North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds). A triple A team from Green Bay took the Spirit of Duluth title. The last team to do something like that was the 95 Fire in last year’s Edina tourney.
N1-District 11
After a string of three loses in early November (two in the “invisible Duluth tourney), Cloquet strung together a 7 game win streak. The Lumberjacks got their seventh by beating Hermantown 2-1 early last week. They took the win streak to D16 on the weekend and had it broken losing to Roseau 6-4. They beat Bemidji and played East Grand Forks also.
The Duluth Lakers beat Duluth East 5-3 on Monday. That was the Hounds fifth game in four days. The Lakers then played tough in the Spirit of Duluth tourney losing to Wayzata 4-3, beating Eagan 5-2, and running out of gas against Burnsville losing 9-1. Hermantown opened the week losing to Cloquet and struggled in the Spirit of Duluth tourney losing to Thunder Bay 5-2, White Bear Lake 2-1, and Blaine 5-1 in pool play.
Duluth East played five hundred in the Spirit of Duluth, losing to St. Cloud 4-1, tying Fargo 2-2 and beating Stillwater 6-2. None of the D11 teams advanced to the Championship or the Consolation rounds.
After their D16 tour, Cloquet has a quiet December planned and has no games scheduled this week. Duluth Lakers play Blaine on the weekend. Hermantown takes on Duluth East in a D11 game. After the “Spirit” this district has a quiet week. Cloquet is unbeaten in D11 and Hermantown is struggling to win their first game. Cloquet keeps the #1 seed, but the #2 seed this week goes to the Duluth Lakers. They beat Duluth East this past week.
N2-District 12
Apple Valley took a tour through D12 last week beating Virginia 5-2, Hibbing 4-3 and Grand Rapids 5-2. They also played Eveleth.
In D12 league games, Virginia beat Hibbing 2-0 last week. The Blue Devils play Grand Rapids and Bemidji this week. Hibbing entertains Roseau and Bemidji this week. Grand Rapids plays in the Moorhead tourney. Their opening game is against Buffalo the top rated team in D5. No D12 team has emerged as a clear favorite, especially after the Apple Valley tour. Grand Rapids has three consecutive tourneys in a row in December, the Moorhead tourney, followed by their own, and the Bemidji tourney at the end of month. The nod this week goes to Virginia as the #1 seed, Hibbing #2 seed and the Thunderhawks #3 seed.
N3-District 16
Roseau returned home from the Eden Prairie tourney, rested and beat top rated D11 Cloquet 6-4 on the weekend. They play Bemidji in a D16 game and then travel to the Range to play Hibbing and International Falls. The Rams schedule these 10 days look like an early season version of the North Regional Tourney.
Two other D16 teams play in a real tourney at Moorhead. East Grand Forks take on D4 contender Mankato in the first round and Thief River Falls plays Grand Forks (North Dakota). The Green Wave beat Crookston 10-3 in D16 and Grafton 6-3 in a scrimmage this week and played Cloquet. They are off to a good start going 7-1 in their first 8 games.
Thief River Falls is off to a slow start in D16 going 1-2 in their first three games. Bemidji has won their first two D16 games. Bemidji lost a tough one to Cloquet 6-4 and played Crookston last week. Bemidji has their Christmas Holiday tourney draw out: Bemdji, LOW, Warroad and Crookston will have their own pool play. In this tourney all teams play in a consolation or championship round. Each team is seeded #1 through #4 as a result of pool play. Then the #1’s play each other, the #2’s do also, the #3’s do and the #4’s do.
Last year D16 was dominated by Roseau and EGF with Roseau taking the D16 season and playoffs only to lose the State Tourney ticket to EGF in the Regionals. The league is beginning to shape up the same way with the possible exception of Bemidji. Crookston had played well in the EGF turkey day tourney, but really struggled in losing to the Green Wave, costing them the #3 seed this week. The two top seeds go to Roseau #1 and EGF #2. Bemidji takes the #3 seed.
The projected North Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
North Red Division: D16-#1 Roseau, D12-#2 Hibbing, D11-#2 Duluth Lakers, D16-#3 Bemidji.
North Blue Division: D12-#1 Virginia, D16-#2 East Grand Forks, D11-#1 Cloquet, D12-#3 Grand Rapids.
South Regional
The South districts this year are D1 (3 seeds), D4 (2 seeds) and D5 (3 seeds). D1 has split their peewee A teams between D3 and D2 for regular season play. The Owatonna Tourney this week took center stage in D4 last week with D8 Inver Grove Heights winning the Championship.
S1-District 1
The Irondale Knights may have righted the ship. Coming off a Consolation Championship in the Moundsview tourney, the Knights beat a good Mpls Park team 2-1 in D1 play. The Knights play the Highland this week in another D1 game. They then go after another trophy in the Shakopee Tourney on the weekend, drawing D8 Farmington in opening round play. Washburn opened their week losing to Armstrong 4-1 in D3 play and then traveled to Owatonna. After losing to CINB 4-3, they beat Souix Falls 6-3 and D5 Willmar 5-1 to take the Consolation Trophy. Highland has a quiet December playing only Irondale this week.
Highland is taking the trip to Moorhead also, playing the Spuds in their opening game. Mpls Park beat North Metro 6-1 in a D3 game and are currently in second place in D3. But they have lost to Highland and Irondale in D1 play.
The Storm is struggling. They need to get some of that warm topically air to crash the coast. This week they are still #1 but with a big question mark. Move them over D3, and they would be a clear #3 seed if D3 had a #3 seed this year. It is hard to drop Highland down, but Irondale has to take the #2 seed. A good showing at Shakopee, should make the Knights #1. The #3 seed goes to Washburn because they took a trophy in the Owatonna tourney.
S2-District 4
Mankato rebounded out of their turkey day tourney beating Owatonna 4-3 to hand the Huskies their first loss in league play. Owatonna could not find themselves in their tourney after beating Marshall. They lost to North St. Paul (and the twins) 8-4 and were losing 3rd place 3-2 to CINB in the middle of the third. The Huskies play Madison City Iowa and New Ulm in D4 games this week.
Mankato had a good week. Besides beating Owatonna, they beat Mason City 6-1 and tied Luverne 4-4. Mankato heads to Moorhead to play in their tourney. In the opening round, they play East Grand Forks.
Albert Lea gave New Prague a surprise, tying them 2-2. The Trojans came back to beat Waseca 12-1 in D4. Albert Lea is playing in the Shakopee tourney this week opening against Crow River. New Prague is playing in the Hutchinson Tourney drawing the Fargo Flyers and Sauk Rapids in pool play.
Luverne has 24 points in league play after 10 games. They have four games remaining, playing Fairbault, New Prague, Marshall and Waseca. They should set the standard for the D4 championship at about 34 points. New Prague, Owatonna and Mankato have the best chance of catching them. But despite their lead in D4, the strongest team remains New Prague. They are the #1 seed this week, with Luverne #2 seed and Mankato #3 seed. But don’t count out Owatonna yet.
S3-District 5
Buffalo officially moved to the top of the D5 standings as the results of late November games were reported. The Bison tied Sartell 4-4 last week and this week play in the Moorhead tourney taking on Grand Rapids in the first game. Sartell, MALM and Crow River are all contending, but perennial contender Mound Westonka sits in last place.
MALM beat Litchfield in the opening round of Orono’s Best of the West Tourney, lost to Cottage Grove in the semifinals and Forest Lake in the 3rd place game. Crow River lost the opener to Cottage Grove, beat Litchfield and lost to Orono 6-2 in the Consolation Championship. Sartell recovered from back to back losses to River Lakes and Crow River to tie Buffalo. They play Litchfield and MALM this week.
Mound Westonka played Hutchinson and St. Michael/Albertville last week and play River Lakes on the weekend. Hutchinson hosts their tourney this weekend. In Pool A the host draws Luverne and Sioux Falls (just coming out of the Owatonna tourney last week). New Prague, Sauk Rapids and the Fargo Flyers are in Pool B. STMA travels to Red Wing for their tourney drawing Cottege Grove in the opening round.
Buffalo will be carrying the D5 flag in the Moorhead tourney. How they play will set the tone for this district. STMA’s visit to the Red Wing will also be an indicator for D5. Buffalo remains on top in D5 and takes the #1 seed. The #2 Seed goes to Sartell with the #3 going to Crow River.
The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
South Red Division: D1-#1 Mpls Park, D4-#2 Luverne, D5-#2 Sartell, D5-#3 Crow River
South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Irondale, D5-#1 Buffalo, D1-#3 Mankato or Washburn.
East Regional
The East districts this year are D2 (3 seeds), D6 (2 seeds) and D8 (3 seeds)
E1-District 2
In D2 the Forest Lake/Mahtomedi and North St. Paul/Tartan games have been forfeited for failure to follow league rules. One forfeit was rescinded, but will these forfeits still stand? What happening here?
Stillwater and White Bear Lake played in the Spirit of Duluth tourney this week. White Bear made it to the Championship round by beating Thunder Bay, Blaine 4-2 and Hermantown 5-1. Stillwater made it to the Championship round by beating Fargo 9-3, St. Cloud 4-1 and Duluth East 6-2. Both these teams tangled in the semifinals with White Bear winning. White Bear lost the championship to Green Bay 3-2, Stillwater lost to Wayzata 4-2 in the 3rd place game. It was a good showing for D2.
Moundsview took 2nd in the Orono tourney. They beat Northfield, D2 rival Forest Lake before losing to Cottage Grove in the finals. Forest Lake went on to beat MALM 3-1 for 3rd place. North St. Paul took its team to Owatonna and made it to the finals. They beat Willmar, Owatonna 8-4 before losing to D8 Inver Grove Heights in the Championship game. That’s five trophies in three tourneys for D2 this weekend. Quite a haul.
Roseville gave White Bear Lake a bad “send off” before the Bears went to Duluth, beating them 7-4. White Bear did beat Forest Lake 2-1 early in the week. Roseville plays Forest Lake this week. There is some separation now in the league with Roseville, White Bear, Forest Lake and Stillwater on top. North St. Paul with a solid first line and good goal tending is a threat.
Roseville’s win over White Bear gives them the #1 seed this week. White Bear Lake with a great showing at the Spirit of Duluth earns the #2 seed. Stillwater was wavering after some tough tourney losses this past three weeks, but the Ponies came back to earn the #3 seed based on their performance in the Spirit of Duluth.
E2-District 6
This year D6 has a new playoff format. All teams will play in the playoff and the regular season play only seeds the 11 D6 teams. So what is there to play for in regular season? Plenty (excuse me Governor Tim). The top 2 seeds have it best as they should. They need to win only their first two games and they are in the Championship game (guarantees a Regional Tourney Seed). But unfortunately only one of the first two seeded teams can win their first two games. The loser (or if both lose) drop down a single elimination round and winning gets harder. They have to play 3 more games to get to the Championship game.
Seeds 3-5 have to win one more game (three total) to make the Championship game then the #1 and #2 seeds. If they lose any of their first three games, they have to play three more games to get to the championship round. Seed #3 has the advantage in that it will play the sole wild card team in the double elimination tourney. The wild card team gets to the double elimination tourney by winning the wild card, single elimination, tourney. Teams seeded 6-11 play in the wild card tourney prior to the start of the double elimination part of the D6 playoffs.
In previous seasons, the single elimination was only three teams-those seeded 6, 7, and 8. With the expanded tourney, teams seeded 6 and 7 will enjoy the advantage of playing the winner of the first round wild card games (#8 and #10 play, #9 and #11 play).
The teams seeded 6 or 7 will have to play two more games (5 minimum or 7 maximum to win a regional seed) and a team finish 8, 9, 10 or 11 will have to play an additional game (6 minimum or 8 maximum). The tourney starts on Thursday, February 19th and usually ends on Saturday, February 28th. Simply put, the lower the seed, the more tough D6 playoffs games a team has to play.
This past week, in a key D6 match up, Burnsville beat Edina 2-1 in a very entertaining and well skated game. The Blaze handed the Hornets their first loss in D6 play. The first two periods had both teams moving the puck and attacking the offensive zone. There were few mistakes and even fewer errant passes.
Edina scored first in the final period, when an Edina forward gained the slot and rifled a hard shot that trickled through the goalie’s pad. Burnsville struck back when a shot from the right face-off circle found a small slit in the goalie’s five-hole to tie the game. The winner came off a melee in the front of the Edina net when a pass to the far side caught a player in the front of the net and deflected the puck into the Edina goal.
The refs did a good job in this game except they blew one call when the Edina goalie, in stopping a shot under his pads, slid fully into the net. The Ref called no goal because he lost sight of the puck.
The upsets in D6 didn’t stop with Burnsville/Edina. Eden Prairie lost to Prior Lake 5-3. Edina came back to beat Chaska 4-0 and played unbeaten Eastview in a battle of two top D6 teams.
Burnsville played well in the Spirit tourney, but had their win streak ended. In pool play, they beat Eagan 9-2, lost to Wayzata 4-3 and beat the Duluth Lakers 9-1. The Blaze advanced to the Consolation Round beating D6 rival Minnetonka 4-3 before losing to Blaine 5-4 in the Consolation Championship game.
Apple Valley beat D12 opponents Grand Rapids 5-2, Hibbing 4-3 and Virginia 5-2 this past week. They play Edina this week. Eastview takes on Eden Prairie. Minnetonka comes back from a good performance in the Spirit of Duluth, beating Superior 6-1, Minnetonka 9-1 before losing to eventual champion Green Bay 11-3.
Shakopee has their Saber Paw Tourney this weekend. First round match-ups are Crow River/Albert Lea, Sibley/St. Boniface, Shakopee/Princeton and Farmington/Irondale. This tourney looks evenly matched. Prior Lake following their upset over Eden Prairie, play in the Moorhead tourney this weekend playing Brainerd, one of the top D15 teams, in the opening game.
The Blaze beat the Hornets in their D6 match-up to take the lead in D6. That gives them the #1 seed. Edina takes the #2 seed.
E3-District 8
Woodbury beat Red Wing this week. They play Centennial and Hastings on the weekend. Hudson was beaten twice in D8 play losing to Rosemount and Lakeville North. Lakeville North has established itself on top going unbeaten in its first five games. Woodbury trails the Panthers by a single game as these two teams threaten to move away from the others.
Eagan has yet to get going in league play. They have had two tough tourneys in two weekends. In the Spirit, they were beaten by Burnsville 9-2, Duluth Lakers 5-2 and Wayzata 11-6. The one bright spot for the Panthers was a 5-4 victory over Lakeville South earlier in the week.
Cottage Grove won the Orono Tourney. They beat Crow River, MALM and Moundsview 3-2 in the Championship game. They joined Inver Grove Heights who took the Owatonna tourney beating Sioux Falls 12-4, CINB 4-3 and North St. Paul 7-6. Cottage Grove returns to the tourney trail this weekend playing in the Red Wing tourney. Rochester joins them. The opening round games at Red Wing are Rochester/Tartan, Cottage Grove/STMA, Red Wing/Sioux Falls, and Anoka/Kennedy. Inver Grove Heights plays Hasting in their lone game this week. Congratulations to the two tourney winners from D8 this week.
Farmington heads for Shakopee this weekend playing Irondale in the opening round. Rosemount beat Farmington to add to their victory over Hudson, but lost to Rochester. Rochester tied Lakeville North at home giving the Panthers their only blemish in D8 so far. Hastings tied Moorhead 2-2 in the Spuds opening game of their city swing last week.
Sibley also plays in the Shakopee tourney. They open against St. Boniface. Hudson has fallen, but can they get up? It is still early in the season. Eagan takes a break and plays only one game this week with Northfield. They need to re-group.
Lakeville North sits on top of D8 and this week they take the #1 seed. Woodbury comes in at #2 with the #3 seed wide open. Rochester, Eagan, Rosemount, Cottage Grove, Sibley and Inver Grove Heights all have a shot. Cottage Grove may have found the groove in Orono last week, they take #3 this week.
The projected East Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
East Red Division: D6-#1 Burnsville, D8-#2 Woodbury, D2-#2 White Bear Lake, D8-#3 Cottage Grove
East Blue Division: D8-#1 Lakeville North, D6-#2 Edina, D2-#1 Roseville, D2-#3 Stillwater.
West Regional
The West districts this year are D3 (2 seeds), D10 (3 seeds) and D15 (3 seeds)
W1-District 3
Osseo/Maple Grove followed up their Consolation Championship win at Eden Prairie by beating Orono 3-1 and Hopkins 6-0 in league play. They head for Moorhead this weekend playing the Fargo Flyers in the opening game. Wayzata comes back from their 3rd place finish in the Spirit to play two D3 games, Orono and Washburn, sandwiched around a Saturday night scrimmage with Edina.
Some notes on AAA teams playing in tourneys. Green Bay beat Superior 10-1, Centenial 5-1 and Minnetonka 11-3 in pool play. The Gamblers are 24-6-1 on the season. Green Bay’s record includes a 1-2-1 split in games against Team Illinois, 2-0 against the Chicago Fury, and 1-2 against the Chicago Mission all teams in the 1996 Peewee Major Tier 1 League. The Mission is currently in second place in that league. The Green Bay season started Sept 1 and with few AAA teams in Wisconsin, they have to find competition outside Wisconsin. The 96 Fire (not playing this year) beat the Gamblers last year for the Wisconsin title. Note that the 95 Fire won the Edina tourney last year.
Orono took Consolation Championship in their own tourney losing to Forest Lake, beating Northfield 8-0 and Crow River 6-2. Besides playing Wayzata this week, the Spartans take on the Mpls Park. Can the Spartans “hold the pass” against the Trojans? Bring on the 300? The Mpls Park game may mean more for the Spartans in their efforts to take a D3 seed. Armstrong is coming off a 4-1 league victory over Washburn and a 7-1 win over Moorhead. They draw Hopkins and North Metro in league play this week.
The top two teams in D3 this week are unchanged, Wayzata #1 and Osseo/Maple Grove #2. But Osseo/Maple Grove is going to have targets on their jerseys playing in the Moorhead tourney. Everybody will be after them.
W2-District 10
St. Cloud and Elk River tangled in a game of unbeatens in the D10 Green Division and Elk River came away the winner 3-0. The Elks also played Champlin Park and St. Francis last week. This week they play Princton and St. Cloud. A victory in the second game with St. Cloud plus wins in the other games could give the Elks a good grasp on the top in the Green division by the end of this week.
St. Cloud went to the Spirit of Duluth and opened well beating Duluth East 4-1 lost to Stillwater and then beat Fargo 6-1. They moved on to the consolation round losing to Blaine 6-3. St. Cloud returns home to take on Sauk Rapids and Chisago Lakes besides Elk River. This is a key week in their D10 season with a lot of points at stake for both Elk River and St. Cloud.
A third Green Division team CINB had a good Owatonna tourney and may have taken 3rd place. Princeton plays in the Shakopee tourney this week drawing the host team in first round play. Sauk Rapids plays in the Hutchinson tourney drawing New Prague and the Fargo Flyers in pool play.
Over in the Blue Division, there is some separation among the teams. But it is rather thin. Centennial sits on top, but Andover, Blaine, Coon Rapids and Anoka each have one or no loss. Centennial is continuing to struggle. The loss in the Spirit tourney to Minnetonka 9-3 was a tough loss.
Andover won the Moundsview turkey day tourney and also heads north to play in the Moorhead tourney drawing Alexandria in the first game. Should the Huskies win that game, they have a good chance of playing East Grand Forks which could be the best game of the tourney. The winner of that game could end up playing Osseo/Maple Grove. Champlin Park is in the Moorhead tourney also. They draw Fergus Falls in the opener.
Blaine has a heavy February schedule of six league games in 10 days against some tougher D10 teams. This could be their undoing. They have a single game this week against Princeton and are coming off a good Spirit of Duluth Tourney, taking the Consolation title by beating Hermantown 5-1, Thunder Bay 15-3 in pool play losing only to White Bear Lake 4-2. In the consolation round they beat St. Cloud 6-3 and Burnsville 5-4. Their current record is 15-4-1. The win over Burnsville was impressive, but loses to Champlin Park and Moundsview shows inconsistency.
Elk River looks on the verge of taking a big lead in the Peewee A Green Division. Come next Monday, St. Cloud may find themselves locked into second and fighting not to go downward. In the Blue Division, the scrum continues. Centennial is on the top, but four other teams are not far away. Centennial’s game with Woodbury this week should be a good one, but if Andover has a good Moorhead tourney the Huskies could be the team to challenge Blaine in this division.
This seeds this week are unchanged. The #1 seed goes to Elk River with Blaine taking the #2 seed and Centennial the #3 seed. Elk River’s potential sweep of D10 games these past two weeks plus the win over St. Cloud give them the seed. Blaine has won two tourney championships and the Spirit of Duluth Consolation title. That deserves the #2 seed. Centennial is hanging in there at the #3 seed, but a good outing is needed to counter a potential good performance by Andover at Moorhead.
W3-District 15
D15 is finally rolling with seven teams playing at the Peewee A level. Alexandria and Brainerd are leading the league. Pequot Lake CIA, Detroit Lakes, Park Rapids, Fergus Falls and Moorhead are the other teams. Alex and Brainerd are looking to dominate the district this year. The Cardinals will certainly be tested this week as they head to Moorhead to play Andover in their opener. Brainerd will also be tested in Moorhead drawing Prior Lake in their opener. Moorhead takes on Highland in their opener and Fergus Falls draws Champlin Park. The Moorhead tourney is among the best in the state and will test the D15 teams entered.
Brainerd is off to a good start with five early season wins including a 1-0 win over Grand Rapids. But the rest of the league is up in the air.
Moorhead struggled all last year before gaining momentum at the end of the season to make a run in the regionals. This year looks no different for the Spuds. Moorhead took a city tour the past weekend, tying Hastings 2-2, losing to Armstrong 7-1 and playing North Metro. Fergus Falls has an early season win over Sartell, but also has a 5-1 loss to Pequot Lake CIA. Park Rapids is new at the peewee A level and will struggle.
The #1 Seed has to go to Alex with Brainerd taking the #2 and Moorhead the #3. Still a long way to go in this district before a team emerges on top. The Pequot Lakes win over Fergus Falls already makes it an interesting season in D15. The Little Falls Flyers will be missed this year.
The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
West Red Division: D10-#1 Elk River, D15-#2 Brainerd, D3-#2 Osseo/Maple Grove, D10-#3 Centennial
W Blue Division: D15-#1 Alexandria, D10-#2 Blaine, D3-#1 Wayzata, D15-#3 Moorhead
Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Dec 9
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