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Let the arguing begin!

you never know what will happen when 16,17 & 18 year-old young men step on the ice. Hopefully it is a good game and everyone skates off without getting hurt.

8-1 Grand Rapids

Hounds 5-3

East wins 17-16 6OT

Peterson scores 13

Another great rivalry match up with the despised hounds! All GR faithful are hoping THIS will be the revenge game that sends the hounds back to the pound. As much as I would rather play someone else there is no one I would rather send packing than East.

GR maintains their intensity and comes out on top in another 1 goal thriller, 3-2.

EASILY an east win here right hopefully rapids can make a better game this time around.

Shepherd plays outstanding...GR wins 3-2.

I would like to see Peterson play at state, but don't think it will happen.

DEast 4
GR 2

Then, hopefully, Andover over DEast.

East wins easily 4-1.

Rapids is too undisciplined. Last time they played East in Rapids this year, I've never seen a team so scared to play another team before. If they play scared like they did earlier this year, it might get ugly.

If they play hard and give east absolutely everything they have, then I can definitely see them winning this one. But they have to play a perfect game.

Games like this are almost 99 percent mental, especially at the high school age. I think East has the big mental edge.

Randolph and East expect to win this game. Rapids hopes they can win. That will be the difference.

With these two teams and a ton of emotion anything can happen. If East EXPECTS to win EASILY they may be headed for the kennel. I agree that GR can play a little loose at times, but I expect this to be a good one. Come on Thawks - put those dogs on a leash. Fun hockey out of 7AA so far....

Rapids beats an overranked East team 4 2. You don't lose to Centennial and Cloquet and tie bottom feeders like Apple Valley and Cambridge and get 1 seed. Karma catches up with East this Saturday.

sanryam wrote:Rapids beats an overranked East team 4 2. You don't lose to Centennial and Cloquet and tie bottom feeders like Apple Valley and Cambridge and get 1 seed. Karma comes in the form of an Indian this weekend.

They didn't tie Apple Valley or Cambridge. They won both of those games.

Slammer wrote:

sanryam wrote:Rapids beats an overranked East team 4 2. You don't lose to Centennial and Cloquet and tie bottom feeders like Apple Valley and Cambridge and get 1 seed. Karma comes in the form of an Indian this weekend.

They didn't tie Apple Valley or Cambridge. They won both of those games.

Tied in regulation. Took overtime to beat a 4-21 team and a 5-20 team who both have weak schedules.

sanryam wrote:

Slammer wrote:

sanryam wrote:Rapids beats an overranked East team 4 2. You don't lose to Centennial and Cloquet and tie bottom feeders like Apple Valley and Cambridge and get 1 seed. Karma comes in the form of an Indian this weekend.

They didn't tie Apple Valley or Cambridge. They won both of those games.

Tied in regulation. Took overtime to beat a 4-21 team and a 5-20 team who both have weak schedules.

Some of what you say is correct, but not the part about Apple Valley having a weak schedule. 10th toughest in the State per PageStat.

Lee

sanryam wrote:

Slammer wrote:

sanryam wrote:Rapids beats an overranked East team 4 2. You don't lose to Centennial and Cloquet and tie bottom feeders like Apple Valley and Cambridge and get 1 seed. Karma comes in the form of an Indian this weekend.

They didn't tie Apple Valley or Cambridge. They won both of those games.

Tied in regulation. Took overtime to beat a 4-21 team and a 5-20 team who both have weak schedules.

So did Elk River and Cloquet tie in regulation?

Slammer wrote:
[1] Rapids is too undisciplined.

[2] Games like this are almost 99 percent mental, especially at the high school age. I think East has the big mental edge.

[3] Randolph and East expect to win this game.

[1] As of late, GR has been very disciplined. They are starting to realize hustling works much better then reaching (which leads typically leads to unnecessary penalties).
[2] I agree 100%, DE does have the metal edge. History speaks for itself.
[3] Just what GR coaches, players and fans want Rudolph and company to think.

The two on-ice keys to the 5-0 game were special teams and the East forecheck/Rapids breakout match-up. East owned both; they scored 3 PP goals and killed off 6 Rapids penalties, and Rapids really struggled to get out of their own zone 5-on-5. If they can't make some progress on those fronts, it's impossible to see Rapids winning without a superhuman effort from Shepard...and for what it's worth, East has put up 9 on Shepard in their last two games against him. A number of those were the fault of the defense, but if you give East enough chances, they're going to score a few.

In a game like this, though, the mental side can be just as important. I could trot out all the stats, but we all know what they say: East has had Rapids' number in recent years. How much is East in the Rapids players' heads, and how do they respond to that? If East strikes early, does it lead to more "here we go again," with stupid penalties and scared play?

On the East side, they know what they have to do to win, and if they play like they did in Rapids in January, they're in good shape. But it's hard to play two full games against a good team without having something go wrong somewhere along the line. If and when Rapids gets a little momentum, their fans will get loud and the team will have some extra jump. How do the Hounds respond?

I think this game comes down to East's seniors. There aren't many, but if Beaulieu and Trapp contain Peterson like they did in January I like their chances. Kolar up front also has been really hot as of late and has sparked the offense since his return late December. East's solid D and strong forecheck combined with poor defensive zone play from Rapids will lead to the East victory on Saturday. I'm thinking 4-2.

Karl has done a good job of previewing the game. The major weakness for Rapids all year and now is their inability to get past the first forechecker. East is certainly a better forechecking than Forest Lake so Rapids defensemen will be under that much more pressure. Can't blame the defense entirely because a lot of the time when they make a good pass the forward botches the next one. Rapids has improved but I don't know if it's enough improvement to get past East. Also, goaltending on the East end is not of the same caliber as Hunter. I have seen enough high school games to know that one team can have 40+ shots on goal and the other 15 and the 40+ team loses.

greenway1969 wrote:Karl has done a good job of previewing the game. The major weakness for Rapids all year and now is their inability to get past the first forechecker. East is certainly a better forechecking than Forest Lake so Rapids defensemen will be under that much more pressure. Can't blame the defense entirely because a lot of the time when they make a good pass the forward botches the next one. Rapids has improved but I don't know if it's enough improvement to get past East. Also, goaltending on the East end is not of the same caliber as Hunter. I have seen enough high school games to know that one team can have 40+ shots on goal and the other 15 and the 40+ team loses.

Not overly impressed with Rapids team defense at all. Where is the center support down low helping the D out? 25 game season and still pretty sporadic. Their D run way too much searching out goals instead of defending. One guy on their D wants to do the dirty work in the D Zone that is it. East will clobber them and generate shot after shot. Rapids play away from the puck is just not very good. They can fall into chasing the puck and allow one pass to beat them horribly. The young Shepard kid just might see 50 plus on Saturday. East 4 - Rapids nill.

MTStringer wrote:you never know what will happen when 16,17 & 18 year-old young men step on the ice. Hopefully it is a good game and everyone skates off without getting hurt.

I think the Greyhounds of Duluth East win this game.

sanryam wrote:Rapids beats an overranked East team 4 2. You don't lose to Centennial and Cloquet and tie bottom feeders like Apple Valley and Cambridge and get 1 seed. Karma catches up with East this Saturday.

I agree. East definitely is the favorite, and has Rapids number of late. But I expect Rapids to keep it close and win late. I'll go with 3-2.

I just dont see how Grand Rapids D will be able to stop DE's top line. But maybe Shepard can? Still, East 4-1.

Going to be a close, hard fought game. If Shepard & Peterson play big I think GR wins.