By frederick61For the past two years, I have been posting a running commentary on PeeWee A Hockey in Minnesota on a youth hockey forum. The commentary assesses PeeWee A hockey teams across the state and groups that assessment by four regions as defined each year by Minnesota Hockey. Minnesota Hockey does that for purposes of establishing a state tourney format and tournament draw. This allows all associations that play peewee A hockey a means of participating.
It has been suggested that this commentary should be in Let's Play Hockey. When I asked LPH, to my surprise and pleasure, they agreed. The electronic version of the article is longer and more detailed. It covers all four regions. The thought is to select a single region each week and print that and a reference will be made where the full electronic version can be read.
For those readers unfamiliar with the format used here, it is simple. The four regions Minnesota Hockey has established in their handbook. Each region has three districts (the North region this year consists of D2, D11, and D12; East has D1, D6 and D8; South has D3, D4 and D5; and the West has D10, D5 and D16). Each district has two or three seeds to their region. Each week in this article team play in all districts will be summarized and the top two or three teams be given the seed for the week.
One region printed in LPH until all four have been printed. Because of all the turkey day tourney action in the cities revolved around D6 and D8, the East Region was chosen this week to be printed.
North Region - Both D11 and D12 district teams skipped the Thanksgiving holiday tourneys. Six of the eight D2 teams played in four different tourneys. Mounds View co-hosted the Super Rink tourney with Irondale. The Mustangs took third and Tartan took the Consolation Championship. Roseville struggled at Burnsville, but were a better team then the final scores would indicate. Stillwater and White Bear Lake made it to the consolation round Sunday at Eden Prairie. Forest Lake played at Hopkins.
D11 - The D11 teams did not play any tourneys. They have two local tourneys on the two weekends, Hermantown’s tourney and the Spirit of Duluth. Hermantown beat Hibbing 10-3. The Hawks also beat Superior in D11 action 4-2. This week they host their own tourney, playing Alexandria in the opening game. The St. Paul Saints play the Duluth Lakers in the other bracket game. In the lower bracket Superior takes on the Fargo North Raiders and Apple Valley plays Cloquet. With four teams from D11 entered, this tourney could be a early season view of the D11 playoffs “sans” Duluth East. The Duluth Lakers had a busy week winning three games. They beat two D11 teams Grand Rapids 2-1 and Hibbing 7-3. In D11 play, the Lakers beat Cloquet 3-0 before losing to Duluth East 4-1. The Lakers play in the Spirit of Duluth tourney next weekend and follow that with a Monday D11 game with Superior.
The Spirit of Duluth tourney will have at least these 15 teams; Duluth East, Cloquet, Duluth Lakers, Hermantown, Superior (that makes all D11 teams entries except Proctor), Wayzata, Blaine, Thunder Bay, Minneapolis Park, White Bear Lake, Orono, Stillwater, Osseo/Maple Grove, Minnetonka and Centennial. But that is next week's discussion.
Duluth East took a swing through D15 playing Brainerd and splitting two games with Moorhead losing 3-2 before beating them the next day 6-2. Along the way, the Hounds beat Grand Rapids 5-1. Last week Proctor played games with Eveleth-Gilbert, Rice Lake Wisconsin and Cloquet.
Duluth East remains on top for the second straight week, taking the #1 seed. Hermantown takes the #2 seed and the Duluth Lakers the #3 seed. With two tourneys in the next two weekends, a lot more will be known about D11
D12 - Grand Rapids lost to the two Duluths this weekend (Duluth East and the Duluth Lakers). The Thunderhawks make a cities tour through D10 this weekend playing Coon Rapids, Blaine and Osseo/Maple Grove. International Falls opened their season play. The Broncos beat Virginia 5-0 and Lake of the Woods (LOW) 6-2. They lost to “one bridge away” Fort Frances 4-0 (Who had to pay the $6 (US) toll?). That win over Virginia is impressive.
Virginia continues to struggle, but the Blue Devils came back to beat Eveleth-Gilbert in D12 action. This week, they play Wadena and Greenway. Hibbing lost to the Duluth Lakers and Hermantown last week. The Blue Jackets play three games; Greenway, Roseau and International Falls this week. The game with the Broncos should be an interesting early season D12 test.
Grand Rapids retains the #1 seed this week. Their trip through D10 will be a good early season test for the Thunderhawks. The #2 seed still goes to Hibbing, but the Bluejackers will be tested this week against Roseau and International Falls. The Falls takes the #3 seed. They beat Virginia. The question now is how strong Greenway is. They play Hibbing.
D2 - White Bear Lake had a good run in the Eden Prairie tourney, beating Eagan 4-3, losing to Centennial 3-1 and beating Minnetonka 3-2. Those two wins gave them a ticket to Sunday’s consolation round, but the Bears ran into a tough Elk River team and lost 4-1. The Bears returned to D2 action Monday, playing a tough Highland Central team. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead on some nice passing plays resulting in quick shots that turned into goals. But Highland’s size and skill wore the Bears down and they lost 4-2.
At the Eden Prairie tourney, Stillwater was the mirror image of the Bears. In their pool, the Ponies beat Mpls Park 4-0, beat Omaha 6-1 and lost to Eden Prairie 3-2 (a tie would have eliminated the Ponies). The Ponies also advanced to Sunday’s consolation round, but were eliminated by Lakeville South 4-3. Stillwater returned to D2 action Monday and beat Roseville 5-1.
Mounds View opened their tourney beating Princeton 5-3. The Mustangs lost to Champlin Park 4-1 in the semifinals and came back to take third place beating CINB 7-3. Mounds View plays Forest Lake and D15 Northern Lakes in the opening round of Orono’s tourney this week. Tartan lost to Champlin Park in their opening game, but came back to take consolation beating Princeton and St. James Canadians by identical 3-2 scores. Forest Lake opened their tourney action at Hopkins losing 3-1 to Rogers.
Roseville ran into an unusual problem. They lost to Lakeville North in their opening game at Burnsville 4-2. Tied with Lakeville North late in the third period, Lakeville North scored their winning goal with a Panther forward lying on top of their goalie. The goal was scored from the slot. The Raiders went on to lose to Hudson 5-1 and to Edina 7-2 to end their tourney. In the Edina game, Roseville were playing the Hornets close when it happened again. Edina scored with a Hornet player lying on top of their goalie. Roseville plays Tartan, Irondale and Forest Lake this week.
North St. Paul played Mounds View and Mahtomedi this week. Next week they play Cottage Grove and Tartan. Mahtomedi gets rolling again after a week off. They play games against Stillwater, Irondale and the St. Paul Saints.
Last week, D2 looked like a battle between two teams, White Bear Lake and Stillwater. Fortunately for both, Highland Central cannot contend for the D2 title. The Capitals may sweep their eight game D2 schedule (Stillwater was a “no show” last week).
Both the Bears and the Ponies had almost identical Eden Prairie tourneys, but the Ponies had stiffer competition. This week Stillwater takes the #1 seed. White Bear takes the #2 seed. The #3 seed is one to throw darts at. Mounds View and Forest Lake continue struggle. North St. Paul and Tartan seem to be just getting going. That leaves Roseville or Mahtomedi. The Zephyrs get the nod and the #3 seed this week. Roseville played well at Burnsville, but the Zephyrs won the Spring Lake Park tourney two weeks ago.
East Region - The East Regional PeeWee A tourney (as all PeeWee regional tourneys) will be an eight-team, two-pool tournament. D6 representing the Twin Cities southwestern suburbs will send three teams to the East this year; D8, representing the Twin Cities southeastern suburbs and the Mississippi River Valley will send three teams to the East this year; and D1 representing the Twin Cities will send two representatives.
On the surface, the two East seeds to the state tourney should go to two teams from D6 or D8. However do not ignore D1, they have two good teams who can threaten to take one of the East seeds come March. D6/D8 teams battled it out this week in two tourneys, Eden Prairie and Burnsville, to determine who the best is. D6 came out on top, winning first, second and fourth in Burnsville and second at Eden Prairie. D8 could take only a sixth place finish at Eden Prairie. Round one goes to D6.
D1 - Two of the four D1 teams played in tourneys over the Thanksgiving holiday. Minneapolis Park, a team that plays a D3 and D1 schedule, had a rough week. The Storm made it to the state tourney last year and came close to making it to the championship game. After getting off to a fine start (tying Woodbury and Osseo/Maple Grove) earlier in the season, the Storm lost a tough D3 game to a highly-ranked Wayzata team, 5-0 last week. Playing in the Eden Prairie tourney, the Storm lost their first two games to Stillwater 4-0, host Eden Prairie 6-1 before soundly beating Omaha.
Highland Central (St. Paul) took the week off after an impressive tournament in Superior beating a tough Dryden AA PeeWee Paperkings team 5-3 in the championship game last week. This week the Capitals came to play. They beat White Bear Lake in D2 action 4-2 in a very good game for both teams. Highland Central is a strong team. The Caps head this weekend to Red Wing. They open tourney play on Saturday in games against the host and Austin. Farmington, North Metro and New Prague are also entered in what should be a tough tournament.
Irondale played in the Super Rink tourney. As co-host to the turkey day tourneys at the Super Rink, the Knights lost three straight to Princeton 2-0, St. James Canadians 4-0 and Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch (or CINB) 3-1. Last week, the Knights also lost a D1 game to Highland Central. The Saint Paul Saints (combined St. Paul Johnson and Como team) played two games last week losing to St. Francis 5-2 and beating Tartan for their first D2 win 2-0.
With two seeds up for grabs in D1, the #1 seed goes this week to Highland Central. The Caps are for real and they should do well in Red Wing. They beat White Bear. The #2 seed is Minneapolis Park. The Storm are struggling a little, but they have played against the top teams in the state. This is only early December.
D6 - D6 had two good tourneys going this weekend at Eden Prairie and at Burnsville. Sixteen teams entered the Eden Prairie tourney including three of the nine D6 teams. Eden Prairie took second. The Eagles won their pool beating Omaha 7-0, Minneapolis Park 6-1 and Stillwater 3-2. In the championship round, the Eagles beat Osseo/Maple Grove in the semifinals before losing to Wayzata 5-4 in the championship game. The Eagles are in the top third of D6. Minnetonka and Chaska/Chanhassen did not fair as well as the Eagles in the tourney. Minnetonka lost two, one goal, games to Centennial 2-1 and to White Bear Lake 3-2 before beating Eagan. Chaska/Chanhassen lost their first two games to Lakeville South 5-2 and Osseo/Maple Grove 4-1 before beating Blaine 3-1.
At Burnsville, twelve teams played for four spots in the championship round determined by “silver stick” scoring method. Burnsville quickly grabbed their spot beating Rosemount 6-2, Andover 5-1 and Hasting 3-0. Edina did the same beating Hudson, Wisconsin, 3-0, Lakeville North 8-0 and Roseville 7-2. The third pool started off as if Woodbury would match Burnsville and Edina, but after beating Anoka 5-1, the Royals were upended by Jefferson 4-3. The Royals almost came back to take the top pool spot in the final round, leading Eastview 2-1 with 5 minutes left, when their game crashed. The Royals had 38 minutes in penalties called in the final 5 minutes. That killed their opportunity to advance. Eastview beat the Royals 3-2 and took the third spot. A surprisingly tough Andover team took the fourth spot.
On Sunday, Edina took the championship first beating Andover 5-1 and then beating Burnsville in tough evenly fought game, 6-4. Burnsville had advanced by beating Eastview 6-1. The Championship game was a well skated for a fifth game on a weekend and both coaches worked their game strategies well. Their top lines dominated in the scoring. The winning goal came late in the third off a shot that climbed the goalie and found a small opening to drop in the net. The sixth goal was the longest open net shot possible. Andover took third place beating Eastview. Jefferson, after an opening loss to Eastview 5-2, beat Woodbury and Anoka 7-3 to finish the tourney strong.
Kennedy went south to Mankato to play in the Mavericks tourney. They opened pool play tying Mankato 3-3 beating Waterloo Iowa 8-2 and Sioux Falls South Dakota 6-0. Sunday, the Eagles took the runner-up spot in the tourney, beating D4 Luverne 5-2 before losing to the Kansas City Stars 6-1. Prior Lake/Savage lost to Lakeville North 7-5 last week and then played in the Hopkins tourney beating D5 Mound/Westonka 5-2 before losing to Orono. Apple Valley skipped the turkey day tourneys this year, lost to Farmington in their only game.
Edina continues on a grueling schedule coming off their tourney win to play three tough D6 games this week. They will return to the Burnsville arena on Thursday to take on the Blaze in the game that really counts. Before that, the Hornets play Chaska and then end the week at Jefferson. The Blaze play only the Hornets so they have time to re-coup. Eastview and Eden Prairie tangle in another key match-up.
To the victor, go the spoils. This week, Edina has the #1 seed in D6. Burnsville takes the #2 seed (the Blaze beat Eden Prairie 2-0 two weeks ago) and Eden Prairie takes the #3 seed. It is tough to find a challenger to these three teams this week. Jefferson came to life in the Burnsville Tourney. Eastview looks to be the closest and making the championship round at Burnsville is not easy. The Lightning could challenge. Minnetonka lost two close ones at Eden Prairie, maybe the Skippers should still make a move. Prior Lake/Savage has given Burnsville their only D6 loss. Chaska has started slow the past two years and come on strong at the end of the season, but right now D6 looks to have three top teams.
D8 - The district has 14 PeeWee A teams from Minnesota and one from Wisconsin. Three of the PeeWee A teams (Red Wing, Dodge County and Northfield) are playing an independent schedule this year. Eight of the D8 teams played at Burnsville or Eden Prairie this weekend. Lakeville South had the most success of the D8 teams. At Eden Prairie, the Cougars barely missed getting into the championship round. They beat Chaska 5-2, Blaine 8-3 and tied Osseo/Maple Grove 5-5. Unfortunately, the Cougars allowed too many goals and Osseo advanced; but the Cougars did play on Sunday in the consolation round, beating Stillwater 4-3 before losing to Elk River 4-1.
Woodbury did not play on Sunday in the Burnsville tourney. They beat Anoka 5-2, lost to Jefferson 4-3 and to Eastview 3-2. This week the Royals play Eagan and Lakeville South in a re-match. Ten days ago, the Royals beat Lakeville South 6-3. Lakeville South also plays Rochester this week.
Hudson did well in the Burnsville tourney losing to Edina 3-0, beating Roseville 5-1 before losing to D8 rival Lakeville North 5-2. A victory over North would have given the Raiders a spot in the championship round on Sunday. Lakeville North struggle in the tourney though they won two games beating Hudson and Roseville 4-2. A tough loss to Edina took the Panthers out of the tourney.
Hastings is another team that starts slow, but two weeks ago, they went North and did well beating D12 teams Virginia, Hibbing and Grand Rapids before narrowly losing to White Bear Lake on a Sunday stop off. They played Burnsville tough in the Blaze’s tourney, losing 3-0. They also lost to Andover 6-3 and Rosemount 7-1. Rosemount took a tough Wayzata “to the mat” to the PIC 10 days ago, losing on a last minute goal 2-1. But the Irish just did not have it the Burnsville Tourney, losing to the Blaze 6-2 beating Hastings and losing to Andover 8-2.
Eagan and Rochester played in the Eden Prairie tourney. Eagan lost White Bear Lake 4-1, lost to Minnetonka, and tied pool winner Centennial 2-2. Going into the tourney, Rochester must have felt like the mouse trying to avoid being stomped on by two elephants. They were pooled with Elk River and Wayzata. They beat Arapahoe Colorado 6-1 and then lost to the Elks 6-0 and to the Trojans 4-1 and showed respectability. Rochester returns to D8 against Lakeville South and Rosemount this week.
Farmington beat Apple Valley last week. This week the Tigers play Blaine and then drop into the Red Wing tourney playing New Prague and North Metro. Sibley lost to Eagan last week. They take the coming week off. South St. Paul after being off last week plays Eagan. The Packers host their tourney in two weeks.
Dodge County, one of the three independent D8 teams beat Austin last week, then lost to Faribault 3-1 and Red Wing 5-1. Red Wing, another independent, tied Albert Lea this week 1-1 besides beating Dodge County. They play the third D8 independent this week, Northfield at Northfield in the arena that people either love or hate (it is “funky”). Northfield beat Waseca 6-0, played Austin and played New Prague last week. Besides Red Wing, Northfield plays Owatonna this week.
Lakeville South had a good turkey day holiday, almost good enough to earn back the #1 seed, but Woodbury despite the Jefferson loss, still is #1 this week, the Cougars #2 seed. These two teams will settle “who is #1” themselves on Sunday. The real question is who gets the #3 seed. Rosemount had the seed last week, but struggled in the Burnsville tourney. Eagan may have be turning the corner (a good trip to Grand Forks followed by some good games in the Eden Prairie tourney), but they will take on Woodbury this week. Rochester got beat by top teams, but showed they are to be respected. Don’t forget Farmington. The #3 seed this week goes to Rochester (and they will play Lakeville South this week).
South Region - Osseo/Maple Grove and Wayzata played in the Eden Prairie Tourney. Wayzata took first and Osseo/Maple Grove took third. Wayzata beat Elk River in a match-up of the top teams in the state in their pool opener. At Hopkins, Orono and Hopkins played for the Championship. Orono won. If you are a D3 fan, stand up and shout. That is almost a perfect turkey day tourney scenario.
Over in D4, Mankato, Luverne, St. Peter and Albert Lea played in the Mankato tourney. Luverne and Mankato made it to the Sunday semifinals. St. Michael/Albertville was the only D5 team in tourney action. The Knights took the consolation title.
D3 tourney action is not over. This week Orono hosts their tourney. North Metro travels to Red Wing in tough tourney with D1 Highland and D4 New Prague. D3 looks solid this week and that will make life difficult for D4 and D5 teams in the South region.
D3 - In D3, Wayzata didn’t need to send in a Trojan horse to take the Eden Prairie tourney, they just came, saw, and conquered beating Elk River 4-1, Arapahoe Colorado 8-0 and Rochester 4-1 in pool play. In Sunday’s championship round, they beat Centennial 7-1 and Eden Prairie 5-4. They rest this week before traveling to the Spirit of Duluth.
Osseo/Maple Grove took their pool beating Blaine 8-1, Chaska 4-1 and tying Lakeville South 5-5. In Sunday’s opening semifinal, OMG lost to host Eden Prairie 3-0 in a game that OMG dominated containing most of the play in their offensive zone. But they couldn’t score and gave up two goals on rushes. They beat Centennial 3-1 for third place. During the tourney, OMG also hosted the Roseau Rams beating them 9-0. OMG returns to D3 action against Armstrong this week. They also have games with visiting Grand Rapids and Stillwater.
Orono won the Hopkins tourney. They beat Mound/Westonka, Prior Lake/Savage, and Hopkins. Hopkins got to the finals beating STMA and Rogers. This week Orono hosts their tourney opening against MAML. Prior Lake/Savage plays STMA in the other bracket game. In the other bracket, Mounds View plays Northern Lakes and Warroad plays Crow River.
Hopkins plays Armstrong in D3 action and Champlin Park. North Metro takes on Mpls Park in a D3 game and then travels to Red Wing to play Farmington and New Prague in pool play.
Orono team snuck out on top of D3 early, but undefeated (but once tied in D3) Osseo/Maple Grove has moved to the top. OMG got there by beating Wayzata 3-2 before the turkey holidays. Unlike past years where D3 was dominated by Wayzata and OMG, this year Orono, Hopkins and Mpls Park pose threats and can win the regular season title. All of these teams have less then two losses.
Still Wayzata and OMG take the #1 and #2 seeds based on their performance at Eden Prairie. With their win at Hopkins, Orono takes the #3 seed. Oddly, the Knights have a chance to repeat their performance at Hopkins in their tourney playing Prior Lake/Savage or STMA if they get to the semifinals.
D4 - In the East Division, three teams, New Prague, Faribault and Mason City, have separated themselves. Faribault and New Prague are both undefeated sitting 4-0. The Falcons beat Owatonna 9-1 in league play last week and play three games this week visiting Owatonna, Mason City and Albert Lea. Winning those three games will really separate the Falcons from the rest of the field. New Prague skips D4 this week to play in the Red Wing tourney. At last count the Trojans were down to 10 players due to some injuries. They will be playing two tough games, Farmington and North Metro, in pool play.
Mason City Iowa has proven very competitive in D4 this year. They lost their D4 opener to Faribault 3-2 and that is their only D4 loss. They will be playing Waseca also this week in addition to the key match-up against Faribault.
Albert Lea was the sole D4 East entrant at Mankato and they lost all three games to Luverne 6-0, St. Peter 6-1 and Kansas City 8-0. Their weekend game with Faribault at home will be important to them. Owatonna has struggled. This week they play Luverne and Northfield. They have their tourney coming up in two weeks.
Austin is playing PeeWee A after being gone for a year. They are struggling in the East division. This week the Packers play in Red Wing drawing the Host and what could be one of the top teams in the state, Highland Central.
The West Division in D4 staged their own mini-show down last week called the Mankato tourney. The host opened pool play tying Kennedy 3-3, beating Sioux Falls and beating Waterloo Iowa 5-1. In Sunday play they lost in the semi’s to Kansas City. Kansas City took on three D4 teams in pool play beating St. Peter 4-2, Luverne 5-0 and Albert Lea 8-0. Illogically, that evening, Luverne beat St. Peter 4-3.
Mankato is unbeaten in the D4 West, winning their first two games. This week the Mavericks play Waseca, Albert Lea and Luverne. The Luverne game should be a good test for both teams. Luverne plays Owatonna in D4 action also this week. One of St. Peter/LeSueur losses is to Marshall. They will have a chance this week to avenge that loss. They also play New Ulm. New Ulm and Marshall are struggling the past two weeks. Waseca continues to struggle.
The #1 seed this week remains with New Prague. But the Trojans will have their hands full at Red Wing especially if they are short players. Mankato takes the #2 seed and Faribault the #3 seed this week. They have challengers in Luverne and St. Peter. This district is wide open at this time
D5 - So who is the only undefeated team in D5. Buffalo, STMA, Mound Westonka? No, they all lost in D5 to Sartell. The Sabres are 6-0 in D5 and hold victories over those three teams. They upended STMA 5-2 last week. As Gomer says “surprise, surprise” (only you have to imagine the accent). The Sabres have yet to lose a game period. This week, they play River Lakes and Willmar in D5 action and should continue their streak.
Still, St. Michael/Albertville rolls. After losing to Sartell, the Knights beat Willmar and traveled to the Hopkins tourney. They lost the opener to a tough Hopkins team 3-2, beat Forest Lake 5-1 and Coon Rapids 7-2. This week they play Buffalo and then really step up, taking on Osseo/Maple Grove at home. Buffalo plays only STMA this week as they prepare for the Moorhead tourney in two weeks.
Hutchinson has gotten off to a good start winning 4 of their first 6 games. Last week, they beat MALM 11-3. This week they play Litchfield, St. Peter and Kennedy and will be tested. Mound/Westonka has played well against some tough teams, but has a tough schedule this year. They play a full 18 game D5 schedule and a 7 game D3 schedule. At the Hopkins tourney, they lost their first two games to Prior Lake/Savage and to Coon Rapids. This week, they play MALM and River Lakes. They will be an interesting team to watch.
Crow River plays in the Orono tourney this weekend and draws Warroad, perhaps the most interesting game played this week. MALM joins Crow River at Orono giving D5 three of the eight teams entered.
Almost every time it happens, the top seed goes to the winner of a key match-up. Sartell won the key match-up beating STMA this past week, but the Sabres will have to do better to take the seed from STMA. This week the Knights keep the #1 seed, Sartell takes the #2 seed. Buffalo gets the #3 seed. But one can sense that D5 is volatile this year. With some key games this week, including STMA playing Osseo Maple/Grove, next week may show more stability.
West Region - D10 teams dropped into Eden Prairie and Burnsville tourneys last week and did well. Elk River and Wayzata fought it out as if they knew the winner would take the championship and the loser the consolation championship at Eden Prairie. The Elks lost 4-1 and took the consolation title. Wayzata took first. In D16, East Grand Forks won their tourney and Roseau took a trip to the cities, winning two of five games. D15 had a quiet week. Clearly Elk River looks to be on top in this region and the Green Wave from EGF are looking good. And other teams are becoming competitive.
D10 - Will Elk River have a challenger in the D10 Blue? Both Elk River and Andover has opened the D10 season with four straight wins. This week the two teams meet in Elk River to answer that question. The Elks lost their opening game in the Eden Prairie tourney to Wayzata 4-1 and swept the rest of the games to end up with the consolation title. The Elks beat Rochester 6-0, Arapahoe, White Bear Lake 4-0 and Lakeville South 4-1. In D10 action before the tourney, the Elks beat Chisago Lakes 8-0.
Andover went to Burnsville and did well, making the semifinals on Sunday. They beat Hastings 6-3, lost to Burnsville 5-1 and beat Rosemount 8-2. In the semifinals they lost to Edina 5-1 and beat Eastview for third place. Andover plays Anoka and Champlin Park in addition to Elk River this week. Centennial, also from the D10 Blue Division, had a good Eden Prairie tourney taking their pool by beating Minnetonka 2-1, White Bear Lake 3-1 and tying Eagan 2-2. Unfortunately, the Wayzata eliminated them in the semifinals 7-1. Centennial lost the third place game to Osseo/Maple Grove.
Another D10 Blue team, Blaine struggled at Eden Prairie, losing to Osseo/Maple Grove 8-1, Lakeville South 8-3, and Chaska 3-1. Anoka in the D10 Blue played in the Burnsville Tourney. They lost to Woodbury, Jefferson and Eastview. Coon Rapids played at Hopkins losing to Orono, beating Mound/Westonka and losing to STMA in the consolation finals.
Champlin Park, in the D10 Green Division, took the Super Rink title beating Tartan 3-0, Mounds View 4-1 and St. Cloud 2-1. They play Andover this week in D10 action. Rogers sits on top of the D10 Green, but struggled at Hopkins. After beating Forest Lake, they lost to Orono and played Prior Lake/Savage in the third place game. Rogers takes on Anoka and Chisago Lakes in D10 action this week.
Andover continues to impress. They will be tested playing Champlin Park and Elk River this coming week. But Elk River is still solidly #1 in D10 this week. Andover remains the #2 seed. Champlin Park has played the Elks close and this week they took the Super Rink tourney that makes them the #3 seed. Centennial made a reasonable run at Eden Prairie, but still sits a notch below these three teams. Rogers could still take the top spot in the Green Division. That seed going into the D10 playoffs good give them a nice path to a regional ticket.
D15 - This week Brainerd stayed home and played four games losing to Duluth East 7-1, Detroit Lakes 4-1 and Roseau 6-4 before beating Wadena 9-1. The Warriors entertain Bemidji this week. Moorhead stayed home and split two games with Duluth East winning the first 3-2, losing the second 6-2. The Spuds beat Alexandria 3-2 in D15 play and lost to Bemidji 4-1. This week the Spuds play Crookston, Prairie Centre and Thief River Falls.
Detroit Lakes could contend this year in D15. In addition to beating Brainerd, the Lakers lost Alexandria 9-3 and beat Fergus Falls 5-1. This week they travel to Bemidji to play the Lumberjacks. Fergus Falls plays Prairie Centre this week as they prepare to play in the Moorhead tourney. Alexandria has gotten of to a good start this year. They travel to Hermantown and will play the host in the opening game of their tourney this week.
Crosby/Pequot Lakes are the Northern Lakes Lightning this year. They travel to Orono this week to play in their tourney. The Lightning opening game is against Mounds View.
The #1 seed this week stays with the Spuds. Brainerd and Alexandria take the #2 seed and the #3 seed, respectively. This season is just beginning to roll in D15, and the seeds are wide open.
D16 - East Grand Forks hosted their hockey tourney this past week. Off the ice, they were probably very gracious, but on the ice the Green Wave rolled. In pool play the beat APHA 9-3, Fort Francis 9-0 and Winnipeg East 5-1. In the Championship game the EGF beat APHA again 8-2. The APHA Rangers are the Winnipeg city 2009 champions. This week the Green Wave play Bemidji, the Grand Fork Seawolves and Their River Falls. This big game for the Green wave will be in two weeks when they travel to Roseau.
Roseau traveled to the cities to open their season. Before they left, they notched their first D16 win beating Hallock 8-4. The Rams won 2 of 5 games on the trip, beating a Colorado team in a shotout at Mariucci 6-5 and Brainerd 6-4. They lost to Rogers 5-3 and were soundly beaten by Osseo/Maple Grove and the 97 Fire. The Rams play Hibbing, International Falls, LOW and Bemidji this week.
Bemidji beat Greenway and beat Moorhead 4-1 last week. They will play Roseau, East Grand Forks, Detroit Lakes and Brainerd this week in a real tester for the Lumberjacks. They should do well.
Thief River Falls entertained Duluth East last week. This week the Prowlers play Grafton, Moorhead and EGF. Crookston delivered the opening shot going into Roseau and beating the Rams 8-5 two weeks ago. The Pirates had an off week, but this week play Hallock and Moorhead. Warroad head south to the Orono tourney. They will play Crow River in the opener. It will be an interesting game.
East Grand Forks continues to look good and right now they own the #1 seed in D16. Bemidji stepped up to knock off Moorhead and have earned the #2 seed this week, Crookston takes the #3 seed, but Roseau remains an unknown commodity to be watched the rest of this season.
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