Bayside Chatter: Hockey teams reach the midseason

Talk about it

With the completion of the holiday tournaments it is pretty much the halfway point of the season for girls hockey, so I thought I would take a look at the sections and their favorites.

Section 1A comes down to No. 17 New Prague and No. 19 Faribault. In 2A you should end with a cross-town battle as Mankato East plays Mankato West. Section 3A has New Ulm by default as there is pretty much no one else.

In 4A you will end up with a tossup between No. 3 South St.Paul and No. 10 Totino-Grace. No. 2 Blake and No. 5 Breck will once again play off for 5A with Mound-Westonka as a dark horse. In 6A you have No. 8 Alexandria and No. 19 Fergus Falls, with Alexandria getting the nod.

Defending champion Chisago Lakes is the favorite in 7A with runner-up Eveleth-Gilbert their top challenger. Warroad wins 8A and repeats as state champion. Crookston, East Grand Forks, and Thief River Falls all have very good teams, but picked the wrong season to do so.

Lakeville North and South will once again battle it out for 1AA. No. 2 Edina should prevail over No. 9 Eden Prairie in 2AA. Section 3AA has No. 12 Rosemount, No. 16 Hastings, No. 18 Eastview, Burnsville, and Eagan – I like Eastview. Section 4AA is usually always loaded and this season is no exception.

In it you have No. 3 Roseville, No. 5 Stillwater, No. 8 Hill-Murray, and No. 10 White Bear Lake. This is too close to call, but you will have some great semifinals. Section 5AA should go to No. 6 Coon Rapids with No. 11 Irondale and No. 15 Mounds View trying to prevent it. In 6AA you have No. 1 Minnetonka and No. 4 Benilde/St. Margaret’s.

I’m taking Benilde after their 11-2 win over Chisago Lakes. Grand Rapids/Greenway is the favorite in 7AA with Elk River and Proctor/Hermantown/Marshall the top competition. Section 8AA has Roseau and not much else right now.  

Next week I’ll look at the boys rankings.

Alumni game

The younger alumni, 2005-2010, outscored the older alumni 8-4 in the second half to break open a tight game and prevailed by a final score of 12-7 in the annual alumni hockey game in Silver Bay. Jesse Downey had four goals and three assists to lead the winning team.

Andy Rysdahl added two goals and two assists and Nate Breden had a goal and three assists. Andy Pearson scored twice and Biz Huss and Libby Guzzo each added a goal.

For the losing team, Charlie Byrnes led the way with a hat trick and an assist. Earl Nikula scored twice and Mike Guzzo and Dan Timm each added a goal.

Two Harbors will play Silver Bay in an alumni game at 7 p.m. Feb. 12.

Hockey

On Thursday the boys travel to Ely to take on the high-scoring Timberwolves. The girls will host Ashland on Thursday in a rescheduled game.

Basketball

The basketball teams return to the courts this week after a holiday break. Both the boys and girls will host Carlton Tuesday. The Carlton boys are winless and the girls have one victory.

Tags: bayside chatter, schools, sports, hockey