Yote 53

Jesus, did the Wild suck last night. Perfect opportunity to gain ground on St. Louis and Vegas and they stunk the joint up. Can't believe I watched that entire game.

To be clear, I am posting specifically about boys hockey in NoDak. Girls hockey is a different animal and, after reading your post, I can see the benefits of a Tier 1 girls program in Fargo. Are the proposals being discussed for a boys program, girls program, both, or just boys/just girls?

So they still leave the local HS programs and instead of going to Sioux Falls and elsewhere they move to Fargo. On top of that, now that you have a Tier 1 program in Fargo it becomes a great local option for kids in the Fargo and Grand Forks areas who might not ever thought about moving away from home for Tier 1. They weren't going to do it but since you gave them easy access, why not pursue it? In the end ND HS hockey will suffer, possibly even more than it currently is and this won't solve your problems with talent level in ND HS Hockey. Also, I don't think you should stick with the status quo either. I think Team North Dakota needs to really be pushed and elevated. In Wisconsin, a lot of players, if they don't make TW they don't even bother with the Capitols or the Admirals or going to Chicago for AAA. They figure if they are not good enough to make TW then why spend 10's of thousands of dollars chasing? They play WEHL (Wisconsin Elite League) instead. Really, all this does is weaken the Power by stemming the flow of players leaving NoDak for Sioux Falls and force them to find their players elsewhere because they'll be cut off from NoDak and Manitoba players who have a closer option in Fargo. In fact, I should be all for this, being from South Dakota and having my youngest coming up through the system now. More spots available in Sioux Falls, a Team Midwest option building, Omaha still being an option (it's where my oldest played). This could be great for me, but not for ND HS Hockey. If the problem is losing players to Juniors, either the USHL or NAHL, this Tier 1 program won't stop that. Kids with those options are already past having to play U16/U18.

I had a whole thing written up but to be more concise I will just say, don't do it. Promote Team North Dakota. Look at the success of Team Wisconsin as a model. Preserve and promote HS hockey in NoDak while also offering opportunities for your best players to showcase themselves at the Tier 1 level. Just my opinion.

I think the direction we are headed is towards a club sports model. Frankly, that might not be the worst thing either. I look at the what the ACHA has done for college hockey and think if NCAA D1 hockey went away, and all collegiate hockey followed the ACHA model (with some tweaks), college hockey would explode across the country and become much, much bigger when freed from the restraints of Title 9.

It's back

Ok, that was terrible rebound control on that 3rd Hermantown goal. Goalie needs to send that puck up into the far corner. Instead, he kicks it right out into the slot with Hermantown forwards bearing down and his D facing up ice coming backwards. I heard the coach say he was going to stick to his goalie rotation no matter how hot the #1 was playing. While admire wanting to get the kids the state tournament experience, that's not turning out very good right now. Granted, this isn't all on the goalie as the Zephyrs are not playing very well at all.

Thought Warroad was getting the best of them in OT but it only took that puck bouncing around dangerously in the slot area and it was game over. Got to clear that puck with authority and not overskate it.

Brutal. The Streak continues.

And here we go...

That was a nice ticky tack call to make this more interesting after the 5 minuter.

When this game started off 3-0 I did not expect to see it tied up. Got a good one going.

Welp. This one is on the verge of getting out of hand early. Centennial up 3-0. Couple of nice deflection goals.

Another blowout QF game. The 4/5 matchup tonight should be a good one, usually is. Hopefully the other games can be closer and hoping for an upset.

Make that 4-1.

There is an app on Roku, Fire, etc. and available for your phone if you don't want to go through a browser. KSTP-TV 5. Works great.

In. I thought the MHSHL controlled all the TV rights for Section games. Any other games being free streamed over the next couple of days you know of?

I included the Idaho schools because they are State schools and a conference that looks like that, a conference of peer schools, they may be more inclined to move to FBS for that. May have a good point about UNC. I included them solely based on location. They would be interchangeable with somebody else, maybe EWU or NAU.

That Deslauriers fight was a tilt.

BTW - I loved following this thread this season. The Midwest High School League championships start this weekend, Iowa/Nebraska/Kansas. So, programs that many of you come across in the youth ranks from Sioux City, Des Moines, Omaha, Kansas City, Waterloo, etc. The hockey is actually pretty good, though would not challenge the GF schools, much like the rest of NoDak has trouble with that beast. We suffer from the same issues. Most of the top players leave HS for AAA. In most years, close to 20-25 players or more leave for other teams. It hurts the overall quality of HS hockey and if more players stayed home it would be better. Admittedly, when my oldest reached HS age he left for AAA and did not play HS. Bottom line is that if you don't play HS in MN or a few other select areas (like GF and maybe other places in NoDak) you are not seen and any accomplishments are not taken seriously by junior hockey coaches and scouts. You have no chance at playing at the USHL or NAHL levels unless you leave. It's not the fault of the kids or the parents. Trust me, they sacrifice and would love to stay home. It's the fault of the system.

Was thinking more along these lines: Potential Division I G5 Conference 2 UND NDSU SDSU USD Montana Montana State Denver Omaha Idaho Idaho State Weber State UNC 10 team football conference playing a 9 game round robin schedule. 12 team conference for all other sports. Nice geographic fit on two sides with the I-29 corridor on the East and decent fit from Denver to Missoula in the west.

The only path to G5 for the Dakota schools is a few Summit schools merge with the Big Sky schools in Montana, Idaho and a few others creating an entirely new conference. Throw out the NCAA rules about establishing an FBS conference. Take them to court and you'll win on anti-trust grounds. They've lost every court case they've been challenged on lately. The MAC is not moving this far west and CUSA is way too stretched out. The best idea is the most obvious, that similar schools with similar goals in a similar geographic region (West) get together to form their own conference.

Possible. When in GF we always hit the Red Pepper. Also, on the list is Slapshot/Fat Albert's. I always try to wear some Coyote gear too because that strikes up conversations with both UND and NDSU people too. Loved coming up there for hockey, Fargo/Moorhead, GF/EGF. It's a good time. Plan on doing it all over again. I'm starting all over now with my youngest and have a 1st year Mite. We ran into some GF teams last year in March at a tournament in Marshall, MN where I got to see them play. Looked really good. We plan on going back there this season (and every season after) so maybe we'll see them again. Marshall puts on a good tournament. I read this thread and nod my head. Just know you guys are not alone with what is going on with this sport. I know guys from Wisco, Michigan, Illinois, etc. and it's happening there too. Minnesota gets hit hard too but they have such depth in the number of programs and number of players that they can weather it better than the rest of us can.

It's an endless spiral. We have this problem in the Midwest League (Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas (Kansas City)). The level of play is sneaky good (seriously, it is) and I'd guess the teams would compete with the NoDak HS teams outside of the usual GF powerhouses. Evidence of that is at the youth levels we come up and play in Fargo, Moorhead, Detroit Lakes, and Fargo regularly, so I've run into many of your programs and have an idea of the level of competition. Also, understand that programs like Omaha, Des Moines, and Kansas City have 6, 7, 800 plus kids in their programs. Size matters. Issue is that every year any player that can leaves and plays Tier 1 Midgets because the Midwest League gets absolutely zero exposure. Off my oldest boy's bantam team (years ago) 5 players out of 14 on the team left for AAA programs in Omaha, Des Moines, Sioux Falls, Colorado (Roughriders), and Northstar Academy. That's a lot, and that's just one program, Des Moines, KC, and Omaha were gutted even more. If the MWL was able to keep all these kids at home and playing HS hockey the competitive level of the league would definitely increase. I've been an advocate of a before/after team (like your Team North Dakota, and Team Wisconsin) where the boys can stay home and play HS hockey while still getting that Tier 1 exposure. Seems to work for TW. You speak of the atmosphere of MN HS hockey, I can guarantee the atmosphere in NoDak, SoDak, MWL, Wisco, Illinois, Michigan, any HS hockey barn is better than the lonely Tier 1 grind where these kids travel all over the country playing in front of family that make the trip, a few locals who happen to be in the barn, and a handful of scouts...maybe. It's an expensive grind and it ends up being not even worth it for 80% of these players. Unless you have a NAHL or USHL team offering you a spot I'd recommend just staying home and playing HS hockey. Problem is that if you aren't getting offered on that level, and you believe you do have talent and you want to develop, the best way to do that and get noticed is to leave for a Tier 1 program because staying at home is not going to get you anywhere, at least in the MWL. I'm sure it's different if you play for Central or Red River or ND programs that compete on that level. At least there are some eyeballs on those teams.

I will tell you that if any of the Dakota 4 make the move to FBS, all the Dakota 4 will be making the move to FBS. As we learned 20 years ago, the cost of getting left behind is greater than the increased funding costs to stay with your peer Dakota schools. Those mistakes will not be repeated.