Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Oct 27
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:17 pm
Rather then trying to rank all the teams in the state 1-20 as others do, what I did last year was to rank the teams within their own District. I do this weekly, and usually post the rankings each Monday. Each District team is ranked on how they are playing and how other teams within their district are playing. Last year, 102 peewee A teams played hockey. I saw about 80 of those teams. I consider that in ranking these teams.
The top two or three teams in each district are then assigned seeds #1, #2 or #3. These seeds are to one of four Regional Tourneys, North, South, East, and West. Each regional tourney will have eight seeded teams from three districts. Two districts will get 3 seeds and one district will get 2 seeds.
The top two teams from the Regional Tourneys will then meet in New Hope Arena in March to play down to a State Peewee A champ. Last year’s champion was Edina. The play-off approach for regional and state tourney play was set by Minnesota Hockey three years ago. After this season, it will have one year to go.
So three years ago, Minnesota Hockey set the Regional alignments and seeding approach for this year and published it as part of their handbook on their web site. The point is that the whole process has been established, but Minnesota Hockey will “fine tune” the approach as team numbers and levels change. Note that the District seeds (numbers) are used to set up pool play in the regional tourney.
Minnesota Hockey does not tell the districts how to conduct their play-offs to determine their seeds, so each district will vary based on the number of teams playing A level hockey.
Here we go again. The season is about to get started. Please feel free to comment and correct.
North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds). D10 moved out and is replaced by D16.
N1-District 11
There will four peewee A teams contending for two D11 seeds; Cloquet, Duluth East, Duluth Lakers and Hermantown. A fifth team plays in the regular season league, Superior, Wisconsin. Last year, the odd team out were the Lakers. But it is not an easy district since 3 of the 4 finalist in the North Region were D11 teams.
Cloquet has selected their team and will make a tour through the cities this weekend, playing Eastview, Burnsville, and Inver Grove Heights. They return home to play in the Duluth East tourney. Duluth East struggled last year compared to previous East teams, put together a run at playoff time, but lost in the North Regional final game to state runner-up Grand Rapids 3-2. The Hounds are just getting on the trail. All three of these teams are playing in the Duluth Tourney next week.
Hermantown is not playing in the Duluth Tourney, instead will make a trip to the cities to play Jefferson, Eastview, Burnsville and Inver Grove Heights on the opening weekend of deer hunting.
Top two seeds here are #1 Cloquet, #2 Duluth East with Hermantown contending.
N2-District 12
This is a five team district that consisting of Grand Rapids, Hibbing, Virginia, International Falls and Eveleth-Gilbert. Last year, the Rapids walked away with everything and are likely to repeat this year. They scrimmage Virginia this week, but for the most part, the Thunderhawk team is invisible until the end of the year. They are like a “haugie” fining itself by a log in the lake, at rest until they strike.
Virginia and Hibbing should be their closest challenger, but the Falls came out of nowhere to knock the Blue Devils out of last year’s North Regional. Hibbing has selected their team in mid-October. Their first game is with Rosemount in mid-November. Eveleth and International Falls are just forming their teams.
The top three seeds from this district should be Grand Rapids #1 with Hibbing and Virginia battling it out for #2 and #3.
N3-District 16
There were eight teams last year in D16, but the league was dominated by Roseau until the West Regional when the D16 runner-up, East Grand Forks beat them and went to state. Thief River Falls tied EGF for second, but lost the #3 seed to the regional to Crookston who finished fourth. Warroad had a .500 season and Bemidji was definitely in the rebuilding mode last year. Hallock and Lake of the Woods (or LOW) round out the D16 field.
Roseau Tourney in late January will be a hot one this year. Edina, Centennial, Chaska, and Wayzata are currently planning to go. The Rams will figure out a way to play each of these teams. East Grand Forks has a 12 team Thanksgiving tourney that draws Canadian, North Dakota and a few out of state teams. Duluth East has entered. The Green Wave is still in tryouts this week. Bemidji has a holiday tourney at the end of December that draws some good teams.
With all the teams in the selection process or just getting rolling, the seeds remain as they were at the end of the season last year, Roseau #1, East Grand Forks #2 and Crookston #3.
South Regional
The South districts this year are D1 (3 seeds), D4 (2 seeds) and D5 (3 seeds). D6 moved out and is replaced by D5.
S1-District 1
D1 will have 4 peewee A teams this year (last year they had 6) and have added games to their regular season by adding games with D2 and D3. Highland and Irondale will play additional games with D2. In both D1 and D2, these games will count as league games including the two games played between Highland and Irondale. Highland and Irondale will play each D2 team once for a season total of 10 D2 games. The D2 teams will play a 16 game league schedule this year by adding two D1 games.
Mpls Park and Richfield-Washburn will add games by playing D3 teams. That grows D3 from 6 to 8 teams and creates a 14 game regular season schedule. The question is will Mpls Park and Richfield-Washburn have home and home series with the other two D1 teams, Highland and Irondale? I assume so and that means Mpls Park and Richfield-Washburn will play an additional 4 games (18 total) and Highland and Irondale will play additional 4 games (14 total). The teams would most likely be seeded in a four team D1 playoff with the top two advancing to the South Regional. The third place team would then play the third place D4 team for the D1 #3 in the South Regional.
These four teams appear to be evenly matched and with it being very early in the season, my best guess is Mpls-Park will get the #1 seed, Highland the #2. Irondale and Richfield-Washburn will battle for the #3 seed to gain the playoff shot at the South Regional. With the way the South Region is aligned this year, all four of these teams will have a good shot at a South Regional seed to the state tourney. They really have something to work for this year.
S2-District 4
Last year was a trial year to form three leagues within a combined D4/D8 District. This year things are back to normal. That means D4 will be playing D4 teams as part of a regular season schedule. There are 10 peewee A teams in D4 and Mason City, Iowa.
This district has been dominated by three teams the past few years, Faribault, New Prague and Mankato. Faribault lost to Hastings 6-0 in their opener this past weekend. New Prague beat Kennedy (D6) 2-0 in their opener and look to be a tough team with good size and skills. They have seven returning A players. The Trojans play New Ulm this week and Northfield. That will be New Ulm’s first game and it will be a tough one.
Mankato, Waseca, St. Peter, Luverne, and Albert Lea are just getting going. Marshall opens their season this week by playing in an out state tourney. Owatonna has a veteran team. They have had their first three tests, two informal scrimmages against Rosemount (D8) and Burnsville (D6) and a first scrimmage losing 6-2 to Inver Grove Heights (D8). The Huskies will be playing another perennial D8 power, Rochester this week.
Top three seeds are New Prague #1, Faribault #2 and Mankato playing the third place D1 team for D1’s #3 seed.
S3-District 5
District 5 is a 10 team league that has been dominated by Buffalo and Mound Westonka; but with three seeds to the South Region, the interest level should be up for all the teams. Buffalo just formed their team and have scheduled Elk River (D10 powerhouse) for their first game. It fits the team’s character from last year, just go for it. Mound Westonka Willmar, Hutchinson, Litchfield, Sartell, River Lakes, Crow River, MALM, and STMA are just getting started.
The seeds remain with the top teams from last year with #1 going to Buffalo, #2 to Mound Westonka and #3 to Sartell or River Lakes.
East Regional
The East districts this year are D2 (3 seeds), D6 (2 seeds) and D8 (3 seeds). D3 moved out and is replaced by D6.
E1-District 2
District 2 has 8 teams. This year it will have a round robin schedule (single game) with 2 D1 teams. North St. Paul, White Bear Lake and Roseville made the East Regional last year. They had to fight their way through an evenly balanced league that played a total of 56 games with 17 of the games ending in ties. Moundsview had an incredible 8 ties in 14 games (and posted a photo of 8 men’s ties to document their play). Adding Highland and Irondale will prove interesting later in the season as the D1 teams improve.
North St. Paul, the defending champion, has yet to get rolling, so they are unknown at this point. White Bear scrimmaged Woodbury on the weekend. Roseville knocked off Prior Lake 7-0, a D6 team. The Raiders have a good first line with one of the fastest wings around (and the most unusual skating style). Forest Lake returns a number of peewee A players from a team that finished fourth in D2 last year. Stillwater looks tough and will play Burnsville this week. Tartan beat Rogers (D10) and lost to Eastview (D6) in opening scrimmages. Mahtomedi Zephyrs have yet to get rolling also.
Top three in this early season has to be North St. Paul #1 (champs until proven otherwise), #2 Roseville (looked good in early season play) and #3 White Bear Lake. But D2 looks balanced again.
E2-District 6
District 6 Edina opened their season beating a top team D8, Woodbury 4-1. But the Hornets struggled during their win over Woodbury. They got a two goal lead on breakaways midway into the first period and held that lead at 2-0 and 3-1 early in the second period. But most of the second and third period they became “thudders”. The Hornets played like tennis table players with heavily padded paddles, just absorbed Woodbury attempts to score as the Royals tied them down in their defense zone for most of the last two periods. The Hornets kept them off the scoreboard and launched a few forays scoring near the end of the third period.
Edina is in the Centennial preview playing Cottage Grove, Centennial and Elk River. Eden Prairie remains invisible this time of the year, but they did scrimmage Lakeville South winning 7-5 and will play in the Centennial preview playing Osseo/Maple Grove, Elk River and Cottage Grove. Chaska tied Elk River 4-4 this week in a game played at Mariucci.
Eastview had a busy week, playing four games. They tied Lakeville South, lost to Inver Grove Heights, beat Tartan and beat Rosemount going 2-1-1 for the week. They will play Cloquet on the weekend at home in what will be a good test for both teams. Burnsville has been busy also, scrimmaging Blaine and Owatonna and plays Stillwater and Cloquet this week.
Bloomington Kennedy played New Prague (lost 2-0) and tied Hopkins 2-2. Prior Lake lost to Roseville and draws White Bear Lake, Osseo Maple Grove and Lakeville South in the Centennial preview. Shakopee beat Farmington. Minnetonka lost to Wayzata and Armstrong. The Skippers play Orono this week staying with D3 opponents.
Jefferson plays their first scrimmage this week at Roseville and then tour the lakes, playing White Bear Lake, Lakeville South and Forest Lake in the Centennial preview. The top seeds for D6 this week are still the three that emerged from last year’s D6 playoffs with Edina the #1 seed, and either Eden Prairie or Chaska #2. District 6 has only two seeds in the East Regional this year.
E3-District 8
District 8 this year will have 14 peewee A teams including Hudson, Wisconsin. The schedule is uneven with teams having home and home with six teams and single games with four teams. Each team will not play three teams. Eagan will not play Lakeville North in regular season, so they settled for a scrimmage that Eagan won 5-4 to open their season.
This district would appear to the domain of Woodbury this year. Last years challengers, Eagan, Lakeville South and Lakeville North look to be rebuilding. Woodbury gave Edina a run before losing, but needs to find some scorers on their front line. They also scrimmaged White Bear Lake and Prior Lake.
Eagan looked reasonable in their game against Lakeville North, but it is clear that both teams have work to do. Lakeville South tied Eastview 6-6 and scrimmaged Eden Prairie this week. They play in the Centennial preview this weekend playing Prior Lake, Jefferson and Centennial.
Lakeville North appears to have a quiet week, Rochester plays their first game against Owatonna. Cottage Grove has had a month of practices and scrimmages against “A pools” and plays this week end in the Centennial preview drawing Edina, Wayzata and Eden Prairie. They didn’t pick the easy road for the preview. Hastings played two scrimmages and beat Mahtomedi (D2) 3-2 and Faribault 6-0 to open their season.
Inver Grove Heights opened with two wins also, beating Eastview 3-2 and Owatonna 6-2. IGH will play Cloquet this coming week. Red Wing and Northfield scrimmaged each other and Red Wing played Cottage Grove. Red Wing plays Hudson this week, Northfield plays New Prague in a game that will be a test for them. Rosemount lost to Eastview 5-3. Farmington lost to Shakopee 6-2.
The top two seeds last year in D8 went to Woodbury and Eagan. This year they get three seeds, but after Woodbury, the league looks wide open. Best guess today is Woodbury #1, Eagan #2 based on last year and beating Lakeville North this week, and ALL for #3.
West Regional
The West districts this year are D3 (2 seeds), D10 (3 seeds) and D15 (3 seeds). D5 and D16 moved out and were replaced by D3 and D10.
W1-District 3
This district normally has six teams, but this year they have added two D1 teams. This gives each team a total of 14 regular season district games. This district has been dominated by the two large associations, Wayzata and Maple Grove. Between the two associations, they will field 17 peewee teams including 2 A-teams and 6-B1 teams. The Maple Grove association was always called Osseo Maple Grove Hockey Association (OMGHA), the difference this year is there are no separate Osseo teams.
Wayzata skated well in early season games beating what could be the best D10 team, Blaine 1-0 and a usually solid D6 team in Minnetonka 7-2. They play Centennial (D10), Cottage Grove (D8) and White Bear Lake in the Centennial Preview this week. Maple Grove formed their A team only a week ago. Their first big test will be playing in the Centennial Preview where they draw Eden Prairie (sure to be one of the D6 powerhouses), Forest Lake (a veteran D2 team) and Prior Lake (D6). Armstrong pulled of an early season surprise in beating Minnetonka 2-1 in the opener for both teams. Hopkins tied Kennedy 2-2 and plays Apple Valley this week. Orono has their first scrimmage at home against Minnetonka. North Metro played Anoka and has a scrimmage next week against Irondale.
Top three seeds in D3 this week are Wayzata #1, Maple Grove #2 and Armstrong #3.
W2-District 10
It appears that D10 will have 14 peewee A teams this year. Spring Lake Park has moved up and will play at the A level and in mid November host their own Peewee A tourney at Fogerty. Last year, D10 teams played the most games of any district league, 22 games. This year will likely be no different.
Blaine looks to be one of the strong contenders along with Centennial this year. They lost to Edina 1-0 in their opening game. This week they play Moundsview and then host the Hall of Fame tourney at Fogerty, playing Mpls Park in the opening round. That tourney will be a good measure of relative strength of D10 teams with 7 D10 teams entered (Anoka/Coon Rapids, Champlin Park/Andover and Spring Lake Park/Rogers are paired in the other three opening games).
Centennial selected their team early and organized their preview that has some of the top teams playing at the Super Rink this coming week end. Centennial plays Edina, Wayzata and Lakeville South in the preview. So they will be tested. Elk River plays also in the preview drawing Eden Prairie, Forest Lake and Edina. With the two tourneys being played this week end (HOF and the preview), all the D10 teams will be tested.
Coon Rapids and St. Cloud won the two seeds D10 had last year. This year looks to be Blaine and Centennial with the #1 and #2 seeds. You pick the team and seed. The third seed is wide open.
W3-District 15
This district has been the domain of Moorhead, but the past couple of years Moorhead struggled. Park Rapids will be fielding an A team this year. Last year they played B. Their high team had a good season and their fan support at the high school was really great. It is amazing to see about 2500-3000 people attend a high school game and stand on their seats for the whole game.
Last year Little Falls was the king, making it to the state tourney before losing to Eden Prairie and Woodbury. Moorhead will play Eagan in a Fargo/Moorhead Jamboree in mid-November. Alexandria, Detroit Lakes, Park Rapids, Fergus Falls, and Brainerd are all just getting rolling.
The top three seeds last year were Little Falls, Fergus Falls and Moorhead. Until they get beaten, they remain the top seeds.
The top two or three teams in each district are then assigned seeds #1, #2 or #3. These seeds are to one of four Regional Tourneys, North, South, East, and West. Each regional tourney will have eight seeded teams from three districts. Two districts will get 3 seeds and one district will get 2 seeds.
The top two teams from the Regional Tourneys will then meet in New Hope Arena in March to play down to a State Peewee A champ. Last year’s champion was Edina. The play-off approach for regional and state tourney play was set by Minnesota Hockey three years ago. After this season, it will have one year to go.
So three years ago, Minnesota Hockey set the Regional alignments and seeding approach for this year and published it as part of their handbook on their web site. The point is that the whole process has been established, but Minnesota Hockey will “fine tune” the approach as team numbers and levels change. Note that the District seeds (numbers) are used to set up pool play in the regional tourney.
Minnesota Hockey does not tell the districts how to conduct their play-offs to determine their seeds, so each district will vary based on the number of teams playing A level hockey.
Here we go again. The season is about to get started. Please feel free to comment and correct.
North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds). D10 moved out and is replaced by D16.
N1-District 11
There will four peewee A teams contending for two D11 seeds; Cloquet, Duluth East, Duluth Lakers and Hermantown. A fifth team plays in the regular season league, Superior, Wisconsin. Last year, the odd team out were the Lakers. But it is not an easy district since 3 of the 4 finalist in the North Region were D11 teams.
Cloquet has selected their team and will make a tour through the cities this weekend, playing Eastview, Burnsville, and Inver Grove Heights. They return home to play in the Duluth East tourney. Duluth East struggled last year compared to previous East teams, put together a run at playoff time, but lost in the North Regional final game to state runner-up Grand Rapids 3-2. The Hounds are just getting on the trail. All three of these teams are playing in the Duluth Tourney next week.
Hermantown is not playing in the Duluth Tourney, instead will make a trip to the cities to play Jefferson, Eastview, Burnsville and Inver Grove Heights on the opening weekend of deer hunting.
Top two seeds here are #1 Cloquet, #2 Duluth East with Hermantown contending.
N2-District 12
This is a five team district that consisting of Grand Rapids, Hibbing, Virginia, International Falls and Eveleth-Gilbert. Last year, the Rapids walked away with everything and are likely to repeat this year. They scrimmage Virginia this week, but for the most part, the Thunderhawk team is invisible until the end of the year. They are like a “haugie” fining itself by a log in the lake, at rest until they strike.
Virginia and Hibbing should be their closest challenger, but the Falls came out of nowhere to knock the Blue Devils out of last year’s North Regional. Hibbing has selected their team in mid-October. Their first game is with Rosemount in mid-November. Eveleth and International Falls are just forming their teams.
The top three seeds from this district should be Grand Rapids #1 with Hibbing and Virginia battling it out for #2 and #3.
N3-District 16
There were eight teams last year in D16, but the league was dominated by Roseau until the West Regional when the D16 runner-up, East Grand Forks beat them and went to state. Thief River Falls tied EGF for second, but lost the #3 seed to the regional to Crookston who finished fourth. Warroad had a .500 season and Bemidji was definitely in the rebuilding mode last year. Hallock and Lake of the Woods (or LOW) round out the D16 field.
Roseau Tourney in late January will be a hot one this year. Edina, Centennial, Chaska, and Wayzata are currently planning to go. The Rams will figure out a way to play each of these teams. East Grand Forks has a 12 team Thanksgiving tourney that draws Canadian, North Dakota and a few out of state teams. Duluth East has entered. The Green Wave is still in tryouts this week. Bemidji has a holiday tourney at the end of December that draws some good teams.
With all the teams in the selection process or just getting rolling, the seeds remain as they were at the end of the season last year, Roseau #1, East Grand Forks #2 and Crookston #3.
South Regional
The South districts this year are D1 (3 seeds), D4 (2 seeds) and D5 (3 seeds). D6 moved out and is replaced by D5.
S1-District 1
D1 will have 4 peewee A teams this year (last year they had 6) and have added games to their regular season by adding games with D2 and D3. Highland and Irondale will play additional games with D2. In both D1 and D2, these games will count as league games including the two games played between Highland and Irondale. Highland and Irondale will play each D2 team once for a season total of 10 D2 games. The D2 teams will play a 16 game league schedule this year by adding two D1 games.
Mpls Park and Richfield-Washburn will add games by playing D3 teams. That grows D3 from 6 to 8 teams and creates a 14 game regular season schedule. The question is will Mpls Park and Richfield-Washburn have home and home series with the other two D1 teams, Highland and Irondale? I assume so and that means Mpls Park and Richfield-Washburn will play an additional 4 games (18 total) and Highland and Irondale will play additional 4 games (14 total). The teams would most likely be seeded in a four team D1 playoff with the top two advancing to the South Regional. The third place team would then play the third place D4 team for the D1 #3 in the South Regional.
These four teams appear to be evenly matched and with it being very early in the season, my best guess is Mpls-Park will get the #1 seed, Highland the #2. Irondale and Richfield-Washburn will battle for the #3 seed to gain the playoff shot at the South Regional. With the way the South Region is aligned this year, all four of these teams will have a good shot at a South Regional seed to the state tourney. They really have something to work for this year.
S2-District 4
Last year was a trial year to form three leagues within a combined D4/D8 District. This year things are back to normal. That means D4 will be playing D4 teams as part of a regular season schedule. There are 10 peewee A teams in D4 and Mason City, Iowa.
This district has been dominated by three teams the past few years, Faribault, New Prague and Mankato. Faribault lost to Hastings 6-0 in their opener this past weekend. New Prague beat Kennedy (D6) 2-0 in their opener and look to be a tough team with good size and skills. They have seven returning A players. The Trojans play New Ulm this week and Northfield. That will be New Ulm’s first game and it will be a tough one.
Mankato, Waseca, St. Peter, Luverne, and Albert Lea are just getting going. Marshall opens their season this week by playing in an out state tourney. Owatonna has a veteran team. They have had their first three tests, two informal scrimmages against Rosemount (D8) and Burnsville (D6) and a first scrimmage losing 6-2 to Inver Grove Heights (D8). The Huskies will be playing another perennial D8 power, Rochester this week.
Top three seeds are New Prague #1, Faribault #2 and Mankato playing the third place D1 team for D1’s #3 seed.
S3-District 5
District 5 is a 10 team league that has been dominated by Buffalo and Mound Westonka; but with three seeds to the South Region, the interest level should be up for all the teams. Buffalo just formed their team and have scheduled Elk River (D10 powerhouse) for their first game. It fits the team’s character from last year, just go for it. Mound Westonka Willmar, Hutchinson, Litchfield, Sartell, River Lakes, Crow River, MALM, and STMA are just getting started.
The seeds remain with the top teams from last year with #1 going to Buffalo, #2 to Mound Westonka and #3 to Sartell or River Lakes.
East Regional
The East districts this year are D2 (3 seeds), D6 (2 seeds) and D8 (3 seeds). D3 moved out and is replaced by D6.
E1-District 2
District 2 has 8 teams. This year it will have a round robin schedule (single game) with 2 D1 teams. North St. Paul, White Bear Lake and Roseville made the East Regional last year. They had to fight their way through an evenly balanced league that played a total of 56 games with 17 of the games ending in ties. Moundsview had an incredible 8 ties in 14 games (and posted a photo of 8 men’s ties to document their play). Adding Highland and Irondale will prove interesting later in the season as the D1 teams improve.
North St. Paul, the defending champion, has yet to get rolling, so they are unknown at this point. White Bear scrimmaged Woodbury on the weekend. Roseville knocked off Prior Lake 7-0, a D6 team. The Raiders have a good first line with one of the fastest wings around (and the most unusual skating style). Forest Lake returns a number of peewee A players from a team that finished fourth in D2 last year. Stillwater looks tough and will play Burnsville this week. Tartan beat Rogers (D10) and lost to Eastview (D6) in opening scrimmages. Mahtomedi Zephyrs have yet to get rolling also.
Top three in this early season has to be North St. Paul #1 (champs until proven otherwise), #2 Roseville (looked good in early season play) and #3 White Bear Lake. But D2 looks balanced again.
E2-District 6
District 6 Edina opened their season beating a top team D8, Woodbury 4-1. But the Hornets struggled during their win over Woodbury. They got a two goal lead on breakaways midway into the first period and held that lead at 2-0 and 3-1 early in the second period. But most of the second and third period they became “thudders”. The Hornets played like tennis table players with heavily padded paddles, just absorbed Woodbury attempts to score as the Royals tied them down in their defense zone for most of the last two periods. The Hornets kept them off the scoreboard and launched a few forays scoring near the end of the third period.
Edina is in the Centennial preview playing Cottage Grove, Centennial and Elk River. Eden Prairie remains invisible this time of the year, but they did scrimmage Lakeville South winning 7-5 and will play in the Centennial preview playing Osseo/Maple Grove, Elk River and Cottage Grove. Chaska tied Elk River 4-4 this week in a game played at Mariucci.
Eastview had a busy week, playing four games. They tied Lakeville South, lost to Inver Grove Heights, beat Tartan and beat Rosemount going 2-1-1 for the week. They will play Cloquet on the weekend at home in what will be a good test for both teams. Burnsville has been busy also, scrimmaging Blaine and Owatonna and plays Stillwater and Cloquet this week.
Bloomington Kennedy played New Prague (lost 2-0) and tied Hopkins 2-2. Prior Lake lost to Roseville and draws White Bear Lake, Osseo Maple Grove and Lakeville South in the Centennial preview. Shakopee beat Farmington. Minnetonka lost to Wayzata and Armstrong. The Skippers play Orono this week staying with D3 opponents.
Jefferson plays their first scrimmage this week at Roseville and then tour the lakes, playing White Bear Lake, Lakeville South and Forest Lake in the Centennial preview. The top seeds for D6 this week are still the three that emerged from last year’s D6 playoffs with Edina the #1 seed, and either Eden Prairie or Chaska #2. District 6 has only two seeds in the East Regional this year.
E3-District 8
District 8 this year will have 14 peewee A teams including Hudson, Wisconsin. The schedule is uneven with teams having home and home with six teams and single games with four teams. Each team will not play three teams. Eagan will not play Lakeville North in regular season, so they settled for a scrimmage that Eagan won 5-4 to open their season.
This district would appear to the domain of Woodbury this year. Last years challengers, Eagan, Lakeville South and Lakeville North look to be rebuilding. Woodbury gave Edina a run before losing, but needs to find some scorers on their front line. They also scrimmaged White Bear Lake and Prior Lake.
Eagan looked reasonable in their game against Lakeville North, but it is clear that both teams have work to do. Lakeville South tied Eastview 6-6 and scrimmaged Eden Prairie this week. They play in the Centennial preview this weekend playing Prior Lake, Jefferson and Centennial.
Lakeville North appears to have a quiet week, Rochester plays their first game against Owatonna. Cottage Grove has had a month of practices and scrimmages against “A pools” and plays this week end in the Centennial preview drawing Edina, Wayzata and Eden Prairie. They didn’t pick the easy road for the preview. Hastings played two scrimmages and beat Mahtomedi (D2) 3-2 and Faribault 6-0 to open their season.
Inver Grove Heights opened with two wins also, beating Eastview 3-2 and Owatonna 6-2. IGH will play Cloquet this coming week. Red Wing and Northfield scrimmaged each other and Red Wing played Cottage Grove. Red Wing plays Hudson this week, Northfield plays New Prague in a game that will be a test for them. Rosemount lost to Eastview 5-3. Farmington lost to Shakopee 6-2.
The top two seeds last year in D8 went to Woodbury and Eagan. This year they get three seeds, but after Woodbury, the league looks wide open. Best guess today is Woodbury #1, Eagan #2 based on last year and beating Lakeville North this week, and ALL for #3.
West Regional
The West districts this year are D3 (2 seeds), D10 (3 seeds) and D15 (3 seeds). D5 and D16 moved out and were replaced by D3 and D10.
W1-District 3
This district normally has six teams, but this year they have added two D1 teams. This gives each team a total of 14 regular season district games. This district has been dominated by the two large associations, Wayzata and Maple Grove. Between the two associations, they will field 17 peewee teams including 2 A-teams and 6-B1 teams. The Maple Grove association was always called Osseo Maple Grove Hockey Association (OMGHA), the difference this year is there are no separate Osseo teams.
Wayzata skated well in early season games beating what could be the best D10 team, Blaine 1-0 and a usually solid D6 team in Minnetonka 7-2. They play Centennial (D10), Cottage Grove (D8) and White Bear Lake in the Centennial Preview this week. Maple Grove formed their A team only a week ago. Their first big test will be playing in the Centennial Preview where they draw Eden Prairie (sure to be one of the D6 powerhouses), Forest Lake (a veteran D2 team) and Prior Lake (D6). Armstrong pulled of an early season surprise in beating Minnetonka 2-1 in the opener for both teams. Hopkins tied Kennedy 2-2 and plays Apple Valley this week. Orono has their first scrimmage at home against Minnetonka. North Metro played Anoka and has a scrimmage next week against Irondale.
Top three seeds in D3 this week are Wayzata #1, Maple Grove #2 and Armstrong #3.
W2-District 10
It appears that D10 will have 14 peewee A teams this year. Spring Lake Park has moved up and will play at the A level and in mid November host their own Peewee A tourney at Fogerty. Last year, D10 teams played the most games of any district league, 22 games. This year will likely be no different.
Blaine looks to be one of the strong contenders along with Centennial this year. They lost to Edina 1-0 in their opening game. This week they play Moundsview and then host the Hall of Fame tourney at Fogerty, playing Mpls Park in the opening round. That tourney will be a good measure of relative strength of D10 teams with 7 D10 teams entered (Anoka/Coon Rapids, Champlin Park/Andover and Spring Lake Park/Rogers are paired in the other three opening games).
Centennial selected their team early and organized their preview that has some of the top teams playing at the Super Rink this coming week end. Centennial plays Edina, Wayzata and Lakeville South in the preview. So they will be tested. Elk River plays also in the preview drawing Eden Prairie, Forest Lake and Edina. With the two tourneys being played this week end (HOF and the preview), all the D10 teams will be tested.
Coon Rapids and St. Cloud won the two seeds D10 had last year. This year looks to be Blaine and Centennial with the #1 and #2 seeds. You pick the team and seed. The third seed is wide open.
W3-District 15
This district has been the domain of Moorhead, but the past couple of years Moorhead struggled. Park Rapids will be fielding an A team this year. Last year they played B. Their high team had a good season and their fan support at the high school was really great. It is amazing to see about 2500-3000 people attend a high school game and stand on their seats for the whole game.
Last year Little Falls was the king, making it to the state tourney before losing to Eden Prairie and Woodbury. Moorhead will play Eagan in a Fargo/Moorhead Jamboree in mid-November. Alexandria, Detroit Lakes, Park Rapids, Fergus Falls, and Brainerd are all just getting rolling.
The top three seeds last year were Little Falls, Fergus Falls and Moorhead. Until they get beaten, they remain the top seeds.
