Spirit of Duluth Tourney

[frederick61]

Spirit of Duluth Tourney (December 9-11)

Sixteen peewee A teams are entered. There are four pools. Each pool winner advances to the championship on Sunday. There is a consolation round also on Sunday. Each game consists of three 15 minute periods. Games are played at multiple arenas in and around the Duluth area. Pool winners are decided on conventional scoring (2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie).

Red Pool (Duluth East, Mound Westonka, Minnetonka, and Rosemount):

This pool opens with Duluth East playing Mound/Westonka at 9:00AM Friday morning. Duluth East took a western swing over Thanksgiving holidays, winning two of five games played in three days. They lost to Bemidji 6-2, split two games with Moorhead Black winning 6-3 and losing 4-2, beat Thief River Falls 9-2 and lost to Roseau 7-2. The Greyhounds are currently 1-1 in D11 play and have an overall 9-11 record. They will have played an additional six games prior to next Friday including weekend games with the Thunder Bay Kings and Roseau.

Mound/Westonka has been up and down in the early season. Their record is currently 5-9-1 with two weekend games against the Mpls Storm and Waconia. The Whitehawks are currently 1-3-1 in D3 and have beaten Lakeville North 5-2 and tied Wayzata Gold 2-2. They have lost to Osseo/Maple Grove 2-0 in league play and have lost to Tartan 2-1. They had a tough Thanksgiving losing their last three games.
This game is a hard one to call, but Duluth East gets the nod, playing at home in an early morning game.

The other Red Pool game matches Minnetonka and Rosemount. Minnetonka won their pool at the Eden Prairie tourney beating out OMG, Lakeville North, and STMA after losing their opening game to OMG. The Skippers lost to Eden Prairie in the Sunday morning semifinals, but came back in the afternoon to beat Elk River 5-3 for third place. Minnetonka is 10-6 overall with loses to Prior Lake, Edina, and Eden Prairie twice (by 6-3) besides OMG. They are 2-3 in D6 and will play Eden Prairie for the third time before traveling to Duluth.

Rosemount showed improvement in the Burnsville tourney, playing three tough pool games, losing to Blaine 6-4 and Forest Lake 4-1 before beating Apple Valley 4-3. Since then the Irish lost to Apple Valley 3-1 in D8 play. They will play Lakeville South plus two other D8 games before traveling to the Spirit. Their current season record is 4-10-1. Their league record is 1-1-1. Tonka will be tough on the Irish and should win.

Tonka and Duluth East meet in the Friday night cap in the Red Pool. Tonka, having the easier game in the AM, should go on to beat the Greyhounds and Rosemount the next day to win the pool.

Mound/Westonka and Rosemount meet in the other Friday night cap. The Whitehawks should prevail setting up a Duluth East/Rosemount shoot out where an Irish win would throw the three teams into a three way tie for the consolation. Trot out the goals for and the goals against tie breaker, or will it be least penalty minutes?

The Duluth East should edge the others for the consolation nod.

Green Pool: Wayzata Blue, Prior Lake, White Bear Lake, and Farmington

Wayzata Blue and Prior Lake open play in the Green Pool. Prior Lake is playing well coming off winning the Eden Prairie tourney and beating Burnsville 11-1 before losing to Eden Prairie 2-0 (Eden Prairie’s goalie had a great game and single handed won the game for the Eagles) in D6 play. The Lakers play Shakopee in their only remaining game before the Spirit. They should start pool play with a 18-1 record.

For the Blue, it is the Eden Prairie tourney re-visited. There they were in the same pool with Prior Lake and lost 6-3. To make matters worse, the Blue also draw White Bear Lake in their pool and they played the Bears this last Wednesday. The Blue’s current season record is 4-5-5. They have tied Rochester Red twice, OMG, Armstrong, and Eden Prairie. They are 3-0-2 in D3 play.

Wayzata Blue has been improving and could be a tough match for the Lakers. But Prior Lake should win.

White Bear Lake and Farmington play in the second pool game on Friday. These two teams met at Eden Prairie in pool play last week, Farmington winning 2-1. White Bear comes into the game playing .500 on the season (7-7-1). They are a fast, quick, good puck handling team. But they are not physical. Farmington will live and die with their defense, and it has been improving. Their offense is still struggling. Farmington comes into the tourney with a 10-6-3 season record and should beat the Bears again.

In Friday’s evening pool, Prior Lake draws Farmington and should beat the Tigers. The Lakers beat the Tigers early in the season 5-2. They played three consecutive 17 minute stop time periods in that game at Prior Lake. The Tiger goalie was outstanding, making 32 stops in the first period (by my count) and 68 stops over all. His play kept the Tigers in the game until deep into the second period (the game was tied), before Prior Lake could break it open.

Wayzata Blue should beat the White Bear team in the second game on Friday. The Blue are a physical team with power. Prior Lake should take the Bears on Saturday, leaving the winner of the Farmington/Wayzata Blue game taking the consolation nod. That goes to the Blue. They are improving.

White Pool: Centennial, Waconia, Tartan, and Osseo/Maple Grove

There is no track record for these teams at the Eden Prairie tourney. Centennial played in the Hopkins Turkey Day tourney and took second. They lost to Jefferson 3-0 in the championship game. Centennial has played well in the early season. The loss to the Jags was a surprise. The Cougars (prefer “Redcats”) tied a tough Irondale team this past week 3-3 and hold wins over Edina 6-3, White Bear Lake 2-1 and Forest Lake 11-1. They lost to Elk River 6-3 and Minnetonka 6-3. The “Redcats” are 3-1-1 currently tied with Elk River for first in D10. They are 10-4-2 overall.

Waconia, not Prior Lake, comes into this tourney leading in the D6 standings. The Lakers are in second place. The Wildcats lost to Jefferson in the opening game of the Hopkins turkey day tourney 4-2. The Jags went on to beat Centennial two days later. Waconia beat Orono 2-0 for the Hopkin's consolation championship. The Wildcats are 4-0-1 in D6 play and 9-5-1 overall.

This is the toughest game to call and it’s a coin flip. The nod goes to Centennial.

This is Tartan’s first tourney of the year. They come into the Spirit with a 7-2-2 record. The Titans lost to Farmington 5-0 and to Highland Central 2-1 this year. They have beaten Mound/Westonka 2-1 and Rosemount 4-1. They are currently in second place in D2 a game ahead of Forest Lake and two games up on White Bear. They beat Forest Lake 5-3 this Friday; they will play Stillwater before traveling to Duluth.

OMG is on top of the D3 standings. They have an 8-3-2 season record with wins over Eden Prairie, Edina and Lakeville South. Tartan and OMG have only one common opponent this year and that is Mound/Westonka. Tartan beat the Whitehawks 2-1; OMG beat the Whitehawks 2-0. Not much to go on; both teams are similarly matched, but the edge has to go to OMG. A Titan win would not be a surprise.

Centennial and Tartan meet Friday’s White Pool nightcap; OMG and Mound/Westonka meet in the other. These are another two tough games to predict. But Centennial and OMG should win. If they did, they would end the Titans and Whitehawk’s tourney hopes. Saturday’s game between OMG and Centennial then becomes the pool decider; give the edge to Centennial. The White Pool is the toughest pool in this tourney with four evenly matched teams.

Blue Pool: Cloquet, Eden Prairie, Forest Lake, and Elk River

Cloquet has started slowly this season. They will have played eight games going into the tourney. They have lost to Hermantown 4-0 and to Hastings 5-2. The Lumberjacks will be opening against a tough Eden Prairie team that is coming off a big D6 win over Prior Lake and will have their hands full. Eden Prairie should win.

In the second game of the pool, Forest Lake and Elk River meet in a game that will be an interesting match-up of two similar teams. Forest Lake took third place at the Burnsville Turkey Day Tourney, beating Blaine in a shot out, beating Rosemount 4-1 and beating Apple Valley 5-0 in pool play. They lost a tough game to Burnsville in the championship semifinals 6-5 and beat Eastview 3-2 to win third place. The Rangers season record is 9-6-1.

Both the Rangers and the Elks both rely on speed, quickness, and stick handling at their forwards and both teams play position well. But the Elks hold the edge in the defense. They will come into the Spirit losing the third place game at Eden Prairie. They were the only non-D6 team to advance to Eden Prairie’s championship on Sunday. The Elks tied Stillwater 2-2, beat Eagan 7-1 and beat Edina 7-1 in pool play, then lost a tough semifinal game to Prior Lake 4-3 and lost in the third place game to Minnetonka 5-3. But on Friday, two weeks later, the Elks should prevail.

Forest Lake should take Cloquet in the Friday night game leaving the Elks and Eden Prairie to battle it out for the pool title in the other night game. These two teams have not played each other and the key to the game will be the Eden Prairie goal tending. The Elks should have the edge at forward, but the Eagles have the hot goaltending. That should carry Eden Prairie to a victory.

Saturday, Eden Prairie should take Forest Lake and Elk River should beat Cloquet. The Eagles go to the championship semis, the Elks go to the consolation semis.

Championship Sunday: Red (Minnetonka) versus Green (Prior Lake); White (Centennial) versus Blue (Eden Prairie)

Prior Lake has beaten Minnetonka once this season 10-2 and should take the Skippers again. Eden Prairie and Centennial have not played each other this season. The Eagles should win.

That sets up a repeat of the Eden Prairie championship game won by Prior Lake 3-2 and the D6 game played last Friday won by Eden Prairie 2-0. This time, the Lakers beat the goal tender, and take the Spirit championship, in what will be a very good game.

The consolation round would match Duluth East and Wayzata Blue in one semifinal; Elk River and OMG in the second semifinal. Wayzata Blue should prevail over a tiring Elk River team in the championship game.

[old goalie85]

Nice job fred. I hope we can go up there w/a group of 12 yr olds and prove you wrong. Should be a great event.