Brim006

They weren’t expected to make it to state, now they have a very strong chance to go.

Another reason why Jamestown moving to the EDC would make sense. Furthest east teams in the WDA would be Minot and Bismarck.

There's now also a Minot North, and they refuse to allow a varsity team for both, so they co-op and are called Minot United. Mickey Mouse BS indeed haha

Here's my best guess at EDC, but it's a crapshoot. I'm not even going to attempt WDA haha DL over MP - play-in GPR over WF - play-in GFC over GPR Sheyenne over Shanley Davies over North RR over DL GFC over Sheyenne RR over Davies DL over North Shanley over GPR GFC over RR - championship Sheyenne over DL - Sheyenne qualifies Davies over Shanley - Davies qualifies

Shanley really turned things around from the beginning of the year.

I was there. They’ve got some solid kids

So I guess I was wrong - Nelson is back for DL tonight instead of Saturday. Him and Stromme already have 3 points each not even through the 1st period. Granted it’s MP but it’s safe to say he’s their X factor.

I might have to go over there and watch that one!

So Century really did play HB with their JV team for 6 points earlier this year and lost in OT? Woof. Looks like that probably lost them 2 spots in the standings as of right now.

Still a tight race in the WDA for #3-#6. Legacy should solidify #2 outside a miracle.

I think there’s one other depth kid but not 100% sure.

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