Tracy Cassano woke up Saturday to another birthday and a gift from the Minnesota State High School League straight out of the film “Groundhog Day.”
Minnetonka lands top seed in Class 2A girls hockey state tournament
Hill-Murray is No. 2 in the big class, and Holy Angels and Orono head the Class 1A bracket.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 18, 2024 at 12:04AM
Seeding for the girls hockey state tournament brackets was released Saturday morning and reflected the results of each head coach casting electronic votes for the other seven qualifying teams in their class. The highest and lowest votes for each team were excluded and the top five teams were awarded seeds. The remaining three teams were placed by blind draw. No chance for politicking.
Or a voice.
Cassano points out that her Minnetonka team, which holds the No. 1 seed in Class 2A for the second consecutive year, once again drew arguably the toughest unseeded team (Maple Grove) in the quarterfinals. Also happening for a second consecutive state tournament: No. 3 Andover received the unseeded team (Rosemount) with the worst record, Edina drew the Section 1 champion (Northfield), and the Section 4 champion (No. 2 seed Hill-Murray this year, Gentry Academy last year) plays the Section 8 representative (Roseau).
What are the odds?
“The whole process should be more transparent,” said Cassano, who added that coaches at some section seeding meetings are required to show their selections. “It does make you question the High School League system when no one sees anything.”
Maple Grove coach Jim Koltes isn’t thrilled either. “This is why they need to seed 1-8,” Koltes said.
Coaches might get their wish next season. Both the boys and girls hockey coaches association have submitted a seeding proposal to be heard by the MSHSL Board of Directors in June.
“What benefit is there to being the No. 1 seed with this system?” Cassano said. “It’s not fair to kids who worked hard all season to earn that seed.”
In Class 1A, Holy Angels is the top seed, followed by Orono, Dodge County, defending champion Warroad and Proctor/Hermantown.
Class 1A quarterfinals will be played Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center. The big schools will drop the puck Thursday.
Class 1A quarterfinal schedule
No. 2 Orono (20-6-1) vs. Willmar (20-7), 11 a.m. Wednesday
No. 3 Dodge County (21-4) vs. Fergus Falls (15-11-1), 1 p.m. Wednesday
No. 1 Holy Angels (21-3-3) vs. Luverne (17-10), 6 p.m. Wednesday
No. 4 Warroad (19-8) vs. No. 5 Proctor/Hermantown (18-8-2), 8 p.m. Wednesday
Class 2A quarterfinal schedule
No. 2 Hill-Murray (24-3-1) vs. Roseau (18-10), 11 a.m. Thursday
No. 3 Andover (21-4-3) vs. Rosemount (14-9-5), 1 p.m. Thursday
No. 1 Minnetonka (25-2-1) vs. Maple Grove (20-7-1), 6 p.m. Thursday
No. 4 Edina (21-6-1) vs. No. 5 Northfield (27-1), 8 p.m. Thursday
Six players plus head coach Garrett Raboin and assistant coach Ben Gordon are from Minnesota. The tournament’s games will be televised starting Monday.
