North Dakota Preps

14>35 wrote:its truly unfortunate to see athletes decide to change schools through their high school athletics career.

Does anyone know why he is changing schools? Maybe it is not unfortunate, maybe it is in his best interests. He chose to change schools, it shouldn't be a big deal.

I guess he didn't like the coach that's just what he said...and i guess Danny Ray was going to switch to because of the coach but that never happened

i agree that it is the athlete's decision if they want to change schools or not. i just feel that you went to your school for a reason and you have a commitment to give your all for that school, not just jump ship when the waters are rough

everyone says central will be a top contender in 08-09 who are they even goin to have that will be productive for them? defense and forwards?

They only graduated 4-5 guys, yet they still beat South twice last year. The fact that South looks strong this year, makes Central look strong this year. In my opinion, at least.

thats a factor but who will they have that makes them a strong team? central i mean

I don't think they'll be lead by an All-Star, but they'll have a solid base for a team that'll allow them to compete. Grafton and Central are basically opposites this year.

now that demers is gone from grafton, who do you see 1-2-3 or will it not change?

hockey123 wrote:now that demers is gone from grafton, who do you see 1-2-3 or will it not change?

My picks:

EDC Regular Season:

1) Fargo South
2) Grafton Spoilers
3) Central Knights
4) Red River Roughriders
5) Fargo North Spartans
6) Devils Lake
7) Shanley
West Fargo
9) Wahpeton-Breckenridge

I figure it'll be a battle for first between South and Grafton. Central will be right behind them, waiting for them to slip up. (Possible upsets)
Fourth all the way through Seventh could be a battle. I'm not sure on those picks. I figure Malm will be able to get RR into State though. They lost so much talent this year though.
Trying to be unbiased as possible, those are my picks for the regular season. I'll do EDC after regular season is over and State once EDC is determined.

HockeyHigh wrote:

hockey123 wrote:now that demers is gone from grafton, who do you see 1-2-3 or will it not change?

My picks:

EDC Regular Season:

1) Fargo South
2) Grafton Spoilers
3) Central Knights
4) Red River Roughriders
5) Fargo North Spartans
6) Devils Lake
7) Shanley
West Fargo
9) Wahpeton-Breckenridge

I figure it'll be a battle for first between South and Grafton. Central will be right behind them, waiting for them to slip up. (Possible upsets)
Fourth all the way through Seventh could be a battle. I'm not sure on those picks. I figure Malm will be able to get RR into State though. They lost so much talent this year though.
Trying to be unbiased as possible, those are my picks for the regular season. I'll do EDC after regular season is over and State once EDC is determined.

I like your top 5 pre-season predictions. I think you are predicting Devils Lake way way too high at 6th. Graduated Top 8 scorers and starting goalie. They may have their hands full. Also, I'm not sure I see Shanley getting out of the play-in game just yet. They graduated a lot, starting goalie went back home, etc... Shanley, Devils Lake, and W.F. are probably a push with anyone of them being able to win on a given night.

I agree, that's why I mentioned the footnote of 4-9 being a little iffy. Give it a week or two into the season and I'm sure the predictions for 5-9 will be far more accurate. Just gotta wait.

how can u honestly say that central will be 3 they will be better than south they beat them twice last year and grafton will struggle without demers they will still have some solid players but it will take more than that

hockeyguy wrote:how can u honestly say that central will be 3 they will be better than south they beat them twice last year and grafton will struggle without demers they will still have some solid players but it will take more than that

Although I do not agree or disagree with you. South beat Central to get to State. If you want to go on who beat who during the season, I guess you have Fargo North at #2 since they beat and tied Central during the season, but Central won the game at EDC. That is why it is just people's guesses as to who will do what during the season. HockeyHigh=Hundreds of posts, Hockeyguy=2 posts, Welcome Central to the 08/09 predictions!

for 1 u don't know what your talking about central did not go to state and whats posts have to even do with it

hockeyguy wrote:for 1 u don't know what your talking about central did not go to state and whats posts have to even do with it

Corrected, I meant to get to state. I made a typo, I should stop posting because I don't know what I'm talking about I guess. And the point was HockeyHigh has posted hundreds of posts and are pretty informative. In his opinion, he feels that South may be a higher seed than Central. It's a pre-season prediction. In his post, he even stated, Central will be right behind them, waiting for one of them to slip up. Everyone is entitled to make a prediction or have an opinion, you feel Central is stronger than South. Should be a great season.

I don't think central has as much talent as south so south will take central

yes you are right i argee 100% sioux4ever it wil be a good season and you are right about hockeyhigh giving good info i have been looking at this sit for a while now and decided to chat.....hockey123 who will south have thats so much better than central if u think they will take them then?

IMO i honestly think that 1-4 can very easily be re-arranged with any of these 4 teams being at the top. grafton, who won state last year, will still be good even without demers. red river, last years runner up returns some good 3 year players, and now with the addition of bryce anderson on the point, it will only help them out more. south, who was young last year, played RR in a very good semi-final game at the state tournament. it will be interesting to see how some of their younger players from last year will play with a little more pressure on them this year. central is also going to be good. they were young last year and probably could have been playing in the state tournament. they didnt lose much and another year of experience from some of their younger guys is only gonna help them. 1-4 will be jumbled around all through the year. i cant say who will win the regular season just yet, i need to watch some games first.

hockeyguy wrote:how can u honestly say that central will be 3 they will be better than south they beat them twice last year and grafton will struggle without demers they will still have some solid players but it will take more than that

correct me if i'm wrong on this but central beat south twice with the goalie that quit from fargo south right? when they put buchholtz in the net they couldnt beat south.. and guess who the starter will probably be this year for them?.. but you make the call. just my opinion.

From the NDHSAA site:

HOCKEY - Boys
Regions
East Feb. 19, 20, 21, 2009 Grand Forks Todd Olson
West Feb. 19, 20, 21, 2009 Bismarck Jim Haussler

State
Feb. 26, 27, 28, 2009 Grand Forks Todd Olson

I was looking forward to EDC in Fargo this year at the new UP center. Would have been a really nice setting for big competition. Also, according to their site (http://www.ndhsaa.org/files/Sites_thru_2012.pdf) they will not be changing it to accommodate the new rink. Living in Fargo, it's a shame it isn't going to be played here. Girls will also be playing in GF again this year, meaning the Purpur/Ralph shenanigans are likely to occur again. (I hated the arena transfers, a LOT) Not playing in the arena that's the only reason State is always in Grand Forks really ruins the mood of the tournament.

However, I did get tipped off to the Schedule for Fargo South's 2008-2009 season: http://www.fargo.k12.nd.us/education/sc ... V_BHoc.pdf

I'll make this into a thread later for people to post team's schedules, as NDHighSchoolHockey.com doesn't have it up yet.
Looks like South is practicing at the UP center, and playing all their games there. That'll be fun to see. They also play Moorhead and White Bear Lake from Minnesota for their first two games, 3 days apart.
According to http://www.geocities.com/dent0110/ White Bear Lake is rated 9 and Moorhead is rated 14 in Minnesota for 2008-2009. Should be a challenging start for FS.

really king1869 if u wanna go by that then i guess it means devils lake will be better than south this year cuz they beat them in EDC right? correct me if im wrong tho?

He was relating the game based on goalie, not on when the game was. So saying DL beat FS in EDC has nothing to do with his explanation. However, I don't believe that the DL game accurately reflects how good South was last year. (Look at the scores of their previous games) Also, Fargo South lost 1-2 against Central with Scott Buchholz in net. The shots were South - 24, Central - 15. The first victory over Fargo South, that ended in OT, the shots ended up 23 for both teams. FS was also in the middle of a 4 game losing streak.

Either way, making a statement that one team WILL beat another one is rather foolish if they're closely attributed. Maybe Wahp versus FS is obvious who the winner will be, but the top 3-4 teams I'd rather keep to chance.

the four game losing streak has nothing to do with it if there on a losing streak they should come out more fired up to win than anything. Shots mean nothing if the puck never hits the back of the net. But you cant saycentral wont beat south cuz they are going to have a certain goalie in the net. South just came out ready to play that last EDC game and Cenral didnt play to there potential.

Maybe south didnt play to there potential and central came out ready in the other two games that south lost you can say that both ways...

Maybe Wahpeton hasn't been playing to their potential for the past few years. Maybe they were really the best team in North Dakota each year, they just weren't motivated for every single game. Maybe Hazen-Beulah was just bored at being so good that they become indifferent and don't put out a winning effort in their games.

It's completely illogical, really. If the best team is playing like they should, they will always come out on top, minus freak accidents. South was, in my opinion, in a very, very cold streak to start off their year. Their only 3 wins in their first 7 games were against clearly sub-par teams. Once you get past those games, you get into a regular season for South, despite their 'lack of ability' compared to Red River last year. Even the best teams do have their falters, don't get me wrong, but they should be very infrequent, and hopefully happen at the best timing possible for that team. South faltered, but they did it at the right time. Red River faltered at the incorrect time. (Bad ref call or not, RR had plenty of time to make up for it, and they didn't)

I'm still mystified that RR beat FS in the semi's with a 17 to -3 shot disadvantage.

I believe the most interesting games in the coming season will be FS's first two games against WBL and Moorhead, as well as their games against Grafton-PR. It's a lot of fun to watch a North Dakota team face up against a top ranked team in Minnesota. (RR against Roseau, for example)