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Saturday night at Aldrich.

Battle for the # 1 seed in 4AA. 1-1 in the last two 4AA Finals.
Public vs Private. Metro East Conf. vs Suburban East Conf.
HM's new public and 4AA rival - sorry WBL.
Both teams rosters are dominated by Juniors.
First regular season game in 15 years.
HM 40-4 all time vs Stillwater. One of those wins for the Ponies in the early 90s when they were coached by Bill Lechner.
Great signs from the past: "Stillwater: Hill-Murray's top feeder program since 1961"
"You can't spell Pioneers without Ponies"

Should be a great night of hockey. Have not yet seen HM play this year so looking forward to seeing what they are. Ponies need to not overlook East Ridge tonight. It will be interesting to see how SW D corp holds up against HM.

What I thought about this game two weeks ago is much different than what I think about it now. Hill couldn't quite seem to get over that hump against top tier teams. Losses to Edina, EP, BSM, Wayzata when they were ranked much higher. But following a seemingly decade-long trend, Hill always plays the rematches far better. Tie against Edina and lopsided win over Wayzata in 2nd games.

There's a love/hate with Lechner for a lot of people. He's not infallible but you have to give the guy credit. Every year he finds a way to round the team into shape.

The Pioneers are putting it together mid-season. As St. Paul mentioned, pretty important stretch with wins over Tartan, STA and Blaine and an Edina tie in there too. Begley looks very good and seems to be finding his groove, D is solid and deep. Scoring is still a bit of a concern IMO but they've held up pretty well.

Stillwater is a bit of an unknown commodity. Pretty easy schedule so far, but they've consistently won the games they should.

This is a big game, but the reality is that these teams will be 1 & 2 in section seeding. Barring an upset they may well meet in the section finals so in some respects this game is the undercard for a potential (likely?) rematch in a few weeks. And as I said above, Hill tends to play better the second go around.

My prediction: Hill 3 Stillwater 1 (empty net goal to seal the deal)

Really looking forward to this game. Win or lose this game I like Hills chances in section 4

BlueLineSpecial wrote:But following a seemingly decade-long trend, Hill always plays the rematches far better.

This is a big game, but the reality is that these teams will be 1 & 2 in section seeding. Barring an upset they may well meet in the section finals so in some respects this game is the undercard for a potential (likely?) rematch in a few weeks. And as I said above, Hill tends to play better the second go around.

It's interesting you say that. I used to always think the exact opposite. When HM and WBL was a decent rivalry, HM would always win the first game by 3 or 4 goals, but the Section Final was always a close 1 goal game.

BodyShots wrote:

BlueLineSpecial wrote:But following a seemingly decade-long trend, Hill always plays the rematches far better.

This is a big game, but the reality is that these teams will be 1 & 2 in section seeding. Barring an upset they may well meet in the section finals so in some respects this game is the undercard for a potential (likely?) rematch in a few weeks. And as I said above, Hill tends to play better the second go around.

It's interesting you say that. I used to always think the exact opposite. When HM and WBL was a decent rivalry, HM would always win the first game by 3 or 4 goals, but the Section Final was always a close 1 goal game.

Definitely true with respect to HM/WBL. The regular season/section games always seemed to be as you describe. Hill would win easily in the regular season matchup and the section game would be much closer. But I've found that generally Lechner and co. make the right adjustments second go round.

At the beginning of the season, I would've said Stillwater no doubt, but Hill has impressed me a lot this season. They go out there and work every shift, which seems to be the recipe for success for them. With strong forwards for Stillwater and good D/Goaltending for Hill, it should be fun

Big crowd here at Aldrich
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Staum took warmup so, we will see how much he plays
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Noah Cates scores for Ponies!
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Ranello ties it up!
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Benson stops Ranello on shorty breakaway
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Noah gets his 2nd with 3 to go
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Staum has not played
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Brother Jackson scores!
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Sogs 16 to 6 ponies
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Luke Manning scores on blown D. SW is totally dominating zone time
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Staum takes some playing time late in 2nd
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Ranello just missed his 2nd goal , 2 min left in 2 nd
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Sogs are 24 to 13. SW controlling the game
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Let's think, HM beat Blaine just last week
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Sonntag scores! At 45 second mark
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4 to 2 with 6 to go
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Simon Sag scores with 5 to go
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Lechner decides not to pull Begley with score at 5 to 2
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Ponies a dominating win, teams will see each other again in late February section finals
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31 to 20 final Sogs
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Good to see Casey Staum back on ice, skated well and was involved in some contact
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Correction on attendance. TIcket office said 1900 tickets sold plus a few comps, maybe two thousand total, way short of capacity. Although this may have been top metro regular season attendance so far, still a long way from the recent Hibbing and grand rapids home games. HMB 3000 plus is still the one to beat

Nice, packed house at Aldrich tonight (I would guess around 3K), though the Ponies took a lot of the energy out of it with that dominating first period. When they're at their best, they remind of the Duluth East teams of a few years ago, with three lines that are cycling relentlessly in the offensive zone, moving the puck well, and rarely letting their opponents touch the puck. The Cateses in particular had some very pretty moves in the first period.

I've seen Hill twice now, and both have been dud losses (Benilde and Stillwater). The top line got shut down tonight, and just didn't seem to be threatening the way it should. The Pioneers did settle into the game by the middle of the second and gave some hints that they might make a game of it in the third, but a fairly soft 5th Pony goal (one of two Begley probably should have been able to just freeze in front of the net) put the game away. Staum saw his first ice in the middle of the 2nd and played regularly from there, but has some rust to shake off.

It's a statement win for the Ponies, though I won't hand them the crown quite yet. Both times I've seen them (here and vs. Holy Family), they've looked as good as anyone in the first period, but in the 2nd and 3rd, they've looked more like any other team in the 5-15 part of the rankings. Part of that may come from mostly playing 4 D (who can wear down); they also were very intentionally trying to match their first line against Hill's 3s, which led to some double-shifting in the first couple periods. Of course, line matching in the section final will be easier now that they've clinched the top seed. They're a very nicely balanced team, and if they head to State with 1 or 2 losses they'll be primed for a high seed, but they certainly aren't untouchable. The rematch with Holy Family in a couple weeks should be worth watching.

Very impressed by the Ponies tonight. First time seeing them and I am impressed. They were shot out of a cannon to start the game. Hill looked a step slow most of the game.

Stillwater looked very good, much improved over last season when they looked very ordinary. Hill was very slow, with absolutely no hustle, especially in the first period. Stillwater won nearly all of the races to the puck, including many that Hill had no business losing. Several times a Stillwater player was 2-3 strides behind and easily got to the puck first.

While this certainly gives Stillwater the inside track on the #1 seed, I can't recall a year where the difference between 1 & 2 means so little. By that, i mean that whoever the 3 & 4 seeds are, it should make little difference to either HM or Stillwater which is 1 or 2, excepting getting the last change as mentioned by some guy named Karl.