puck71

With the weather today, what's the best way to find out if the games are postponed? Some basketball tournament games in Fargo today have already been postponed to Monday, and from the forecast last night there was supposed to be more snow in Grand Forks...

South scores with 6 seconds left!

South has been controlling the puck most of the third period and had a few good scoring chances, but hasn't been able to put any goals in. Grafton has had a couple good chances too. Just over a minute left now. Hooking penalty called on Grafton with 1:09 left.

I can only assume that's the reason - I think they were at 15 minutes before and thought that jumping all the way to 20 was too much to do at once. I would think eventually they'll get to 20 minute periods to match (as far as I know) every level above them (juniors, NCAA, NHL) but they didn't want to do it all at once. Although maybe they shouldn't have high schoolers playing the same amount as the NHL. I'm not 100% sure about football, but basketball goes from 32 minute games in high school, to 40 in college, to 48 in the NBA.

I'd be curious to know what happened there. Did Minot bench a bunch of people? I watched both of those teams yesterday and Minot played way better than Century. I know it's a letdown to play in the consolation bracket, but you should still beat teams that you're way better than, not lose by five goals.

I don't really know the details of the Defense situation. All I was basing it on was what I saw yesterday compared to last year's State tournament, and the fact that they lost Erick which almost guarantees at least a small drop in defense.

Just got back from watching all the games (minus one period). First game I missed the first period, but the 2nd and 3rd periods South completely dominated Century. The score reflects that (6-1 in those periods) but it could have been even more lopsided than that. South's defense is down from last year (how could it not be?), but they have a lot of offense and a good goalie, and seemed to be playing pretty well. The first period looks like it was a lot closer though - someone else can comment on that, but it was 1-0 Century after 1 and I think only 10-6 shots advantage for South. The second game was probably the best of the day (not the most exciting, but the best overall). Grafton was clearly the better team, but not by a huge margin. They stepped it up at the end with a couple late goals, but this game was tight all the way, before ending up 5-2. The third game ended up being the biggest blowout, but was a lot closer than the 6-0 score indicated. I didn't follow much hockey this year, but how did Bismarck end up winning the West? Were they favored or was there an upset? For my eyes, they were the third best team from the West (after Minot and Williston). Anyway, Devils Lake outplayed them from beginning to end and were rewarded with a lot of goals. I think a 4-1 or 4-2 score would have more closely represented how close the game was, but Devils Lake clearly was the better team. The last game was the most exciting by far, but was also probably the most lopsided on the ice. The shot margin is a little deceiving, but Red River definitely dominated play throughout. Williston actually played a lot better at the end I thought, until the last 3 or so minutes. The first period was all Red River, but Williston withstood it and improved from there and almost held on to the end. They really had a good game plan to try to counter Red River's superior skill and experience - they hit hard and played the positions and got sticks on almost every pass and shot. They didn't take any chances and never gave up any odd-man rushes. They also played smart and only took a couple penalties. I don't care what the shot count was - Williston played a great game and deserved to be as close as they were. There were a lot of shots, but they were all contested and only a few "great" scoring chances. Overall, I think the West played pretty well but it's clear they're still a notch below the East. I think Century was definitely outclassed, but the other three West teams belonged there and could have won at least one of the games. I tried to be as neutral as I could, but I do live in Fargo and probably can't help but be a little biased.

Weisgarber picked up another goal plus an assist last night for the Jets, both on the power play. I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like he's skating on the first power play line.

Probably not, since his numbers are the best in every category and his team won state. However, as mentioned there were a lot of good goalies in the state this year, with six goalies with a GAA under 2.5, and seven with a save percentage over 90%. Definitely fun to watch at state this year, with a lot of low scoring games with more scoring chances than it would seem.

I saw some of Weisgarber's first game with the Jets tonight. He was actually out there quite a bit, including on the power play and penalty kill. I thought he played pretty well, but it's obviously tough to go from skating with a team you've played with half your life to a team you've played with for a few days. It'll take some time to get in sync with everyone, which is probably why he was out there so much. There were some passes missed and so on where they'll probably connect a couple games from now.

Do you mean the near-goal in the championship game?

I'm not sure how he could have avoided the goalie. I hate bringing it up again, but I finally got around to capturing the replay of it. I don't think he could have done anything other than what happened. The goalie was moving to the right which is the same way Weisgarber was falling. He tried his best to kind of roll off the goalie but the hit from behind was hard enough where he had enough momentum that he couldn't get to the side fast enough. Even if I were to concede that he could have gotten out of the way, there's no possible way it could be cross-checking, since he had the stick in one hand and I don't even think it even hit the goalie - worst case scenario 2 minutes for roughing. For those of you who haven't seen the play at all or haven't seen the replays, I posted the clip online and you can take a look. It's in the Xvid codec so if you can't play it you need to get that. Since this is a current event and I'm commenting on it, I consider this to be a fair use of copyrighted material. As such I will take it down before too long. Here's the link: http://www.puck71.com/weisgarber_penalty.avi Sorry for bringing it up again, but it is the off-season now after all and we need something to discuss! If there are any other controversial plays you'd like to see I might be able to find those as well, but the other plays I think are pretty clear.

I've looked at the eligibity rules and I can't figure that out for sure or not. They list rule E: "Players who play exclusively for a Junior "A" team are not eligible." but it doesn't say what time frame that exclusivity covers. I would think it applies to the school year, but it doesn't say.

The referees quite often are paying attention to too many other things to get the numbers of the goal scorer and assists exactly right. If they get it wrong it's up to the team or to other officials to correct the scoresheet. The scoresheet isn't finalized until it's signed after the game so there's plenty of time to get it right.

It's a big arena so it will look pretty empty even if there are a lot of people. Thursday it was pretty empty, especially for the games without a Grand Forks team. Friday night it started out pretty empty but steadily filled up until the end of the night when I thought it was pretty full. Tonight it wasn't packed but there were a lot of people there. I've been to state basketball and that's alright, but I'll take state hockey any day! Great kids, great teams, and best of all great games! I hope to be able to make it up there every year, at least for a few of the games.