The Northland Conference Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nevis won the eight team league last year with a clean sweep of league games. The only real contender was Red Lake and everybody else was just over .500 or lower. Now it's a nine team league with Lake of the Woods added. Can the other eight teams stop Nevis from a third straight league title? </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Top Ten in State Potential: Nevis</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nevis not only has top ten in state potential, they start the year as the preseason tenth ranked team in the state. They also enter the season on a 31 game conference winning streak. They had a streak of six straight years to state snapped, now they want to return with all but two players from the rotation returning. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Top Contenders: Cass Lake-Bena, Red Lake, Pine River-Backus,</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cass Lake-Bena returns all of their key players and pieces from last year's team. Should take a step forward and be the top team contending Nevis in the conference. The Panthers were 8-19 last year and they are likely a ways behind Nevis, but so many teams in this league lost decent parts of their rotation. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pine River-Backus is a team to keep in mind here too. They lost their best player from a 17-win team but they have a fair amount of experienced players back. Red Lake was 15-12 but with key guys back they should be a better team this winter and have an outside shot at the league title. Or at least contending. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Compete with Most:&nbsp; Northome-Kelliher, Lake of the Woods</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lake of the Woods best players are juniors, a good junior class that should help them take a jump after a seven game win season a year ago. Northome-Kelliher won 16 games last year but their top couple scorers from a season ago graduated so they could take a step back. Still will be a competitive team, but maybe not a contender. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rebuilding: Walker-Hackensack-Akeley, Blackduck, Laporte</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>WHA had ten seniors that graduated, many of them made up the key spots in the rotation so lots of spots gone from a single digit win team. This is going to be a totally new team it seems although Luke Tande could be really, really good.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Laporte lost games by an average of 31 points, did get one win but they are still in rebuild mode. Blackduck might take a step forward and be more competitive. They have their best player back from a five win team. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>26-27 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Northland Power Rankings</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(1) Nevis</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(2) Cass Lake-Bena</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(3) Red Lake</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(4) Pine River-Backus</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(5) Northome-Kelliher</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(6) Lake of the Woods</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(7) Blackduck</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(8) Walker-Hackensack-Akeley</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(9) Laporte </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Northland</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Doug Cloud of Cass Lake-Bena (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='3734427' first='Tjark' last='Scheppeit'] of Nevis (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2859869' first='Peyton' last='Benson'] of Nevis (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='3068484' first='Joseph' last='Wind'] of Cass Lake-Bena (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Isaiah Downe of Pine River-Backus (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2429664' first='Austin' last='Perkins'] of Red Lake (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2371345' first='Adrik' last='Fowler'] of Cass Lake-Bena (sr) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Luke Tande of WHA (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>John Forrest of Lake of the Woods (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Coltun Puffe of Blackduck (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jayden Lindley of Northome-Kelliher (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Robert Lindow of Nevis (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2813970' first='Jacob' last='Lester'] of Nevis (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Logan Pederson of Blackduck (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mason Shadrick of Laporte (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='3577166' first='Evan' last='Anderson'] of Blackduck (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fourth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Landon Heide of Northome-Kelliher (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Aiden Nistler of Northome-Kelliher (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Brody Kurtz of WHA (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2874045' first='Kenyon' last='Goggleye'] of Cass Lake-Bena (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carter Woods of Lake of the Woods (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->