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Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

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Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

Boy I hate to be nit-picky, and I appreciate that the paper spends at least a little time covering girls' hockey, but they need a quick fact-check. Marissa Brandt spent a season on the bench because of a concussion in 2008-09, not last year. 2009-10 she played every game for the Pioneers. And Ms. Bellows may be impressing someone, but it's on JV so far this year, at least mostly. Her varsity counterpart Caitlin Nielson, however, is one of the top 3 or 4 sophomores in the state. And the last article should be titled "Top 20 upper-classgirls who we all know about and are committed to D1 schools". The more exciting 'ones to watch' are the sophomores and in some cases freshmen who will be emerging big-time this year: Nielson, Roseville's Kate Flug, Blake's Dani Camerenesi, Minnetonka's Sydney Baldwin (Fr), BSM's Caitlin Reilly (Shannon's sister), Stillwater's Sara Bustad, White Bear's Kristi Longendyke, and Irondale's Sam Donovan (Fr), among others.
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

capitalist said:
And the last article should be titled "Top 20 upper-classgirls who we all know about and are committed to D1 schools". The more exciting 'ones to watch' are the sophomores and in some cases freshmen who will be emerging big-time this year: Nielson, Roseville's Kate Flug, Blake's Dani Camerenesi, Minnetonka's Sydney Baldwin (Fr), BSM's Caitlin Reilly (Shannon's sister), Stillwater's Sara Bustad, White Bear's Kristi Longendyke, and Irondale's Sam Donovan (Fr), among others.
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I'm probably being a little nit picky too, but the fact the players mentioned are upperclassmen, familiar to fans and mostly committed to division I programs doesn't make them less exciting to watch for many fans...or the characterization by the Strib as "players to watch" untrue...or the title inaccurate, or inappropriate. The list could also be aimed at readers less familiar with those players than the dedicated girls high school fan might be. I'd also guess the typical Strib sports writer is probably not as familiar with the talent across all classes as those dedicated fans...although I know a couple personally that do follow the sport closely. I'd agree about the many exciting underclassmen likely to emerge as talented varsity players, but don't think it's necessary to pit one group against the other when merely attempting to bring attention to or recognize the juniors and seniors on the varsity squads. Just giving them their due IMO. :)

It's just what I was attempting to get at when I posted:

That's a good list. A little difficult to limit the "players to watch" to just 20 these days.
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Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

You're right--the 'dedicated' nuts already discuss all of this at the arena and aren't the ones that the stories are aimed at. And you're also right that the upperclassgirls listed there deserve their due in the sports section even if they are old news to the dedicated nuts.
Before I leave this alone though I have to mention I forgot to list a couple of the best of the up-and-comers in sophomores Amy Menke and Lauren Hespenheide from Shakopee. The two of them came out of nowhere and led Shakopee over a loaded Minnetonka team to a state title in U12A in 2008. It left everybody saying, "Shakopee? What? Huh?" Then they joined the varsity in 8th grade and were 1st and 2nd in team scoring their freshman year and everything made sense.

Some of the good games this weekend:
Friday
--BSM/Breck and Blake/Edina starting at 6:00 at Braemar in the CakeEater Classic.
--Alexandria visits Mound-Westonka
--Moundsview vs. Coon Rapids at Schwans as part of the Maple Grove tournament I believe. Roseville and Hopkins were in this for a couple years with Maple Grove and Burnsville.

Saturday
--Blaine at Grand Rapids should be pretty good
--Shakopee at Anoka (this is Shakopee's 7th game already)
--Stillwater at HM at Aldrich--the 3rd step in Hill-Murray's hellish road thru 5 of the 7 best teams in the state (plus EP). All that's missing is Roseville and they have a good chance of meeting them in the Section 4AA tournament.
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

Highlights of this past week:
Coon Rapids won the NSC Tournament with wins over MV and Irondale. EP beat MV for 3rd. These were 4 very tight entertaining games between 4 very good teams. All 4 will be around to make noise in sections.
Insert Howard Cosell voice: "Down goes Edina. Down goes Edina."
Blake beat host Edina in the first round of the CakeEater. BSM handled Breck and then the championship game, BSM vs. Blake, ended in a tie. Since it was a tournament they settled it with a shootout, but oh well. It looks like Blake gets the distinction this year of being the best TC team in class A. In fact, since Warroad has a loss, Blake should really be #1 now, period. They followed the CakeEater with a win over Irondale.
Hastings beat WBL and lost to Stillwater. Wow there are a lot of good teams in the Suburban East this year.
Coon Rapids proved what's what in the NW Suburban by beating Elk River convincingly on Tuesday, 5-1.
HM beat Stillwater on Saturday, then lost to EP on Tuesday. They outshot EP 49-20. HB is now officially 'on the schneid' with one goal in 4 games. She will snap out of it eventually, and woe be unto those overmatched Classic Suburban rivals when she does. In the meantime, however, HM faces Warroad and Roseau on Friday and Saturday. Ugh if HM can't score.
GRG fended off the latest two southern teams to visit, beating Roch. Mayo and Blaine. The Lightning have staked a claim to being the team to beat in 7AA with wins over Duluth and CEC on the past two Tuesday nights. GRG and Roseau are the only northern AA teams who look top-notch. Everybody else is rebuilding.

This weekend:
Roseau/Warroad in town to play Edina/HM Friday and Saturday at Braemar/Aldrich. All 4 games are classics. You can fit one in whether you live East or West.
BSM swings thru Grand Rapids and Cloquet. Both should be good games, especially Friday in Grand Rapids.
Anoka vs. SSP Sat at Wakota. There aren't many really good teams in Class A, but SSP is one of them. Anoka is young but has been surprising--a pretty good freshman class there (they were the ones who were 2nd in State in U12A in 2009)
PHM is at Minnetonka on Saturday. Noteworthy because PHM was a state tournament team last year, and Minnetonka wasn't. Now this is a mismatch in favor of Minnetonka.
Rosemount vs. Lakeville North at Ames on Saturday (see Mtka vs PHM).
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

7:30 PM Tonight. Edina vs. Roseville at Roseville Arena, Lexington and Cty. Rd C.
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

D2D said:
So much depends on strength of schedule...very hard to rack up big point totals against the best, and relatively easy against the rest...
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Exactly right. Hence some of my scoring expectations for some of those more talented scorers when considering their "challenging" ;) schedules.

I think a few of the Warroad Warriors are examples of the concept. May be some similar examples among Classic Suburban rosters. The Suburban East a little tougher to accumulate monster point totals...and I'm sure you know of west metro conferences that are more akin to the SEC as per stiffer competition and more modest points accumulation as a result.
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

Some good games this weekend:

Friday
Hastings at Eastview (Apple Valley arena) -- These two will most likely be the #1 and #2 seeds in Section 3AA in no particular order.
Mound-Westonka at Holy Family/Waconia -- Good Class A matchup way out west.
Minnetonka at Blake -- Possibly #1 in AA vs. #1 in A.

Saturday
AHA at Brainerd/Little Falls -- only reason I mention it is because last time out, Holy Angels senior goalie Kelly Mellon made 67 (sixty-seven) saves in a 1-1 tie with Redwing.
Anoka at Coon Rapids -- top two teams in the Northwest Suburban and will be two of the major players in Section 5AA.
Bloomington Jefferson at Lakeville North -- don't laugh, the Jaguars ain't bad. Last time out they beat Shakopee 2-1.
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

I noticed Shattuck St Marys U19's defeated Minnetonka handily this week by a score of 6-1. Ouch! I thought Minnetonka was once of the top teams. Was this expected? :eek:
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

Stick Boy said:
I noticed Shattuck St Marys U19's defeated Minnetonka handily this week by a score of 6-1. Ouch! I thought Minnetonka was once of the top teams. Was this expected? :eek:
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Yes, pretty much. Can't really compare any MSHSL team to SSM.
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

Stick Boy said:
I noticed Shattuck St Marys U19's defeated Minnetonka handily this week by a score of 6-1. Ouch! I thought Minnetonka was once of the top teams. Was this expected? :eek:
Click to expand...

Are you kidding? SSM beat Chicago Mission the week before three straight games and the last one 5-0. That's the Chicago Mission that won the U19 National Championship. In other words, there are very few U19 teams nationally, all of whom attract players from entire states, who can play with SSM much less high school teams who draw kids from one school district.
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

Stick Boy said:
I noticed Shattuck St Marys U19's defeated Minnetonka handily this week by a score of 6-1. Ouch! I thought Minnetonka was once of the top teams. Was this expected? :eek:
Click to expand...

I did not see the game, but from sinbin on the MN High School Forum: "Shots were 23-19 until the last minute or two, then a SSM flurry."
 
Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

D2D said:
I did not see the game, but from sinbin on the MN High School Forum: "Shots were 23-19 until the last minute or two, then a SSM flurry."
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I think the fact that Minnetonka played their back up goalie had something to do with the lopsided score. Minnetonka's first string goalie, Julie Friend, is committed to play D1 hockey at St. Cloud and rarely sits. I don't know why Minnetonka sat her for this game. Maybe she was ill.
 
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Re: Minnesota Girls High School Hockey III

D2D said:
Mound-Westonka's Taylor Kuehl keeps racking up points

http://www.mngirlshockeyhub.com/news_article/show/72158?referrer_id=115187
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Very impressed by Miss Kuehl when I've seen her play. She'll be a nice addition to the Buckeye roster when the time comes.

Scoring stats update for this week:

http://www.mngirlshockeyhub.com/sub...3&stat_tab=skater&order_by=PTS&order_dir=DESC

Ponies and Raiders coming up Saturday night...SEC clash of titans. GO PONIES!
 
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