by keepinitreal » Mon Nov 20, 2006 10:16 am
East:
1) Fargo South: Solid goaltending, very good depth also well-coached. Safest pick in the state in my opinion.
2) Grafton: Very explosive going to be winning a lot of 6-4, 5-3 type games this year.
3) Devils Lake: Solid team, weak spot at D, but good nucleus of returning forwards and a strong goaltender.
4) Grand Forks Red River: Depth is the major concern here, big drop off after Galbreath, LaDoucer, Meland, and Vigen.
5) Grand Forks Central: Simonson will have a break out year and carry his team along with Josh Ness to this spot, lots of one goal wins in this teams future.
tie 6) Fargo North: Erickson in his 2nd year still not the numbers out the spartans would like to see but have solid talent with Klein, Mickleberg, Bombenger, and Beckadahl (sp?), really weak in the net should split with WF and take care of business below them.
tie 6) West Fargo: Couple elite caliber players in Swanson and Burdick, also watched their JV goaltender from last year steal some games and he is at the reigns this year, seeing wins over wahp, shanley, and a split with North here.
8) Shanley: Young team, should be filled with struggles, Traynor may get steal them a win against a WF or North.
9) Wahp: Same story, different year.
West:
1) BHS- Hillman will be the states top tender, Will Aide should also break out this season.
2) Jamestown- kind of a gut feeling over here, Welding, Leben, Spenningsby all very solid players, also have a tough arena for opponents to get a win at. I also believe they will like the WDA schedule compared to the EDC schedule.
3) Minot- if Stremmick-gate is true it could be the beginning of the end for the Magi as a western power, not a whole heck of a lot of depth.
4) Williston- very good goaltender, Rehak also a stud I see them scraping by Century for this spot
5) CHS- Lost Wentz that will definitely hurt the Pats this season, return a lot off last year should be experienced, but not that skilled, will know more about them after their opening weekend with North and WF.
6) Bottineau- Youth movement in effect, will play very competitively with the Dickinson squad for this spot.
7) Dickinson- may have got there fluke win out of the way a little too early at the jamboree, not a whole lot of upside here, better than last year but not much.
8) Hazen- the loss of McBain will cripple this team for the season.
9) Mandan- Will be competitive with Hazen, Bottineau and Dickinson, but wins will be few and far between.