ND Pride

Holy Angeles is a poor example as they are a private school and have a hockey program that is a magnet for quality players. Your comment about North Dakota putting together 1 team in Elite II compared to 9 for Minnesota - well Minnesota has approximately 8 times as many people as North Dakota so based on a proportion of population comparison they should have that many teams - so your point on the number of Minnesota teams does not statistically support your point. There are a variety of other variables that you ignore or are unaware of in your comparisons (population growth, age composition of the two states, in-migration/out-migration rates, state sponsored support for hockey (Mighty Ducks legistation in the past), etc, etc. Maybe you could contribute something to the discussion if you did some research into the situation rather than simply run down another area. Why even bother to come onto this board and make negative statements? Does that make you feel better?

MNHockey9 is just another example of the analytically impaired, emotionally stunted, little braggarts that surface from time to time on high school hockey boards. Sometimes we even have locals who act like that. In any case, as pointed out above by NDHockey1 the North Dakota Elite team finished tied for second this year ahead of 7 MInnesota section teams and Shattuck and Wisconsin. That was a team composed of all North Dakota kids. The Elite I team had a great ending to their season as well playing for the championship of their league. That team was approximately one-half Minnesota and one-half North Dakota kids. The North Dakota kids contributed 107 points and the Minnesota kids contributed 108 points (total goals and assists). As NDHockey1 points out, if you create North Dakota teams based on community population sizes as in some large Minnesota cities you would have teams just as good as many of the top Minnesota teams. Also, if you match some of the weaker ND teams with Minnesota communities with shorter hockey histories and level of community support and hockey culture the performance comparisons will be similar in most cases. Also, if you happen to go to one of the Gopher Hockey sites (Gopher Puck Live) you will see the big write up on how two North Dakota kids playing for the Gophers led the U of M to two wins over a great team like the UND Sioux.

More cutting edge insight from X2theZ, the same person who brought you the post on November 2nd falsely claiming that several North Dakota high school hockey players (who he specifically named) were charged with some sort of violation. Maybe it is time to retire from posting until you have something mature to say.

Apparently he sustained a serious cut on the arm by a skate blade. I heard this second hand - apparently no nerve damage but some tendon damage. An adult friend of the family mentioned that today at a health club. He will miss some games but beyond that did not have a lot of details. Again, this is second hand info.

I am not from Grand Forks, and South does have a great team, but focusing on stats like that can be misleading. They played Bismarck twice, a weak team, and picked up a total of 12 goals against them (in two games) and then another 25 against Wahpeton. Their games against Red River and Grafton were 2-1 games. North is not strong and neither is Central so really if I were coaching I would ignore the dominance of weak opponents and keep the kids focused on the challenges that lie ahead with the tougher teams. Overconfidence and not respecting the competition can be a downfall for many high level teams. Good luck to them through the rest of their schedule. It will be the end of season outcomes that matter most not stats against opponents across the state in a down year for hockey at most schools.

South beat Bismarck High tonight 3-1 after trailing 1-0 after the first period. Shots in the 1st favored South 15-2. In the second South outshot Bismarck 22-1 but the game remained tied 1-1. South added two in the third to finish the scoring. Not sure what shots were in the third but it was one sided just like the first two. Bismarck goalie Michel Hillman was in the zone and kept Bismarck in the game. I would expect to see him with over 50 saves when the box score comes out tomorrow. For Bismarck Ross Monson scored the opening goal when he got behind the South defensemen. Justin Connell had a good game. Reis on defense looked good and so did Will Aide at forward. Bismarck played a good game despite being outmanned. South showed their usual team speed and good puck movement. Mcdougall put in the first two goals for south and Paul Weisgarber got the final one on a 5 on 3 (I think). Overall it was a good game although I am sure the South players are frustrated because Hillman was able to keep the score under control. If Bismarck can duplicate that type of effort they should be in every game out West and may rise to the top of the standings if they can generate more offense than they did tonight. The game should be a great tuneup for their game with Century.

If I get to the South/Bismarck High game I will submit a report. Some of the top players for Bismarck High include Justin Connell, Ross Monson, and Clark Dingeman. They have played on several North Dakota Select teams in the post season. Like I said last summer, there is not a lot of support on the team, but those are the top players - others may emerge over the season to strengthen the overall team performance for Bismarck. It will be interesting to see if they can close the gap at all on South from their previous game.

I dont think that sioux sports needs any more talking about Alex Simonson (GFC) or Tyler Klein (FN) transfering to RR because there is only about 5 or 6 people that know any of this information is correct which is them and there parents and I dont think either of these people like being talked about like this if it isnt a for sure thing and I dont think there current hockey coaches would appreciate it either.

I suppose you are a fan of these two players - it is great to have supporters. I will have to watch them and see if some sort of profile might be written up on them. There was a nice one on Mihulka recently. Actually though, I have not heard much talk at all about Vigen on here and only a little about Ladouceur. I am sure everyone will get their due credit as the season goes on and Red River keeps being successful - be patient. To keep an eye on these players it is helpful to have their numbers - one has the number 11 - same as this posters screen name and the other has #19. Both of these players came into the season unheralded - but let's watch them and keep an eye on their progress. Is there anything else that their coach says about them in addition to their work ethic? They do have a few penalty minutes - 30 between the two of them. Anything else? If you can get an interview with them try and find out how they train off-season, what their goals are for hockey (e.g. want to play juniors, etc).

Should be interesting to see which coach does the best job getting their team in top form as the season goes on. Should be plenty of viable coaching candidates from the helpful analysis that you provided. As a side note, East and West teams have played 10 games against one another so far with the east winning seven and the west winning three. The three west wins include Hazen beating Wahpeton 5-2, Dickinson beating Wahpeton 8-2 and Century beating Jamestown 3-2.

That's right and he skated in their Prospects camp this summer in Wisconsin. The North team is struggling big time with scoring and all of their forwards are down compared to last year's production. Just goes to reinforce the fact that hockey is a team sport and all positions have to click for individuals to have success. Klein has been in every USA Hockey National Select Festival so that indicates that the North Dakota High School coaches, a different crew each year that selects kids for the national event, feel that he is a good player. Whether he is ready for juniors or not is a point to debate - certainly this years stats are down for his team. Time will tell as to where these kids end up next year and the year after. Good luck to all the kids with junior aspirations. Great article on Marc Milhulka in the Grand Forks Herald the other day - he is off to a great start.

I have to agree with you - that board is a slow one - not much being posted on the North Dakota thread. I think a site administrator sets up pre-established threads to try and get things going but it does not generate much interest. Siouxsports.com is a great site and is a logical outlet because more people know about it. Theoretically it would be great to go to that High School Hockey Message Board but the high school hockey thread that Siouxsports lets people use serves the purpose well. I think the doctrinare folks who say this is only for Sioux hockey are missing a benefit of a high school hockey thread on a college hockey site. It attracts more people to the site and can potentially draw more people into the college threads. In that sense it helps to promote Sioux hockey. Still, the presence of a high school thread does nothing to harm the functionality of the overall site - but still some people occasionally complain about it. Clayton is not necessarily complaining - just pointing out the fact that there is a real high school hockey site somewhere else on the internet. Siouxsports is far better than that one though. From a marketing perspective a high school thread on North Dakota high school hockey is better off here than somewhere else - unless the goal is to minimize user growth on this site. We are fortunate to have such a great site for a high school hockey thread. I hope everyone behaves so we can keep it as it has been shut down on occasion when a few people lose their civility.

Who cares how many goals Red River can score against Wap this year. Normally, quality teams back off when they crush an opponent after a period or two. I doubt if Red River will feel an obligation to try and score that many goals just to match South - that would be meaningless in my opinion.

Amen. He should start his own thread somewhere else.

I am not sure there is much point in trying to get into a discussion with this poster regarding Crosby. I think he is mainly interested in baiting people into some sort of conflict rather than respecting their views even though he has a different opinion - which is fine. Obviously the resources are out there to come to your own conclusions regarding any hockey player. Sometimes the best thing to do with someone who is so dogmatic is to ignore them so hopefully we will not have to suffer through too many more than the six posts we have seen so far.

Nice post specifics. You make a lot of good points (e.g. Ovechkin is an 85, Crosby and 87, etc). For some additional info on Crosby check out the DVD, "The Making of Sid Crosby." Ultimately, they are both great hockey players and it is a pleasure to have such great young talent in the NHL - I would rather enjoy watching each of them play than try and determine which one is better. Actually Jagrfan68 I did check back on this thread and there has been almost nothing said about Crosby previous to today. You ask people to comment on why he is so great......I'd say just do a web search and see what is said about him. I have no vested interest in defending or promoting him - all I know is what others say - and from what I have read (although I did see him play in person at Shattuck a couple of years ago) - they say a lot of positives. If you think there are better rookie players I have no problem with that - I don't see why anyone on this board needs to explain why he is a good player when it is a well established fact among people who know a ton more about hockey than anyone posting on this board.

The game was cancelled. They might play this Thursday.

Well, his team is struggling this year and most likely will next year. Tough problem for some players if they cannot get enough support to show all of their skills. I have heard no confirmation of any possibility of a transfer even if he does not try the junior route early. Best thing is to try and focus on being as successful as possible during the season at hand. Nice job by West Fargo the other night. That sure throws the middle of the EDC pack into perhaps even more confusion. Should be interesting to see which teams rise up within that second tier behind South, Red River and Grafton.

Not a problem. The top four for South are - help me on this - Galt, Spriggs, Wurden and Anderson?

Seriously, thanks for the humor.

Read my quote from Loos in the previous post. His review of previous posts did not include all of them. You can't cut people slack who are unwilling to present the whole picture.

I can't say that I enjoy this but on July 11, 2004 jloos had the following statement in a post, "I didn't realize GFC, GFRR, FN, FS, GPR, and WF played their home games at the REA. North has nobody that can score, most of their team is likely to be suspended for drugs at any given time, and they have terrible coaching." That is a direct quote - anyone can go back and find it. I had difficulty cutting it and pasting it into this post so I retyped it. I guess administration can go ahead and lock this thread now. I hope that six foot stick you have for me is aged so it burns well in my fireplace.

I'm through with it. (Nice pic)

I value his opinion as a hockey obsever too but you simply can't let a person post things that are not true on a public message board. If he would have started this in a non-public way I would agree with you. He made the mistake of posting this here. Those who have seen that stuff deserve to see him challenged on it. I am referring to the allegations about the high school students.