CRHL League Strenghts

[PUboy]

I was just curious to see what other people thought about the different divisions in the CRHL. So I am going to throw my opinion out there with a little back up.

1. Midwest Region - MSU has brought home the national title for the past 2 years, plus they had 2 teams in last years elite eight and in '99 they had 3 teams in the elite eight and 2 in the final four. (top teams - MSU, Purdue)

2. Western Region + Colorado St - UCSB, Cal Poly SLO and CSU all make this a tough division. all 3 were in the elite eight and 2 in the final four w/ CSU going to the championship game.

3. Mid Atlantic Region - With a bunch of new young teams (altoona, pitt, delware and the one old one Penn State) This Region had a very effective showing at last years nationals.

4. Great Plains Region - Truman State has been the only national powerhouse from this region (excluding Div 3 schools) The rest of the region seems to be a little behind Trumans level of play.

5. Southwest Region - UNT was the only team to be undefeated going into the 2000 NCT but didnt' even get to the 3rd round. The rest of the teams followed suit.

6. Southeast Region - the new region showed up to the NCT but they really didnt' compete w/ some of the stronger regions.

Anyway, I'm sure there will be a lot of replies to this, but let me know what you all think, and w/ regards to D3 teams, 1 - GP, 2-Western, and 3 Midwest. So let me know what everyone else thinks.

[STLHockey]

Well I agree with you for the most part if you went by last years performance. This year I think is a different story. The Midwest isnt very deep beyond MSU, PU and UM. The Great Plains Division is now probably one of the deepest divisions in the CRHL. St. Charles Community College is the best team in the country D1 or D3 and everyone will see that at Winternationals. They have probably the best player in the country in Ryan Marchand and the best goalie in Josh Holl. I like how PUboy did differentiate between D1 and D3, Meramec and St. Charles are currently atop the Great Plains division. Both of these teams are completely different from last year, many of last years Meramec and St. Charles players have moved on to D1 schools. So this league is much deeper now. With Truman and UM-Rolla always good watch out this year for UM-Columbia, and Lindenwood University. Truman St., dominate in the years past, have the same team they have almost always had and they aren't even in the top , so that tells you how much more even this league is getting. I expect an all-Great Plains D3 national championship between St. Charles and Meramec. These two teams played each other in the semi's last year in 3-1 game that was St. Charles' closest of the tournament. Last year was tough for the Great Plains division at Nationals because no one could afford to go. Truman St., UM-Rolla both advanced past the first round, and KU playing with only 5 players lost in the first round.

My rankings for this year would be :

1. Western
2. MAR
3. Midwest
4. Great Plains
5. Southwest
6. Southeast

and I totally agree with PUboy on the D3 rankings

[Eccinline19]

I guess if everyone is going to sound off on this, I'll take a turn. I'll start with D3, since this is clearly what I'm more interested in. First of all, why is the West ranked 2?? As I remember nationals, we beat Grossmont 11-1 in the semis. I think it should go 1.Great Plains- St. Charles is clearly the class of D3. They annihilated everyone on there way to the championship. I agree Marchand is one of the if the not the top player in the country. If Merrimac found some goal scorers, they could end up being the runner ups this year. 2. Midwest- Elgin has come out on fire this year. Sporting a 10-3-1 record wiht two close losses (losses- Purdue 6-5, Eastern Michigan 5-4), they are the team to beat in the Midwest D3. Adding goalie Nick Chura and speedsters Dan Elderkin(12) and Ian Clark(9) will help this team down the stretch. College of DuPage is a decent club, but they don't haver the commitment to make a serious push. Long time CRHL player Scott Longmire leads an offensive bunch including newcomer Eric Theroe, who I think will be a great palyer. If goaltender Zak King can nail down the hatches and they start taknig it more serious, they could give some teams problems. 3.Western- Grossmont won it all the first year, but the rest of D3 caiught up. Since the Nationals will amount to a home tournament, they will be tough again. 4.Southwest(Tarant from Texas)- a pretty good team, but the lack of depth was evident last year. They have 3-4 quality palyers, and if they can build around what they have, they could become a very dangerous team in Cali. As far as D1, I think the deepest division is MAR. Between Penn Sate and Alttona, they match the Midwest's combo of MSU and Purdue. The also have 2-5 more quality teams. Amazing depth. Number 2 goes to the Midwest. 2 national champions?? Hard to knock that. Michigan State is still the defending champs and a top flite CRHL team, but I don't think that air of invincibility is there anymore. I think the loss of Buffilino(who was eventually leaving for ice)wasn't as big then when there backup(name escapes me) got injured(I heard it was an ACL). Goaltending is what lead to there first loss in 77 games of Midwest region play. Purdue looks great, and after there win vs MSU, they have to once again proven they are a top contender. Michigan is solid, but the team that I think is really surprising people is EMU. Even without Biff Griese, they have been awesome. Watch out for them. 3. Western- If you include Colorado St, this division is right up there with the top two. Colorado St was very impressive last year. In fact, if the reffing in the title game wasn't so brutal, I think they would have won it all. Chico St sounds good from what I've read, and you know UC Davis, Cal Poly, Ponoma, and Santa Barbara will be back at the nationals. Another very deep division. 4.on to the Great Plains. They may be tops in D3, but there's a major drop in talent after the top 4 in this division. The bottom 5 teams have a combined league record of 9-41. St Charles is 10-0. Truman St will again compete for the national championship, but I don't much besides Lindenwood and Columbia in this division. 5.Southeast and Southwest- Not much difference in these divisions. All I saw last year was these teams getting beat and beatin badly. But if they can get some more talent, they might be able to compete with the big boys this year. As far as individual teams go, I think the elite 8(I'll list 8 since I don't know the pairings or anything) will be MSU, Purdue, Truman St, Colorado St, Ponoma, Penn State, Altoona, and UC Davis. I hope you all enjoy this post.