2024-25 ND High School Hockey

[Wilbur]

Boys schedule tonight from Mr. Gillen's site.  

I'll take:  WF, Sheyenne, Minot, Century, GFC, and RR.  Best game might be South and Sheyenne. 

[sioux rube]

Mattern with the first 5 goals for WF in their 8-4 win over GPR 

[SiouxFan100]

Did Mattern get any interest from UND?

[gfhockey]

8 minutes ago, SiouxFan100 said:

Did Mattern get any interest from UND?

No 

[gfhockey]

Dl goalie with a stud performance tonight 

 

gfrr wins 3-1 40 shots on goal. Skarpy has the boys playing tourney hockey

 

gfc with the win also tonight 

 

[brianvf]

1 hour ago, gfhockey said:

No 

For real? 
If he lights it up in USHL then ASU, that's gonna be pretty darn disappointing.

[Johnny Five]

7 hours ago, brianvf said:

For real? 
If he lights it up in USHL then ASU, that's gonna be pretty darn disappointing.

That kid is electric.  Going to be interesting to follow his path into juniors where the sledding is a bit tougher.  

[Johnny Five]

WDA looks like Minot and CHS are going to be 1-2.  Jamestown, Mandan and Legacy in a dogfight for 3-4-5, and BOTT isn't too far behind too be honest.  Seeding is important for multiple reasons: if you do win the 4/5 matchup you have to deal with Minot in the semis...if you lose the 4/5, then win Friday, the Saturday state qualifier (barring upsets) will be against the loser of the 2/3 semifinal match.  Tough game to clinch.

Legacy and Jamestown split on the season.  Mandan and Legacy play Saturday in a huge game, and Jamestown and Mandan have another one left before WDA, the first one went to OT.  All 3 teams have dumped points to during the season to teams they probably shouldn't have...going to come down to the wire.

[yzerman19]

3 minutes ago, Johnny Five said:

That kid is electric.  Going to be interesting to follow his path into juniors where the sledding is a bit tougher.  

kid is sneaky good.  I think the issue (other than his size obviously) is whether or not, to your point, he can zip around guys the way he does now at the next level.  He had a good 17s camp last summer, so that says he can play with the best his age group.

[gfhockey]

8 hours ago, brianvf said:

For real? 
If he lights it up in USHL then ASU, that's gonna be pretty darn disappointing.

We will let him develop at asu then take him sr year

[siouxweet]

33 minutes ago, Johnny Five said:

That kid is electric.  Going to be interesting to follow his path into juniors where the sledding is a bit tougher.  

Be curious to see stat line if he is a one man show or if the puck actually leaves his stick.

[Johnny Five]

I don't know but he is worth the price of admission to a HS hockey game in ND, that's for damn sure.  

[Frozen4sioux]

46 minutes ago, siouxweet said:

Be curious to see stat line if he is a one man show or if the puck actually leaves his stick.

The kid as phenomenal hands, best I've ever seen at the high school level. He is quick and shifty and has developed into a really good skater. He is definitely a skilled young man.

In the past he's taken some negatives for basically never crossing into his own zone and just being a blue line breakaway specialist, but I think he's improved a bit on two-way play, and a lot of that criticism is just his very high hockey sense of recognizing play and putting himself if good positions on the breakout.

He also has a good setup with a few kids who can catch a pass and give him a pass and know how to benefit from playing with him. Hès also got great conditioning and seems to never leave the ice.

The points seem to come easy for him at this level but also we have to recognize the depth of talent in high school in ND this year is the shallowest I've seen in 20 years, by far, especially at defense and goalie, truly is a massive decline in defensive ability, and the benefit of playing some really terrible, horrendous defensively teams twice is going to pile points, and it appears a coaching staff that is supporting him in racking them up. 

I would think he'll play USHL next year at the end of this, the rest of the players speed and ability and more importantly physical play will be a huge factor as he's quite easy to move off the puck, could be a big issue for him to overcome but he's just damn good at avoiding it and sneaky around behind people.

As one scout said, pretty tough to hit what you can't catch.

He's a kid I would make a point to watch at this level this year.

[Frozen4sioux]

9 hours ago, brianvf said:

For real? 
If he lights it up in USHL then ASU, that's gonna be pretty darn disappointing.

I heard a rumor there was some UND conversations, I'd be shocked if there wasn't.

but IMHO he's not someone that fits the current offensive strategy at UND. Arizona fits him much better.

[sioux rube]

1 hour ago, Johnny Five said:

WDA looks like Minot and CHS are going to be 1-2.  Jamestown, Mandan and Legacy in a dogfight for 3-4-5, and BOTT isn't too far behind too be honest.  Seeding is important for multiple reasons: if you do win the 4/5 matchup you have to deal with Minot in the semis...if you lose the 4/5, then win Friday, the Saturday state qualifier (barring upsets) will be against the loser of the 2/3 semifinal match.  Tough game to clinch.

Legacy and Jamestown split on the season.  Mandan and Legacy play Saturday in a huge game, and Jamestown and Mandan have another one left before WDA, the first one went to OT.  All 3 teams have dumped points to during the season to teams they probably shouldn't have...going to come down to the wire.

Jays got Willy tomorrow on senior night. Willy got them up there in overtime to the boys will be hungry for some payback 

[Brim006]

7 minutes ago, Frozen4sioux said:

I heard a rumor there was some UND conversations, I'd be shocked if there wasn't.

but IMHO he's not someone that fits the current offensive strategy at UND. Arizona fits him much better.

And even if UND came after him late, I would actually respect if the kid has the old school mentality that he'd stick with the school that believed in him before anyone else. His speed, hands and elusiveness reminds me a lot of Grant Johnson. Grant had 75 points as a JR with GFC and 85 as a SR. Mattern is already at 58 with 6 games to go plus another potential 6 more depending on EDC and state. With Mattern's 8 point game last night he's pushing nearly 4 points per game on average 

[Brim006]

5 minutes ago, sioux rube said:

Jays got Willy tomorrow on senior night. Willy got them up there in overtime to the boys will be hungry for some payback 

Surprising that J-town is playing a non-con game against DL the night before a big and important con game. DL and J-town will likely be pretty evenly matched. Both have been a bit of a surprise thus far. J-town sitting in 3rd in the WDA currently, and DL beating WF and having close games with GFC+RR and being in the mix with all the F and WF teams. I don't recall a year where both the EDC and WDA are so even top to bottom. In the EDC it appears even GFC is capable of losing to a #5-#8 team on any given night. And the WDA with the exception of Minot appears to be pretty open from #2 all the way through. It should make for some exciting con tourneys! 

[gfhockey]

What’s matterns stat lines against gfc or gfrr

[gfhockey]

3 minutes ago, Brim006 said:

Surprising that J-town is playing a non-con game against DL the night before a big and important con game. DL and J-town will likely be pretty evenly matched. Both have been a bit of a surprise thus far. J-town sitting in 3rd in the WDA currently, and DL beating WF and having close games with GFC+RR and being in the mix with all the F and WF teams. I don't recall a year where both the EDC and WDA are so even top to bottom. In the EDC it appears even GFC is capable of losing to a #5-#8 team on any given night. And the WDA with the exception of Minot appears to be pretty open from #2 all the way through. It should make for some exciting con tourneys! 

Umm what? Gfc losing to a 5-8 seed team

 

lmao

 

best outtake of the year

[fightingsioux4life]

34 minutes ago, Frozen4sioux said:

I heard a rumor there was some UND conversations, I'd be shocked if there wasn't.

but IMHO he's not someone that fits the current offensive strategy at UND. Arizona fits him much better.

And how well is our current offensive strategy working?

[Brim006]

21 minutes ago, Frozen4sioux said:

The kid as phenomenal hands, best I've ever seen at the high school level. He is quick and shifty and has developed into a really good skater. He is definitely a skilled young man.

In the past he's taken some negatives for basically never crossing into his own zone and just being a blue line breakaway specialist, but I think he's improved a bit on two-way play, and a lot of that criticism is just his very high hockey sense of recognizing play and putting himself if good positions on the breakout.

He also has a good setup with a few kids who can catch a pass and give him a pass and know how to benefit from playing with him. Hès also got great conditioning and seems to never leave the ice.

The points seem to come easy for him at this level but also we have to recognize the depth of talent in high school in ND this year is the shallowest I've seen in 20 years, by far, especially at defense and goalie, truly is a massive decline in defensive ability, and the benefit of playing some really terrible, horrendous defensively teams twice is going to pile points, and it appears a coaching staff that is supporting him in racking them up. 

I would think he'll play USHL next year at the end of this, the rest of the players speed and ability and more importantly physical play will be a huge factor as he's quite easy to move off the puck, could be a big issue for him to overcome but he's just damn good at avoiding it and sneaky around behind people.

As one scout said, pretty tough to hit what you can't catch.

He's a kid I would make a point to watch at this level this year.

Agreed on all points and opinions on Mattern. Good analysis, and good point on the skills that set him apart maybe not being something he can lean on at the next level. He seems to be good enough to figure it out but it will be fun to follow him either way. But for now we will just have to enjoy watching him while he's still playing NDHS. 

I'd have to respectfully disagree with your comment on the talent being shallowest in 20 years though. When's the last time kids from Minot with the skill set of Morelli and Panasuk actually stuck around through their SR years? Minot has produced a ton of kids of that caliber but I don't recall any of them ever sticking through their SR year, so those 2 alone have brought a lot of skill and excitement to the WDA that has been lacking for a long time. In the past they left early which hurt the top end competiveness of the west. Bismarck has spread it's talent through 3 teams which still seems to be hurting BHS but even they are better than the past 2 seasons. And Mandan consistently showcasing some good talent and top western teams was never really a reality in the past.  In the east, I'd say yes both GF teams are both down on average along with FSS, but I'd argue GPR, DL, WFS, and WF are all well above their average which has brought a more competitive and well-rounded EDC schedule for everyone this year. There are very few blow outs this season compared to essentially every other year in the past decade. #1 and #2 are having close games with #6 - #8 for the most part which is really rare.

So between more top end talent sticking around, and the bulk of the top scorers across the board coming from Sophmores and Juniors, I'd say things are actually trending slightly up for NDHSH for the first time in a long time. 

 

[yzerman19]

2 minutes ago, Brim006 said:

Agreed on all points and opinions on Mattern. Good analysis, and good point on the skills that set him apart maybe not being something he can lean on at the next level. He seems to be good enough to figure it out but it will be fun to follow him either way. But for now we will just have to enjoy watching him while he's still playing NDHS. 

I'd have to respectfully disagree with your comment on the talent being shallowest in 20 years though. When's the last time kids from Minot with the skill set of Morelli and Panasuk actually stuck around through their SR years? Minot has produced a ton of kids of that caliber but I don't recall any of them ever sticking through their SR year, so those 2 alone have brought a lot of skill and excitement to the WDA that has been lacking for a long time. In the past they left early which hurt the top end competiveness of the west. Bismarck has spread it's talent through 3 teams which still seems to be hurting BHS but even they are better than the past 2 seasons. And Mandan consistently showcasing some good talent and top western teams was never really a reality in the past.  In the east, I'd say yes both GF teams are both down on average along with FSS, but I'd argue GPR, DL, WFS, and WF are all well above their average which has brought a more competitive and well-rounded EDC schedule for everyone this year. There are very few blow outs this season compared to essentially every other year in the past decade. #1 and #2 are having close games with #6 - #8 for the most part which is really rare.

So between more top end talent sticking around, and the bulk of the top scorers across the board coming from Sophmores and Juniors, I'd say things are actually trending slightly up for NDHSH for the first time in a long time. 

 

I think he was emphasizing that defense and goaltending is dragging down the talent level

[Brim006]

18 minutes ago, gfhockey said:

Umm what? Gfc losing to a 5-8 seed team

 

lmao

 

best outtake of the year

They just lost to RR, were tied with DL 4-4 halfway through the 3rd, and same with WF. Main point being...the EDC is tight and it appears GFC isn't unbeatable, so it wouldn't take a miracle for them to drop a game to a bottom-half team at EDC. 

[yzerman19]

20 minutes ago, gfhockey said:

What’s matterns stat lines against gfc or gfrr

2GP 1G 1A in  2 losses vs GFC

1GP 4G 1 A in 1 win vs GFRR

[Brim006]

4 minutes ago, yzerman19 said:

2GP 1G 1A in  2 losses vs GFC

1GP 4G 1 A in 1 win vs GFRR

6 goals and 2 assists in 3 games. Is that good @gfhockey? That can't be correct