ND Pride

Well, the fact is that it is a documented cheap shot and his coach could have benched him for a period to reinforce the need for self-control. Stars9 - the information that I provide is based on fact and is reliable - I never said that the kid did not play. The point of Top Shelf's comment is that sportsmanship is important along with playing ability. I don't think anyone who cares about the sport wants to promote goon behavior.

After the last North/South game one of the South players (#11) put a vicious slash on an opposing player sometime after the game had ended. The injured player fell to the ice in pain and later went to the emergency room. Those who saw the slash - it was a hard two handed stick against the wrists - were shocked by it. In the end there were no broken bones and the player was able to play in EDC although the injury hampered him I am told. There were some other EDC coaches at the game and if they saw the situation would think it might shape their opinion of the player. A rather cowardly move but hopefully he will learn some self-control from it. He was assessed 5 and a game although a post game penalty like that certainly could have had further review and maybe additional suspension time.

This is one of those situations where you hate to debate the relative merits of each player because they each bring so much to the table. Four great players who are a lot of fun to watch - each with some variation in their skill sets.

Perhaps the best response is to focus on your last paragraph which I think is the correct approach. High school sport would be better served if that philosophy was used. To analyze the fairness issue you would need a list of all nominees over the years as well as plenty of performance detail to try and determine if there was a fairness issue. You would also need the voting data by region. This is information that you can never get there is probably little point in discussing it. I think on the girls side last year there might be some debate on the situation. In any case, it is not productive or practical to analyze the past as we do not have enough data to do it. I agree I think the awards have probably gone to the "right" player if that is the word.

I think we all agree with you that life is not always fair and that sometimes people do not lose appendages because of it. Just the same, there are a few elementary procedures that can enhance the fairness of awards. The old process of three finalists could create problems based on regional issues (lack of contact for east coaches for some west players and vice versa for west coaches and some east players). Two players from one region can potentially dilute the vote for that region. An even number of players makes more sense. If this new process helps to enhance the fairness of the award, and I think it does, then I am all for it.

In addition to what has already been posted about finalists from the same school for boys, last year there were two girl finalists from the same east region school. They did not win.

My thinking all along was that four finalists would make more sense. I brought this issue up last fall. In some cases you might get a split vote for two candidates from the same region, thus putting them at a disadvantage, and so four theoretically makes more sense.

I heard them (WDAY) say last night in the postgame after North/South that they will be have it on but will break away when the Bison game starts but will provide periodic updates. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Wilbur, I am not sure when they changed the rule but I have the 2005 and 2006 Region programs in front of me and on the back page of each they have a note indicating that, "If the winners of Games 9 and 10 played each other during the region tournament, the winner of that game will have the #3 seed. Otherwise they will be seeded for the state tournament by their finish in the regular season standings." Games 9 and 10 are the loser out games on the last day of the Region tourney. The East Region program for 2001 has the winners of those two games moving on to state on the basis of their regular season finish in EDC. So, the change took place in one of the following seasons - 2002, 2003, or 2004 - I can't find any of my old programs for those years.

Almost everything explained above is correct. However, in the state qualifier game today (Game # 10 which involves Central and North) the winner of that game will be the #4 seed only if the winner is Central. If North wins that game they will be the #3 seed if Grafton beats West Fargo. If West Fargo beats Grafton they will be the #3 seed and the winner of the Central/North game will be the #4 seed - regardless of who wins that game. This is the case because of the following rule: "If the winners of Games 9 and 10 played each other during the region tournamet, the winner of that game will have the #3 seed. Otherwise they will be seeded for the state tournament by their finish in the regular season standings." Since North beat Grafton in the region tournament they would be the #3 seed if Grafton wins their qualifier game and North wins their game today.

Nice post, thanks for the perspective.

Hey, guys thanks for the updates and the analysis - keep it coming.

Wow....thanks...very interesting.

If anyone has score updates during the day it would be great to have them posted.

Just for the record, and Cory1's peace of mind, Jake Marto had 12 goals and 25 assists at Central last year for 37 points in 27 games. This year for Omaha he has 17 assists in 41 games - very good stats for a first year defenseman in the USHL.

Exactly. For those who have followed Marto's career he has been big trouble for opposing teams every single year he has played hockey. The first time I saw him he was a squirt and was probably the best or one of the best skaters in the state at that age. I remember once watching him in one squirt game take the puck end to end and score. I think he played for the Grand Forks Blues back in those days.

Erick had a very good year last season as you point out. Yes Central did as you say grind it out and make it to the finals. There are probably 4 or 5 different opinions on the quality of Central's team last year depending on who you ask (former players, other coaches, Central fans, fans from other teams). Central had some good players such as Jake Stadstad and others. I'll just quote one scout who last year described Central as a very average team without Marto and Stadstad. I tend to agree. In any case, Central finished up strong and South did not. Credit to Central. I have no axe to grind for either school so it really does not matter to me but I think most would agree that South had better personnel last year. Certainly they (South) have a far better team this year than Central had last year and the entire South team benefits from the synergy of all those quality players. Sometimes when it gets down to crunch time the difference can be coaching as well.

Jake Marto had 35 or 36 points last year. I have the exact number in a file in another office but it was in the mid 30s. Keep in mind that Jake did not play for a team with the overall strength of Fargo South and that team synergy can help the individual performance of players.

Is anyone heading out to the Shanley/Hazen Beulah game and can provide a scouting report on Hazen's sophomore forward Tyrel McBain who sits tied for first (after Friday night's games) in state scoring right now with 50 points? It would be interesting to get some info on him.

Nate Speidel from Hazen and Jake Hipp from Bismarck both play for St. John's of the MIAC via the Bismarck Bobcats. Scott Bjorklund of Moorhead is also on the Johnnies roster. There are no other North Dakota kids in the MIAC. Scott Honkola from Bismarck does play for D III College of St. Scholastica (in Duluth) which, after a few years of struggling, has become a force in D-III hockey this year. I happened to watch Concordia play St. Mary's of Winona about a week or so ago. Cory Johnson for Concordia looked good but the Cobbers overall did not as they lost 7-2. Jared Klava played for Gustavus and had a fairly good run there before heading off to dental school.

North/South was an interesting game. It was 0-0 after one period and 3-0 at the end of 2. South's first line put their fourth goal in with about a minute to go vs North's 3rd or 4th line. Not sure what happened after the game but a South player got a 5 and a game DQ for slashing which happened sometime after the final buzzer. Not sure who it is but a South player will be out for a game or two. South, as expected, outshot North but both goalies had some big saves. Tough week for South with all that has been going on.

Central 3 and Grafton 2, with Central scoring with about a minute left in the game.

Very powerful and moving experience today bringing together players, parents, fans, family, and friends from all over the state, including Minnesota as well, at St. Mary's Cathedral for Tony Deichert's funeral. It was a wonderful testimony to Mr. Deichert and to the powerful bonds that can be built through faith and sport.

Thanks. Good that you brought out the point about when Bob does some his work - late at night or very very early in the morning. As I said before, seriously, the high school coaches should get together and give him a plaque for his work on behalf of the high school teams. This information is used by the newspapers, high schools, fans, junior A scouts, and many other groups.

Bob Gillen provides a valuable service to the hockey community by serving as the state statistician for hockey. If you have ever tried to keep up a stat tally for one team you can only imagine how difficult it is to do for 18 boys teams and 11 girls teams. There may be days when he gets 4 or 5 game sheets at one time to cull through for goals, assists, penalties, and do all of the goalie calculations. In addition, some coaches are not too good about sending the sheets in to him especially when it is an away non-conference game - in the EDC it is the obligation of the home team to send in the sheet. If you check all of the information on his various pages you will see that there are typically many game sheets that have not been given to him. It is great that people are interested in what he does and like to see everything current but he needs cooperation to keep it up. In addition, he does travel occasionally and is not able to update the site when he is out of town. Typically he notifies his "readers" when that happens. In my opinion he deserves an award from the hockey community for the work that he does - in addition to his other responsibilities in working for the city of Grand Forks and with the North Dakota Amateur Hockey Association. If you would like to start your own site I would encourage you to do so. It would be a great learning experience.