He Who Shoots Top Shelf

This brings up an intriguing point. What happened to the crowds at Grand Forks high school hockey games? If it's not Red River-Central does nobody seem to care? Granted they always draw well around state tournament time, but the regular season crowds obviously have diminished. I remember in back in my hayday the crowds at Purpur were raucous all night. It used to be a fun building to play in and to watch a game. It seems like after the renovation the life just got sucked out of it. And finally what does everyone think is the toughest environment east or west to play in? I would assume Grafton would have to be near the top of the list.

sounds like south continued to roll tonight anybody there to give an account of how the game went?

Although it is most likely DII will continue to be watered down I think it's better to be getting national recognition by playing on ESPN in that National Championship game. By having strong football teams in DII and with hockey's rich tradtion, when people think of UND they will think of a winning institution.

I think South will continue to roll, West Fargo doesn't get many shots and spend some time in the penalty box by looking at their stats on Gillen's site. South will pounce on the Packers while on the powerplay and get good goaltending out of Deichert. 7-0 South.

You Fargo people can cry all you want about how you think GF refs cheat for Central and Red River, and all this other BS. Yeah, South is having a good year but all that matters is who plays there best in late Febuary.

Score to report.... Fargo North upended Fargo Shanley 3-0 tonight at the Coliseum. North pretty much controlled the Deacons all night, I didn't see North-WF but I'm sure North must have played a better game tonight. Klenow played a nice game notching a goal. Welk also had a nice game although he wasnt tested much he came through and made a few dandies. Both Fargo South and West Fargo attended this game you could sense the animosity in the air as both sat in the same section . Shanley keeps struggling, really can't seem to put the puck in the net. It's tough watching this group of seniors whose season started out so promising start to slide. Sounds like the game up north turned into a good one hopefully we get an update soon.

And I thought Kittson Central and Wahpeton was the big Minnesota-ND showdown Tuesday RR-GFC, North-Shanley tonight, South-WF tomorrow, will South keep up the intensity after all they are playing an undefeated conference road team tomorrow SPOOKY!!

Fergus Falls, MN Holiday Tournament Austin, MN 3, West Fargo 1

I listened to the last period and shootout yes shootout of the WF-Fergus game on the radio tonight. Really exciting game sounded like the crowd was into it just back and forth. Fergus got a PP goal with a minute or so left and WF answered right back to tie it up. If the Fergus radio announcer is telling the truth I guess in the shootout a couple WF players pulled off some awesome dekes. West Fargo I think gets credit for a tie in the game but did win the shootout to advance in their tournament. Represented North Dakota pretty well tonight I think.

Enough of this BS. Who does everyone see improving the most over the second part of the season? Personally I think Jamestown may come around and start clicking, riding the momentum of their big upset. I also think Fargo North eventually has to start getting some goals to go in. Anybody else see any big improvers or teams falling apart down the stretch?

I guess we'll see how far behind our hockey is over Holiday Tournament time, about half of the North Dakota teams are headed to play Minneosta teams, we'll see how our best team fairs down in Rochester playing a team who made the state tournament. Hopefully you do not live in Roseau because Jamestown & Bismarck High are bad examples of our state this year. It really depends on the year whether our hockey can compete with Minnesota, I recall a very good Grand Forks Central team a few years back who ran the table on all their Minnesota opponents including a 2nd place Warroad team. Maybe an ND school could have won Minnesota that year

Just searching around the internet I found a link to South's tournament. South Hockey Tournament This is one of the better holiday tournament line ups this side of the Schwan's Cup. It's scary that South could come back to the 2nd half IMPROVED via this tournament. All 3 Rochester's and Hastings YIKES!!! Another side note, maybe the west is WEAKER then we thought. The top team out there right now is Devils Lake who is 0-2 against the 7-8 teams from the East.

Just reading the Friday Forum I saw South was playing down in Rochester. It mentioned they played Rochester Century in their first game, does anybody know who they play in the second game or who they could potentially play in the tournament?

Yes, but prior to that Shanley had its own program up until the late 80's or early 90's, then they had a co-op with Wahpeton for a couple years (we call those the dark ages) before moving to West Fargo (the dim ages) now we have our own program going strong once again from Youth up to high school.

I don't really know you besides all your great college hockey stories you write, but I do know from experience that nobody deserves to lose a family member around this time. We all know they're in a better place now. Just hoping you know that all of Sioux Nation is pulling for you!

In all honesty I haven't played high school hockey for some 25 years now for the Deacons, I may just seem a little impartial to my alma mater. I don't see North having any chance vs. Red River tomorrow night, they've only buried one goal in the past 4 or 5 games I believe. The only personal that has a prayer of containing Mihulka, Brown, and Spies is the Klein-Klenow line, and with those two worried about defending nobody will be able to pick up the scoring punch for the Spartans. Intriguing matchup out west between the two Bismarck schools, Century has picked up their play as of late should be fun to see how that one plays out.

if only you knew

Red River and North play tonight??

West Fargo-2 Fargo Shanley-1 I was lucky enough to be able to catch most of this game tonight. Neither team looked all that polished, but they were both hungry for the 4 points (correct me if I'm wrong). Both teams played each other tough and felt each other out for the 1st. WF notched a goal on the powerplay with a booming shot from #24 Jeff Vance, let me tell you this kid loves letting that rocket go. Mark Harrie answered later on a quick snap shot which might have caught the WF tender off guard, he juggled it. The 2nd period one line really stood out for the Packers Olson, Miller, and Crist all juniors had a heck of a period. They buzzed the Deacons on most of their shifts. Tyler Swanson also continued to impress by demoralizing a poor Deacon skater trying to come across the middle. The third period was very intense. The WF goalie about had a costly turn over, he tried playing the puck behind the net, next thing you know Shanley has the puck out front with no goalie and clanged one. The goalie also made a clutch save on a Shanley penalty shot. The last minute told me a lot about WF, didn't get the names but WF's 11, 18, and i wanna say 19 finished the game off beautifully and killed penalties well all night . That line is who you will see playing the Campbells from Grafton and Weisgarber's line from South. All around good hockey game very fortunate to be able to watch!

I'm thinking the Deacons are gonna keep playing the Cinderella role tonight and pull off a 4-2 win with an empty netter to seal it. Is anyone going to be at this game to give a recap?

By Bottineau's standards they are having a better year, according to Gillen's site they played Bismarck High pretty tough to a 4-3 game. They also lost another close one to Mandan. From what I heard they also lost one of their better players to a junior team I believe otherwise they could maybe have pulled some of those games off. Maybe this is the year the Braves sneak out of the play-in game and into the Region Tournament.

Touche Poncho who doesnt love Joe Dirt. Aren't you dead???

Maybe Sal from Cando and Poncho & Lefty got a new email account

A new name Puckhead?

My apologies, skimming through Gillen's site he had Century winning, but after checking the Bismarck Tribune your post is obviously more accurate then mine.