Blake girls hockey should move up to play with the big schools

After a state quarterfinal victory, Red Wing girls hockey coach Scott Haley knew his team's semifinal opponent was The Blake School. He knows the opponent well. Not only had his team played - and been ousted - by Blake in the state tournament recently, but Haley played high school hockey at Lakeville with Blake coach Shawn Reid.

During the news conference Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center, Haley was asked if Blake, given its dominance, was still a good fit for the Class 1A state tournament.

"No," Haley said bluntly, then followed it up with some laughter.

"And I love Shawn dearly. They're good kids over there. But it's not really a fair fight."

Blake might be the best team
Even though he said it's cool to have the opportunity to get to play Blake, Haley almost looked mentally exhausted when he talked about Blake's success in the girls tournament. He also said the Bears might be the best team in girls hockey, including the Class 2A squads.

Blake has eight trips to the state tournament, five of those resulting in championships. The Bears (15-4 at state coming into this year) have won the title more than any other team; South St. Paul has four titles in 13 state tourney visits. Blake also had 67 goals for versus 35 against coming into the 2015 tourney.

The Bears went to state twice before winning titles in 2003, 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2014.

This year's tourney wrapped up over the weekend. Blake beat Red Wing 3-0 in the semifinals; the Bears also beat the Wingers in the same round last year, 5-4 in double overtime.

"Last year, it was a great game," Haley said.

Blake lost in this year's championship to top-seeded Thief River Falls, which made its tournament debut.

The opponents don't match the tourney class selection
Take a look at Blake's schedule this season. They went 24-4-0, including the section tournament. Of the 25 regular season games, they played 13 against Class 2A teams. Three of their four losses came at the hands of Class 2A teams, though they certainly weren't blowouts.

So that right there should tell you all you need to know. In this two-class system (which some still argue against in the first place), if a team is "playing up" more games than it is within its own class, that should raise some questions.

Then there's the debate of private versus public schools. Back in the day, or according to my mom, there used to be separate state tournaments for private versus public. It makes some sense, and Haley pointed it out Wednesday. He can only draw players from a small area around Red Wing.

"They're (Blake) pulling from the whole Twin Cities," Haley said. "But that doesn't mean that they're the evil empire."

Not a new topic in hockey
This debate about teams moving up to the big-school class is a familiar one for Minnesota hockey fans. On the boys side, it was the all-boys private school St. Thomas Academy that had the target on its back to move up, after it won four state titles in seven seasons. STA chose to move to Class 2A starting in the 2013-14 season.

Now, I'm usually one to cheer for underdogs or for the team that hasn't won a bunch of titles in a row. That's just me, but I think I have a lot of support on this. Is it really fun to play competitive games with the bigger class, and then have little competition in the section playoffs and state tournament?

They'll be back; will they move up?
Blake had a lot of youngsters on its roster, and I fully expect they will be back at the state tournament in 2016. But I really wouldn't mind seeing them move up to Class 2A. I guess if you leave the public versus private school debate alone and just look at the competition factor, I think it would be a good decision.

If you want to play more than half of your schedule against the big schools, then play them in the state tournament, too.