I was reading my home town newspaper the Grand Forks Herald this morning and much to my amazement there was an very nice article about Grafton Park River goalie Dylan Offutt in the sports page. That's fine to write a nice article about the Grafton Park River goalie but this was a kid that as shelled in two previous games against the Knights 8-0. Offutt was outscored 17-2 in three games.
There is another goalies that has had a much more impressive season, Central Knights senior goalie Seth Lang has a GAA of 0.89 and a save percentage of .936 with 11 shutouts. If your not impressed with those numbers the Grand Forks Central Knights have 13 shutouts this season in 24 games.
I am not here to slam the Grand Forks Herald sport page because I think Brad Elliot Schlossman does a great job covering Fighting Sioux hockey. None the less the Herald coverage of high school sports in Grand Forks, ND that doesn’t relate to Red River High School is a bit to be desired. If Red River plays a hockey game it’s on the front page of the sports page, if the Central Knights play a hockey game it’s lucky to get three columns on the fifth page.
I not saying don’t cover Red River High school, I am just saying both schools should get equal coverage from the Herald and it’s just not the case. I like the kids from both schools they are great ambassadors for Grand Forks, ND. Does the herald really need to do a story on a kid from Grafton, ND that is the 15th ranked goalie in the state of North Dakota when the number one goalie in ND plays 6 blocks from the Grand Forks Heralds office?
Central Knights offensive Juggernaut
Not only is the defense getting the job done but the Central Knights can roll three lines and grind the opposition into the ground. Central has 10 players over 20 points and junior forward Casey Purpur is 2nd in the state of North Dakota with (33g-27a-60pts) in 24 games, freshman Luke Johnson is ranked 5th in the state in scoring with (16g-28a-44pts) and Johnny Simonson is ranked 9th with (14g-28a-42pts). You might never know this because little if anything has been written in the newspapers about this impressive high school hockey team. Central players Bottineau in the first round of the ND High School Hockey team on Thursday.
Grand Forks Central [21-3]
The Knights have won 11 of their last 12 games with their last loss coming on February 13th at home to Fargo South 4-1. The Knights have only allowed 21 goals in 24 games this season which is just under less than a goal per game and they average around 6-goals offensively. The Knights only allowed 1-goal and Seth Lang posted two shutouts in three games last weekend at the East Region Tournament so they are coming in very solid. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since at least 1993.
Bottineau [15-8-1]
The Braves are the story of the tournament so far as they have not played in a state tournament since 1993. David Hoff was the coach back then and he is still the Head Coach today so he has experience at state although it was many years ago. His Braves are somewhat young but can play and come in with a [4-1-1] mark over their last 6-games. Their only loss over the last 6-games was the 4-1 West Region opener to Bismarck High who went on to win the region title two days later. The Braves have not played G.F. Central for many, many years so no recent match up history to report.
2010 N.D. State Boy's High School Hockey Tournament
Thursday, February 25th: at Engelstad Main Arena - Grand Forks, N.D.
12:00 PM: #1W-Bismarck High vs #4E-West Fargo
2:30 PM: #2E-Fargo South vs #3W-Williston
6:00 PM #1E-G.F. Central vs #4W-Bottineau
8:30 PM #2W-Bismarck Century vs #3E-Grafton/Park River
