Here's what I thought of the game, and the tournament and upcoming state tourney as a whole.
-Red River/South was a GREAT game. These teams are far and away the two best in the state (like you guys didn't already know that). Thought that the refs were a little disappointing in the third period, especially on the penalty call with about 2 minutes left. I have no idea how he saw a trip out of that, but oh well. They were pretty solid for the most part anyway.
-I have heard rumors (hopefully untrue) that the Mr. Hockey voting is already completed. If that is true, Marc Mihulka got terribly shafted. Never before have I seen one player dominate the way he did not only tonite, but also the entire tournament and the past 3 weeks of the season (multiple goals in 8 of their last 10 games). He may have single-handedly won Mr. Hockey this weekend...
-I was at the North/Central game tonite and I saw something that really made me wonder how badly North wanted to win. Near the end of the game, after North had just scored to make it a 2 goal defecit, 5-3, I noticed Klenow coasting around the ice and not exactly busting his ass as if his high school career was nearing an end. The game was not yet over, and North could've easily scored in the time that was left in the game (see: Red River/North game last year). I mentioned this to a friend and he wholeheartedly agreed.
-What was with Dean Wilson winning coach of the year? Don't get me wrong, but isn't this one of their most talented teams ever? Didn't they have the same conference record as Red River, who was picked as the 8th best team in the state in a preseason magazine? Hmm...that's pretty questionable if you ask me. The award should've gone to either Matt Malm or Ross Richards from West Fargo.
-I'm going to go out on a limb and predict a Red River/South championship game. I just do not see any team that would be able to knock either of these powerhouses off.
-Congrats to Minot on winning the west- now the question is (as I'm sure Wilbur will agree) if they can get by their first round tourney jitters and knock off Central. I would not be at all surprised to see Central win that game, but then again I could see Minot blowing out the Knights as well. Should be the best game in the first round.
-Too bad about Williston having so many injuries to their top players. With them in the lineup, I would've had them beating a very underachieving Grafton/Park River team in the first round.