MBSLA Top 10 May 20

There's quite a bit of shakeup in the MBSLA Top 10 after last week's action.  Some upsets and up and down performances affect some teams while at this point in the season we feel pretty good going with our gut and putting teams in the standings about where we think they should be regardless of who they beat or who they lost to.

Hudson stays at #1 after beating two more very good teams this week, St. Louis Park and a very good St. Paul team who keeps playing Hudson close but can't get over the top, dropping another one by a 9-7 score.  Duluth moves up one spot to #2, remaining undefeated at 9-0 after beating Grand Cities and Fargo last week.  That would have set up a showdown of the only two remaining undefeated teams in the MBSLA this Saturday to end the MBSLA season, a showdown of #1 versus #2 until Hudson pulled out of the game THIS MORNING.  This is a disappointing development as Duluth is ready to play but apparently Hudson doesn't want to.  Duluth was also willing to play on Hudson's home turf (almost 3 hours from home) and yet Hudson still doesn't want to play.  In what would likely have been the spotlight game of the week, Hudson decides to pull the plug.  C'mon Hudson!

Getting back to our rankings after that disappointing development, St. Louis Park moves up to #3 based on their upset of previously #2 ranked Shattuck-St. Mary's.  That, and we really feel that St. Louis Park is a top 3 team even though they dropped another game to Hudson.  Shattuck-St. Mary's drops to #4 after their loss to St. Louis Park.  St. Paul jumps all the way up to #5.  This is a good team.  All of their losses have been to either Hudson or St. Louis Park.  They've played Hudson closer than any other team so far this season, losing both games by only 2 goals, both 9-7 losses.  There's little doubt in my mind they are a top 5 team in the MBSLA.  Northfield climbs from #9 to #6, another big jump.  Again, this is as much gut feeling as results based, but Northfield's results have been pretty good as well.  Northfield pounded Waconia this week.  This is a Waconia team that just upset previously #5 ranked Grand Rapids.  As such, Grand Rapids drops to #7 this week.  Grand Rapids was all over the board this week, losing by one goal to upstart Proctor 12-11, beating previously #4 ranked Shakopee easily 11-5 and then dropping another 1 goal game to aforementioned Waconia 8-7 yesterday.  This is still a good team, but after last week, they should drop in the polls.  MontiQuois remains at #8 this week picking up two uneventful wins but doing nothing to cause them to drop in the poll.  Shakopee comes in a #9 this week after falling all the way down from #4.  Grand Rapids beat them decisively and they also lost big to Shattuck.  This years Shakopee team just doesn't seem quite as good as last years.  Rounding out the top 10 is Fargo.  Fargo won two and dropped another to #2 Duluth on a muddy (VERY muddy) track.

This week I think we need to mention a couple of honorable mention teams.  Becker has been playing well of late and sports a 5-3 record on the season.  Amazingly, Proctor in only their second season in existence with a very small base of students to work with, has shown remarkable improvement, as evidenced by their upset of #7 ranked Grand Rapids last week and 4-4 record.  Proctor truly is a success story worthy of mentioning.  St. Cloud North, with a victory over Becker early this season is still a player and have an inside track on a playoff berth in the West.

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	PREV
1	Hudson	7-0	1
2	Duluth	9-0	3
3	St. Louis Park	8-2	6
4	Shattuck-St. Mary's	5-1	2
5	St. Paul	5-4	7
6	Northfield	4-4	9
7	Grand Rapids	3-4	5
8	MontiQuois	4-2	8
9	Shakopee	4-3	4
10	Fargo	4-3	10

Honorable Mention:  Becker (5-3), Proctor (4-4), St. Cloud North (2-4)