Brim006

They must! They probably have the highest youth hockey turnout per capita in the state. At least for mites and squirts. Very impressive. I'll get to watch a few of their teams play this weekend.

A little off topic, but is there anyone from Dickinson here that can explain the hockey boom going on there? I know they have some new facilities and a steady population growth even after the boom, but I was blown away seeing their youth numbers. It looks like they have 150 kids in mites this year, which is insane for a town of that size, especially out west. For comparison, Bismarck which is over 3x the population has about 175 mites, Mandan has about 50, Williston 40, DL 40, WC 40, HB 25, Valley City 18. Dickinson Squirts have around 75 compared to Bismarck 115, and it continues to taper off from there as normal but it certainly looks like they have up and coming numbers that might really be changing the hockey culture there. Squirts and mites are super young yes, but on top of the numbers it looks and sounds like they have some legitimately good teams as well. That would be nice to see Dickinson shake up the west a little bit to knock off Minot and Bismarck teams.

They were 5-2 with him, and now 3-10 without him. Getting Hogness back helped as he has been producing, but small teams like that need all their top players to have any chance. Going from fighting for 4th or 5th to landing 7th is pretty brutal. With that said, for the middle of the pack teams, it ultimately always comes down to needing to beat the same teams to make it to state anyways, it's just a matter of which side you cross bracket from for the final game.

He's technically eligible to play starting the 8th, but still has to serve a game misconduct from the Davies game so he will have to sit for the reg season finale. So his first game back will be the play-in game. DL will see an instant boost getting him back since he's a 2+ point per game player. He will give Stromme the support he's been missing, especially on the PP. I heard he has been able to practice with the team all this time, just couldn't play in games? If that is true, that is huge. Hockey would be a tough sport to keep up with while being out 6 weeks. I'm not sure if that is accurate or not. If so, that means the star players for the B-ball team have been practicing as well and should hit the ground running for that team too starting Tuesday against #1 Four Winds.

Due to a major at the end of the Davies game before his 6 week suspension, Nelson has to skip DL’s final reg season game. Silver lining for DL is now he’ll get a warm up game in before EDC. Assuming they win the game that is.

Jamestown would fit well into the North Star as well.

Fun to dream about. And would actually cut down on mileage overall if done with a Y shape boundary for 3 pie shape conferences even if 5 more teams are added haha. EDC - GFC, RR, MP, FS, FN, FD, WFS, WF, Horace, Wahp, Jamestown (11 teams and they get 4 spots at state which is 36% chance) WDA - BHS, Century, Legacy, Mandan, HB, Dickinson, Williston, Watford City, Crosby, Minot, Minot North (11 teams and get 3 spots at state which is 27% chance) North Star - Bott, DL, Langdon and GPR (4 teams and get 1 spot at state which is 25% chance)

Good question, I have just always assumed they wanted in when they partially joined 7 years ago. But maybe they have gotten used to the schedule of beating up small MN teams and having winning seasons then just being able to join a local postseason tournament. If they have all 6pt EDC games they will still get a lot of their current schedule, but as soon as they move to 2 EDC games per team, they might be looking at a drop from 14-15 win seasons down to 3-4 win seasons. So I could actually see them not liking the move now that they have gotten comfortable with this current setup.

If JR G folds, the Northwood kids would join MP which would give them a nice bump. Would Langdon be in play for EDC? would 12-14 teams in each conference potentially push two tiers?! Maybe WC is the first domino

Cue GFhockey

Woah, thanks for the update! I suppose it finally got to the point where they either needed to get them fully included or just get them out completely. Despite the drawbacks, I think the move makes sense overall. Is North Dakota High School hockey really going to turn a program away? No, and they shouldn't. Especially since MP is clearly showing improvement each year. And I would gladly take MP over the Wahp teams of the old EDC days. Hopefully the game of hockey continues to grow in MP and this fuels the fire a bit. GFC and RR will be fine. They will both schedule it as a single 6pt game, and they will likely change another EDC matchup to a single 6pt game so they dont lose any non-con games. Guessing they would pick WF or DL to do that with in addition to GPR already that way? And if we’re being honest, even in the worst‑case scenario where they lose a non‑conference game, any major outrage would feel more like pride than substance. Are they really going to be upset about missing the chance to beat Notre Dame of West Haven 13–0, or to play “powerhouse” Detroit Lakes? Even the TRF matchup wouldn’t be much of a loss — they haven’t been competitive in years and don’t seem likely to be anytime soon.

Well as of next year they literally will be apart of the EDC so....

Yea that’ll be MP varsity

Yep. it was the normal full varsity team. Mayport is now 11-4 vs Minnesota teams

Guessing they will keep their non con conference as is and just change another EDC game to a 6 point contest.

WFS over DL 4-1 Willy over HB 6-0 Legacy over J-town 2-1

Yeah, cherry picking is certainly the wrong terminology. Since EDC teams aren't required to play them, most are not. So MP is forced to fill out their schedule with whoever they can get, and it's mostly low-end MN teams who also probably struggle to fill out their non-con schedules. MP certainly is not turning down games against EDC teams.

Outside of any surprises it looks like the EDC standings are pretty well solidified. FN and DL are tied for 5th but FN has the upper hand with a game in hand and a more favorable lineup of remaining games. Could possibly see WF and GPR swap spots but it doesnt look likely and I believe they play each other in the play in game either way. So if things stay put, the play in games would be FS vs MP and GPR vs WF and winners are rewarded with playing GFC and RR first round EDC. GFC RR WFS FD FN DL FS WF GPR MP The West looks like a toss‑up across the entire board right now. With the potential for big swings in any direction and nearly every team capable of beating anyone on a given night, these final games should be fun to watch.

RR over DL 6-1 MP over Bagley 5-2 WFS over FN 3-2 FD over GPR 4-1 GFC over Shanley 7-1 Minot over Century 5-2

No I think he was just pointing out that Mayport doesn't have to play any EDC games but still gets to be included in the EDC tournament, so if that is the case why doesn't GF just play all MN teams all year long then just play in the EDC tournament.

I think leadership allowing more games takes care of a lot of the non-con limitation concerns especially for the GF teams, and it would also keep a few more kids from leaving early due to the more games in juniors excuse. I agree the Mayport situation is a bit odd, and I thought it was only supposed to be temporary but now it's year 7. I'm not exactly sure what the best solution is for Mayport, but allowing more games for everyone improves every single potential solution. If Jamestown gets added to the EDC, and Mayport becomes a full time member, the non-con games are going to be even more limited, so I'd imagine we'd start seeing even more 6-point games. Maybe that would finally push the envelope for getting more games added. Does anyone happen to know the argument against allowing more games? It seems like it would be overwhelmingly positive to allow it, and I have never heard of a single decent argument against it yet. Even just 2 games would make a big difference, but preferably 3-4. I might be mistaken but I don't think GFC has ever played Mayport yet a single time in the 7 years Mayport has been a part of the NDHS hockey system. GFRR played them 1 time at EDC quarterfinals last season when Mayport upset WF to make it past the play-in game round for the very first time. Side note: Are the GF teams or anyone else being denied 6-point game requests? If a team such as jamestown doesnt want to play HB twice, can't they just schedule a 6-point game and free up a game on both of their schedules?

That's a big first step! Hopefully boys mix in some games sooner than later to kick off the transition.

That would be great. junior gold would be down to like 6 teams?

Wait a minute...I feel like I recall people on here mentioning Minot takes their JR Gold team very seriously and is a big part of the reason why they don't want to split up into 2 varsity teams. But it doesn't look like Minot even has a JR Gold team? So now I'm confused.

Hmmm, I wonder how that would work? Since I'm assuming DL doesn't want to swap with them again, and both EDC and WDA are at an even 10 right now. HB seems to be hanging on by a thread so if they drop out and Jamestown leaves it would be 11 EDC and 8 WDA. But maybe uneven number of teams doesn't matter? But also, I suppose Minot could split into 2 at any time, and maybe HB has no plans of dropping out. Any chance of Wahp ever coming back?