Tuesday, October 02, 2007

HS Elite League Update

The Upper Midwest HS Elite League is through four weeks of play. You can view their full report of standings and stats here.

Currently, Team Northeast is leading the league with 21 points, followed by Team Wisconsin at 17 points. Shattuck-St. Mary's prep team don't factor into the standings, but they have won all 6 games of their games.

The Elite League does a great job of keeping track of stats, though it would be helpful if they also kept track of how many games each player played. This past week, there were a couple kids not playing in games, including some of the kids from Roseau. I'm guessing there might have been some conflicts with football for kids playing Wisconsin this weekend too.

Wausau West senior Nick Condon is leading the league in scoring with 23 points so far. Eau Claire Memorial's Seth Soley is third in scoring with 21 points.

Team Northeast's top line has contained Burnsville's duo of Tyler Barnes and Jake Hendrickson. Barnes is second in league scoring with 21 points, while Hendrickson has 18 points. The pair remind me of Blaine's Ben Lynch and Joe Beaudette last year, who teamed up and scored a lot of points in the Elite League. Backing them up is a solid line led Minnesota State recruit Adam Mueller, who has 19 points so far. Their third line features two talented Hill-Murray players in Tyler Zepeda and Dan Cecka.

Zach Lehrke of Park Rapids is having a nice season. He looked like Team Great Plains top player last weekend. He has 20 points so far.

Team Northwest is currently tied for last in the league, but UMD recruit John O'Neill is having an impressive season. He is one of the best forwards in the league. His linemate, Cory Thorson is also having a nice season, and finally looks to be tapping into his potential.

One thing that really hit me this past weekend was how thin goaltending will be in the state this year. Kent Patterson, Aaron Crandall, Brady Hjelle, and Joe Howe are all playing in the USHL. The competition for the Brimsek Award, which goes to the state's top senior goalie should be wide open.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its actually Nate Condon, his brother is Nick Condon, who currently leads all NAHL defensemen in points

Anonymous said...

What about hanowski? how's he doing? it looks like he doesnt have anyone to play with