Friday, Nov 8th and Saturday Nov 9th Game Preview

Only 9 games tonight.

LAKEVILLE NORTH at EASTVIEW

Lakeville North could quietly have a very nice year. The put together a nice record last year at 15-9-1 and lost to Farmington in double OT in the section final after being down 3 goals early in the second. Sydney Antonakis had 12 points in 3 section games last year. She’s back and committed to RIT. Their leading scorer in the regular season, Brooke Power, is back. The younger Antonakis, Allyssa, is back. She’s going to Northeastern. Dartmouth commit, Meredith Jensen, is back. See what I mean? They’ve got a nice core. Goalie could be a question mark. The Lackmann sisters have migrated to the Ice Cougars U19 team and Amanda Lackmann most likely would have been LVN’s goalie this year.

Eastview returns a couple good ones in Avery Chesek and Mikayla Kelley. And Eastview beat LVN late in the season last year.

LNV 5. Eastview 2.

SATURDAY GAMES

24 games

CDH at Blake

East Side private vs. West Side private. For CDH they return some talented seniors in Kiera Ryan and Olivia Garrity at forward and Cece Ziegler at D. If they are to improve on the 12-12-1 record from last year those three will literally need to double their production. That seems like a tall order. But I wouldn’t be surprised it they do it. Speaking of tall, sophomore Lily Geist, has some serious potential. She had 5 and 1 during her freshman campaign and she could have a breakout year. I wouldn’t be surprised if she leads the team in scoring this year.

Blake’s schedule is VERY tough. Wayzata. Brainerd. Hill Murray. Eden Prairie. Breck x 2. Edina. Farmington. Forest Lake. Andover. But they are stacked. CDH will learn that the hard way. I’m not even sure Divine Intervention could help the Raiders this weekend.

Blake 6. CDH 2.

WARROAD at DETROIT LAKES

The over/under is set at 9.5. And I don’t think DL will score a goal. I’m taking the over.

Warroad 10. DL 0.

STILLWATER at HILL MURRAY

Stillwater is sneaky good. And could find themselves hovering around the Top 10 by year end. They underachieved last year but new coach Mira Jalosuo has some nice players to work with and won’t let that happen again. They will be led up front by Vermont commit and senior Alaina Tanski, senior Lauren Einen, and junior Morgan Wohlers. They have a very good top D pairing in Lexie Ligday and Sophie Schuster. And keep an eye on Josie St. Martin. She is one of the best 8th graders in the state.

Hill Murray lost some fire power to graduation last year. But Nina Steiguaf is back and will get hers this year. I am curious to see who steps up to provide some additional offense.

I am going with a bit of an upset.

Stillwater 5. Hill Murray 3.

MAPLE GROVE at EDEN PRAIRIE

For Maple Grove they lost Mannon McMahon to graduation. But you know who they get back? Stella Retrum. Stella spent some time at Breck but has returned to the Crimson as a freshman. She will contribute immediately. Junior Quinnipiac commit Tristana Tatur along with seniors Lauren Stenslie and Chloe Corbin will lead the offense. Lucy Morgan played every minute in goal last year and is now staring in goal at St. Lawrence. Brooke Cassibo seems to be the likely successor.

Eden Prairie’s Sydney Langseth looks to hit the campaign trail for Ms. Hockey this weekend. She is the master of puck possession and her linemates Grace Kuipers and Carrie Byrnes are grateful beneficiaries.

This will be a very good game but I give the edge to the Eagles.

EP 3. Maple Grove 2.