Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Nov 16 2009

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Minnesota hockey associations that are playing peewee A hockey this year are summarized by district below:

District 1 (6 games/team): Mpls Park, Highland, Irondale and Saint Paul Saints. The teams may look the same, but because of association re-alignments this year, they have changed. Only Irondale is the same. Mpls Park is really Mpls Washburn combined with Mpls Park (which was a combined St. Louis Park/Mpls Southwest). Highland had been combined with Como in previous years, but this year has no alignments. Como/St. Paul Johnson combined to form the Saint Paul Saints.

To augment their D1 district schedules, the three D1 teams will play in D3 and D2 regular season leagues. Mpls Park will play a full D3 schedule. The Storm finished third last year in D3. Highland and the Saint Paul Saints play a single round of games with the D2 teams. Irondale will not play a D2 schedule this year. D1 will conduct their own playoff based on final D1 standings with two teams advancing to the East Regional.

District 2 (16 games/team) : Forest Lake, Stillwater, White Bear Lake, Mahtomedi, North St. Paul, Roseville, Tartan and Mounds View. No changes from last year’s teams. Again, a very stable district at the peewee A level. Each team plays Highland and Saint Paul Saints once as part of the D2 regular season schedule.

District 3 (13 games/team): Wayzata, Osseo/Maple Grove, Orono, Hopkins, Armstrong, and North Metro. No change from last year’s teams except Mound Westonka has been added. Mpls Park gives D3 a seventh team this year. Washburn drops out. Mound Westonka will play a single game with each of the D3 teams this year. The results of these games will be included in the D3 standings this year.

District 4 (14 games/team): East Division-Faribault, Albert Lea, New Prague, Austin and Owatonna; West Division-Marshall, Mankato, St. Peter/Lesueur, Luverne, New Ulm, and Waseca. The split into two divisions is a change this year. The combining with D8 fell apart last year, but D8 teams Red Wing, Dodge County and Northfield are playing an independent schedule this year that include D4 teams.

District 5 (18 games/team): Buffalo, St. Michael/Albertville (STMA), Sartell, River Lakes, Mound Westonka, Monticello/Annadale/Maple Lake (MAML), Litchfield/DC, Hutchinson, Crow River, and Willmar.

District 6 (18 games/team): Apple Valley, Burnsville, Chaska/Chanhassen, Eastview, Eden Prairie, Edina, Jefferson, Kennedy, Prior Lake/Savage, and Minnetonka. Shakopee dropped peewee A this year and Kennedy is playing a full D6 schedule.

District 8 (16 games/team): Cottage Grove, Eagan, Farmington, Hastings, Lakeville South, Lakeville North, Rochester, South St. Paul, Sibley Area (West St. Paul), and Woodbury. Red Wing, Northfield and Dodge County are playing an independent schedule this year.

District 10 (19 games/team): Blue Division-Andover, Anoka, Blaine, Centennial, Chisago Lakes, Coon Rapids, and Elk River. Green Division-Champlin Park, Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch (CINB), Princeton, Rogers, Spring Lake Park, St. Cloud, and St. Francis.

District 11 (8 games/team): Duluth East, Duluth Lakers, Hermantown, Cloquet, and Proctor.

District 12 (8 games/team): Grand Rapids, Virginia, Hibbing, Eveleth-Gilbert, and International Falls.

District 15 (16 games/team): Alexandria, Brainerd, Crosby/Pequot Lakes, Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Little Falls, Moorhead, Prairie Centre, and Wadena. Park Rapids dropped peewee A (or do they share the lead with Wadena?)

District 16 (16 games/team): Bemidji, Moorhead, East Grand Forks, Hallock, Thief River Falls, Crookston, Warroad, Lake of the Woods (LOW), and Roseau.

There are 103 peewee A teams this year in Minnesota. D10 has the most with 14, D1 has the fewest with 4. The districts that are the most stable in the past two years have been D2 and D16. D15 has grown the most in number of teams. D8 and D6 seem to manage associations and changes well (at least at the peewee A level). D10 is most likely to grow and suffer growing pains (North Star line opened up this week).

North Region-Opening play in November confirmed that this regional will be a tough one this year. In D11, Duluth East looks to be stronger then Hermantown with the Duluth Lakers or Cloquet challenging the two teams, but it is early innings.
D12 is just starting to roll and no one should concede with such early returns on which teams among Grand Rapids, Hibbing and Virginia is the favorite. With only two D12 seeds, International Falls will need to win more then one or two games this season to get into the regional for the third consecutive year. You have to love those Broncos. D2 is on a roll with some of the D2 teams having completed a third of their regular league schedule. White Bear and Stillwater look to be ahead of the others at this time, but it is a long season. With the regional being held in Stillwater, some northern teams are already traveling to D2 for weekend scrimmages. Forest Lake went the other way, playing in the Duluth East tourney last weekend.

D11-This year Proctor has fielded a peewee A team to join Duluth Lakers, Duluth East, Hermantown and Cloquet in D11. The Rails will play in the Superior Tourney this coming week playing in Pool B against the Northwest Stars and Faribault. Go Rails.

The Duluth Lakers welcomed the Rails to D11 play beating the Rails 6-1. The Lakers played in the Duluth East tourney, beating D11 rival Cloquet 3-2 before losing three consecutive games to Thunder Bay 12-3, Edina 6-1 and another D11 rival Duluth East 3-2. This week the Lakers take on Hermantown in a D11 game and make a weekend swing to the cities taking on D2 teams, White Bear Lake, Stillwater and Roseville.

Duluth East opened their tourney season at home beating Forest Lake 5-4 before losing to Duluth East 5-1 and Chaska 7-5. This week, they beat Hermantown 4-3 and Woodbury 7-4. Next week, they play Cloquet in a D11 game and make a swing to the cities playing White Bear Lake. The Hounds have a 20 kid roster that includes seven returning A players. The Duluth East peewee B team from last year made it to state last year beating Grand Rapids 2-0, Ely 5-2, and Roseau 8-2 in regional pool play. In the regional seed game, the Hunters beat D11 Proctor, 6-2.
The Hunters used that expanded roster to their advantage against Woodbury, playing two 30 minute periods. Most of the Hounds goals came in the last few minutes of each period.

Hermantown team did not get rolling until November 3. They chose a tough start to their season losing to Duluth East, Woodbury 8-5 and Rosemount 8-1 in their second week as a team. This week they play the Duluth Lakers and then play in the Spring Lake Park tourney in Blaine opening on Friday against Armstrong from D3. Cloquet is another team that just started to roll on the first of November. The Lumberjacks jumped into the Duluth East tourney getting thumped by Edina and Thunder Bay by identical 7-2 scores before beating Forest Lake 3-2. They beat Superior 2-1 in D11 early this week tied Woodbury 4-4 and lost to Jefferson 3-2 on the weekend.

D11 takes time to sort out who will be on top. The three teams playing Woodbury was a good early season test. With five teams vying for three regional seeds, conventional wisdom says that one of the four teams (Lakers, Cloquet, East, or Hermantown) will join Proctor by ending their season in the D11 playoffs. But “up north”, D12 International Falls has set a unique standard by going winless during the season and wining the one or two games to make the regional tourney. So for this first post, Duluth East is the #1 seed, Hermantown is the #2 seed and the Rails the #3 seed. Go Rails.

D12-D12 just does not get rolling until Turkey time. Grand Rapids, Hibbing, Virginia and International Falls parents and players are more likely hunting deer this week and won’t get serious about on ice stuff until after next Sunday when they reluctantly put their guns away (I missed my buck this week and I know I will see that buck image for the next 12 months).

All that being said, Hibbing and Virginia were blitzed by Rosemount and Jefferson this weekend. The Hibbing and Virginia coaches were probably worried about dragging that 8-point buck Sunday night. Eveleth-Gilbert is just getting rolling and will not have their first game until Nov 28. With only two regional seeds this year and little action in D12 so far, the seeds this week go to last year’s best teams Hibbing and Virginia (at least until the teams change their hunting orange for their Blue (Jackets/Devils).

D2-D2 league play started November 1. There are 10 teams playing in the league this year as the eight regular D2 teams are joined by two D1 teams, St. Paul Saints (Como/Johnson) and Highland. The D1 teams will play only the D2 teams (eight games) but the games do count in the standings. White Bear Lake got off to a racing start winning its first four games beating Tartan 7-0, North St. Paul 6-1, Forest Lake 2-0, St. Paul Saints 5-1, and playing Mahtomedi. Among those first five games, they beat Eden Prairie 3-1. They will scrimmage Duluth East and Hastings next week. With six returning A players, the Bears look tough this year.

One the teams that challenge the Bears year after year is Roseville, but this year the Raider’s are off to a slow start losing their first two league games (Mahtomedi 3-2 and Mounds View 2-1) and playing North St. Paul. The Raiders went 1-1-1 in their first three scrimmages (beating Jefferson 5-3, tying Apple Valley 3-3 and losing to Minnetonka 9-3, all D6 teams). They entertain the Duluth Lakers this week.


Mounds View made a move last year making it to the regional tourney, but injuries to some key players slowed the team as the Mustangs failed to make it to the state. This year, the Mustangs have gotten off to a good start playing St. Francis, Coon Rapids, Chisago Lakes and tying Kennedy 3-3 in early season scrimmages and opening with three D2 wins (Mahtomedi 5-4, Roseville 2-1 and the Saint Paul Saints 8-0). Stillwater has looked good in the early going and look to be the team to challenge in D2 play. The Eden Prairie turkey day tourney will be the Ponies’ chance to shine.

Forest Lake came close last year to making the state tourney (one goal away from taking Edina’s seed). But this year, they are off to a slow start. Last week in Duluth, the Lakers lost three games (Duluth East 5-4, Chaska 4-2 and Cloquet 3-2) and tied one game (Eden Prairie 3-3). The tie was impressive. But they have opened D2 with a loss (Mahtomedi 4-2) and a tie (Tartan 4-4) and loses to White Bear Lake 2-0 and Stillwater 7-1. The Lakers had a very similar start last year. This coming week is an off week for the Lakers.

Mahtomedi split their first two D2 games beating Forest Lake and losing to Mounds View. The Zephyrs then beat Roseville 3-2 and played White Bear Lake. This week they play Tartan in a D2 league game and play in the Spring Lake Park tourney opening against North Metro. North St. Paul played five D2 games in early November, losing to White Bear Lake 6-1 and Stillwater 9-1. The Polars also played Mounds View, Stillwater and Roseville. Tartan has struggled in the early going in D2 losing to White Bear Lake 7-0 and Highland 5-2.

With three seeds up for grabs in D2, Stillwater looks good to take the #1 seed, White Bear Lake should be the #2 seed with the #3 seed being fought over by Mahtomedi, Mounds View, Roseville and Forest Lake. D2 has been a balanced league the past two years with six of the eight teams going to the regional. The Ponies look to be a step above the rest with White Bear Lake challenging them. After that, any of the remaining teams could emerge.

South Region-D3 teams should dominate this region with two heavy favorites, Wayzata and Osseo/Maple Grove, likely to make the tourney. Add to that, Maple Grove is hosting the South tourney. But it is not like the third D3 would be a roll over. Hopkins and Orono have the ability to challenge Wayzata and Maple Grove/Osseo for the D3 seeds. Look at D3 today. What team sprints to the top in D3? Orono! But can the Spartans last?

D4 teams are improving. They start late and usually buckle down in January. New Prague looks to be the best, but skates only 12 kids this year. That can be tough when they hit the D4 and Regional playoffs (if the Trojans make it that far).

Over in D5, some strange things are happening. Mound Westonka is playing a full D5 and a half D3 schedule this year and will certainly have the experience of playing the D3 teams if they make the regions. But the surprise of the year could be St. Michael/Albertville. This team is experienced and has done well in the early season. Buffalo on the other hand has talent and if they can get their game together, the Bison will compete. The South Region will be interesting this year.

D3-In D3, it is almost an automatic to say Wayzata first, Osseo/Maple Grove second. Some will argue Osseo/Maple Grove first, Wayzata second. But none would argue for any of the other four teams. This year, a pesky Orono team has snuck out on top with wins over North Metro 3-1, Hopkins 5-2, Mound Westonka 6-0 and before losing to Mpls Park 3-1. They are likely to win their next two league games and enter a late December game against Wayzata on top of D3.

Wayzata looks to be the strongest team, but Osseo/Maple Grove has some guns and Mpls Park (now a combined team from Mpls Southwest, Mpls Washburn and St. Louis Park) has the benefit of combining two associations that played peewee A last year. The Trojans have started strong this year beating Burnsville 6-3, tying Edina 4-4, Lakeville South 4-0, Lakeville North 3-1 and Armstrong 10-1 in opening D3 play. On the weekend, the Trojans took on a tough schedule beating the Fire 3-1 before losing to the Madison Capitals 8-5 on Saturday. On Sunday, the Trojans paid for the tough schedule losing a key D3 game to a rested Osseo/Maple Grove 3-2. This week the Trojans take on D8 Rosemount and Mpls Park at the PIC before opening the Eden Prairie Turkey day tourney against Elk River in what should be the marquee game of the Thanksgiving Holiday. But why is it being played in the worst new rink in the state?

Mpls Park has looked good in the early going. They tied Woodbury 2-2, lost to Lakeville South 4-3, and beat Irondale in D1 play 4-2. In D3 play, the Storm tied Osseo/Maple Grove 2-2, beat Armstrong 7-2 in addition to their win over Orono. This week they play Edina on Saturday and follow that game with a key D3 match-up against Wayzata.

Osseo/Maple Grove has a good team. They have opened the season with wins over Woodbury 2-1, Mound Westonka 5-2, Lakeville North 6-5, and tied Mpls Park in addition to beating Wayzata. This coming week they play two D3 games (North Metro and Hopkins) and host a return match with Lakeville North. Looking ahead to the Turkey Day tourney at Eden Prairie, they look to be top dog in their pool (Blaine, Lakeville South and Chaska are the other teams). The temptation is say OMG will swept the slate right into the Eden Prairie final round on Sunday until one notices that they have scheduled Roseau (in town for a turkey day swing) also on Saturday. It is hard to pass up Rams, few coaches would. But if OMG makes it to the final round of the Eden Prairie tourney, they should make it to the top of the rankings.

Where oh where is Hopkins? The Royals should be a very good team this year with a number of returning A players and a good defense. They beat Kennedy 1-0 in their opener and followed that with wins over Anoka 1-0, Rogers 4-2, Jefferson 2-0, before being beat by Orono in their first D3 game. Throw out the Orono game and Hopkins’ defense is giving up a half goal a game. This week they play D4 New Prague and North Metro at home. Armstrong and North Metro are off to tough starts. Armstrong opened their season with loses to STMA, Jefferson, Mpls Park and Wayzata. If there is any solace for the Falcons, it is a young season and they started slow last year. The Falcons play Chaska and Coon Rapids before taking on Hermantown in the opening round of the Spring Lake Park tourney this week.

D4-Owatonna made it to state last year and struggled, but it had to be a great experience. Unfortunately, they are off to a slow start this year losing their first two D4 East games to Albert Lea 2-1 and Mason City, Iowa 5-2. Faribault has opened their season on good note. After tying Red Wing 2-2, the Falcons lost two games to a tough Prior Lake team (7-0 and 6-2); but turned around and beat Mason City 3-2 in D4 play. They followed that with D4 wins over St. Peter/Le Sueur 8-7 and New Ulm 7-1. Their only D4 blemish is a 5-5 tie with St. Peter.

Lurking in the bushes D4 East is New Prague. They opened the season with a 4-1 win over Kennedy and have blitzed Marshall and Austin in their first two D4 games. This week the Trojans visit Hopkins and New Ulm. NP problem maybe the simple fact that they have only 12 skaters. Albert Lea opened their season splitting their first four D4 games beating Owatonna and rival Austin, losing to Mason City and Marshall. The East Division looks to be battle between Faribault and New Prague.

Over in the West Division, Marshall jumped out on top despite being blitzed by New Prague. Marshall beat Luverne 1-0 and Albert Lea 5-3. This week they play New Ulm. Mankato is usually the one to beat in D4 and that looks true this year. The Mavericks lost a tough opener to Rochester 5-0, played New Prague and beat St. Peter 7-3 in their first D4 game. This week the Mavericks are off.

New Ulm comes back to play two D4 games this weekend entertaining Luverne and Marshall. The West Division is a “too soon to figure” situation. Mankato should be the best, but who knows? The #1 seed in D4 has to be New Prague, give Mankato the #2 seed and Marshall the #3 seed. But with Faribault, Owatonna, Luverne and the rest, it is a wide open situation. .

D5-One team that bears watching this year resides in D5 and maybe the surprise team of the year. St. Michael/Albertville has the big discount shopping center and perhaps the biggest discounted peewee A team. The Knights opened their season losing to Elk River, perhaps the best team in the state, 8-3. They followed that with 5 consecutive wins over Princeton 7-2, Armstrong 11-5, Coon Rapids 10-3, St. Cloud 5-4, and Centennial 7-4. With a six returning A players from a team that made the regional tourney last year and a good Squirt A team last year, the Knights look tough in D5. This week they play three more D5 games against Crow River, Sartell, and Willmar.

Buffalo opened their season with a 4-3 win over Champlin Park and then dropped into the Hall of Fame tourney at Blaine. They beat Princeton 4-1 and had Anoka on the ropes before losing 6-5 in an overtime/shootout game. In the third place game the Bison lost to host Blaine 11-0. This week the Bison take on Litchfield twice and Willmar in D5 action.

Mound Westonka has a full D5 schedule that opened with games against Hutchinson and Sartell this past week. They play Crow River, Litchfield and River Lakes this coming week. The White Hawks opened their D3 schedule with a 6-0 loss to Orono. Crow River opens their season this week with a D5 game against STMA and follows that with games against Mound Westonka and Hutchinson. Sartell opened their D5 season with games against STMA and Mound Westonka last week. This week, they play a third D5 game against STMA and D15 Fergus Falls. MALM, River Lakes and Willmar have yet to get going.

With two seeds up for grabs in D5 this year, STMA takes the #1 seed this week and Buffalo the #2 seed. But it will be interesting to see if Mound Westonka benefits from their part season play in D3 at the seasons end. But with the other teams barely getting started, D5 looks wide open this year outside of STMA.

East Region-In past years, one would look at the East and the D1 teams and say “poor D1”. Not this year. Mpls Park and Highland look as tough as the D6 and D8 teams and are likely to make this regional tourney. But they won’t be “easy pickins”. D8, on the other hand, looks more balanced then in previous years. Woodbury, both Lakeville teams, Rochester, Rosemount and Farmington can all be in the chase at year’s end. Note that D6 and D8 opened district play on Nov 1 and some teams will have played a good third of there schedule before Thanksgiving. That opens the door for D6/D8 to play more tourneys later in the season.

D1-Last year, D1 teams played in two leagues D1 and D2 or D1 and D3. Two D1 teams, Mpls Park and Washburn played in D3 and two teams, Highland and Irondale played in D2. Como and Johnson did not field an A team. These teams realigned themselves. Mpls Park realigned with Washburn and kept the name Mpls Park Storm. Highland, who used to include Como kids, are their own team this year, no alignment. Irondale remains Irondale and Como combined with St. Paul Johnson and formed the St. Paul Saints. To have an expanded regular season schedule, three of the four D1 peewee A teams will play in D3 and D2. Mpls Park will play D3 again; Highland and the Saint Paul Saints will play a single game schedule with each D2 team as part of their regular season. Irondale will play only D1 schedule.

Mpls Park opened their D3 season with a 2-2 tie with Osseo/Maple Grove, beat Armstrong 7-2 and Orono 3-1. In scrimmages, the Storm tied a tough Woodbury team 2-2. This coming week, the Storm play Edina and Wayzata. They will be tested. Highland remains a mystery team, never publishing much about their program. They have done this past few years and made the regional tourneys where they surprised no one and were barely noticed. They do own a 5-2 D2 win over Tartan this past week and will play Stillwater this week.

Irondale lost their season opener this past week to South St. Paul 5-1 and Mpls Park 4-2 in their D1 opener. They play the Saint Paul Saints in D1 action this week. The Saint Paul Saints opened their season this week losing to Cottage Grove 4-0 and to White Bear Lake 5-1 and played Mounds View in D2. Next week they play Irondale.

With two regional seeds available, Mpls Park looks strong and clearly is the favorite for the #1 seed. Highland will be tested this week playing Stillwater in a D2 game, but the Capitals deserve the #2 seed.

D6-D6 opened their league play November 3. Ten teams, Apple Valley, Burnsville, Chaska/Chanhassen, Eastview, Eden Prairie, Edina, Jefferson, Kennedy, Prior Lake/Savage and Minnetonka will play for the D6 title and three seeds to the regional tourney. In the past, Edina and Eden Prairie have been consistently in the top three at year’s end. This year could change that.

This year D6 is looking like a re-run of last year when Edina, Burnsville and Eden Prairie fought for the two top spots. Returning Champion Burnsville has played well in their opening games, beating Lakeville North 2-1, Woodbury 4-2; losing to Wayzata 6-3, and Eagan 5-0. The Blaze then lost big to Prior Lake/Savage 9-4 in their first D6 game before beating Minnetonka 5-3 in their second game. At the Hall of Fame tourney, the Blaze took the championship beating Rogers 9-0, Blaine 5-0 and Anoka 5-0 in the championship game. But that Prior Lake loss sent a shot across the Blaze bow as a strong indicator of what is ahead in D6.

If Orono can be on top of D3, why can’t Eastview be on top of D6? The Lightning beat Apple Valley 6-3, Kennedy 3-1, Jefferson 6-2, and Minnetonka 4-2. If 35 to 40 points puts a team in the top two in D6, Eastview is a third of the way there in the first two weeks of the season. This week Eastview entertains Prior Lake/Savage.

Eden Prairie went to the Duluth East tourney a week ago and took the title beating D6 rival Edina 4-1 in the championship game. In pool play the Eagles beat Duluth East 5-1, D6 rival Chaska 5-3 and tied Forest Lake. The Eagles opened their season with mixed results beating White Bear Lake 7-1 then losing to the Bears 3-1, losing to the Wisconsin Fire 97 AAA team 5-2 and Lakeville South 4-2. This week, the Eagles play a heavy D6 schedule with games against Burnsville, Prior Lake/Savage, Chaska, and Jefferson.

Edina won their first game, beating Lakeville North 7-1, tied Wayzata 4-4, lost to Elk River 7-4, and lost to the 97 Fire 6-4. They opened D6 play, beating Prior Lake/Savage and Apple Valley by big scores and then went to the invisible tourney in Duluth beating Thunder Bay 10-5, Cloquet 7-2, and Duluth Lakers 7-2 before losing the championship game to Eden Prairie. Edina played at the 97 Fire home arena in Somerset this weekend beating the 97 Fire 9-4 and the Madison Capitals 6-5. The 97 Fire were unbeaten and ranked in the top ten nationally and the Capitals are playing .500 and are ranked in the top twenty. This week, the Hornets play Mpls Park.

Chaska opened D6 action with two victories, beating Kennedy 9-2 and Prior Lake/Savage 2-1. This week they play Eden Prairie in a key early season D6 game. Apple Valley lost two tough D6 games to rival Eastview and Jefferson before losing big to Edina. The Eagles came back to beat Kennedy 4-1. This week they play Kennedy again and Minnetonka. Tonka is a team with good potential to improve as the season progresses. Unfortunately, they lost three of their first four games to Burnsville, Prior Lake/Savage and Eastview. Their first opportunity to take that next step forward will be in the Eden Prairie turkey day tourney. The Skippers will have Centennial, White Bear Lake and Eagan in their pool. They will catch the Bears in the second game on Saturday and could take the pool.

Prior Lake/Savage played in their opening 16 days of the season, Lakeville South, Burnsville, Farmington, Edina, Faribault, Jefferson, Hutchinson, Minnetonka, Faribault and Chaska. They beat Burnsville, Farmington, Faribault twice, Jefferson, and Minnetonka. They lost to Lakeville South, Edina, and Chaska. The scary thing is that with a veteran coach, they will improve. The question is how much? Jefferson also is a team with upside but they need to improve their “big guns” (play smarter) to succeed in D6. Kennedy has more depth this year then the past two years. Both Bloomington teams may struggle this year, but it will be interesting to see how they play in the BIG tourney over the Christmas Holidays.

In D6, the #1 seed this week goes to Edina. They have taken on tough early season schedule and have played well despite the lost to Eden Prairie in the Duluth East tourney. Burnsville takes the #2 seed and Eden Prairie the #3 seed, but these two teams clash this week in D6 play.

D8-Woodbury played in the state tourney championship game last year losing to Roseau. Can the Royals repeat this year? To do that, they have to get out of D8. D8 playoff format has not changed in years, what has changed this year is that Cottage Grove, not Hastings will host playoffs. The goal for all D8 teams is finish in the top four in regular season play: and then win the first two games in the playoff tourney.

Woodbury is a young team with talent and new coaches and has struggled in their opening games. They lost a close game to Osseo/Maple Grove to open the season, tied Mpls Park, beat Blaine and went 1-1-1 on a Northern trip through D11 last weekend. The Royals beat Cottage Grove in their first D8 game and play Lakeville South and South St. Paul this week. The Lakeville South looks to be the best team to threaten Woodbury in D8. The Cougars have played an impressive tough opening schedule of games beating Eden Prairie 4-3, Centennial 7-5, Blaine 5-1 and Prior Lake/Savage 6-3 before losing to Wayzata 4-0 and Elk River 5-2. In opening D8 games, the South beat Sibley 10-1 and Farmington 2-1. Besides playing Woodbury in D8 action this week, the Cougars take on Centennial on Sunday.

Lakeville North has split their first 8 games. The Panthers beat Blaine, Mpls Park, Apple Valley and Cottage Grove (in their D8 opener). The Panthers lost to Burnsville, Edina, Wayzata and Osseo/Maple Grove. This week they play a return game with Osseo and play Hudson in D8. Rochester always seems to be that team from the south in D8 that nobody notices. This year, they opened their season with a win over D4 Mankato and then played a weekend home series with the Ice Dogs, a peewee AA elite team from Northern Illinois. Last week they played Anoka, Minnetonka, and beat Eagan 4-1 in their D8 opener. This coming week, they play Hudson and South St. Paul in D8 action.

Eagan has gotten off to a slow start losing their first three games to Apple Valley 7-6, Burnsville 5-0 and in D8 to Rochester. This week they take a different northern swing, traveling to Moorhead to play the Spuds, West Fargo and East Grand Forks. South St. Paul won their first three games. The Packers beat Irondale, Sibley and North St. Paul before losing to Hudson. This week the Packers travel to Rochester.

Rosemount could be a sleeper in D8. They made a successful swing into D11/D12 last weekend, beating Hibbing, Virginia and Hermantown 8-1. This week the Irish play Wayzata at the PIC and open their D8 season against Hudson. Farmington opened their season with a loss to Prior Lake/Savage. Last week the Tigers played D2 Tartan and opened D8 play with beating Hudson and losing to Lakeville South 2-1. The Tigers are another team that could be in the top of D8 at the seasons end.

Hastings opened their season and their D8 season with a 1-0 win over Cottage Grove. They travel north to play D12 teams (Hibbing, Virginia, and Grand Rapids) this weekend. On their return, they stop to play White Bear Lake on Sunday. Cottage Grove and Sibley have struggled this year. The Cottage Grove defense needs work.

Red Wing, Northfield, and Dodge County are playing an independent schedule this year. RW opened with a tie against Faribault and lost three games to Albert Lea 5-3, Hastings 6-2 and Mankato 6-2. RW plays a return game with Albert Lea this week. Northfield opened their season with loses to Hutchinson 7-2 and St. Peter 8-3. The Raiders play Waseca this week. Dodge County opened their season last week playing Waseca. This week, they take on Owatonna.

Woodbury and Lakeville South look to battle it out for the #1 seed this year. Lakeville North could challenge, but need to improve. Rochester has a good defense and some strength at the center and could also challenge. But the real contenders to Woodbury and Lakeville South could be Rosemount and Farmington. Farmington needs to improve, but has the ability to make the step up. Rosemount’s foray into the PIC against Wayzata will give an indication on where they are at as a team. Woodbury takes the #1 seed, Lakeville South the #2 seed and Lakeville North the #3 seed in what could be a very evenly balanced D8 league this year.

West Region-The first results of games played tend to make this a one team region, Elk River. So the forcast is Elk River and then the rest. East Grand Forks has put two straight state tourney appearances and could make it a third. Roseau, the defending state champs, are an unknown this year except they will have to replace two of the best shooting forwards from last year. In D15, things are about where they are every year. It usually takes till the end of December for the top teams to emerge, but Moorhead maybe back this year. After Elk River in D10, there is no “other” outstanding team. Last year D10 had a number of “outstanding” teams.

Blaine and Centennial look tough, but need to improve; the late start to D10 play plus the 19 game regular season schedule puts a large of number of games in the 13 week period from mid-November to district playoffs in mid-Febuary (allowing for holidays) for D10 teams to play. That results in an average of three games a week. D6 has a 18 game schedule but started the season Nov 1. By the time turkey rolls around, a number of D6 teams will be a third of the way through their schedule leaving them seven less games to play then D10 teams in the same 13 week period.

More will be known about this region after the turkey day tourney feast especially with Roseau coming south.

D10-Say D10 and this year automatically think Elk River. The Elks look to be a strong favorite and have demonstrated that with wins over Edina and STMA. Unfortunately the Elks have gone “underground” this year and are “hiding their light”. That will leave everybody guessing. The Elks have moved to the Blue Division in D10 (can’t hide the D10 stats) and open play this week with three games (Champlin Park, Coon Rapids and Anoka). The toughest contender for the Elks in the Blue Division will be Blaine and Centennial. Blaine has played an aggressive schedule since opening the season. They lost to Woodbury, Lakeville North, and Lakeville South. Last week, the Bengals took third in the Hall of Fame tourney beating Superior 3-0, losing to eventual champ Burnsville 5-0 and beating Buffalo in the third place game. This week is an off week for the Bengals.

Centennial started early and had the whole month of October to practice, but could only play one game, losing to Lakeville South 7-5. They then lost to 97 Fire and STMA last weekend. Centennial also opens D10 play with three games this week against Chisago Lakes, Andover and Anoka.

Over in the Green Division, it is a wide open affair. With four D10 playoff slots guaranteed to the top four Green Division finishers, it is strictly a guess this early in the season. Somehow, St. Cloud should be in the top four. They won their first two games beating Brainerd 6-3 and Wadena 9-1. Then they lost to STMA 5-4 on the weekend. They open D10 play this week against Andover, Blaine and Rogers. Rogers played in the Hall of Fame tourney last week, losing to Burnsville and Superior before beating D10 rival Princeton 3-1.

In a district that year in and year out is tough, this year looks to be Elk River year. The Elks are clearly own the #1 seed. For those other D10 teams, they do not want to finish fourth in the Blue Division (draw the Elks opening playoff round); nor do your want to finish second or third in the Green Division (draw the Elks in the playoff semifinal round). The #2 seed this week goes to Blaine. Though the Bengals have started slow, they have the ability to improve during this season and should have a shot at a seed. The third seed goes to St. Cloud, but it is wide, wide open.

Clearly, the impact of the D10 ruling limiting teams to “three scrimmages” can be seen. Centennial normally fields a very competitive team, but in seven weeks since tryouts its tryouts were over, Centennial has played three games and lost all three. A measure of how quick they hit their stride will be the Eden Prairie tourney in ten days and right now they do not look like they will make it out their pool.




D15-One of the pleasant surprises is to see D15 adding teams including Little Falls coming back after a year off of playing peewee A hockey. Brainerd was THE TEAM last year in D15 and looks to be one of the teams on top this year. They beat Fergus Falls 11-2 in the D15 opener and play Little Falls and Moorhead this week. Moorhead opened with loses to West Fargo 3-0 and beat Fergus Falls 8-1 this past week in their season openers. They will play D8 Eagan, Wadena and Brainerd this weekend. The Spuds have six returning A players on their team this year and should be competitive. Little Falls looks to be ready to play this season, but they chose a tough season opener, playing Brainerd this weekend followed by Detroit Lakes. Alexandria has yet to roll. Prairie Centre (combined Sauk Centre and Long Prairie) opens D15 play this week against Detroit Lakes and play D5 River Lakes. The North Stars (that name brings back some old thoughts) are new to peewee A this year. So is Wadena. The Wolverines open their D15 season this weekend at Moorhead and Crosby/Pequot Lakes. Detroit Lakes played the Fargo Angels and Crosby/Pequot Lakes in their first D15 game on the weekend. The Lakers play a return game with Crosby/Pequot Lakes, play Prairie Centre, and play Little Falls on the weekend. This will be Crosby/Pequot Lakes second year playing peewee A hockey.

With three seeds to play for and with D15 action just getting rolling, the tendency is rate by history. Though Moorhead has had some down years, this maybe the Spuds year. But Brainerd has to be given the #1 seed this week, making Moorhead the #2 seed for now. The choice for third is a coin flip, but Detroit Lakes maybe a notch above the others. Give DL the #3 seed.

D16-Is Roseau as strong as last year? With D16 teams just starting to roll, that is the question. The Rams will be in the cities over the turkey day holidays playing Osseo/Maple Grove among others. East Grand Forks played three Grand Forks teams (Seawolves, Golden Eagles and Greyhounds) two weekends ago and play Eagan this weekend. In an oddity, the Green Wave host their own turkey day tourney where they are the only Minnesota team entered and will play teams from Winnipeg, Fort Francis, North Dakota and Saskatchewan.

Bemidji’s first week of hockey was last week and the week ended with a game in Alexandria. Crookston, Warroad, Hallock and LOW are just getting started. In a district that is just getting rolling, the three D16 seeds are Roseau, East Grand Forks and Bemidji. But who knows at this point?

[a1puck]

Fred, who are you? How do you know this stuff? Do you type this whole thing? With respect...why?

[muckandgrind]

Like the analysis.....you should submit these articles to LPH for publishing.

[D16Guy]

In a district that is just getting rolling, the three D16 seeds are Roseau, East Grand Forks and Bemidji. But who knows at this point?

D16 gets only two seeds into region this year. EGF will take one as region host, which they would earn anyway.

[Puck Whisperer]

[quote="frederick61"]Minnesota hockey associations that are playing peewee A hockey this year are summarized by district below:

WOW - Well done!

[elliott70]

[quote="frederick61"]
District 16 (16 games/team): Bemidji, Moorhead, East Grand Forks, Hallock, Thief River Falls, Crookston, Warroad, Lake of the Woods (LOW), and Roseau.

Moorhead is D15.
D16 has this year at peewee A - Bemidji, Crookston, East Grand Forks, Thief River Falls, Hallock, Roseau, Warroad, Lake of the Woods (Baudette).

Home and Home series required so 14 games on the District schedule.

[frederick61]

District 16 (16 games/team): Bemidji, Moorhead, East Grand Forks, Hallock, Thief River Falls, Crookston, Warroad, Lake of the Woods (LOW), and Roseau.

Moorhead is D15.
D16 has this year at peewee A - Bemidji, Crookston, East Grand Forks, Thief River Falls, Hallock, Roseau, Warroad, Lake of the Woods (Baudette).

Home and Home series required so 14 games on the District schedule.

Elliott,
Thanks for the correction. Another person has told me that Greenway in D12 is also skating peewee A this year. That brings the total number of peewee A teams this year to 104.

[ivycreek]

D16 gets only two seeds into region this year. EGF will take one as region host, which they would earn anyway.

It's my understanding that EGF had to declare if they will take the automatic bid and decided not to, instead they chose to earn it. It will definately lead to an interesting District tourney.

[elliott70]

D16 gets only two seeds into region this year. EGF will take one as region host, which they would earn anyway.

It's my understanding that EGF had to declare if they will take the automatic bid and decided not to, instead they chose to earn it. It will definately lead to an interesting District tourney.

That is correct.

[UMD]

Frederick's posts are written better than every one of my college papers! Well done, Frederick. Keep 'em coming.