"The Saints will march in Fort Wayne this weekend with a 2-1 victory over Lakeshore St. Joe (LSJ)." 

I believe that's how I put it in last week's edition of Game of the Week!.  But the LSJ Warriors had other ideas and started off their Summit City tournament weekend with a 6-2 victory over Bishop Dwenger, and then (I'm guessing) a sidelong glance at me as if to say, "pssshhhhht, Game of the Week, Shmame of the Week."

Honestly, I still feel like this game should have been a lot closer and despite being out shot 16-5, the Saints ended the first period with 2-1 lead.  But the devil was in the second period as the Warriors reeled off four unanswered goals.  The Saints had difficulty finding the net again and the Warriors buried one more, just inside the start of the third period, to put the game away.  The big story here is that the Saints went 0-8 on the power play.  I'm guessing I know what's on the practice plan this week.  

LSJ went on to have a bang up weekend in the tournament, downing HSE A (4-1) and then Columbus (6-0) to finish the weekend with an undefeated 3-0 record.  Bishop Dwenger, on the other hand, had a rough weekend against a nightmare schedule.  The Saints lost to both Central Indiana (4-1), and Zionsville (7-2), but pulled out a win against Crown Point (4-3) in their final game, finishing the tournament with a 1-3 record.

And just like that, my prediction record falls to 2-3 on the season.  OUCH!  

But hockey, dear friends, is about second chances.  And a second chance is what I'll have with this week's edition of Game of the Week!  Unfortunately, second chances aren't necessarily easier chances.  In fact, calling a winner this week is going to be a tall order, but no way am I going to pass up the biggest game of the season so far.  That's why the Central Indiana Knights versus the Zionsville Eagles is our INHockey.net Game of the Week! for the week of November 6, 2017.  

I'm calling this the biggest game of the season because it's (most likely) a glimpse of what's to come for the 4A bracket of the state championships in the Spring.  Plus, I've gotten a sneak peak at the INHockey.net rankings after most of this weekend's games were input (now that the  formula error was corrected) and this will be a top five match up.  Oh, and just to throw a little fire on a game that's already H-O-T, there will be a Mr. Hockey candidate AND a Miss Hockey candidate on the ice, squaring off.  I'm pretty sure the only way this game could be more dramatic is if we had Mike Emrick and Eddio O. doing the play-by-play. 

Now, let's take a look at the teams and see if we can discern the winner of this epic clash.

Central Indiana

The Knights are coming into this season as last year's state 3A champs.  Infused with some triple A talent, most notably defenseman Jacob Huskin (24 pts) and forward George Hanley (34 pts), the Central Indiana Knights have cruised to 17-3-1 record.  Add Huskin and Hanley to the Knights top three offensive weapons from last year, Cole Caress (35 pts) Robbie Clarke (20 pts) and Indiana State Mr. Hockey Candidate Andrew Fralich (26 pts), and you can see why the Knights have the number one ranked offense in the state with a goal differential of +94.  Let me just reiterate that...  a +94 goal differential .  Just a brief glimpse at the schedule continues the story as the Knights have mowed down opponents since late September, including four games in which they've tallied double digit goals.  However, the schedule also tells a different part of the story - the Knights have scarcely been tested by a competitive team.  In fact, the INHockey.net RPI index currently has the Knight's opponent's winning percentage as a paltry .334 (or 33%).  That doesn't mean the Knight's aren't legit, it just means they've faced a lot of teams with losing records.  That's about to change with Zionsville and Lake Central Blue on the horizon.  

Zionsville

The last time we visited Zionsville for Game of the Week!, they beat up on the South Stars Red (varsity) 11-2, a game in which I had taken the South Stars to win in an "upset alert" (hind sight's 20/20).  Since that game, the Eagles have gone on to build a respectable 7-4-1 record with the only notable losses coming against cross town rival, Carmel Gold, in a very close 5-6 game and a tough non-league opponent, Saginaw Heritage (Michigan).  Along the way, the Eagles have been able to spread out their offense with ten skaters over 6 points on the season including stand out forwards Robbie Donovan (23 pts), Alex Shahbaz (17pts), Patrick Waterman (17 pts), and Indiana State Miss Hockey candidate, Kate Duckworth (6 pts). 

Unlike the Knights, Zionsville has been tested with a couple of tough opponents on the schedule (mentioned above), but both went on the record as losses.  I wouldn't say this is a must win game for the Eagles but an early win against a solid team (and one they they'll likely face in the state tournament) would be a nice confidence boost heading into the meat of the season.       

So who wakes up on Sunday morning with a belly full of winning?

Usually when I study a couple of teams, either by cross referencing the stat sheets, comparing game schedules, or a little bit of both, I get a gut feeling.  Whether that gut feeling is right or wrong is a completely separate issue but at least it's a notion or a hunch.  Perhaps we'll call it a directional nudge that brings me to a conclusion.  But I gotta tell ya, my gut has gone silent on this one.  Zionsville is certainly better than I gave them credit for and I don't think Central Indiana is as unstoppable as they appear.  That being said, a +94 goal differential is hard to ignore and the Eagles will need their playmakers to go beast mode in order to keep up with the Knight's offensive fire power.  I think this one could go either way and I expect the goaltenders to have their hands full (goalie parents keep your Rolaids handy) but once that final buzzer sounds, I expect the Eagles will fly high with the win, 4-3.

There you have it, Hoosier Hockey Faithful.  The Zionsville Eagles are my team this week. You heard it here first!

***Writer's note:  I would also like to thank both the Zionsville and Central Indiana teams for their epic Twitter feeds.  When trying to get info for a story, that commentary is extremely useful.  And where else can you get pictures like the one on the right?

Follow the Central Indiana Knights on Twitter here.

The Zionsville Eagle's Twitter feed is here.