SiouxScore

Minnesota State High School tournament gets started this Wednesday and there is always some good talent in that. Class A Wednesday #2Hermantown vs. Luverne 11am top players Hermantown-Scott Wasbotten SR 42pts, Ryan Kero JR 48pts, Nate Pionk JR 48pts, Wyatt Aamodt SO 24pts, Cole Koepke SO 30pts Luverne-Logan Norman SR 65pts, Chaz Smedsrud SO 80pts, Jaxon Nelson 8th 62pts, Kendall Meyer SR 18-0-1 1.19 .948 #3New Prague vs. Chisago Lakes 1pm top players New Prague-Augie Isaacson SR 53pts, Seth Kriah SR 46pts, Alex Gregor SO 41pts Chisago Lakes-Brandon Gillespie SR 51pts, Trevor Lushanko SR 47pts, Blake Lizotte SO 48pts, #1East Grand Forks vs. Orono 6pm top players EGF-Dixon Bowen JR 37pts,Grant Loven SO 35pts, Tanner Tweeten SO 28pts, Brandon Loven SR 25pts, Eddie Eades SR 24pts, Colton Poolman SR 22pts, Tye Ausmus JR 9pts, Josh Weber JR 20-1-1 1.22 .922 Orono-Joey Luedtke JR 34pts, Jake Flemmer SR 31pts, Sam Challgren SR 24pts, David Mcsuskey SO 20pts, Jonathon Flakne JR 18-7-1 1.95 .918 #4St.Cloud Cathedral vs. #5Totino-Grace 8pm top players SCC-Will Hammer SR 51pts, Matt Fritz JR 39pts, Dan Bailey SR 38pts, Logan Neu SO 34pts, Zach Fritz JR 19-7-1 2.17 .916 TG-Nick Tandeski SR 29pts, Kai Barber SR 31pts, Ben Henderson SR 23pts, Blake Vagle JR 21pts, Brandon Hilliard SR 22pts

AA seeds are out: Thu #2 Lakeville North vs. Roseau-11:00 #3 Eden Prairie vs. Centennial-1:00 #1 Edina vs. Stillwater-6:00 #4 Duluth East vs. #5 Eagan-8:00 This one almost looks more like it was actually seeded 1-8 and only arguments I could see is North being #1 and Edina #2 although I think Edina is the better team and East being #3 and Eden Prairie #4 as East beat them head to head.

Class A seeds are out: Wed #2 Hermantown vs. Luverne-11:00 #3 New Prague vs. Chisago Lakes-1:00 #1 East Grand Forks vs. Orono-6:00 #4 St.Cloud Cathedral vs. #5 Totino-Grace-8:00 Really need to seed all 8 teams imo. EGF gets a tougher team then they should have in the first round because only the top 5 are seeded. Think New Prague is the real winner today as they are lucky to be the #3 and I thin both SCC and TG are better teams and SCC beat them head to head and have played tougher schedules and then New Prague is lucky enough to get probably the worst team in the tournament in the 1st round in Chisago Lakes.

Stillwater made it an all public school AA tourney with the win last night. My guess on seeds that should be out later this morning, to me the 5 seeds in both classes are really kind of toss ups. A-1.EGF 2.Hermantown 3.St.Cloud Cathedral 4.Totino Grace 5.Orono AA-1.Lakeville North 2.Edina 3.Duluth East 4.Eden Prairie 5.Eagan

Another good performance from the team last night and a good win. Really thought the transition game was very good and we have a team playing with a lot of confidence right now. Think we have to limit St.Cloud from getting to the middle a little more on rushes and take away a little more time and space to get the sweep tonight.

They only went 14-12-1 in his one season and Warroad wouldn't accept that mediocrity haha. I think there was a lot more pressure than he expected and a lot more than he wanted to deal with. I remember his son was supposed to be a real good player but turned out to be average at hockey and a better football player and I think I remember hearing some rumblings about his kid shouldn't be playing as much as he was and he shouldn't be playing with who he was. I think that job just ended up being too much for him and not sure he had the backing of a lot of Warroad people.

They both probably have a shot at the #5 seed as that one isn't real clear but I think Orono will end up with it because of them beating Breck in the section championships. Interested to see Luverne seeing they are undefeated but they really haven't played anybody so kinda hard to get a read on them.

I would think EGF should be the #1 seed but Hermantown does have a decent argument for that too. No matter who gets the #1 seed I would be pretty surprised if EGF and Hermantown aren't the 2 teams playing for the class A Championship. Right now my guess for seeds would be: 1.EGF 2.Hermantown 3.St.Cloud Cathedral 4.Totino Grace/Mahtomedi winner 5.Orono Teams not seeded- Chisago Lakes, Luverne, and New Prague While AA probably will be: 1.Lakeville North 2.Hill Murray(barring upset tonight) 3.Edina 4.Blaine(barring upset tonight) 5.Duluth East Teams not seeded- Eagan, Eden Prairie, and Roseau.

Yeah they are a great defensive team and I thought they played real sloppy and tight tonight. Warroad's top line is very good and always seems to find a way to create breakaways with Roth flying the zone early and EGF got caught on that a few teams. EGF just seemed very tentative with the puck tonight and almost played not to lose at times which created a lot of missed passes and ugly breakouts. I also thought at times EGF looked to much for the perfect play which is something I haven't really seen from them all year and I think that caused some problems for them. Ausmus, Poolman, and Eades all could be future D1 defenseman and not too many high school teams have that.

EGF beat Warroad 3-2 in 2 OT in the 8A title game. Sylvester looked better than the last time I saw him but still doubt we are after him and it sounds like Bemidji is after him. UMD has got a couple good ones in Bethune and Roth although I still think Roth will need to put on muscle and learn to play more in his d zone he has a ton of offensive skill and Bethune just is a real good all around player and will probably be one we wished we got. From EGF I thought Poolman and Bowen really stood out tonight and while EGF wasn't at there best they still showed flashes. Tweeten and the younger Loven are also a couple that I like but I think Tweeten needs to become a little better skater still but he has room to grow.

Another great 8A title game which they always seem to be. Wanted EGF to win and glad they did especially since they really didn't play there best. Really thought their goalie played well tonight and I think that was a bit of a question mark for them. They should have a good chance to be seeded #1 for the state tournament and a good chance to win it.

He has a chance but I think he benefits a lot from being on that line and needs to improve to get a chance. Probably will play juniors and hope that someone will offer him after a couple years, I would guess he may end up low D1 or maybe at a D3 after his junior eligibility is up. Also saw Hak was at the Little Ralph last night and I believe Jackson was with him. I'm sure they were mostly watching Zach Yon who has already committed but I wouldn't be surprised if they were also there to get a look at Alex Strand of Roseau and Aaron Herdt of Moorhead. Good chance to get a look at a number of prospective recruits with EGF and Warroad on WDAZ and available on WDAZ.com tonight for the Section 8A Championship.

Zach Yon with 3 goals and an assist in a 7-4 win over Moorhead for the section 8AA Championship and a ticket to the Minnesota State Tournament. Linemate Alex Strand had 2 goals and 2 assists and is one the leading scorers in the state and should generate some recruiting interest but may have to play some juniors before an offer from someone comes.

Duluth East can do that to a lot of players but imo both Bischoff and Mattson are still just guys to keep an eye on and not ones that we should be offering already like some on the list are. Sounded like Peterson was dominant at times against East? He is one I wish we would have gotten and I'm sure we had interest in but I would guess the opportunity to play right away at Omaha appealed to him as it sounds like he will play there next year and if that is a case I can't really blame him.

I would think they would want to see him prove he can play against some decent competition in juniors, I doubt there is a whole lot of interest on the UND end right now. There are some pretty good Minnesota high school players still uncommitted and lately that seems to be our focus. Looking at Juniors and Sophomores especially I would think the Sioux have interest in like forwards John Peterson (JR) Holy Family, Christiano Versich (JR) St.Thomas Academy, Jake Jaremko (JR) Elk River, Jonah Bischoff (SO) Grand Rapids, Mitchell Mattson (SO) Grand Rapids, Riley Tufte (SO) Blaine, Max Zimmer (SO) Wayzata, Zach Sitarz (SO) Andover, goalies Zach Driscoll (JR) Eastivew and Andrew Lindgren (JR) Eagan. These are just some of the good prospects and with the Minnesota state tournament starting next weekend I will probably post the top uncommitted prospects for each team once the teams are determined.

Canada really looked like almost a different team these last couple games than they did in the pool play games. Canada really showed how they can almost completely shut down teams as Sweden got even less going then team USA when they played Canada. I had said before that I thought Sweden really didn't have to face much competition until they saw Finland in the semis and if Rask was available for Finland it probably would have been Finland facing Canada for gold instead of Sweden.

Good road sweep this weekend to set up a battle at the top of the NCHC next weekend. A lot of good things to take from this weekend and if the powerplay can contribute anything close to what it did tonight this team can be a very dangerous team. Austin Farley has quickly become the player I hate the most in college hockey as he not only delivers a number of cheap shots he also does a lot of embellishing when he gets the chance.

Zach Yon with a goal and 2 assists in a 4-1 win over Bemidji to help move Roseau to the 8AA Championship game.

Also see Bylsma getting lots of blame which is to be expected. Some questioning why he didn't try to get better matchups and why he didn't have the team ready to go. People looking at the history of his teams just laying down when they get behind as well. I've also seen others questioning if he isn't the coach would Orpik and Martin have made team USA? I don't think Orpik would have but Martin would have had a decent chance still.

More quotes from team USA players Max Pacioretty: 'I'm not proud at all right now. I don't think anyone is. We were playing for a medal and didn't show up.' Brooks Orpik: 'We talked about it. We wanted this. I don't think that was the issue. We just didn't have it, and they played really well.' Zach Parise: 'Disappointed. A little embarrassing with what was on the line for is the last two days and not play well.' Parise: Once Teemu/Jussi had quick-strike goals, 'We started getting frustrated. Maybe that was last night carrying over. I don't know. Parise: 'We were passive. We had one forechecker at times, let them break out of their zone.' ... Ouch on that one.

Kind of wondered if this would be the feeling from team USA going into this game. It would be kind of hard not to as I'm sure they looked forward for 4 years to get another shot at Canada and you lose another 1 goal game and really probably didn't play your best, would be hard to just shake it off and be ready to play again the next day although Finland had to deal with something similar, although not having the 4 years of waiting for the rematch, losing to their biggest rival Sweden.

Agree, could tell Finland got back up for this game after a loss to their rival while the U.S. didn't seem to. Seemed like Finland really wanted the medal for their country and laid it on the line today while the U.S. may have been looking forward to getting back to the NHL and if they got the medal too great if not whatever. Most NHL players probably wouldn't actually say it but the Stanley Cup probably means more to them than the Olympics.

Can tell some of these guys still haven't gotten use to the Olympic reffing where ticky tack things get called, like Kane's last penalty there is not way that is called in the NHL.

Kane and Parise not scoring on so many chances, also think Brown hasn't even looked like he wants to be there and really hasn't contributed much.

My vote goes to Team Russia.