Greetings and good hockey morning from St. Paul.
Say what you will about holding the girls' state hockey tournament at Xcel Energy Center (and there's certainly plenty of opinions out there) but it's pretty cool to see people's reaction to this building. I literally just saw someone's mouth drop and then whip out her camera phone faster than a Cal Clutterbuck slap shot to snap a photo of the ice from press level. The Lakeville North team just now was giddy on the visitor's bench - getting their first peek at where they'll be in about an hour playing Irondale to kick off the Class 2A tournament. Both team's coaching staffs have posed for pictures on the bench.
Yeah, the crowds are nothing compared to the boys' tournament and you can make the argument that a smaller venue would give it more of an intimate, right-on-top-of-the-ice feeling. But we're talking about kids getting to play inside one of the best arenas in the country. It's pretty special for them. We're lucky to have this right in our backyard, so why not use it?
OK - I've officially stepped off my soapbox - let's talk some hockey, eh?
Irondale enters this morning's game with a pretty 26-2 record. The second-seeded Knights have a pair of players with 46 goals (Gina McDonald and Meghan Lorence) and a sophomore goaltender (Gillian McDonald) with a .905 saves percentage. In other words: pay attention to this squad.
Lakeville North, on the other hand, is 14-13-1 this season and skates 10 players who are freshmen or younger. The Panthers' best player is eighth-grader Alexis Joyce (25 goals, 19 assists) who recently moved to defense. We'll see if that pans out. I know for a fact that Lakeville North likes this match-up. The Panthers were pretty tough in the section tournament, but will that carry over against a formidable Knights squad that already has victories over state entrants Edina and Proctor/Hermantown/Duluth Marshall?
Side notes: It's so quiet in here still that I can hear the 'beep, beep, beep beep' of the machine at ice level zeroing out the shots counter from last night's final game .... also - do you ever wonder what the off-ice officials are doing with those headphones on during games? I always thought they were talking to one another, but a headset up here in the press box is currently spitting out techo music. Apparently they get down with their bad selves during games
We're here all day.
