2024-25 ND High School Hockey

[Wilbur]

3 hours ago, Clark17 said:

Granted Demons only faced WDA teams at state that season and WDA finished 1-2-3. Demons only in-state regular season loss coming from South who Bottineau beat to qualify for state.  All 1 goal games as well with Jays taking them to double OT in the semis. Should also mention 3 D1ers from both Minot and Demons along with in my opinion the best player in the state who chose D1 baseball and football. 
 

 

Was talking about that Demons team with someone the other day.  What a wagon.  Mike Peluso, Mitch Vig, Justin Theel.  Their goaltending just couldn't hold it together that state tournament.  That state tournament for them just felt different after they rolled through the regular season.  Barely got by Bottineau and Jamestown, fell behind like 6-3 or 6-2 to Minot, rallied back to tie the game, only to watch future UND commit Tom Phillion score twice late to beat them.

[Frozen4sioux]

9 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Was talking about that Demons team with someone the other day.  What a wagon.  Mike Peluso, Mitch Vig, Justin Theel.  Their goaltending just couldn't hold it together that state tournament.  That state tournament for them just felt different after they rolled through the regular season.  Barely got by Bottineau and Jamestown, fell behind like 6-3 or 6-2 to Minot, rallied back to tie the game, only to watch future UND commit Tom Phillion score twice late to beat them.

There will never be a Bismarck team with even a smidgeon of that kind of depth again....ever. That sucks.

[Brim006]

21 minutes ago, Frozen4sioux said:

There will never be a Bismarck team with even a smidgeon of that kind of depth again....ever. That sucks.

Because of the trend of kids leaving early? 

[Johnny Five]

11 minutes ago, Brim006 said:

Because of the trend of kids leaving early? 

IDK all towns lose kids early.  I think it's moreso with the 3 HS teams cutting into the depth.  

For example, had Legacy not started, CHS would've had 2 Vigs, Beasley and Martell on their roster 2 years ago (all left for NAHL their senior seasons) plus Marcus Butts who was getting JR attention but chose baseball instead, in addition to some really players one each teams line 2/3.  Instead of one great team, Bismarck had 2 "good" teams.

Gonna take awhile for the depth of Bismarck Hockey Boosters to fill 3 lines on 3 HS teams...and by that I mean in order for them to make a serious run at all 3 qualifying.

[sioux rube]

People forget Bismarck use to have 3 teams when I played in the late 70's. Bismarck, Century, and St Mary's. St Mary's was pretty good my sophomore year then it went downhill. In the regionals in '79 we beat them 21-1. Not sure if that was their last year but it has to be close 

[Johnny Five]

29 minutes ago, sioux rube said:

People forget Bismarck use to have 3 teams when I played in the late 70's. Bismarck, Century, and St Mary's. St Mary's was pretty good my sophomore year then it went downhill. In the regionals in '79 we beat them 21-1. Not sure if that was their last year but it has to be close 

Yeah for sure.  That is wild.  

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad there's 3 teams.  It's up to the youth program to grow the depth and skill...and hopefully Bismarck keeps recycling through hockey generations, that's where the west is way behind.

[Brim006]

2 hours ago, Johnny Five said:

IDK all towns lose kids early.  I think it's moreso with the 3 HS teams cutting into the depth.  

For example, had Legacy not started, CHS would've had 2 Vigs, Beasley and Martell on their roster 2 years ago (all left for NAHL their senior seasons) plus Marcus Butts who was getting JR attention but chose baseball instead, in addition to some really players one each teams line 2/3.  Instead of one great team, Bismarck had 2 "good" teams.

Gonna take awhile for the depth of Bismarck Hockey Boosters to fill 3 lines on 3 HS teams...and by that I mean in order for them to make a serious run at all 3 qualifying.

Well that isn't a very good comparison, because that would assume there were the same amount of people in Bismarck in 1990 as there are today, but now having to split that population of kids into 3 varsity teams instead of just 2 back then. But in reality, the Bismarck MSA population has grown by 50,000 people in that span, and only added 1 varsity program. So technically there's actually far more people and far more kids per varsity team today with 3, than there was per varsity team in 1990 even with only 2.

I think the overall popularity of hockey booming has just made it so much harder for kids to get to the D1 level. In fact, just since 2000 the USA hockey numbers have grown by nearly 250%, yet the number of D1 hockey teams has only grown by a handful. That has drastically reduced the chances for kids to make it to that level today versus 25-35 years ago. Yet, we still see 2-3 ex WDA players playing D1 level hockey each season, which shows despite the massive increase of competition and reduced chances, Bismarck and ND hockey in general has still kept pretty good pace on producing those level of players, but just not as likely to have 3 on the same line and 4-5 on the ice at the same time anymore. It's just the reality of the sheer numbers of hockey players today versus early 90s. 

[Brim006]

2 hours ago, Johnny Five said:

IDK all towns lose kids early.  I think it's moreso with the 3 HS teams cutting into the depth.  

For example, had Legacy not started, CHS would've had 2 Vigs, Beasley and Martell on their roster 2 years ago (all left for NAHL their senior seasons) plus Marcus Butts who was getting JR attention but chose baseball instead, in addition to some really players one each teams line 2/3.  Instead of one great team, Bismarck had 2 "good" teams.

Gonna take awhile for the depth of Bismarck Hockey Boosters to fill 3 lines on 3 HS teams...and by that I mean in order for them to make a serious run at all 3 qualifying.

Judging by youth numbers , it looks like Bismarck will be in a similar boat to today for at least another 3-4 years before there is some potential for major improvements. Bantams have 6 teams which will get bottlenecked into 3 varsity teams, but assuming the natural loss of a chunk of those kids they will probably field pretty similar to current between varsity and JV numbers. Peewees are sitting at 7 teams with full rosters, which will naturally tapper down to pretty similar to today as well. Consistent and steady but no real signs of vast improvement numbers wise. But man oh man, Squirts have 22 teams...Granted they are smaller teams, but still well over double of Peewees numbers. Roughly 275 skaters. There will likely be a pretty large drop off of kids that young all the way to high school but even if they lose half, they'll have about double of current Peewees and Bantams. That's still a long way down the road, but it's at least a good sign of the youth hockey growth with the additional sheet of ice and additional varsity team not bottlenecking numbers as bad anymore.

[Johnny Five]

Yup...I just don't know how the youth is divided geographically between the 3 programs.  I used to know that kind of stuff, but this is my last go around.  The hope would be for 3 good teams.  

[Johnny Five]

West coming down to a wild finish besides Minot a lock.

West Region Boys Region Games Left

TEAMS	GP	POINTS	REGION GAMES LEFT	REGION FINISH SEEDS
Minot	13	45	DICK, WIL	#1-Seed
Bismarck Century	13	36	JAM, BHS, B-R	#2, #3, #4, #5
Jamestown	15	30	BC, MAN, BHS	#2, #3, #4, #5, #6
Bismarck Legacy	15	28	WILL, H-B [6]	#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7
Mandan	15	28	B-R, WIL, JAM	#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7
Bottineau/Rugby	15	26	MAN, BC	#3, #4, #5, #6, #7
Williston	14	17	LEG, MAN, MIN, DICK	#4, #5, #6, #7, #8
Bismarck High	16	12	BC, JAM	#7, #8, #9
Dickinson	15	6	MIN, H-B, WIL	#8, #9, #10
Hazen-Beulah	11	0	DICK, LEG [6]	#9, #10

 

[Frozen4sioux]

1 hour ago, Brim006 said:

Judging by youth numbers , it looks like Bismarck will be in a similar boat to today for at least another 3-4 years before there is some potential for major improvements. Bantams have 6 teams which will get bottlenecked into 3 varsity teams, but assuming the natural loss of a chunk of those kids they will probably field pretty similar to current between varsity and JV numbers. Peewees are sitting at 7 teams with full rosters, which will naturally tapper down to pretty similar to today as well. Consistent and steady but no real signs of vast improvement numbers wise. But man oh man, Squirts have 22 teams...Granted they are smaller teams, but still well over double of Peewees numbers. Roughly 275 skaters. There will likely be a pretty large drop off of kids that young all the way to high school but even if they lose half, they'll have about double of current Peewees and Bantams. That's still a long way down the road, but it's at least a good sign of the youth hockey growth with the additional sheet of ice and additional varsity team not bottlenecking numbers as bad anymore.

Biggest issue is to get BHS and Century through the next 2-4 seasons without having to co-op further.  The negative net numbers for the next two seasons are scary bad for both, BHS much worse off. and low numbers already but I think Steve Dora has done a great job getting kids to play. That was a very good hire.

I don't have the current data for four years out, but the youth program needs to do much better on retention into bantams to sustain those big 12U numbers to get to the high school level. But even the youth program can't do much about anything as to where those kids live.  The district will need to make adjustments again as time goes on.

[Brim006]

19 minutes ago, Johnny Five said:

West coming down to a wild finish besides Minot a lock.

West Region Boys Region Games Left

TEAMS	GP	POINTS	REGION GAMES LEFT	REGION FINISH SEEDS
Minot	13	45	DICK, WIL	#1-Seed
Bismarck Century	13	36	JAM, BHS, B-R	#2, #3, #4, #5
Jamestown	15	30	BC, MAN, BHS	#2, #3, #4, #5, #6
Bismarck Legacy	15	28	WILL, H-B [6]	#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7
Mandan	15	28	B-R, WIL, JAM	#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7
Bottineau/Rugby	15	26	MAN, BC	#3, #4, #5, #6, #7
Williston	14	17	LEG, MAN, MIN, DICK	#4, #5, #6, #7, #8
Bismarck High	16	12	BC, JAM	#7, #8, #9
Dickinson	15	6	MIN, H-B, WIL	#8, #9, #10
Hazen-Beulah	11	0	DICK, LEG [6]	#9, #10

 

I was trying to figure this out manually, thanks for posting. Happen to have one for the EDC? 

[Johnny Five]

East Side

East Region Boys Region Games Left

TEAMS	GP	POINTS	REGION GAMES LEFT	REGION FINISH SEEDS
Grand Forks Central	14	36	FN, GPR	#1, #2
Grand Forks Red River	14	34	FSS	#1, #2, #3
West Fargo Packers	14	30	FSS, WFS	#2, #3
Fargo Davies	15	24	GPR	#4, #5
Fargo North	14	21	GFC, DL	#4, #5, #6, #7, #8
West Fargo Sheyenne	14	17	DL, WFP	#5, #6, #7, #8
Fargo South/Shanley	13	14	WFP, RR, DL	#5, #6, #7, #8
Devils Lake	13	12	WFS, FN, FSS	#5, #6, #7, #8
Grafton/Park River	13	1	FD, GFC	#9 Seed
May-Port Area	0	0		#10 Seed

[sioux rube]

41 minutes ago, Brim006 said:

I was trying to figure this out manually, thanks for posting. Happen to have one for the EDC? 

Here's the website 

https://www.highschoolhockeynd.com/

[Clark17]

15 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Was talking about that Demons team with someone the other day.  What a wagon.  Mike Peluso, Mitch Vig, Justin Theel.  Their goaltending just couldn't hold it together that state tournament.  That state tournament for them just felt different after they rolled through the regular season.  Barely got by Bottineau and Jamestown, fell behind like 6-3 or 6-2 to Minot, rallied back to tie the game, only to watch future UND commit Tom Phillion score twice late to beat them.

Asheim with 98 points that season too - grew up in Bottineau.  Theel was a Bottineau product as well.  Phillion from Crosby.  

I have an old State program from that year as I would collect them.  Closest regular season game in WDA for that Demon team was 7-2 against Bottineau.  Ya I would say they rolled through that season until State.  

[Brim006]

10 minutes ago, Clark17 said:

Asheim with 98 points that season too - grew up in Bottineau.  Theel was a Bottineau product as well.  Phillion from Crosby.  

I have an old State program from that year as I would collect them.  Closest regular season game in WDA for that Demon team was 7-2 against Bottineau.  Ya I would say they rolled through that season until State.  

Did Asheim play for Bott or play for BHS that season? I always recall hearing Peluso's linemate had 98 points and he had 99 which is why I ask. How many points did Phillion have that year, and was he a SR? 

[Wilbur]

31 minutes ago, Clark17 said:

Asheim with 98 points that season too - grew up in Bottineau.  Theel was a Bottineau product as well.  Phillion from Crosby.  

I have an old State program from that year as I would collect them.  Closest regular season game in WDA for that Demon team was 7-2 against Bottineau.  Ya I would say they rolled through that season until State.  

Thats the one I was forgetting.  I just looked up where he ended up, and after the USHL he was apparently at Crookston. 

Those old programs are fantastic.  I wish I had kept them over the years.  Was Bismarck's only loss to South that season before the championship game?  

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

There is some information available in the NDHSAA yearbooks.  https://ndhsaa.com/about/yearbook

[Frozen4sioux]

Just now, Wilbur said:

Thats the one I was forgetting.  I just looked up where he ended up, and after the USHL he was apparently at Crookston. 

Those old programs are fantastic.  I wish I had kept them over the years.  Was Bismarck's only loss to South that season before the championship game?  

ndhsaa or ndaha should really try and collect and catalog all that old history stuff. Gillan's site is great but It would be great for the state to complete records and hhave that history and culture.

[fightingsioux4life]

5 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Thats the one I was forgetting.  I just looked up where he ended up, and after the USHL he was apparently at Crookston. 

Those old programs are fantastic.  I wish I had kept them over the years.  Was Bismarck's only loss to South that season before the championship game?  

I lost a bunch of them in the 1997 flood.

[Frozen4sioux]

24 minutes ago, andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!! said:

There is some information available in the NDHSAA yearbooks.  https://ndhsaa.com/about/yearbook

How didn't know the regionals and state tournaments produced as much profit as it shows.... makes it seem grossly greedy as to how much NDHSAA charges companies to broadcast and stream them. 

USAID type gross.. like where does that money go?..... DOGE where are you when we need you.

[Johnny Five]

2 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Thats the one I was forgetting.  I just looked up where he ended up, and after the USHL he was apparently at Crookston. 

Those old programs are fantastic.  I wish I had kept them over the years.  Was Bismarck's only loss to South that season before the championship game?  

He did end up at Crookston, perhaps lasted a year.  At the time, had some off ice issues but was extremely talented.  Alleged story...he went to pre-season Captains practice at UND.  Before the ol' world wide web...nobody knew who he was and just figured it was someone Blais told to show up.  Real practices start and Blais is like "who the hell is this kid?"  lol....

Irey family that came through Bismarck also with massive Bottineau connections.

[sioux rube]

Shanley has sent paper work in to  dissolve from South

Pat Johnson has resigned as coach for WF 

[gfhockey]

49 minutes ago, sioux rube said:

Shanley has sent paper work in to  dissolve from South

Pat Johnson has resigned as coach for WF 

SHanley going with Davies? 

[Wilbur]

1 hour ago, sioux rube said:

Shanley has sent paper work in to  dissolve from South

Pat Johnson has resigned as coach for WF 

Was only a matter of time.  Entire team is Shanley kids.