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If I'm reading the brackets correctly the 4 southern teams in the bracket would play the 8:00 game on Saturday at Amsoil in the semi's.

Nice to see GR actually out shoot someone this year.

But, the most interesting thing to me was Cambridge-Isanti's roster. According to the program, C-I brought 20 players of which 11 were 9th graders. What is up with that? Did they have a mass exodus with a coaching change? Are the coaches driving players out? Did Hermantown recruit the best upperclassmen to open enroll? C-I has a really promising young group of players? Does anyone have any insights?

I think their coach sid numbers were down, but are looking better for their youth. If their freshmen stay the next 3 years and put in the work then they could be competitive. Would be a nice change. It is boring when Cambridge and St. Francis aren’t competitive. Been way too long for those teams in the basement.

RE: Cambridge-Isanti. The good news is we are young... the bad news is we are 4-22...

Tourney prediction:

Duluth East 6
Grand Rapids 1

Andover 12
St. Francis 0

Elk River 4
Forest Lake 3

Duluth Marshall 6
Cloquet 5

Semis
Duluth East 3
Duluth Marshall 4

Elk River 3
Andover 1

Championship
Elk River 4
Duluth Marshall 5 in 2OT

Just a note for next season, Minnetonka will return to Grand Rapids schedule. I assume Rapids will drop 1 of their 2 vs Hermantown to make room for that.

TheHockeyDJ wrote:Just a note for next season, Minnetonka will return to Grand Rapids schedule next season. I assume Rapids will drop 1 of their 2 vs Hermantown to make room for that.

It would make more sense to drop a weaker Class A team than Hermantown: Warroad, Virginia, or Greenway. They should drop all of them and add St. Francis to ensure being seeded above them.

Traxler wrote:

TheHockeyDJ wrote:Just a note for next season, Minnetonka will return to Grand Rapids schedule next season. I assume Rapids will drop 1 of their 2 vs Hermantown to make room for that.

It would make more sense to drop a weaker Class A team than Hermantown: Warroad, Virginia, or Greenway. They should drop all of them and add St. Francis to ensure being seeded above them.

I agree, I was just going with what was said on the radio. With how far away Roseau and Warroad are I would like to see Rapids drop both of them, just go to the Twin Cities instead. Drop Virginia too. With those vacancies, add Lakeville North back, St. Francis, St. Thomas, and Centennial.

TheHockeyDJ wrote:Tourney prediction:

Duluth East 6
Grand Rapids 1

Andover 12
St. Francis 0

Elk River 4
Forest Lake 3

Duluth Marshall 6
Cloquet 5

Semis
Duluth East 3
Duluth Marshall 4

Elk River 3
Andover 1

Championship
Elk River 4
Duluth Marshall 5 in 2OT

Looks about right. I hope, hope not. But man...Duluth Marshall is really good and Duluth East. Elk and the Huskies can't stand each other - from what I hear up here in 218 anyway. CEC will have to do this alone.....and with me, of course. #mynervesareshot #ohboy

It's great to hear Minnetonka is coming back on the schedule.
How ever Grand Rapids is still gonna struggle significantly next year
I see 9-12 wins if there schedule stays the same. But after
That they have good youth coming in they should have 3 good years
Of 18-22 wins on the season and have a very good chance at going
Back to the X as long as nobody leaves the program early.

TheHockeyDJ wrote:

Traxler wrote:

TheHockeyDJ wrote:Just a note for next season, Minnetonka will return to Grand Rapids schedule next season. I assume Rapids will drop 1 of their 2 vs Hermantown to make room for that.

It would make more sense to drop a weaker Class A team than Hermantown: Warroad, Virginia, or Greenway. They should drop all of them and add St. Francis to ensure being seeded above them.

I agree, I was just going with what was said on the radio. With how far away Roseau and Warroad are I would like to see Rapids drop both of them, just go to the Twin Cities instead. Drop Virginia too. With those vacancies, add Lakeville North back, St. Francis, St. Thomas, and Centennial.

Probably a good idea to drop Greenway next year to avoid another loss to their little brother to the. east. After Greenway’s sophomore class graduates it will make sense to drop Greenway. Their peewees and bantams are not doing well and would most likely be put in running time.

Edinahopkins wrote:It's great to hear Minnetonka is coming back on the schedule.
How ever Grand Rapids is still gonna struggle significantly next year
I see 9-12 wins if there schedule stays the same. But after
That they have good youth coming in they should have 3 good years
Of 18-22 wins on the season and have a very good chance at going
Back to the X as long as nobody leaves the program early.

most definetely back to back state appearances again winning 22-24 games every year and dominating 7AA.

WestMetro wrote:Karl, when is last time one section had 5 of the top 16 ranked teams in the state??

Has to be 6AA back when it had EP, Tonka, Wayzata, and Benilde, plus a respectable Hopkins team that was ranked for a bit. So it was sometime this decade, maybe 2011/2012ish.

Though I dropped Cloquet to 18 after the GR loss.

It matters where you draw the cutoff line, really. If you're looking at number of top 10 teams or top 30 teams, 7AA doesn't really stand out from the crowd. It just has a large second tier, and it has the added intrigue of a traditional power with a lot of name recognition getting a very low seed this year.

It was the 2007-08 season per QRF:

1) Tonka
4) BSM
12)Hopkins
16) Ep
20) Wayzata

BSM went to state that year defeating Tonka 3-2 in OT.

GR is making an early December trip to play at Tonka with Tonka traveling to Rapids the following season.

Excellent research BB!

I think Roseau took it all that year?

In the 2011-2012 season, when Duluth East was #1, section 6 was loaded:

#2 Minnetonka
#6 Eden Prairie
#9 Benilde-St. Margaret’s (State Champions)
#11 Wayzata

I don’t remember a stronger section than that.

Edinahopkins wrote:It's great to hear Minnetonka is coming back on the schedule.
How ever Grand Rapids is still gonna struggle significantly next year
I see 9-12 wins if there schedule stays the same. But after
That they have good youth coming in they should have 3 good years
Of 18-22 wins on the season and have a very good chance at going
Back to the X as long as nobody leaves the program early.

Probably about right. They can be better next year depending on how serious the entire team is on improving their strength from now until November. That is a lot of time to get stronger and improve their skills. Guys like Avery Peterson I think would shoot about 400 pucks a day in his garage. If guys commit to improving on that level, they may not become an NHL draft pick, but they will be better without a doubt.

Edinahopkins wrote:It's great to hear Minnetonka is coming back on the schedule.
How ever Grand Rapids is still gonna struggle significantly next year
I see 9-12 wins if there schedule stays the same. But after
That they have good youth coming in they should have 3 good years
Of 18-22 wins on the season and have a very good chance at going
Back to the X as long as nobody leaves the program early.

Rapids will be fortunate to win three games games next season unless they bring up most of this years bantam team. Current junior and sophomore classes were the nucleus of probably the worst peewee AA and bantam AA teams in Rapids history.

I believe GR does bring most of the bantams in next year, their definitely gonna struggle next year and rely on the sophomore class more then Rapids has in the past. Then Rapids should be back on track just a little rebuilding but at least it's not going to last long.

Who are the top players to look for from the bantam team?

TheHockeyDJ wrote:Who are the top players to look for from the bantam team?

Bischoff, Bonner, Holcomb and Peart look to be pretty good players the next few years for the THawks.

norcon wrote:

TheHockeyDJ wrote:Who are the top players to look for from the bantam team?

Bischoff, Bonner, Holcomb and Peart look to be pretty good players the next few years for the THawks.

Another Bischoff?! Dog gone it! I thought we’d be done facing boys from that family !#%+=£!!!!

kniven wrote:

norcon wrote:

TheHockeyDJ wrote:Who are the top players to look for from the bantam team?

Bischoff, Bonner, Holcomb and Peart look to be pretty good players the next few years for the THawks.

Another Bischoff?! Dog gone it! I thought we’d be done facing boys from that family !#%+=£!!!!

Different family

kniven wrote:

norcon wrote:

TheHockeyDJ wrote:Who are the top players to look for from the bantam team?

Bischoff, Bonner, Holcomb and Peart look to be pretty good players the next few years for the THawks.

Another Bischoff?! Dog gone it! I thought we’d be done facing boys from that family !#%+=£!!!!

Different family