – 21
joehockey – 21

17. Sparlimb – 20

18-20. Three with 18

In today's 2nd Class A semifinal everybody predicted Warroad to win, which of course means that nobody will gain or lose ground on the field. Next update will be posted later on tonight.

[MNHockeyFan]

A pretty astute group where 16 of 20 thought the AA Championship would come down to Minnetonka vs. Edina, which is exactly how the AA tournament has played out. And 16 of 20 also predicted that Class A favorite Warroad would win that championship, which for sure is a distinct possibility. However in the A tourney, only 5 out of 20 thought Warroad would have to beat South St. Paul to claim it. Everybody else - 15 to be exact - thought Warroad would be playing Breck on Saturday...

In any case, with the favorites winning most everybody did well in tonight's games. Here are our standings going into tomorrow's Class A and AA finals, each of which is worth a critical 10 points. But since nobody predicted the Class A Champion would be South St. Paul our contest will definitely be decided on who ends up winning the AA Championship. 13 predicted it will be Minnetonka and 4 of us thought it just might be Edina. It should be one heckuva great game!

1. hockey_rocker – 44

2. KRACH (ghshockeyfan) – 43

3. TeamFirst – 41
hockeyfan87 – 41

5. MNHockeyFan – 40

6. rink101 – 39
hockeychamp01 – 39
Silent But Deadly – 39
sinbin – 39
Hansonbrother – 39
mnhock10 – 39

12. Homer – 38
SuperStar – 38

14. OntheEdge – 36
Nordic - 36

16. Sparlimb – 35

17. One with 33
18. One with 31
19-20. Two with 28

[MNHockeyFan]

It was great to see such a classic and evenly contested AA Championship game to put a cap in this year's Minnesota Girls Hockey State Tournament. Congratulations to Minnetonka on a tremendous season!

It would have been fun to win this year's final prognosticator contest, and as the point leader amongst the 4 of us who thought Edina could pull the upset I had a great shot! But it was not meant to be as Minnetonka pulled through for the victory, but so close...

With Warroad's Class A win (which the group here almost unanimously expected) we have a new Prognosticator Champion to end the season: a big congratulations goes out to hockey_rocker! Amazingly, hockey_rocker picked the winners in all seven Class A games and all seven Class AA games! This allowed hockey_rocker to come in first with 64 points, without the benefit of any correct scores in the eight quarterfinal games. Really, a job well done!

Finishing just one point behind was KRACH which longtime forum contributer ghshockeyfan submitted (plus he so graciously updated the KRACH rankings all season - thanks again!). This entry missed just one of fourteen games, which was Hill-Murray's one goal win over seeded Lakeville South. Putting KRACH/ghshockeyfan just a single point behind instead of three was the perfect score predicted in Warroad's opening 7-0 win over Alexandria. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I'm kind of glad that a computer did not win this...

Here is the final leaderboard with point totals, and thanks to everyone who participated:

1. hockey_rocker - 64!

2. KRACH (ghshockeyfan) - 63

3. TeamFirst - 61
hockeyfan87 - 61

5. rink101 - 59
hockeychamp01 - 59
Silent But Deadly - 59
sinbin - 59
Hansonbrother - 59

10. Homer - 58

11. Sparlimb - 55

12. MNHockeyFan - 50 (ugh, still thinking about that last game...a 20 point swing!)

13. One with 48

14. One with 46

15. One with 43

16. One with 41

17. One with 39

18-19. Two with 38

20. One with 36

[ghshockeyfan]

A special thanks to MNHockeyFan for putting this together all year and creating a positive environment on the board.

Congrats to hockey_rocker for taking down the mighty KRACH computer algorithm! Really, hockey_rocker beat KRACH by 3 pts as I got lucky and picked a score on behalf of "KRACH." So, the margin of victory was a little larger than the 64-63 final appears.

KRACH did suffer a little bit this year from the u18 players being out and any games that might have ended up differently while they were out had they instead been present. We'll never know the answer to that question (their impact), but I'd guess they would have had an impact. KRACH suffers when it doesn't understand injury/illness/missing players/etc. as it only looks at W/L.

FYI for anyone who cares - here are the final "KRACH" rankings thru end-of-state:

Updated 02/27:

FINAL

Most Recent Ranking Links:
==========================================
OVERALL:
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_OA.htm
CLASS AA:
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_AA.htm
CLASS A:
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_A.htm
SECTION:
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_SEC.htm
SOS (Strength-Of-Schedule):
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_SOS.htm
==========================================

Past rankings are at:
http://www.ushsho.com/forums/viewtopic. ... sc&start=0

[hockey_rocker]

A special thanks to MNHockeyFan for putting this together all year and creating a positive environment on the board.

Congrats to hockey_rocker for taking down the mighty KRACH computer algorithm! Really, hockey_rocker beat KRACH by 3 pts as I got lucky and picked a score on behalf of "KRACH." So, the margin of victory was a little larger than the 64-63 final appears.

KRACH did suffer a little bit this year from the u18 players being out and any games that might have ended up differently while they were out had they instead been present. We'll never know the answer to that question (their impact), but I'd guess they would have had an impact. KRACH suffers when it doesn't understand injury/illness/missing players/etc. as it only looks at W/L.




FYI for anyone who cares - here are the final "KRACH" rankings thru end-of-state:

Updated 02/27:

FINAL

Most Recent Ranking Links:
==========================================
OVERALL:
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_OA.htm
CLASS AA:
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_AA.htm
CLASS A:
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_A.htm
SECTION:
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_SEC.htm
SOS (Strength-Of-Schedule):
http://www.bgoski.com/KRACH_SOS.htm
==========================================

Past rankings are at:
http://www.ushsho.com/forums/viewtopic. ... sc&start=0

Thanks GHSHOCKEYFAN!! I knew my Packers would grind out Breck. I was born and raised in SSP but live in WBL now. Even managed to get the Championship score right! I was amazed!! To bad SSP couldn't hold on. Katie Felton had an amazing tournament. I was privalaged to attend every game of both tournaments. This was fun! Thanks mnhockeyfan for putting the time into this.

[sinbin]

SSP over Breck was the difference-maker. Nice job by all who called this one. Thanks for organizing, MNHockeyFan.