MArch 11, 2010 One of the best sporting events in the country starts today

the Boys Minnesota High School Hockey Large School Tournament.

Over 125,000 fans will come to St. Paul, MN EXCEL Center over the next 3 days to watch the best prep tournament in the Nation

they SEED the top 4 clubs to insure they dont play each other in the first round..they other 4 teams are randomly placed in the matchups..so 1 does not play 8 (except this year by chance that is what happened)..


today afternoon

number 2 seeded Edina vs Roseau
(battle of the two strongest traditions in the state, these teams are number 1 and 2 in titles and appearances all time! and both wear green...Roseau is the small northern school state darling..Edina the hated elite public school)

final edina 4-1

number 3 seed Blaine vs Apple Valley
Blane with U of MN recruit Bjusted was a top 5 team all year, 5th straight trip to state for this new northern suburb power program, Apple Valley just happy to be here...number one wrestling program in the NATION (won state last week) played through a weak region and made it..at least their fans know where to park.

Blaine 5-2


evening
number 1 Minnetonka vs LAkeville North
Blow out...Minnetonka one loss all year and number one, three division one defenseman on the same team is unheard of..and some nice forwards...LAkeville North comes form the horrible weak southern state section which for political reasons only gets a team..they were way below 0.500 this year..

Tonka 7-0


Number 4 Hill Murray vs Duluth East

thought to be the best matchup of the day..East is the best of the unseeded teams winners of 12 in a row...these two teams have met many times in the tourny with HillMurray willing almost all of them. Hill wondering aobut why they are a 4 seed, they were the number 3 rated team in the state before playoffs and the number 2 seed lost in regions..still last time they were a 4 seed 2 years ago they won state

Hill 4 East 3



semis

calling for Blaine to make a run, they have not done much in their 5 year state tourney run, Blaine 5-4

Upset alert...Hill murray has the tradition to beat a top seed Tonka...
5-4 HM in a classic


Finals...

teams played earlier this year with Blaine getting a 4-0 first period lead only to have Hill battle back to a 5-4 game which Blaine won....high scoring

calling for Blaine to win state 5-4...

local watering holes such as Patrick McGoverns will be rockin....




odds to win tourney (exclusive to RX and eog)

Minnetonka -140
Edina 3.5-1
blaine 5.5 - 1
Hill murray 6-1
Duluth East 15-1
Roseau 18-1
Apple Valley 80-1
Lakeville North 2000-1

I hear what you are saying, here, the BeanPot tourney is HUGE

beanpot is college hockey however right (harvard, BC BU and prov?)

trytrytry said:

beanpot is college hockey however right (harvard, BC BU and prov?)

Click to expand...

Correct, but the point I was going for is the tourney is just as notorious.

p.s. Is Blaine the HS that is basicly top ten every year?

blaine no..they are a nice team, 5 straight trips to state but have not done much with those last 5 trips...not a top top top tier program yet..they are very good this year however and I think can steal this whole thing....

Sounds awesome TTT


Minnesota high school hockey is like Iowa high school wrestling.............both awesome events.

High school hockey here is like high school football in Texas ... Sounds like a exciting tourney

finals from today

Edina 7 Roseau 3

apple Vally 2 Blaine 0 in a shocker of the day

Minnetonka 6 LAkeville North 1

Hill Murray 5 Duluth East 3 (rallied from a 2-0 deficit)

Edina vs Apple Valley
Edina -2 1/2 +110

Minnetonka vs Hill Murray
Minnetonka - 1 1/2 -170

Any value in these today?

I have...
Mahtomedi pk (-160)

Breck School -1.5 (-160)

Edina -2.5(-140)

Minnetonka -2.5(-120)

ihiban who is your local..PM me...

thanks..

at those prices Id be big on Breck and medium on hill murray

Class A Championship line is up...

Breck -1.5(-140), -300 ML, o/u 6.5


Any thoughts on this one?

wow..just saw the best game IVe ever seen live


first the first game..

Edina wins 2-0 to advance to another title game...this is a very good team, balanced (they lost their 3 superstars last year and this was supposed to be rebuilding year..they almost seem better with a balanced team this year)... with great tradition...Apple Valley for a team that was not supposed to get to state or win did play hard but were outshot by a ton..


second game..just got back...

4 overtime thriller...just unreal....

2-1 final Minnetonka on a wrap around goal in the 4th overtime beats Hill Murray...Hill outshot Tonka a stunning 23-9 in regulation including holding this number one power to 1 shot int he 2nd and only 2 in the third but they could not solve the tonka goalie..in the combined OTs it was dead even with chance after chance after chance for each team....wow hats off ot Hill Murray for a herculean effort against this excellent top seed.

Tonka goes to its first title game...


(last time MinneTonka played edina earlier in the season they took a 4-0 lead on Edinas rink only to lose 5-4!!...this could be another good one if MinneTonka has anything left...)

trytrytry said:

at those prices Id be big on Breck and medium on hill murray

Click to expand...

both winners hope you crushed the man...

I'm born and raised in the south. I met a guy while running a marathon last month from Minn. He said he lives on the lake where the movie Grumpy Old Men was filmed. He said it's frozen over several months of the year and it's like a traffic jam on the ice. He said they play hockey like crazy there. It was interesting hearing the story about how much the lake freezes over and the people are all into it. I can imagine the hockey up there is pretty sick....

---

Here are current lines...

Breck (-1.5) -160, -350 ML, o/u 6.5

Minnetonka(-1.5) +120, -200 ML, o/u 5.5

Hill Murray(-1.5)


Any plays out of these?

play against hill murray..they dont play hockey for 3rd place minor hardware..

over 5.5 in the tonka game.

breck starting right now sorry Im late they will win by 3..

Congratulations to the EDINA Hornets who won their
first since 1997 and 10th overall state title (includng the 3 they won as Edina East before they merged East and West) with a 4-2 easy win over MinneTonka.

EDIAN is a great team with great tradition..

Minnetonka had nothing left after being stressed like no other game in high school hockey game history the night before in what will alwyas be known as the 4OT classic win over Hill Murray..

Edian scored in the first minute, and got up 4-0 before two goals by Tonka in the start of the 3rd period made it interesting for a bit..but Edina clamped them up rest of the way to win it..

source st paul pioneed press

Weary Minnetonka no match for Edina in Class AA title game
Edina shows weary Minnetonka no mercy in title game
By Tim Leighton
tleighton@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 03/14/2010 12:43:38 AM CST



Adrenaline and motivation were supposed to be like octane for Minnetonka's boys hockey team Saturday night in the Minnesota Class AA championship game at the Xcel Energy Center.

Unfortunately for the Skippers, they were only fumes.

Edina came out flying and showed no mercy to Minnetonka in the first two periods, surviving Minnetonka's late comeback push to record a 4-2 victory in the big-school title game.

Ryan Cutshall and Jake Sampson had a goal and an assist each to help stake the Hornets to a four-goal lead en route to capturing the school's seventh state championship. Edina goalie Connor Girard made 23 saves, including a handful that qualified as spectacular.

It was the second time this season that Edina (23-6-2) defeated the top-ranked, talent-laden and heavily favored Skippers (27-2-2), who won two other meetings.

Just to qualify for the big-school title game, Minnetonka endured a 3 hour, 33 minute marathon in a 2-1, four-overtime victory over Hill-Murray that ended early Saturday morning. In a pregame chat, Minnetonka coach Brian Urick said he didn't think fatigue would be a factor.

"If you can't get up for this, even if you are tired, we will remind you that you aren't tired,'' he said. "These are young guys. They can overcome it. They should be fine.''

Urick refused to use the second-longest game in state tournament history as a crutch for his team's slow start.

"I thought our guys were ready to play,'' he said. "We weren't going


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to use that as an excuse. You have to give Edina credit.''
Said Edina coach Curt Giles: "I think we caught them at a good time. They were a little beat up.''

As they were against Hill-Murray, the Skippers were late starters, waiting until the third period to show signs of life.

The Skippers caught fire in the third to turn a blowout into don't-leave-your-seat drama.

Senior defenseman Andrew Prochno scored two goals 42 seconds apart early in the period to draw Minnetonka to within 4-2. He scored off a blast from just inside the blue line. He added another moments later on a wrister from the left circle.

"We go into the third and we all believed,'' Prochno said. "Bounces just didn't go our way the second half of the period. We didn't play our best this weekend.''

Edina, which finished third in the Classic Lake Conference behind Minnetonka and Wayzata, expected the Skippers' push.

"I knew they were going to come out hard because they had nothing to lose,'' said Girard, who faced nine shots in the third period.

"Everyone was fine,'' Giles said. "We didn't think this was going to be a breeze and we'd win 8-0. They made the push (and our guys) didn't get ruffled.''

The Hornets built a 4-0 lead after two periods on a second-period goal by Sampson and two earlier in the period, less than two minutes apart, by Michael Sit and Brett Stolpestad.

Sit gave the high-flying Hornets a 2-0 lead early in the second period when he whacked in a long rebound. Stolpestad struck moments later when he streaked down the right side and stuffed a backhand under the pads of Skippers goalie Jim Kruger.

Edina wasted little time jumping on Minnetonka.

On the game's first shift, Edina coaxed the Skippers into a turnover, which the Hornets converted into a goal with just 26 seconds elapsed. Cutshall put the finishing touches on a pinpoint cross-ice pass from Sampson.

"We were eager,'' Cutshall said. "We just came out flying and went from there.''

Directly to the winner's circle.

Consolation: Kyle Lutzka, Kenny Mellin and Andy Wellinski scored a goal in each period to stake Duluth East (21-6-4) to a lead it wouldn't surrender in a 3-1 victory over Roseau (23-7-1) in the consolation final at Mariucci Arena.

Briefly: Saturday's attendance for the Class AA third-place and championship games was 17,823. Total attendance for the four-day tournament was 119,077.