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High School State Tournament News and Notes

The pairings are set for the ND State Girls Championship, Fargo North will face off with West Fargo to crown the 2008 champion at 11:30 a.m. at the Ralph Engelstad Arena, Saturday.

The Spartans and Packers both advanced with 2-1 victories, Fargo North over Bismarck and West Fargo over Grand Forks. While both games were nearly carbon copies of each other, their team's make up are not.

Fargo North uses a senior lead offense with young supporting cast, while the Packers are lead by the top two goaltenders in North Dakota girls hockey.

Look for an exciting, but low scoring affair, with one thing for certain. There will be a new champion on Saturday afternoon.

The University of North Dakota men's hockey team will play a rare Saturday afternoon game against Bemidji State in between the boys and girls high school championship games.

The semifinals of the boy's tournament will be played later tonight with Bismarck High facing off against Grafton-Park River and Grand Forks Red River doing battle with Fargo South in the final gme of the night.

While Bismarck is trying to win the first state title for western North Dakota since 1992, the Spoilers will look to return to the title game since winning it all in 2002.

West Fargo and Fargo South girls fans win our tournament spirit awards this year.  The Packers come decked out in their green and white, standing and cheering loudly the entire game, while the Bruins are lead by their "Hanson Brothers" dads.  For more stories on both of them don't miss our March Issue.

On the boys side, the Grand Forks Red River fans and team win our unity award, the entire team and many of their die hard fans have gone "blonde" dying their hair blonde to show their support.

Kudos to the tournament committee for putting on a first class event.  Both sites were organized and well staffed. Congratulations Grand Forks!