The Blizzard boys season is over as they lose 9-0 to the Superior Spartans.
I'm not going to write too much about the game but suffice it to say the Spartans were the better team. The Blizz were outmatched by the speed and skill of Superior. This is not a slam against the Blizzard, they had a fine year, they just got beat by a better team.
Hey, sometimes in life someone's better than you. Hopefully you can use that fact to motivate yourself to become better.
It was a good season for the Blizzard and I'm glad I was able to broadcast more hockey games this year than I had in all my previous years combined. Hockey is a fun sport to watch and our guys played the game the way it was meant to be played.
The Blizzard girls also saw their season come to an end with a 4-3 overtime loss to Chippewa Falls/McDonnell Central tonight in the opening round of their state playoffs.
Both teams had great seasons!
Last thought… on my way home from Superior I stopped at Arby's to get myself a juicy roast beef sandwich which I had been craving the entire night (I could almost taste the horsey sauce during the broadcast). Lo and behold I get there and the hockey team was already there. Turns out the restaurant ran out of roast beef. Yeah… Arby's ran out of the main ingredient to 80% of their menu. This is like Oreo running out of creme filling or Pizza Hut running out of cheese or something. Unacceptable. Where are we, Vancouver?
The Blizzard boys won on the road tonight 8-4 against the Baldwin-Woodville Blackhawks (apologies for calling them the Hilltoppers earlier… I know Glenwood City has that goofy nickname, but I didn't know what B-W was so I trusted Wissports.net – which has served me well in the past, but not tonight… but I digress).
Six different Blizzard players scored, Thomas Labatt made some incredible saves in goal and also had an assist on his brother Steven's second period goal.
Joe Engelhart had five points on the night (1 goal, 4 assists) and the entire team played very well. Most of the game saw the Blizzard out hustling their opponent and winning battles in the corners. Lots of good checking, too.
I'll be heading to Superior on Thursday to broadcast the second round game. It will be a tough one for the Blizzard, but if they can pull it off they have a great shot to go all the way.
I'm doing the play-by-play for the Burnett Blizzard/Baldwin-Woodville Hilltoppers playoff game tonight in Baldwin. Tune in to 105.7 WXCX to listen to the broadcast.
The game starts at 7pm.
Despite the Blizzard having a worse seed than the Hilltoppers I belive the Blizz have a great team and are on a roll (won 9 out of their last 10).
The Blizzard girls received a 5 seed for the upcoming WIAA tournament. They finished with a 13-9-1 record. They'll be playing the Chippewa Falls Cardinals (9-11) in Chippewa Falls.
I don't think I fully understand how the seeding works, but I'm surprised that this game isn't reversed with the pretty big discrepancy in records, but what do I know?
The boys finished the season 11-9-1. They had an eight game winning streak halted on Tuesday, but seemed to be peaking at the right time.
Unfortunately they still received a 9 seed (out of 11).
It is hard to understand why they received such a low seed. I'm speculating that it might be because they play mostly Minnesota teams (the Blizz are near the top of their conference of all Minnesota teams with an 8-3 record).
We'll keep an eye on the boys as they head through the playoffs with a chip on their shoulder.
The playoffs start February 17th and the Blizz play Baldwin-Woodville in their first game. Bracket
The Blizzard boys won a thrilling overtime game against the Mora Mustangs 4-3 in Grantsburg last night. Brian Bennett scored his first goal of the season with a little over a minute left in regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime. Then in overtime with about three minutes off the clock he found himself open and ripped a wrist shot through the legs of the Mora goaltender and the celebration ensued.
It was one of the most exciting finishes I've seen in my broadcasting experience.
We have a couple games tonight with local interest. First, on 100.9 WCMP at 7:30 the Pirate Girls take on the Rush City Tigers in a border battle meanwhile on 105.7 WXCX we'll be covering the boys Blizzard taking on Pine City at 7pm.
I'm working the girls game while the wayward son, Dan Hinrichs, comes back and does the hockey game. (EDIT 4:30pm – Dan and I are switching games to make life a little easier with equipment and proximity issues)
The Blizz are coming off a nice conference win against Minneapolis East West (yes, that's a conference game). While the Pirate girls look to rebound from a 67-52 loss against Frederic on Friday.
Well a new season is upon us and the schedule is out for December. We'll be doing a lot more hockey this year, which is exciting to me because there are rarely 30 point blowouts in hockey
This past Sunday marked the 29th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice. I was very small then and have no first hand memory of the game. That doesn’t stop me from getting goose bumps every time I watch the final seconds of the game and listen to Al Michaels’ famous call. To hear it again, take a look.
