Week 7

[slowD]

Now that the big news from Tuesday afternoon has traveled far and wide we should get back to talking about girls hockey games(and Holy Family ). The first thing to note is it seems like there are starting to be a few more games cancelled. Hope this little surge can be contained. Monday didn't have anything too exciting happen. Tuesday the Mustangs took it on the chin falling 4-0 to BSM but I am guessing there were a lot of emotions being dealt with that night. Chaska/Chan played Blake tough and only lost 3-1. Looks like both goalies played well. The Minneapolis vs SSP game intrigues me. Anyone watch the game? I would consider that a pretty huge tie for Minneapolis. Could they be a dark horse in their section? Outstate games of interest was Crookston topping Bemidji 7-4. Crookston is very young. They could be good in the upcoming future. Warroad and Roseau played their 3 rival game with Warroad coming out on top 6-3.
Wednesday found Forest Lake with a 2-1 win over Roseville. Woodbury over WBL 3-2 and Eastview over Orono 3-0. Orono needs to win that game if they want any kind of love in the rankings.
Thursday offers a nice outstate match up between Brainard and River Lakes. This should be a good game. I figure there could be 3 upsets possibly tonight in the metro. BSM over Edina, Minneapolis over Chisago, and East Ridge over Stillwater... All 3 should be good games. It will be an interesting to see how those 3 games turn out.
Friday has some good games but nothing too exciting. Andover vs Maple Grove should be an easy Andover win but we are getting to the time of year that anything could happen...The best game of the night may have been between Hill Murray and Warroad but I see it is cancelled???
Saturday brings the most talked about team on the forum in Holy Family against the love to hate favorite Breck. This will be a good game and if Holy Family wants to prove they are a legit powerhouse in AA they will need to win this game and by more than a couple goals. I think the Breck defense is too good to let that happen. They can shut teams down and I don't know if the HF D core can contain the Lindsay sisters. Next big game of the day is Chisago vs M/W. This will be a good test for both teams and I think possibly the best game of the week. Neither team has played a lot of high end games so it has been a little tough to judge just how good they both are. M/W seems to have a good goalie and D core and can put some pucks in the net but can they contain Chisago's top line? I do see that Warroad picked up a game with new to the top 10 Willmar.

What does everyone think? Need to get the chatter going again...

[MNHockeyFan]

Watching the BSM-Edina game. Red Knights with a 1-0 lead going into the 3rd. Very physical game, with lots of penalties called on both. Hornets will have a power play to start the 3rd.

https://youtu.be/VIsoNRdFVUQ

[MNHockeyFan]

Hornets mount a comeback in the 3rd and win 2-1. I thought Benilde outplayed Edina in the first half of the game, but they started to wear down, probably mostly from killing all the penalties. Edina stayed fresh and definitely had the better of the play in the 3rd.

[Sparlimb]

Final 2-1 Edina. Benilde is dangerous. Edina seems to eek all these out though. Although it only takes once in the playoffs for it to all come undone.

[Eagles93]

The Minneapolis vs SSP game intrigues me. Anyone watch the game? I would consider that a pretty huge tie for Minneapolis. Could they be a dark horse in their section?

Minneapolis also tied EP. And sort of hung with Gentry, losing 5-3. They might be a dark horse but doubt they have the horses to get past CL and Breck. They have been impressive especially given that their leading scorer last year left for HF. Mistake on her part?

[Sparlimb]

According to the hub, Warroad and HM are cancelled tonight. Anyone know the story?

[slowD]

Gentry 1-0 in OT over Dodge County... and it was a PP goal. I never would have thought it would be this close. Anyone at the game or watch at stream? Goaltender dual? Was the penalty in OT legit?

[j4241]

I believe Hill had covid exposure in the team, and so is shut down temporarily. Not sure when they'll be able to be back on the ice.

Edina/BSM was a great game. Conner was the proverbial big player coming up big in a big moment. She is an impressive goal scorer. She is strong, powerful, smart, and can shoot the biscuit. I do wonder if she's fast enough to be effective as a goal scorer in the WCHA, but she is clearly an elite, elite talent.

Peschel was phenomenal - best player on the ice, in my opinion, and also very college ready. Strong, physical, high skill - a real force. Muzzy has to be very happy with what she saw from her last night. She and Syd Morrow from SSM are going to be a ridiculous pair at Ohio State in a couple years.

Edina's offense is a bit of a conundrum to me. They seem completely dependent on Conner to generate offense. They have scored 3 non-empty net goals in 2 games against BSM, only 2 5-on-5. That is with an elite, elite goal scorer in Conner and probably the most skilled offensive D in MN in Jungels, but also with 4 other D1 committed forwards and three underclass who are considered good D1 prospects, with one considered very high end. BSM's D and goaltending are very good, but Edina doesn't seem to get much done offensively against good teams unless it's going through Conner's stick (and imagine what the Edina team would be this year if they hadn't recruited her). Is BSM's D/G that good? Otherwise, what is going on with Edina's offense?

[j4241]

On Gentry, I didn't see the game, but it certainly looks like the Dodge County goalie played phenomenally well. She's having a good season backstopping a team that's good but struggled against top end teams. She's given up an average of 6 goals in the three games against elite offenses (Breck, Hill and Warroad), but still posts an overall .922 save percentage. Gentry only scoring one on her tells me that Gentry's offense may not be quite as high end as it looks. They are clearly a good single A team, but maybe not a top-end elite team. Their signature win was the 3-1 win against Warroad, which was on a Friday night after Warroad got off an 8-hour bus ride. The Holy Family win early looked like it might be a signature win, but as the season has progressed it's clear that wasn't as impressive as it looked at the time. In their next 5 games their opponents include Forest Lake, Blake, Chisago and Breck - those will provide a lot more clarity into how good they are and whether they're capable of winning a single A title this year. The shutout has to be encouraging - goaltending has been a bit of a question mark for them. Dodge County's offense isn't terribly impressive - only scoring 33 goals in a schedule that includes some pretty weak teams. Then again, they do have the same average goals scored against BSM that Edina does, so...

[jg2112]

According to the hub, Warroad and HM are cancelled tonight. Anyone know the story?

My source tells me there's a massive COVID outbreak on the team (at least 7 players). Off the ice until around March 8. Sadly that means the HM - Minnetonka matchup is in question.

[jg2112]

Gentry 1-0 in OT over Dodge County... and it was a PP goal. I never would have thought it would be this close. Anyone at the game or watch at stream? Goaltender dual? Was the penalty in OT legit?

The OT penalty was legit. Gentry also killed a 5-3 advantage with under 5 to go in the 3rd. The game wasn't a goaltender dual. DC only had 8 SOG in 53 minutes and none were from the slot.

I guess one could argue whether Gentry's goaltending is "questionable," but their team defense is outstanding. Only 17 goals given up in 11 games (around 16 SOG against per game) and five of them were against Stillwater. The upcoming 8 days will be a big test for them.

[slowD]

The Hub had the shots at 43 for Gentry and 27 for DC with DC outshooting Gentry 4-2 in the OT so I assumed it was a bit of a goaltender dual. DC's goalie seems to be very good and capable of keeping the game close just needs some scoring in front of her. Is she being looked at by anyone?

[MNHockeyFan]

My source tells me there's a massive COVID outbreak on the team (at least 7 players). Off the ice until around March 8. Sadly that means the HM - Minnetonka matchup is in question.

Hill-Murray shuts down girls' hockey, others affected after three with COVID symptoms kept playing
https://www.startribune.com/hill-murray ... 600027936/