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2005 North Dakota State Hockey Tournament


Wilbur

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I just have one question for everyone in here, who from the east has beat a team from the west this year? The east has had 5 chances and the only team to not lose was RR and they tied minot, i realize the east has bragging rights every year, and they deserve it, but show a little class and knowledge in your comments, south lost to bismarck, grafton got the crap kicked outta um by bismarck, and minot already beat central along with grafton this year. Do i think a west team will win it this year, probably not, but they at least deserve some respect, well at least minot and bismarck.

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not saying these teams from the west are bad, actually minot and bis high are a couple of the best teams to come out of the west in a few years, and not taking anything away from the wins, but the games they did win were either all at home (all of minots east games were at home and bismarck played south on the road, but in the first game of the year) or too early in the year to mean anything. im just not sure that the east players had as much to play for as the west players because of the east's perennial domination over the west. saying taht i look for the west to go 1-3 in the first round, with minot squeaking it out over central.

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i'm only defending minot and bismarck high, the rest aren't very good. Anyone who's played hockey knows that when a team constantly plays teams below there caliber the team has a tendency to play just good enough to win, and sometimes not even that. That is the big problem with these two teams(minot and bismarck) from the west, they play mediocre teams all year, then have to jump up and play teams that play at a different level than the rest of the teams they've played at state, its hard adjustment to make, and until more quality teams from the west can compete consistenly at a higher level, it will be the same story every year.

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Tournament Schedule

Thursday, Feb. 24

Session 1

Game 1 12:00 pm Minot vs. GF Central REA

Game 2 30 min. after conclusion of Game 1 Grafton-Park River vs. Williston REA

Session 2

Game 3 6:30 pm Bismarck High vs. Red River REA

Game 4 30 min. after conclusion of Game 3 Fargo South vs. Bismarck Century REA

Friday, Feb. 25

Session 1

Game 5 11:30 am L1 vs. L2 REA

Game 6 30 min. after conclusion of Game 5 L3 vs. L4 REA

Session 2

Game 7 6:30 pm W1 vs. W2 REA

Game 8 30 min. after conclusion of Game 7 W3 vs. W4 REA

Saturday, Feb. 26

Game 9 11:00 am Consolation Game - W5 vs. W6 OC

Game 10 11:30 am 3rd Place Game - L7 vs. L8 REA

Game 11 8:00 pm Championship Game - W7 vs. W8 REA

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Tournament Schedule

Thursday, Feb. 24   

Session 1   

Game 1 12:00 pm Minot vs. GF Central REA

Game 2 30 min. after conclusion of Game 1 Grafton-Park River vs. Williston REA

Session 2   

Game 3 6:30 pm Bismarck High vs. Red River REA

Game 4 30 min. after conclusion of Game 3 Fargo South vs. Bismarck Century REA

     

Friday, Feb. 25   

Session 1   

Game 5 11:30 am L1 vs. L2 REA

Game 6 30 min. after conclusion of Game 5 L3 vs. L4 REA

Session 2   

Game 7 6:30 pm W1 vs. W2 REA

Game 8 30 min. after conclusion of Game 7 W3 vs. W4 REA

     

Saturday, Feb. 26   

Game 9 11:00 am Consolation Game - W5 vs. W6 OC

Game 10 11:30 am 3rd Place Game - L7 vs. L8 REA

Game 11 8:00 pm Championship Game - W7 vs. W8 REA

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Thank you!

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You're right, 10 of the last 15. 9 of the last 14...

1991 - Grafton

1992 - Minot

1993 - Central

1994 - South

1995 - Central

1996 - Red River

1997 - Red River

1998 - Red River

1999 - South

2000 - Red River

2001 - Red River

2002 - Grafton

2003 - Central

2004 - Central

Prior to Central winning the last two, GF schools had won 7 and non-GF schools 5 from 1991 till 2002. That to me looks like the rest of the state has made great strides to narrow the gap. I believe that has to be the first ever 12 year span in which less than 8 titles were won by GF schools, right? If Central or Red River should happen to win the tournament this year I will be forced to eat my words, but don't be surprised this year marks the beginning of a new era in ND hockey. Within the next 10 years I could easily see South win 5 state championships. Red River, Central, and Grafton could split the other 5.

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If Grand Forks kept all of their players as oppossed to players going the USHL/Junior route, I would bet that more titles would have gone to RRHS or CHS.

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If Grand Forks kept all of their players as oppossed to players going the USHL/Junior route, I would bet that more titles would have gone to RRHS or CHS.

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You are right about that, GF loses much of its top talent. Also, the freshman class of South is very weak, the year before that is better, and the younger crowd is very good.

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If Grand Forks kept all of their players as oppossed to players going the USHL/Junior route, I would bet that more titles would have gone to RRHS or CHS.

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There is some truth to what you say but other schools can also use that rationale for saying they would have had better teams as well. As pointed out in a previous thread:

Minot has lost a handful of players to the junior leagues. Namely Quinn Fylling, Brian Haaland (Nebraska-Omaha), Eric Helstedt (Uconn), Ben Keup (LSSU), and a couple of other kids that just left because of the coaching.

Cory Loos, a top scorer for the Spuds and a Minn State all tourney selection last year, left North High to play at Moorhead - basically the same idea as going to juniors - getting into a top developmental program. John Halstensen went to the FM Jets this year and Elliot Okland, the goalie with the top save % in the USA Hockey National Select Festival went to the F/M Jets and passed up his last two years at North. Two other players left North for Moorhead believing that the developmental grass was greener. And of course the greatest move of all, Danny Irmen playing for North and then going to Red River - again not juniors but moving up to a program with a great tradition. There are other stories like this if you want to do the research on it.

Nick Krebsbach left Minot for Red River and was there at the same time as Danny Irmen. Those two were major contributors to Red River and maybe Red River would not have won the 5 OT game without the two of them on their team.

South high lost a couple of kids as well over the years - one Wade Haarstad went to Moorhead and then the USHL. There is more of that than you think and most people are only aware of their own schools. Dallas Bossert, left Bismarck Century for Shattuck-St. Mary's etc, etc.

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1991 - Grafton

1992 - Minot

1993 - Central

1994 - South

1995 - Central

1996 - Red River

1997 - Red River

1998 - Red River

1999 - South

2000 - Red River

2001 - Red River

2002 - Grafton

2003 - Central

2004 - Central

Prior to Central winning the last two, GF schools had won 7 and non-GF schools 5 from 1991 till 2002. That to me looks like the rest of the state has made great strides to narrow the gap. I believe that has to be the first ever 12 year span in which less than 8 titles were won by GF schools, right? If Central or Red River should happen to win the tournament this year I will be forced to eat my words, but don't be surprised this year marks the beginning of a new era in ND hockey. Within the next 10 years I could easily see South win 5 state championships. Red River, Central, and Grafton could split the other 5.

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If we are going to narrow down the years, then let's narrow the gap from '96 to present, which is a nine-year period and certainly more indicative of recent history than what happened in the early 90's. During that time, GF schools won SEVEN of NINE, with RR, alone, winning five. That is pretty dominate. In fact, it is incredibly dominate.

The only stretch that I see where a GF school (the same one or either) didn't repeat was '85-86 and '91-92, but those time periods were 13 and 19 years ago, which needless to say is a very long time.

As for a new era, I will believe it when I see it. Has the gap been narrowed, perhaps? But, South's certainly had strong squads off and on for some time and that has rarely translated into championships.

I hope your son does well and one day skates for South and if he leads them to a championship, that would be great, but simply because South lost by a "fluke" 47 seconds last year, won the East Region this year and won two titles in the '90's, doesn't, in my opinion, automatically equate with them "easily" winning five of the next ten titles. That would be an incredible turnaround and I would be very surprised if it happened.

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If we are going to narrow down the years, then let's narrow the gap from '96 to present, which is a nine-year period and certainly more indicative of recent history than what happened in the early 90's. During that time, GF schools won SEVEN of NINE, with RR, alone, winning five. That is pretty dominate. In fact, it is incredibly dominate.

The only stretch that I see where a GF school (the same one or either) didn't repeat was '85-86 and '91-92, but those time periods were 13 and 19 years ago, which needless to say is a very long time.

As for a new era, I will believe it when I see it. Has the gap been narrowed, perhaps? But, South's certainly had strong squads off and on for some time and that has rarely translated into championships.

I hope your son does well and one day skates for South and if he leads them to a championship, that would be great, but simply because South lost by a "fluke" 47 seconds last year, won the East Region this year and won two titles in the '90's, doesn't, in my opinion, automatically equate with them "easily" winning five of the next ten titles. That would be an incredible turnaround and I would be very surprised if it happened.

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Some of this depends on how you define dominance.  Since 2000 Grand Forks schools have only won titles vs non-GF schools by one goal and one of those wins took 5 OT.  Dominance in terms of titles but the gap is narrowing by some indicators. (See post 75 on this thread). Anybody got any updates on Minot/Central?

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I let Webster do that for me.

Dominate: to rule over, to tower above - that is just for starters. I would say seven of the last nine would fit the description!

Who cares if they won by one goal or overtime games, the only thing that matters is the win. I don't think anyone would say the '87 UND team, for example, (not comparing RR or Central to that team) wasn't completely dominate that season because they only beat Michigan State by two goals (5-3) in the championship game.

btw, I live in Fargo, so it isn't a Fargo/GF thing for me. The gap may be narrowing, and to that I didn't disagree, but I don't expect a sudden shift of power where South will now be winning the the tourney at least 50% of the time. It hasn't happened yet and I don't think it will in the future, but if South wins 5 of the next 10, I will eat my words - no problem.

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I'll give Red River their due. They were dominant from 1987 through 2001. Central, on the other hand, hasn't been all that much better than South from 1985 till now. They have four state titles to South's two... but keep in mind those 47 seconds last year. That's how close South was to winning their 3rd and denying Central their 4th in the last 20 years. I remember sitting with you at the old Ralph watching Grafton defeat Minot for the state championship way back in '85. That was my first clue that other programs outside of GF were catching up to Central and Red River. The gap has been narrowing gradually ever since. The mere fact that people are considering maybe five different teams that could possibly win the tournament this year is proof of what I'm saying. When I was growing up in the late '70s/early '80s there were only two contenders year-in and year-out, other than the great Fargo North teams of 81-82. I didn't mean to say I thought South would easily win 5 titles in the next 10 years... what I meant is that I could easily see it happening. I mean I wouldn't be shocked considering how the youth hockey program in Fargo has made great strides over the years and the fact that they have so many kids playing hockey in south Fargo means they will have a lot more players to choose from than any other school in the state. It would absolutely be an incredible turnaround, but don't be too suprised if it happens. I wouldn't even be surprised to see other schools outside of GF, Fargo, and Grafton develop programs that start contending on a more regular basis within the relatively near future. It just appears that more kids are starting to play the game in more different places, and that eventually it's inevitable that the playing field will become more even. We might even see more teams from the west win some titles, although that is probably in the more distant future.

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This may be opening up a whole new can of worms, but when you consider how the demographics of Grand Forks have changed in the past 20 years, and the effect it's had on Central, I'd say the fact that GFC has managed to win state four times in the past dozen-or-so years is a huge accomplishment. Seriously, for anybody familiar with Grand Forks, how many north-end neighborhoods are there in which you'd expect to see many hockey-playing kids? Not too many, at least compared to the Red River district. Open enrollment alleviates that disadvantage to an extent, but not that much. And when you consider how huge of a school Fargo South is, they should be a power. It's crazy that Grand Forks and Fargo both have two public high schools considering the huge disparity in population.

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South is going to be split into two districts in about 5 years. Plus many southside kids are going into Shanley's program. I see South's talent pool being diluted in the next couple of years. Although I don't think they will ever regress to where they were before the mid 90's. Fargo North is in serious trouble. This years senior class is it down to pee-wees. Every other north-side team is average at best. I see a coaching change (a very long overdue one) next season.

Fargo parents are slowly killing hockey with all of the different teams. The Flyers appear to have their act together to a point, but this is likely do to the huge numbers they have.

With WF growing they are poised to start a very good program. All they need is some organization and a good HS coach who gets involved with the youth program. Shanley appears to be doing this already.

The Central-Minot score is suprising - it appears Wilbur made a good prediction.

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I am not surprised at all about the Central-Minot score. When you play for a Grand Forks school, you don't ever think that you won't go to state. It is a forgone conclusion. We were never nervous, and we played at Englestad against Central every year. We know the ice, we expect to be there, and we sleep in our own beds at night. Proximity to MN is everything for ND hockey. Being able to play Roseau and Warroad and Moorhead growing up is huge. For that reason alone, the East will always dominate the west.

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South is going to be split into two districts in about 5 years.  Plus many southside kids are going into Shanley's program.  I see South's talent pool being diluted in the next couple of years.  Although I don't think they will ever regress to where they were before the mid 90's.  Fargo North is in serious trouble.  This years senior class is it down to pee-wees.  Every other north-side team is average at best.  I see a coaching change (a very long overdue one) next season. 

Fargo parents are slowly killing hockey with all of the different teams.  The Flyers appear to have their act together to a point, but this is likely do to the huge numbers they have. 

With WF growing they are poised to start a very good program.  All they need is some organization and a good HS coach who gets involved with the youth program.  Shanley appears to be doing this already. 

The Central-Minot score is suprising - it appears Wilbur made a good prediction.

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First of all, Congratulations to GF central on an outstanding game against Minot,

That said, You have to question this coaching staff. Not only do they have the ability to waste talent and chase talent to junior hockey, but they allow 16 and 17 year old kids to play the most undisciplined , embarrassing hockey year after year. I can not describe how dissappointing our program is right now. I am not in any way discounting the talent on GF, thaey deserve all the credit in the world, they had a game plan , they implimented it , and kicked Minot's ass. A game plan for Minot would be a novel approach. Willllllbur!!!!!! Damn You

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