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What does SE minnesota going to look like this year? Obviously, lakeville south will be good with kloos at the helm. North should compete as well. It looks as if owatonna, century, mayo, and JM will all be up and down. Single A? I don't know much about any single A teams. Will any compete this year? How are 1AA and 1A going to round out? Any competitors for a win at the X this march?

Only chance 1AA has this year of winning a game at the X is if South can finally win a section championship. With Lindgren gone from North they should not be a significant competitor, and the rest of the deep south teams will likely not be good either as they haven't the past 3 years.

With the kloos line down at South if they get some goal tending they could give someone a close game in state.

They have a strong non conference schedule they should have played some of the top teams by the time they get to the tournament.

Didn't realize Lakeville was in SE Minny? Did I miss something in 8th grade MN geography class?

Lets see, as I sit here in the south metro its 300 miles to canada, 20 to wisconsin, 90 to iowa and 200 to south dakota......hell you don't even have to make it through 8th grade to figure out I'm in SE minny. I think we all understood the author meant sec 1A/1AA

Thank you keepyourheadup because that is exactly what I meant. I was hoping not to get a sarcastic answer like that blueblood

I think 1A will come down to Lourdes-New Prague with Lourdes holding slight edge at this point.

NP will have great d and goal tending, LHS will score a ton of goals, should be interesting......

I think Section 1AA (except for the Lakevilles) should just be dumped into the JV tournament.

Let the runners-up from Sections 5 and 6 duke it out with the Lakevilles for a tournament slot.

Wayzata would have made a nice addition to the field at the X last March.

Wow, so the bashing begins.....from a private school guy to boot. Ya know what they say about throwing stones and glass houses?

keepyourheadup wrote:Wow, so the bashing begins.....from a private school guy to boot. Ya know what they say about throwing stones and glass houses?

The same private school which lost to one of those "JV tournament teams" from 1AA a few years ago in the state quarterfinals.

Lee

For 1A Lourdes has a lot of firepower returning in Samuelson, Funk and Ferraro, but defensively I think they will be lacking graduating some hard-to-replace seniors in Vesel, Brandrup and Slightham and not to mention their goalie Heimer.

I like New Prague in 1A as they seem the most balanced team preseason, a lot of young guys on that section final team last season, who saw a lot of ice time, not to mention they have some good depth in scoring.

Albert Lea loses their top returning scorer in Eric Carlson. As for sleepers, I like Red Wing and Mankato West. Red Wing has a lot of guys coming back and it'll be interesting seeing how things pan out. For Mankato West, they have a good foundation set in defense with everyone returning along with a senior goalie, who has been waiting for his chance in Zach Fox.

1AA, Justin Kloos should be able to lead South to the X in March. Not too much in the Rochester schools pops out to me and North's loss in Lindgren is huge.

east hockey wrote:

keepyourheadup wrote:Wow, so the bashing begins.....from a private school guy to boot. Ya know what they say about throwing stones and glass houses?

The same private school which lost to one of those "JV tournament teams" from 1AA a few years ago in the state quarterfinals.

Lee

OUCH !

scarlethockey33 wrote:For Mankato West, they have a good foundation set in defense with everyone returning along with a senior goalie, who has been waiting for his chance in Zach Fox.

Um, as one former Scarlet to another, "everyone returning" has one significant omission -- the state's leading 2011 scorer! What happened to our favorite Finn this year, is he staying for juniors? And more important, what happened to him in playoffs last spring? Did he get handcuffed or something? West should have made it deeper in regions.

keepyourheadup wrote:Wow, so the bashing begins.....from a private school guy to boot. Ya know what they say about throwing stones and glass houses?

Jeez, when did giving someone the needle become bashing? Maybe switch to de-caf?

At least I wear my colors on my sleeve. No hidden bias here.

Shinbone_News wrote:

scarlethockey33 wrote:For Mankato West, they have a good foundation set in defense with everyone returning along with a senior goalie, who has been waiting for his chance in Zach Fox.

Um, as one former Scarlet to another, "everyone returning" has one significant omission -- the state's leading 2011 scorer! What happened to our favorite Finn this year, is he staying for juniors? And more important, what happened to him in playoffs last spring? Did he get handcuffed or something? West should have made it deeper in regions.

A good foundation set in defense with "everyone returning" referring that everyone from the defense is returning. Sorry for the confusion

Rantanen is playing for the Park City Moose of the WSHL, as much as I understand he's been a great offensive asset for the expansion team in their first year. No stats on the top of my head, but I remember reading something about it earlier in the season.

As for last season's playoffs, three disallowed goals for Mankato West and that was literally difference in the game (lost 6-3). The Scarlets kept fighting, answering back to the Winger's goals, but the disallowed goals were momentum killers and in hockey momentum is quite a powerful factor, especially in playoff atmosphere. Personally feel that referees had too much of an influence, I can believe 1 or even maybe 2 disallowed goals but 3? Very disheartening end for a senior class that had a lot more promise than a second round exit. All biased aside, I too believed they should've made it deeper in the section, and personally believed the Scarlets had the best shot taking on Lourdes last season.

Do you not have the same opinion of our site administrator who seemed to have the same feelings as me? We all know how easy it is to ramp up the retoric concerning hockey south of the metro, I just hoped we would hold off till tourney time before the shots started flying.

East Side Pioneer Guy wrote:I think Section 1AA (except for the Lakevilles) should just be dumped into the JV tournament.

Let the runners-up from Sections 5 and 6 duke it out with the Lakevilles for a tournament slot.

Wayzata would have made a nice addition to the field at the X last March.

I know the section 1 bashing is de rigeur and expected, but I personally believe two things:

1) John Marshall will rise again (some day!)
2) Burnsville and or Apple Valley and maybe even Eagan should be moved (back) to 1. Heck, Eden Prairie is halfway to Mankato! You could quickly take 1AA from worst to first if you moved all of this south metro talent... um, to the South. You'd also keep the Lakevilles honest, and create the possibility of seeing Eden Prairie AND Wayzata or Tonka at state.

Not the first nor the last to say this, I'm sure.

Maybe if STA and the Vanelli's man-up to AA, they could go into 1AA for the first two years.

There, I took a shot at 1AA as well as a private school.

I wish John Marshall would rise again but I fear Rochester is headed down the same path St. Paul and Minneapolis went down; the public schools lose kids to private schools, the numbers aren't there to really give any of the public teams a legitimate run, and the demographics and attendance are slowly pushing them towards class A. A hot goalie combined with a real good class could change that briefly but for the past few years and the forseeable future the public schools aren't in Lakeville's class hockey wise and maybe Farmington passes them by as well in the next few years.

That said the programs at Lakeville have been moving up and South should be a top 10 team this season.

A interesting side note to this season; Century, John Marshall, North, and Owatonna all have new head coaches.

East Side Pioneer Guy wrote:Maybe if STA and the Vanelli's man-up to AA, they could go into 1AA for the first two years.

There, I took a shot at 1AA as well as a private school.

Best idea yet!