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Interestingly, all of the class A teams that played AA teams in the first round were undefeated , with STA, Breck, Blake, Mahtomedi and Owatonna all coming out on top against their larger opponents. It will make for quite the banter if they can continue this run.

Shows who the better team was on the night. Class doesnt matter, who ever shows up will win, nice to see the Class A boys get the wins.

The bronze and silver divisions hardly count as banging with the big boys and even STA, the A team in the gold division didn't play a particularly storng AA team in White Bear Lake.

If the A teams want respect, move up and earn it. Roseau did.

Cant argue a win though against a team in the hgher class, still counts as a "W" on the record.

3 of your 5 can attract hockey interested talent from a very wide geographical range so to classify them as an A school is simply not the same as a Virginia, St. Louis Park, or Mahtomedi school. It is an apples and oranges comparison to think that is a level playing field. I would like to see the whole AA/A done away with. Lets get back to a single class system, the game needs it!!

hockeyrocks wrote:Interestingly, all of the class A teams that played AA teams in the first round were undefeated , with STA, Breck, Blake, Mahtomedi and Owatonna all coming out on top against their larger opponents. It will make for quite the banter if they can continue this run.

Just a clarification, Owatonna is a AA school.

GordonBombay99 wrote:Cant argue a win though against a team in the hgher class, still counts as a "W" on the record.

I won't, it just doesn't impress me that much.

northwoods oldtimer wrote:3 of your 5 can attract hockey interested talent from a very wide geographical range so to classify them as an A school is simply not the same as a Virginia, St. Louis Park, or Mahtomedi school. It is an apples and oranges comparison to think that is a level playing field. I would like to see the whole AA/A done away with. Lets get back to a single class system, the game needs it!!

i agree completely. Single A schools should stop begging for respect.
if they want any, they should jump up to play with the big boys and make it to the big dance in st. paul. thats how you earn it.

nice to see a program with a small pool of talent to draw from beat a program that has a much larger pool of talent to draw from.

[quote="northwoods oldtimer"]3 of your 5 can attract hockey interested talent from a very wide geographical range so to classify them as an A school is simply not the same as a Virginia, St. Louis Park, or Mahtomedi school. It is an apples and oranges comparison to think that is a level playing field. I would like to see the whole AA/A done away with. Lets get back to a single class system, the game needs it!![/quote]

Yeah....and send the private schools to their own tourney!

horse=dead

cdk6 wrote:horse=dead

Blaine 4
STA 1

hockeyrocks wrote:Interestingly, all of the class A teams that played AA teams in the first round were undefeated , with STA, Breck, Blake, Mahtomedi and Owatonna all coming out on top against their larger opponents. It will make for quite the banter if they can continue this run.

I would not count STA, they are a private school who take kids from local programs like Lakeville South. They "recruit"

don't get me wrong, class A has some good competitive hockey, real good hockey. But the Tommies need to man up and move to class AA

I'll suggest the privates are down, period. There are so many good youth association hockey players now that just plucking a few talented players to fill your private school team doesn't work like it used to. The big schools connected to large youth associations have really deep talent pools to plug holes from the missing and gives them stronger rosters top to bottom. Some of the privates have what I would call weak third lines. Benilde down. Holy Angels down. CDH down. STA down. Blake down. Breck has a strong senior class but will be down next year. HM seems to be holding it together best, of the privates, at the moment. I like the large publics with strong youth associations behind them.

Minnetonka
Eden Prairie
Edina
Wayzata
Duluth East
Eagan
Maple Grove

observer wrote:I'll suggest the privates are down, period. There are so many good youth association hockey players now that just plucking a few talented players to fill your private school team doesn't work like it used to. The big schools connected to large youth associations have really deep talent pools to plug holes from the missing and gives them stronger rosters top to bottom. Some of the privates have what I would call weak third lines. Benilde down. Holy Angels down. CDH down. STA down. Blake down. Breck has a strong senior class but will be down next year. HM seems to be holding it together best, of the privates, at the moment. I like the large publics with strong youth associations behind them.

Minnetonka
Eden Prairie
Edina
Wayzata
Duluth East
Eagan
Maple Grove

I was just thinking something along the same lines. Aside from Hill and maybe STA, the top privates simply cannot match the depth of the leading public programs.

CDH struggles to get any production beyond their top line.
BSM has a very talented but very young top line, and not much after that.
I haven't seen AHA, but the presence of several D1 recruits suggests that their problem isn't in the area of star talent.

If the 2000s were the decade of the private schools, perhaps we're now moving into the era of the large public school.