Another way to look at peewee A teams (final for 2008)

[frederick61]

The scores are well known for the 2008 peewee A state tourney. Edina won beating Grand Rapids in the championship game 5-2 in a penalty filled game. Wayzata beat Eden Prairie in overtime 5-4 for third place and Woodbury won the consolation title beating East Grand Forks 7-3. Little Falls and Cloquet had great tournament runs, but were knocked out after losing the first two games. Congratulations to the 2007-2008 champions, Edina. To win a state championship is always hard and the Hornets deserve to win.

When my son was close to 30 years old, I asked him what games he remembered in all the he had played. He was a goalie. His first answer was an opening peewee tournament game when he wore new leg pads without first breaking them in. He gave up five goals in that game and his team lost. But he went on to say, the peewee state tourney games he had played in. He got there only one year and it was as a peewee B in the B regional tourney. I was struck by the fact that he remembered peewee games.

The kids are always kids and they always look forward to the next year. It is part of the optimism of growing up. Next year will be better, but I think most kids remember their peewee years first whether they played hockey or not. There is something magical about boys and girls at that age that changes in the following years. It is not that the changes that follow are bad, they are not. It just seems that these years are remembered best. With that in mind, my observations of this years State Tourney that are remembered best.

1. Green Jerseys and Blond Hair
The first game of the tourney pitted Edina versus East Grand Forks and I thought as both teams took the ice that their uniforms were identical but reversed. East Grand Forks wore white and Edina wore green. If Edina had on their white jerseys, the only difference from the Green Wave jerseys would be the association names. But when they lined up for the national anthem and took their helmets off, I was totally unprepared for the sight of 17 blond headed East Grand Forks kids. It instantly reminded me of a singer from the range in the 60s named Bobby Aro. He had a “hit” song on Aro Records (Zim, Mn) titled Highway #7 with a line in it that went “I have fifteen blond headed Finish kids and they “lookit exactitly likeit me”. I don’t know if they knew they would be the only teams to remove their helmet for three straight days, always playing the first game. But it was quite a sight.

2. Orange and Black and Purple and White
At the last game of Saturday night, Grand Rapids played Eden Prairie. I had settled into a spot at the far end of the rink, when the Grand Rapids supporters including the whole Cloquet team settled in around me. They were all dressed in orange and black colors. The Cloquet team had lost early in the day and their season ended. They were enthusiastically rooting for the Rapids team on the ice. But it was too loud for me and I moved down to ice level along the boards and smiled as the Rapids fans roared and cheered led by the Cloquet kids.

As the warm-up ended, the Cloquet kids came out of the stands stood along side me against the glass in the rink’s corner. Some kids grabbed a table and pushed it closer to the boards and climbed up. Other kids remained along the glass as the Rapids team came over. I wondered what was going on?

The Rapids team huddled in front of the glass with the Cloquet kids huddling against the glass on the other side rooting them on. It was great. The Cloquet kids and the Grand Rapids kids were in the same huddle separately by the glass. The huddle broke. The Jacks retreated to the stands and as the game was played on rooted and cheered the Rapids team to victory in overtime. It was the best game of the tourney with the best rooters.

3. Surprise winner in race to the puck
I had seen Wayzata play Edina before. In those games, the Edina speed at forward was always a factor. So I was surprise that in the Wayzata/Edina game semifinal game to see the Edina forwards skated down by #6. It was great to watch her out skate the fastest Edina forward beating them to the puck. It was equally fun to watch her playing the point and aggressively killing penalties. It will be interesting to watch her in the future.

4. More girls and refs
The two girls on the Little Falls team held their own in a very physical game against Eden Prairie. One took a hard hit so solidly that the ref almost let the penalty go. Speaking of refs, they did well over all the two days I saw the tourney (missed Sunday’s games); but there were two bad calls that are worth mentioning. One came when a minor collision occurred along the boards in the first minute of the Little Falls/Eden Prairie game resulting in a two minute interference penalty to Little Falls. That should have been a non-call and slowed the Little Falls team (a team that tends to play as physical if not more physical then Eden Prairie). Then later the same ref hesitates on a extremely hard hit.

The second call was a hooking penalty on Wayzata’s #6 during the second period of the Edina game. The problem was the person she hooked was behind her and checked her into the boards.

5. Did I miss something?
I really wanted to see the championship game but couldn’t. Then I found out that 21 penalties were called with 9 penalties called in the third period. Edina’s third and fourth goals were power play goals to put them up 4-0. That would have been a disappointment to me, to see these two teams have their games slowed by refs in a championship game.

6. Back to the Blond headed kids
It took one game for the East Grand Forks team to figure out they belonged in the tourney. When they did they eliminated Cloquet 3-0 on some good over all play and great goal tending. Then they came back to scare Woodbury in the consolation championship, leading the Royals 3-2 half way through the second period before losing 7-3. Too bad they couldn’t have played in a tourney like this during the season. It may have helped some kids on the Green Wave team realize that they were a competitive team.

I wonder if each team got to take their banner hanging over the rink home with them. I hope so. I will have to look for the banners next year. Much to my dismay and my weight, the Willmar concession stand had some great cookies. Didn’t need that. The Willmar arena was a nice arena, but had some difficult site lines because the center area of the stands had structure (both sides). The only way to see action clearly on both ends was to stand.

7. A Great Defense
The Little Falls team has a great defense with the goalie (who one can see loves to play goalie) and #8 and #19 on defense. Both defensemen are powerful skaters. They physically started to punish the Eden Prairie forwards in the later part of the game and lost only when soft pass from defenseman to defenseman was picked up at their own blue line by an Eagle forward for a solo rush and score to break the tie game with 3 minutes left in the third period.

The next day, a bigger Woodbury forward tried to level one of them near the blue line, throwing a hit square on the Flyer only to be shocked by finding himself driven back in his skates. The Royal player had at least 2 inches (height) on the Flyer. Worst, it was like a getting a swarm of bees angry as for the next 5 minutes, Woodbury forward after Woodbury forward was hit hard every time they handled the puck.

8. Getting one’s “dander up”
Speaking of getting “one’s dander up”, in the quarterfinal game between Cloquet and Wayzata, Wayzata jumped out to a three goal lead and looked on their way to an easy win. But Cloquet’s #11 must have got his “dander up”. He took it on personally to bring the Lumberjacks back. He put on an exhibition of scoring by hitting the upper corners of the net. He did it by burying the puck in the upper right hand twice and just to prove he was “fair and balanced”, the upper left hand corner once to give the Jacks a 4-3 lead.

Unfortunately for the Jacks, Wayzata’s #12 must have taken that as a personal insult as he got his “dander up” and went on a rampage scoring two goals and assisting on two more as Wayzata came back to take a 8-4 lead. With less then eight minutes to go in the third, I started to calculate getting something to eat and being back in time for the next game, but then Cloquet team got its collective “dander up” and scored the first of three to close the score to 8-7 with three minutes to go. They lost 9-7 on an empty netter, but it was a good game. Interesting side note to this game is that both teams swapped goalies, Cloquet more then once, in an attempt to change momentum and it worked-for a while each time.

9. Is there a higher power?
If you are an Edina supporter, you would leave the semifinal game saying to yourself, there is a higher power. After, jumping out to a 3-0 lead halfway through the game, the Trojans came back to own the last half of the second period and tie the game 3-3. They kept up the pressure through the third period until four minutes to go. Then Edina’s #4 took a pass in the neutral zone and skated in on the goalie. Earlier in the season, I had seen him do this and bury the puck on a hard shot usually from the top of the faceoff circle. But I had heard that he had some arm injury. The Wayzata goalie knew what to expect (he had seen #4 take that shot in previous games) and was set to take a hard one. When #4 hit the top of the circle, he fired. But it was like a “knuckleball” shot when a fastball was expected and the goalie whiffed at the puck as it slid under his pad. That was the winner and if you are Edina fan, there is that higher power. If you are a Wayzata fan, there is no justice.

10. A quirk or a trend
Wayzata won the peewee A title last year with its two B teams playing for the peewee B championship. This year Edina won the peewee A championship with its two B teams playing for the peewee B championship.

11. Would I go again?
This is a question I always ask myself. The peewee season is over and there are no games to see until October. I enjoy the play of these teams and only marginally enjoy the play of college and pros. High School is good, bantams are good, but to me peewee is the best. I learned this when the North Stars moved into town. I was an original season ticket holder (corner seats on the south side). I didn’t enjoy it. Last year, I went twice to the Wild and that was enough.

So when October rolls around, I will probably get the urge to go again and start to check out the teams. The peewee A state tourney will be hosted by District 3 next year, perhaps Plymouth (Wayzata)?

[O-townClown]

Great post, Fred. Thorough. Great recap of the Cloquet/Rapids sense of community.

One question for you is about the comment directed toward the refs in the final. While there were many penalties called and some may have been suspect, blaming officials for ruining game flow is misplaced.

If teams don't want to get called for penalties the solution is not to take them. Fouls in basketball and minors in hockey aren't supposed to 'balance out' - they are supposed to be called when the officials see infractions.

As long as calls were consistent, I disagree with slowed by refs.

You are surprised your son remembers games from Pee Wees?! I remember lots of things from Mites and Squirts too. Is that not the norm?

[TTpuckster]

[quote="frederick61"]
1. Green Jerseys and Blond Hair
The first game of the tourney pitted Edina versus East Grand Forks and I thought as both teams took the ice that their uniforms were identical but reversed. East Grand Forks wore white and Edina wore green. If Edina had on their white jerseys, the only difference from the Green Wave jerseys would be the association names. But when they lined up for the national anthem and took their helmets off, I was totally unprepared for the sight of 17 blond headed East Grand Forks kids. It instantly reminded me of a singer from the range in the 60s named Bobby Aro. He had a “hit” song on Aro Records (Zim, Mn) titled Highway #7 with a line in it that went “I have fifteen blond headed Finish kids and they “lookit exactitly likeit me”. I don’t know if they knew they would be the only teams to remove their helmet for three straight days, always playing the first game. But it was quite a sight.



Thanks Fred,

Nice recap.
Being an old EGF player who remembers his Pee Wee, Bantam, and High School state tourneys it is great to hear about their tournament experience. EGF doesn't get there as routinely as Roseua, Edina, etc do.

Also, I have heard a few Bobby Aro songs.

"Boppy, Boppy Aro, King of the Great Nort Woods."

Have a great summer.

[frederick61]

TTpuckster, I think one hasn’t lived until they have gone to a Hunter’s Ball (usually the Friday before deer hunting opens) at a rural country town hall and danced a polka in “pike river” oxfords to Bobby Aro's band (all three guys) playing a polka version of the Alka Seltzer song.

[Reggie]

Great posts all year long F61!!

[RickO'Shea]

It took one game for the East Grand Forks team to figure out they belonged in the tourney. When they did they eliminated Cloquet 3-0 on some good over all play and great goal tending. Then they came back to scare Woodbury in the consolation championship, leading the Royals 3-2 half way through the second period before losing 7-3. Too bad they couldn’t have played in a tourney like this during the season. It may have helped some kids on the Green Wave team realize that they were a competitive team.

They shouldn't even let northern teams in the state tournament. They play nobody that's any good all year.

[hockeyparent11]

Grand Rapids beat Woodbury and Eden Prairie on the way to the final.

Northern teams belong!

[egf hockey1]

Rick O'Shea, that was one of the dumbest posts that I have ever seen. It is people like you that don't realize that there is more Minnesota north of St. Cloud and give a bad name for all the good cities hockey parents. Grand Rapids was runner-up in the state tournament. EGF beat Grand Rapids during the season. Obviously, the Northern teams belonged.

Fred, great post, but to say that EGF didn't play in any good tournaments this year is false. The Moorhead tournament, year in year out bring in some of the top teams in the state. The Hermantown tournament was also a very competitive, well run tournament. EGF is 6 hours from the cities making it impossible to make trips there. There is enough good competition in the D 16, 15, and 12 and Fargo, Grand Forks to give our teams all the competition that we want, and more then enough travel.

[RickO'Shea]

Rick O'Shea, that was one of the dumbest posts that I have ever seen. It is people like you that don't realize that there is more Minnesota north of St. Cloud and give a bad name for all the good cities hockey parents. Grand Rapids was runner-up in the state tournament. EGF beat Grand Rapids during the season. Obviously, the Northern teams belonged.

egf - look up the definition of sarcasm. Look thru Fred's posts. If your team doesn't play Edina, EP, or Apple Valley every weekend the games don't count.

[egf hockey1]

Sarcasm is hard to read without one of these guys Sorry for the harsh words, I see your angle now