Daily Dish 5.1
As N’sync once famously said… “it’s gonna be may”
As we embark into the heart of the regular season we finally have a look at all the teams and have a pretty good idea of the landscape of the league. Every year, however, there are teams that surge in the second half of the season and there are teams that tank for that #1 overall draft pick. I think we will start to see the level of play significantly increase this month. Stickwork will get a bit more dialed in, details will be fixed at practice and teams now have a few games under their belt to watch the film, make adjustments and get better.
There were some fun matchups on Saturday - lets dish up the recaps:
Chanhassen 11 v Minnetonka 4: This game was close for a half and then Chanhassen ran away with it. These are both good teams but Chanhassen looked a bit more structured to me. It seemed like they had some of the details a bit more dialed in to make adjustments in the second half. I thought this game was sloppy in the first half - it was still high level, but, sloppier than I expected from both of these teams. It could have been due to both teams pushing the pace/pressure on each other and just causing the speed of the game to increase a little bit more than each team was used to. Minnetonka got into foul trouble and if there is one thing you don’t want to do against Chanhassen, it’s give them a lot of power play time. They have elite shooters and giving them the man advantage empowers them to start slingin’ the rock and playing a little more free. This killed Minnetonka’s momentum and, combined with face offs, let Chanhassen dominate the second half of the game. Still believe Mtka is a good team, but, they will need to regroup here and watch the film - plenty of big games coming up. Chanhassen is a buzzsaw and looks to be extremely focused and methodical this year… I think they are feeling those last two state QF upsets and are on a mission right now
Rosemount 9 v Wayzata 4: I thought this game would be more competitive. Both the Irish and the Trojans looked like solid teams and it was a pretty competitive first half. The game was slow paced, both teams slipped into zone defense at times. Both teams did a good job taking away transition so it was a lot of 6v6. Rosemount’s goalie had a great day - I think Wayzata had more shots but he was shutting the door on anything from the outside. Wayzata also had a lot more penalties called on them. They were man down a lot. I was at the game and felt like a lot of them were a bit soft… just my opinion, but, nonetheless, between good goaltending and Extra Man Opportunities, the Irish were able to control this game in the second half. I’m not sold on either team being in the top 10 right now, but, both have top 10 potential. I saw really good flashes from both teams. The both have plenty of big games coming up to prove they belong
BSM 16 v Edina 10: I didn’t see this game so I don’t have too much to comment. It sounds like it was 7-7 at halftime, so, tip of the cap to the hornets for running with the RK’s for a half. There are also rumors saying BSM was man down a lot. Not sure if it was justified by Edina drawing those fouls or what. I think the storyline here is that BSM continues to show their depth is a huge advantage. Even when teams are on them in the first, they run away in the second. Hard to draw any additional conclusions from Edina in this game, I feel like they are a top 10 team, and, I still feel that way despite this loss.
Eagan 11 v Woodbury 5: This was a game that I felt like Eagan had a strong chance to win if they were able to dictate their style/pace of play and I was right. Woodbury was coming off a game the night before and, from what I have seen, they like to play a slow, smart, methodical pace. They love to play settled 6v6 and control the ball. They don’t make many mistakes and limit opportunities for their opponent. Eagan loves to run, play up tempo, take risks and play unstructured most of the time. They aren’t confined to playing 6v6 and will take any open lane to the net in their early offense as possible. This proved to be the deciding factor. Eagan pushed, and pushed, and pushed. Woodbury was athletically able to match, but, I don’t know if they were mentally ready. Eagan is physical and Woodbury tried to give it back to them but it backfired. There were some retaliation penalties as well as just overly aggressive plays right in front of the official that ended up putting the Wildcats Man up. The face of battle was a good one and ended very close to 50/50 so that is a positive sign for both teams.
