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Will the northern teams dominate in state next also? All north finals?
Roseau and Grand Rapids

what?

i hope your kidding with grand rapids.

gopherhockey33 wrote:i hope your kidding with grand rapids.

I wish I could go back and find it. Someone, not you, made that exact comment after the 2006 state tournament...

boblee, look at who theyre losing. jensen, white, stjeskal those are 3 very important players. they all of them back from '06 into the '07 season now they dont have them back.

gopherhockey33 wrote:boblee, look at who theyre losing. jensen, white, stjeskal those are 3 very important players. they all of them back from '06 into the '07 season now they dont have them back.

Last year they lost...

Smith (top scoring defenseman)
Hicks (2nd leading scorer)
MacInerney, Clafton (2 more D, Clafton being the team leader)
Wohlers, Maher (forwards with a ton of experience)

That was a tough group to lose too. Granted they do lose, I believe, 11 seniors this year. I wouldn't count them out yet. Not in April.

gopherhockey33 wrote:boblee, look at who theyre losing. jensen, white, stjeskal those are 3 very important players. they all of them back from '06 into the '07 season now they dont have them back.

Six words for you: Tod Peart, Steve Anderson, Bruce LaRoque

Probably wanna throw in two more... Craig Pierce.

rapidsrapids wrote:

gopherhockey33 wrote:boblee, look at who theyre losing. jensen, white, stjeskal those are 3 very important players. they all of them back from '06 into the '07 season now they dont have them back.

Six words for you: Tod Peart, Steve Anderson, Bruce LaRoque

With great coaches like that you can never count Rapids out!

boblee wrote:

gopherhockey33 wrote:i hope your kidding with grand rapids.

I wish I could go back and find it. Someone, not you, made that exact comment after the 2006 state tournament...

that a boy bob throw some history at the haters.

Roseau and Grand Rapids are the best AA teams in Minnesota

edinafast wrote:Roseau and Grand Rapids are the best AA teams in Minnesota

Currently, sure, but who knows what might happen next season.

Is it tourney time yet-I can't wait for the season to start!

edinafast wrote:Roseau and Grand Rapids are the best AA teams in Minnesota

They were the best at the right time.

I like Roseau as a top team next year. Not THE top team, just one of them.

Grand Rapids has good coaches. Got to have players for good coaches to succeed. We'll see how they re-load. Good Luck.

gopherhockey33 wrote:boblee, look at who theyre losing. jensen, white, stjeskal those are 3 very important players. they all of them back from '06 into the '07 season now they dont have them back.

These are very good players. But a few very good players dont make a team. A team is only as good as its weakest player.

boblee wrote:

gopherhockey33 wrote:boblee, look at who theyre losing. jensen, white, stjeskal those are 3 very important players. they all of them back from '06 into the '07 season now they dont have them back.

Last year they lost...

Smith (top scoring defenseman)
Hicks (2nd leading scorer)
MacInerney, Clafton (2 more D, Clafton being the team leader)
Wohlers, Maher (forwards with a ton of experience)

That was a tough group to lose too. Granted they do lose, I believe, 11 seniors this year. I wouldn't count them out yet. Not in April.

I'll believe it when I see it. But you know what they say, "DREAM BIG"!!!

Roseau has a pretty legit chance to repeat. That's a tough task, but they do have a lot of talent returning, and one of those talents is a very good goaltentder. If these kids have there heads on straight, a repeat is very doable. There are a couple gaps that need filling at the D position, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem with Ness and Weston returning.

GR should be down after losing so much, but it's a great hockey town. I don't see them getting back to the excel this year though. I Falls might have a decent shot at making it.

Sounds like the Falls is going to take a HUGE hit in the goaltending dept with Hjelle off to juniors. A guy that consistantly stops about 40 shots a game is a pretty big cornerstone for your team. Unless they have someone that can fill those shoes, which I don't believe they do.

BIG wrote:Roseau has a pretty legit chance to repeat. That's a tough task, but they do have a lot of talent returning, and one of those talents is a very good goaltentder. If these kids have there heads on straight, a repeat is very doable. There are a couple gaps that need filling at the D position, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem with Ness and Weston returning.

GR should be down after losing so much, but it's a great hockey town. I don't see them getting back to the excel this year though. I Falls might have a decent shot at making it.

This was said last year and look what happend to Rapids? you just never know???

Rapids has alot of talent. They don't have Whitey anymore but still a very solid group. Just a different style is what you'll see from Rapids. Remember we had alot of sophmores in the first state run that have alot of experience and know what it takes to make it back. Palki will be just a junior this year and saw alot of great things from him last year. Goaltending "could" carry Rapids back to the X.

I don't disagree. All I know is that GR lost a lot of seniors. I really don't know what they have to fill those holes. I'd never count GR out or take them lightly. I doubt the Rams will either. I just know that the Rams have the mojority of there team coming back, and they also have some pretty talented youngsters to fill the holes that need filling. I'd be pretty surprised if Roseau wasn't back in St. Paul this year. Not saying that can't happen, they'll definitely have the bullseye on their backs this year. I definitely wouldn't be surprised to see Rapids back either. I'm just guessing they'll be down a bit after losing so much talent, not counting them out though.

Frequent_MN_Flyer wrote:Rapids has alot of talent. They don't have Whitey anymore but still a very solid group. Just a different style is what you'll see from Rapids. Remember we had alot of sophmores in the first state run that have alot of experience and know what it takes to make it back. Palki will be just a junior this year and saw alot of great things from him last year. Goaltending "could" carry Rapids back to the X.

Goaltending will be the biggest question mark??

7AA is pretty wide open. Of the 3 best teams (Rapids, East, Cloquet), all lost very good goalies and several key goal-scorers, but East has lost the least on paper and probably played Rapids better than anyone last year during their playoff/state run, aside from Roseau, of course. But they still have issues, and the dropoff from the top 3 will give some of the more mediocre teams (Elk River, Anoka) a shot at an upset in the section playoffs. Whoever comes up with the best goalie out of the big 3 will probably win, and, as northern teams have done lately, have a good run at State.

Anoka will not be just a mediocre team, you can count on them being at the top until the end in the northwest suburban conference

I don't think there is a "top 3" it is more a top 5 or top 6