Friday, March 5, 2010

2nd ot

seems the game play is like the score, even.  in the 2nd OT its going to be the one kid who gets a break and wants it more that wins this one.

University School and Gilmour headed to OverTime

Tied at one...while its not at 3 -3 tie headed to ot, it is a tie.  I still feel U School is the stronger team and should the team on top in victory.

U school and Gilmour update

Tied 1-1 with 12 left in the 3rd!

University school gets early lead

U School is leading in the contest in to the 2nd 1-0 over gilmour.

The puck drops tonight for defending state champs U. School

Tonight when the clock reaches half past 7, Kent State University arena will be rocking.  University School the defending state champions will be squared off against Gilmour Academy in the first game of this weekends regional district finals, or what could be better called the state quarter finals as the bracket to the Championship has been well known.  The victor in this match up advances to play the winner of the Ignatius, Padua game in the semi finals, next Saturday at Nation Wide Arena.  The following article is from Cleveland.com
click to enlarge.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Regional finals set. Let the predicitions come.

Most of what you will find here is nothing new from me, with the exception of my Wildcats, Trojans prediction.
Lets start down in the South West, the Columbus district. The  Dublin Coffman Rocks will be playing the Centerville Elks on March 6th at 5pm at Nation Wide arena.  Here we have the MyHockey ranked 16th in the state Dublin Rocks team and the #23 Centerville Elks team.  This year there is no information on these two meeting, but in looking at who they both played and those outcomes on the screen the Rocks are a soild bet to win this game.  Dont get me, wrong the Elks have been getting stronger every year and are consistantly one of the strongest down in the SW.  I however have to pick the Rocks on this one and I will say that even with emotions running high we are looking at 4-2, 5-2 victory for the Rocks.

Over in the South East, Kent District we have Hunting Valley University School and The Gilmour Academy Lancers..  We are looking at very strong, consistently strong University School team, and defending state champions.  This abundance of strength is well reflected in their #2 MyHockey State Ranking.  U. School came out this year stumbling, loosing their first 4 games, then pounding Walsh 7-0, only to come back and be shutout by Padua 3-0 in their next outing.  That is not sounding great for U. School, but this team developed, and since loosing the ST. Francis Knights on January 16th have not lost a single game, putting them 15-0 coming in to the March 5th 730pm regional Final.  Their opponent the Lancers are ranked 7th in the state, who I picked originally to loose to Walsh, and I had Walsh winning the district.  Well, Walsh is clearly out.  I picked Walsh knowing it would be tough row to hoe for them to beat Gilmor, but if they had I was sure they would beat U. School.  Well for  Gilmour, I am going to go with the defending state champs U School.  Its not going to be an easy ride by any means the Lancers are play to hard, and seem to be peaking right now, where as U. School peaked long ago and may well be on the ride down.
I am picking U. School over the Lancers in an OT Win 4-3


Up in the North East we have #3 St. Ingantius and #8 Padua facing off on March 6th at 6pm.  From the start of the season until the first week of January Padua was beating every team they played, loosing only to: a hot Lake Catholic team, and Meadville, earning ties with Sylvania Northview and Meadville twice, and Ignatius.  Since that ride and prior to the playoffs it was a mix of losses and ties.  All of which were between what looks like at a glance the top 10 teams in the state, so a rough second half for Padua.  In the playoffs, Padua has won with a commanding style of team that has peaked for the playoffs, with lowest margin of victory being 4 goals.  St. Ignatius heads in as #3 in the state.  Having played Padua twice this season, once early ending in a 2-2 tie, and the second time being a commanding 3-0 shut out win.  Ignatius has played well all season long being one of the only teams to beat the St. Francis  Knights and doing so authoritatively 5-2.  It takes no stretch of the imagination to pick Ignatius in this one, or to even boast a rout in the process.  I am saying I don't see it that way.  Just as the Findlay Trojans toppled the Knights, Padua will scrap out a victory in this hotly contested battle. 3-2 Padua wins.

In the North West we have the #5 Sylvania Northview Wildcats and the #10 Findlay Trojans.
The Findlay Trojans are ridding high beating what others call the odds, I call it a quality win.  You see the way I called it the Knights came out this season amazing.  they had it all, a fast tempo of play, high power offensive weapons, a mobile quick defense and solid goalie.  This team was and will be remembered as one of the best in NW Ohio; however, they did not improve as the other teams do.  The Trojans nearly dealt them a loss early.  The Knights then shut them out latter in the season.  The Trojans went on to improve and peak in the playoffs and came out won a huge game over Knights, in OT, and while the score was lower than I predicted, I called it right an OT win for the Trojans.  For the Wildcats its been a season of mostly highs and few lows.  Beating big teams and loosing to lesser teams like when they were shut out against the Bobcats, after having beaten a strong Gimour club.
Upon entering the playoffs the Wildcats have been riding high.  Playing what is perceived as the most challenging rout to regional finals, having played Bowling Green and St. Johns, now having to play a hot Findlay team.  Northview like Findlay is playing in top form right now.  While the Wildcats have beated the Trojans twice this season this is a very different Trojan team than from those two meetings.
Add in to this what happened to the Wildcats playing the Trojans last year in the playoffs, getting a big lead early then giving up numerous late goals nearly loosing the contest.  That will only happen again if the Wildcats look past the Trojans.  I dont see how any sensible player will do that, no lead is big enough, and heaven forbid you must play from behind in this one.   The Northview memories of those mistakes are far to recent and Northview is playing their best hockey as well right now.   In the end only one team can win to advance.  I have a feeling the Wildcats finish on top of the Trojans by a score of 4-2, and make their first appearance in the final four, since 2006.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

St Ed's falls to Padua

Eds falls to Padua by a final score of 5-1.  Wow.  Padua went to work and figured out how to win again, after coming off a loosing streak prior to the playoffs.
Did I call this win?  Go back and read my predictions and find out.

Big Scoring Falcon recruit recieves honors

 
click image for larger view
Bryce Williamson recorded 107 pts this season, averaging 1.8 points a game.  He is also the St. Albert franchise record holder of most goals in a season at 41, most assists at 66 and most game winning goals at 8.   As well as most carrer goals at 102, most carrer assists at 136 and most carrer points at 238.
Bryce is excited about joining the BGSU Falcons for the 2010-2011 season.  He will be bringing some of the needed offensive speed and scoring the team lost while in turmoil last summer.

The Falcons have had a fantastic recruiting season under coach Williams, and news of the Universities and Fan commitment to the team, and rink renovations.  This class includes the following players:
Name                Position               last team                  height weight
Jacob Sloat         LD          Owatonna(NAHL)        5'11 175lbs
Scott Zacharias            G               PEmbroke(COJHL)         6'3 180lbs
Brett Mohler              RW                      TRI-City(USHL)        6'   175lbs
Andrew Wallace                 L-C                Surrey (BCHL)                  5'10 180lbs
Ryan Viselli                RW                       PEnticton(BCHL)          5' 10  180lbs
Bryce Williamson                      RW                       St. Albert                        6' 173lbs
Wyatt Galley                G                               Neapean(COJHL)                 6' 175lbs      
Chad Sumsion                RW-C                    Neewmarket(CCHL)                6' 190lbs
Kyle Sucher                      D                        ST. Louis Midget                  5'9 170lbs
Mike Montrose                                  LD            TRI CIty (USHL)                        5'11 171lbs               

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

No Polls here, lets look at how MyHockey ranked them

Well there it is, the WWW.MyHockey.com rankings for Ohio High Schools.
In looking at who we have still standing, University School is set to play Gilmour.  That is #2 playing #7, good match up.   We have Sylvania Northview #5 playing Findlay #10, another good match up.  We have # 3 ST Ignatius playing either #6 St. Ed's or #8 Padua, which will no doubt all be good match ups.  We also  have down in the Columbus district  # 17 Dublin playing #25 Centerville, which will be a very hotly contested match.  While the schools in the Columbus district as whole are not on the same level as the rest of the state.  Teams like Dublin and Centervill are coming on in recent years and have become very competitive, they are not push overs by any means and win big games, Im sure the consistency will keep on building in those top Columbus district programs.
Now if we could have a tournament with all the members of the the ten, via random draw.  Two pools of 5, top two advance to the finals from each pool, WOW, that would really hot.  That is something that would sure get people excited and talking a lot more  about HS hockey.  Maybe, just maybe something like could be planed for mid season.  At any rate we have worked on down, to the picks, of the litters.  The teams playing at their peaks are advancing and those who are not are going home.  There is absolutely no room for error, the pressure is  high.  We are going to end up with one excellent final four field.  You cant ask for more from March Hockey.

Gilmour wins 5-2

Advances to play University School in final.

Ignatius downs Broadview 4-1

Ignatius advances to the finals after a dominating game and controlling the play by a score of 4-1. Broadview was out matched from opening drop with Ignatius controlling play the whole game. I got this one right, lets see how the rest go.

Gilmour out to big lead

Gilmour at the start of the 3rd is up by a score of 4-1 over Walsh, looks like I called this one wrong. Commanding the game to this point it does not look like Walsh will be able to mount a come back, Gilmour is just far to strong.

An Early look at the Trojans Vs Wildcats

The Trojans did it. They worked hard, came out and did what they had to do beat the number one team in the state in a quarter final game. Stunning many fans and hockey critics in the area, except your truly. Some-days its just not easy being me. Yet I had nothing to do with this great victory, I just interpreted what I saw. A St. Francis that had not improved all year and Trojan that was hungry and nearing their peak. The victory is the results of the efforts put forth by the Trojan coaches, putting in place a game plan that was exactly what they needed to win. You can expect no less from the fine StJohn coached Trojan teams. The players who then meticulously executed that plan, for the Trojans are clearly at their peak, for the season right now. Playing your best hockey right now is all that matters. For these two remaining team there are only two possibilities. Win and advance or loose, cry and pack your locker. One must win, and one must loose. Who ends up advancing and who ends up packing is determined on a sheet of ice, 200' long and 85' wide, of the course 45 min of regulation play and or to include Overtime as in the Trojan defeat of St. Francis.
So here we are the Trojans, the 4th place team in the Red Division, facing off against the 3rd seeded 2nd place Red Division Wildcat team. In their two meetings this season the Wildcats won 4-0 in the first meeting then 7-4 in the second meeting. I honestly don't think that means diddly squat now. Why or how can you think some may exclaim. It doesn't mean bunk now for the simple reason that these are two very different teams than those that played those two contests. The only team that had an identity back then was the Knights. The Wildcats got theirs just before the playoffs and Trojans found theirs on the way into last nights victory. I say we are all in for a real treat Saturday night. I've got a feeling about this game, but I am going to refrain making it public until after I watch back some footage of the past games.
Tonight we have Cleveland St. Ignatus facing off against Brecksville Broad-view HGTs in semi final action. I see this one the majority do, and that is an Ignatus win. Then we have Walsh Vs. Gilmour in the Semis as well, but down in Kent. I am saying we see a Walsh win in this one still.
Then tomorrow night we have the Parma Padua and St Eds match up. With all their experience in recent years many are picking St Ed's to come out on top. You bet, I've got a feeling, that Padua finds a way to win this game.
Have great evening and I'll see you all at the rink.

Monday, March 1, 2010

University School advances

Tonight in the Kent district University School squared off against Mentor Lake Catholic. University School carried the play most of the game to skate on to a 3-1 victory. They will face the victor of the Walsh - Gilmour contest on 03-05 at 730 in Kent.

Trojans topple Knights

The Findlay Trojans came to play. They played the best hockey they have played all year doing all the right things with the puck. This allowed them to skate to a 3-2 over time victory.
This game was tied until just after the midway point in the 3rd when the Trojans found the back of the net on a beautiful shot. The knights ended up on their heels but reeled back and got in the fight. Then with 58 seconds to in regulation and face off in the Trojans zone, the Knights called for time out. They pulled goalie Davis to add the extra attacker. After the the drop the Trojans worked hard but alais with a net surrounded with bodies from both factions, a Knight drove in the tie goal. Then with just 4 ticks left on the clock the Trojans had a chance with a face off in the Knights zone. Electing to not pull their goalie, the Trojans were unable to score.
Over time was exciting. A Trojan was working hard to break away with puck and drew a penalty on the Knights. Down a man the Knights were at the mercy of the Trojans, nearly clearing the puck before final blow was delt.
Is off to the district championship for the Trojans, where they will be hosted by the Wildcats.

Score update St. Francis Vs Trojans

1-1 after two

Wildcats Vs. Titans highlight reel now available for viewing

The video highlight reel is now available for viewing here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oHcRwBI02Y
on Youtube
The mobileme hd versions is due to publish later today.
This is a very good hd downloadable version
http://gallery.me.com/jdhdale#100670
All I can say is, I got a feeling, about the future.

Confidence runs high for Knight fans

Fans of this year power house Knights team, have an abundance of confidence in what the out come of tonight's contest. Game predictions range from 4-2 all the way to 6-1. A few like your author, very few are calling for OT to reach a decision. I am sticking with my goals coming in spurts and OT win for the Trojans, I just have that feeling. The same feeling I had when the Steelers Beat the Colts, back in 2006 or the Saints this year. Feelings are not scientific, the way I view the numbers break down is that on paper there is no reason the #1 team should not beat the #10 in the state. Yet this is why we play the game, the Trojans have uped their game and I do not believe the Knights have, but have instead played at the same consistent high level all season. In about 12 hours we will know.