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ND High School Hockey 16-17


OgieOgilthorpe

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1 hour ago, Wilbur said:

Satans was a way better nickname than Fire Birds......could be Demons and Satans. 

I was a Satan...during my senior year we lost the name so that year at the state hockey tournament our radio announcer called us the Devils Lake Nothings...yeah I lost my high school and college mascot. 

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My take on high school hockey in ND/MN/SD:

1) Moorhead used to come up to Grand Forks to play both Red River and Central. And I know Central used to travel down to Moorhead to play the Spuds. This was back in the mid 1990's.

2) It's only a matter of time before all that oil money starts to build up some better programs out west. That would be welcomed, as better competition makes everyone better in the long run.

3) Minnesota Section 8A has sent some pretty solid teams to St. Paul the past five years or so. I enjoyed watching EGF win back to back titles, rubbing the noses of the Metro hockey snobs in it in the process! :devil:

4) The reason Warroad is down is because they can't recruit players like they used to, when you didn't have to sit out a year if you open-enrolled someplace else.

5) The "Class 2A" hockey snobs in Minneapolis-St. Paul think Class A is equal to JV. That makes the NHL careers of T.J. Oshie and Brock Nelson all the more impressive, don't you think? :p:silly:;)

6) The above mentioned "2A" hockey snobs are the same people who root for the Gophers and who think the team should be all-Minnesota all the time and think UND has 25 year old Canadians on it.

7) It would be nice to have South Dakota improve their programs and schedule some teams from ND and MN. The more hockey is promoted in this country, the better.

8) A combined GFC-GFRR "Knightrider" boys team would compete for the Section 8AA title on an annual basis. Too bad it will never happen...unless we throw in EGF! ;)

9) I have many fond memories of attending the ND State Hockey Tournament and I hope the kids today (both fans and participants) appreciate it as much as I did.

10) Go GFC Knights.....make some history on Saturday night. :)

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2 hours ago, Air Force One said:

So here you are insinuating that ND hockey is better.  We both agree MN is bigger with 87 Class A teams and 70 Class AA teams, for 157 total.

But you are arguing ND is better because Central and Red River crush ALL the ND High School competition, and besides EGF, play Minnesota teams that are sub .500 and then you rattle off some non-tournament teams from ND that also beat sub .500 MN teams yet not even Central or Red River play top MN competition other than EGF?

Moorhead won't schedule us.  The big names won't come up north.  EGF, TRF, and Crookston have arrangments worked out where Breck, St Cloud Cathedral, Blake, Tartan come up and the northern teams travel down.  Blaine came all the way up to EGF in a blizzard on New Years weekend for one game vs EGF and went back home.  Enter the Schawn Cup over the holidays or go to the Hermantown or Duluth Marshall holiday tournaments.

Or is it more fun to kick the dog dirt out of weaker, small town ND and MN teams by 10+ goals, go undefeated without testing yourself, then beat your chest about how great you are.

There really is no comparison between high school hockey in Minnesota and North Dakota. Minnesota has so much more depth and so many more elite programs that a lot of the top AA programs play a schedule where you don't get a night off. While North Dakota has what like 18 teams total and some of them really struggle. When you look for elite programs in North Dakota really only 2 come to mind Central and Red River. Both states have some bad teams, in Minnesota you have some that really struggle especially in the southwest part of the state. Looking at a couple teams that weren't great in either state Breckenridge/Wahpenton was the #9 seed in section 6A and played Bottineau earlier this year and beat them 5-2. They also played Wadena who they lost to 6-1 and Wadena was the #7 seed in section 6A. Worthington who was 2-20 this year and plays in a weak section and is usually one of the worst teams in the state also played Breckenridge/Wahpenton and lost 5-2. Looking at a couple ND state tournament teams Devils Lake beat the #6 seed in a weaker than usual section 8A Lake of the Woods 2-1 this year and Minot also played Lake of the Woods in that same Christmas tournament and tied them 2-2. Both Devils Lake and Minot also faced Roseau in that tournament who is the #3 seed in 8AA this year and they each lost 6-2.

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20 minutes ago, OgieOgilthorpe said:

What's the score now 

Bismarck wins 4-2.  There was a point in the second period that was all Devils Lake.  If they get the go ahead goal on one of the pucks that the Bismarck goalie some how got to and take the lead it's a different ending.  They took one shift off defensively, lost a race to a loose puck, didn't pick up f2 going to the net....ball game.  

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22 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

5) The "Class 2A" hockey snobs in Minneapolis-St. Paul think Class A is equal to JV. That makes the NHL careers of T.J. Oshie and Brock Nelson all the more impressive, don't you think? :p:silly:;)

6) The above mentioned "2A" hockey snobs are the same people who root for the Gophers...

If thinking that a Hermantown or other high-level A schools should be playing 2A makes me a "hockey snob," then so be it.

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6 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

If thinking that a Hermantown or other high-level A schools should be playing 2A makes me a "hockey snob," then so be it.

You missed the point entirely my friend.

I was targeting people who think Class A hockey =JV, which is preposterous.

I agree with you that high-level Class A schools should at least consider "playing up" like Roseau does.

And the private academies should be required to "play up".

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42 minutes ago, UNDColorado said:

I was a Satan...during my senior year we lost the name so that year at the state hockey tournament our radio announcer called us the Devils Lake Nothings...yeah I lost my high school and college mascot. 

I feel your pain, I went from a Redskin to a nothing to a Maroon and Grey. 

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4 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

I still have trouble forgiving the people who branded GFC as a racist school because of the Redskins name. They got what they wanted.....but they had to smear an entire school to get it. :angry:

I remember an assembly in the gym in the fall of 1991 (first school year without the name), and Mike Berg was full of hatred of the name change (like the students were), he yelled Go Redskins. I bought a Redskins jacket and hat before they took all that stuff away from the school store. I still have it 26 years later. At least when I hear the name Knights I can say I was part of making that the new name as we voted for it my senior year.  

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2 minutes ago, darell1976 said:

I remember an assembly in the gym in the fall of 1991 (first school year without the name), and Mike Berg was full of hatred of the name change (like the students were), he yelled Go Redskins. I bought a Redskins jacket and hat before they took all that stuff away from the school store. I still have it 26 years later. At least when I hear the name Knights I can say I was part of making that the new name as we voted for it my senior year.  

I was there. Berg really let loose in front of everyone! He ripped the Herald a new one. And he lead the students in a cheer that went something like this:

Berg: Who are we?

Students: REDSKINS!!!

I think we repeated that about three to four times.

I think he was speaking for most of us.

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47 minutes ago, SiouxScore said:

There really is no comparison between high school hockey in Minnesota and North Dakota. Minnesota has so much more depth and so many more elite programs that a lot of the top AA programs play a schedule where you don't get a night off. While North Dakota has what like 18 teams total and some of them really struggle. When you look for elite programs in North Dakota really only 2 come to mind Central and Red River. Both states have some bad teams, in Minnesota you have some that really struggle especially in the southwest part of the state. Looking at a couple teams that weren't great in either state Breckenridge/Wahpenton was the #9 seed in section 6A and played Bottineau earlier this year and beat them 5-2. They also played Wadena who they lost to 6-1 and Wadena was the #7 seed in section 6A. Worthington who was 2-20 this year and plays in a weak section and is usually one of the worst teams in the state also played Breckenridge/Wahpenton and lost 5-2. Looking at a couple ND state tournament teams Devils Lake beat the #6 seed in a weaker than usual section 8A Lake of the Woods 2-1 this year and Minot also played Lake of the Woods in that same Christmas tournament and tied them 2-2. Both Devils Lake and Minot also faced Roseau in that tournament who is the #3 seed in 8AA this year and they each lost 6-2.

A lot of truth in that statement, although a couple of them have made some efforts to improve.  I remember back in High School they had a hockey team in Sleepy Eye (which for ND reference is the about the size of Beulah), a lot of lopsided scores, 18-0, 20-0 (they now co-op with New Ulm).   In my hometown they opened up a new hockey arena right next to the high school and it is an massive improvement from what they used to play in. 

Luverne had a couple of decent teams the past few years.  Had that one kid who be going off to the U to play hockey. I know since I have left, the hockey has improved in that part but it has a long, long way to go and will be 3rd fiddle to FB and BB for quite a long time. 

 

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18 minutes ago, SWSiouxMN said:

A lot of truth in that statement, although a couple of them have made some efforts to improve.  I remember back in High School they had a hockey team in Sleepy Eye (which for ND reference is the about the size of Beulah), a lot of lopsided scores, 18-0, 20-0 (they now co-op with New Ulm).   In my hometown they opened up a new hockey arena right next to the high school and it is an massive improvement from what they used to play in. 

Luverne had a couple of decent teams the past few years.  Had that one kid who be going off to the U to play hockey. I know since I have left, the hockey has improved in that part but it has a long, long way to go and will be 3rd fiddle to FB and BB for quite a long time. 

 

Definitely seems like there are some towns in that area who have put a lot of effort and are investing into improving the quality but there are still some that are pretty down and that kind of still holds back the teams that have been better and trying to take the next step. They don't get as much competition as they need and would probably like to keep improving the quality at the pace they want to. The other part is it just takes some time like you said hockey just isn't as big of focus in that area as it is in other parts of the state it has certainly grown and having players like the Gopher commit Jaxon Nelson of Luverne will help increase youth participation and build more excitement about hockey in SW Minnesota because young kids will want to be the next Nelson.

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