Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Nov 25

[frederick61]

North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds). The East Grand Forks turkey day tourney draws the most attention this week in this Region.

N1-District 11
Cloquet has the week off. They didn’t farewell in the early invisible Duluth tourney, losing to Chaska 6-5, Edina 5-1 and beating Thunder Bay 8-5 and Duluth Lakers 6-4. Hermantown played in the Forest Lake tourney this past weekend, losing to the host, beating Crow River 3-1 and tying Coon Rapids 3-3. The Hawks have played a tough set of 11 games mostly on the road in past two plus weeks going 3-5-3. It will be interesting to see if it pays off in January and February. This week, they scrimmage Eveleth and Virginia.

Duluth East heads west to East Grand Forks for their tourney playing Crookston and the Northwest Stars (Manitoba) in pool play.

The D11 teams are still unknowns. Duluth East’s journey to East Grand Forks should result in spot in that tourney’s championship game. Despite giving up 15 goals in four games in the Duluth tourney, Cloquet’s defense should become the strength of their team. The Duluth Lakers are sitting the Thanksgiving tourneys out. They need to that since they are playing in a tough Spirit of Duluth Tourney drawing Wayzata, Eagan and Burnsville in pool play the week after Thanksgiving. Top two seeds here remain unchanged, #1 Cloquet, #2 Duluth East.

N2-District 12
Grand Rapids has opened their season and strung two losses together losing together after winning their initial games. They lost to Superior 2-1 and Hastings 1-0. Both losses were in overtime. One caution is that the Rapids always start slow. 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 are two significant events in D16 this week, Roseau plays in the Eden Prairie tourney against Rochester, Edina and Osseo/Maple Grove. The second is a twelve team tourney at East Grand Forks that has two D15 teams (Detroit Lakes, Alexandria, and Sauk Rapids), a second D16 team (Crookston), one D10 team (Sauk Rapids), one D11 team (Duluth East), one Colorado team (Foothill), two North Dakota teams (Fargo Flyers and Grafton/Park River), and three Canadian teams (APHA Rangers, East Winnipeg and Northwest Stars).

Roseau opened their season by beating Thief River Falls and Hallock in D16 play. They are returning seven from last years D16 championship team including the goalie. This week’s tourney will be the first test for the Rams of this season, the second test comes in January when they host a significant field (including Edina) in their own tourney. Good luck Rams.

With all the talk on the Rams, what about the Green Wave? Their tourney this week has a wide variety of peewee A teams and should be one of the most interesting to watch. The tourney format is set up in four, three team, pools with semifinal and final games. The Green Wave opened the season by beating the Fargo Raiders 9-1 and the Fargo Flyers 4-3. The Fargo Flyers hold a 5-4 win over Eagan. The top seeds in D16 this week are #1 Roseau, #2 East Grand Forks and #3 Bemidji

The projected North Regional Tourney draw is shown below.

North Red Division: D16-#1 Roseau, D12-#2 Virginia, D11-#2 Duluth East, D16-#3 Bemidji.

North Blue Division: D12-#1 Grand Rapids, D16-#2 East Grand Forks, D11-#1 Cloquet, D12-#3 Hibbing.

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 so there is no D1 peewee A league this year. The Mankato Tourney this week will sort out D4 in this region.

S1-District 1
The top two teams seamed to have emerged in Mpls Park and Highland. Mpls Park beat Hopkins 2-0 this week to even their D3 record to 1-1 (the Storm lost to Osseo/Maple Grove 4-1 earlier this month). They scrimmaged one of the stronger D6 opponents in Burnsville at the SLP arena losing 5-1. The Storm then completed the week by adding another D3 win, 5-4, over Armstrong and beating D8 Rosemount 5-1.

The Storm has a fairly deep team this year if they can get “firing on all cylinders” and have perhaps the best girl player in the state. They will certainly have their opportunities as they play this coming week in the Eden Prairie Tourney taking on host Eden Prairie, White Bear Lake and Alaska (wonder if Sara will show?).

Highland walked off with the Spring Lake Park Tourney championship beating D2 Mahtomedi 4-3 in a double OT, shootout in the opening round, beating D3 rival North Metro 3-0 in the semifinals and beating D8 Cottage Grove 6-2 in the championship game. They then got stomped on by Forest Lake in a D2 game 6-2 on Monday for their fourth game in four days.

Richfield-Washburn played Orono in D3 this week. Irondale Knights played three D2 league games this week losing to Forest Lake 5-0, Mounds View 7-1 and North St. Paul 10-1. They play this coming week in the Moundsview tourney opening against Cambridge/Isanti.

The top two teams this week are #1 Mpls Park and #2 Highland. The #3 seed to contend with the D4 #3 for a regional birth is Richfield-Washburn.

S2-District 4
Owatonna and Luverne got off to good starts in D4 play. Luverne took 7 of their first 8 games and Owatonna won their first 5 games including giving Luverne its only loss. With a 14 game regular season schedule, Luverne has only 6 remaining games in the last three months of the season. Owatonna looks to be a real contender for one of the two D4 seeds. Luverne, Mankato and New Ulm still have to prove themselves as contenders.

Mankato hosts a 8-team turkey day tourney seeding two pools. Pool A has Mankato, Kennedy, Rosemount and Luverne. Pool B has New Ulm, New Prague, Albert Lea and Shakopee. With both Kennedy and Shakopee playing well in D6, the D4 teams will be challenged. Mankato, 4-1 in league play, soundly beat Faribault and Marshall this week.

New Prague still looks to be the best despite being upset by Mankato last week 3-2. The results of the Mankato tourney will start to shake out the teams on top of D4. The D4 seeds this week are #1 New Prague and #2 Owatonna with Luverne playing the #3 D1 team for the third D1 seed to the regional tourney in Mankato.

S3-District 5
The D5 has been for the past two years a three team league, Mound Westonka, Buffalo and everybody else. The early results indicate that the league may change with both Mound Westonka and Buffalo struggling in November. Mound Westonka lost to Sartell 4-2 in their league opener and play in the Burnsville turkey day tourney drawing a tough D2 team in Roseville, followed by D6 Minnetonka and D8 Hastings. Sartell leads the league with three straight wins after losing their opener to St. Micheal/Albertville 3-2. The Sabres lost to D15 Fergus Falls 3-2 on Sunday. They have only one game this week a league game with Crow River.

Buffalo opened their season by playing in the Spring Lake Park tourney last week end, losing to Cottage Grove 2-1, Kennedy and beating the host team 2-1 in OT. They played MALM, Mound Westonka, and River Lakes in league play. Like Sartell, they have only one league game this week with Willmar.

The top seed this week has to go to Sartell. The #2 Seed is Buffalo with the #3 going to Mound Westonka.

The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.

South Red Division: D1-#1 Mpls Park, D4-#2 Owatonna, D5-#2 Buffalo, D5-#3 Mound Westonka

South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Highland, D5-#1 Sartell, D1-#3 Luverne or Richfield-Washburn.

East Regional
The East districts this year are D2 (3 seeds), D6 (2 seeds) and D8 (3 seeds)

E1-District 2
North St. Paul finally got rolling in the past two weeks only they didn’t roll far before the wheels came off opening with two losing attempts to Stillwater 9-0 and Forest Lake 7-4. The defending D2 champs came back to tie Tartan 1-1 and beat Hastings 4-1 in a scrimmage and beat Irondale 10-1 in league play. The Polars play in the Burnsville tourney this week playing Sibley, Jefferson and the host, Burnsville. White Bear Lake is moving right along beating Tartan 6-1, Mounds View 2-1 and Highland 3-1. They play in the Eden Prairie Turkey day tourney drawing in the same pool as Mpls Park.

Stillwater plays in the Eden Prairie tourney. They draw Wayzata, Centennial and Eagan. Forest Lake won its own tourney this past week beating Coon Rapids 3-1 and Hermantown 2-1. They are unbeaten in their first 5 games in D2. Roseville is also unbeaten in D2 beating Mahtomedi 6-1 and Moundsview 3-1. They also play in the Burnsville Tourney drawing Mound Westonka, Hastings and Minnetonka in pool play.

Moundsview takes over the SuperRink on turkey day with all eight of their traveling teams playing in an eight team bracket play tourney. The eight team Peewee A tourney has Moundsview playing Champlin Park in the opener, followed by Tartan versus Andover. The other bracket has Irondale playing Cambridge/Isanti and North Metro playing the Russell Stover Stars (I like their candy).

The #1 seed now goes to White Bear Lake with Roseville #2 and Stillwater climbing to #3. But this is still a wide open district, North St. Paul can still be a contender.

E2-District 6
D6 league play has been on a roll. Burnsville, Eden Prairie, Edina and Eastview are all unbeaten. Shakopee, Minnetonka, Apple Valley, Jefferson and Prior Lake have 4 or more losses. Chaska is 2-3 in league games and Kennedy has split the first two games. At this point the teams challenging for the top four spots in the D6 play-offs (gives each of the four teams a favorable draw in the tourney) can be spotted.

Edina continues to be unbeaten going 11-0 entering the week. They play Prior Lake in a D6 game before playing in the Eden Prairie tourney. Eden Prairie struggled in the first part of November, before stringing five league wins together. They play Kennedy before hosting their turkey day tourney, drawing White Bear Lake, Alaska and Mpls Park.

Burnsville has their own 14 game win streak going with wins this week that include wins over Jefferson 4-2, Chaska 5-4 and Apple Valley 5-0 in D6 play and Mpls Park 5-1 in a scrimmage. They host their own tourney this week drawing Jefferson, Sibley and North St. Paul. Eastview, Jefferson, and Minnetonka also play in the Burnsville tourney. Eastview draws Apple Valley, Inver Grove Heights and Lakeville North. Kennedy and Shakopee play in the Mankato tourney.

The seeds remain unchanged in D6 this week with Edina #1 and Burnsville #2.

E3-District 8
Four D8 play in the Eden Prairie Tourney, Woodbury, Lakeville South, Rochester and Eagan; and four D8 teams play in the Burnsville tourney, Lakeville North, Inver Grove Heights, Hastings and Sibley. Rosemount plays in Mankato.

Both Eagan and Woodbury opened D8 with loses. Eagan lost to Farmington 4-1 and Woodbury lost to Hudson (Wisconsin). Woodbury draws Elk River, Chaska and Lakeville South in the Eden Prairie tourney. They are coming off a 7-5 loss to Edina and a Sunday win over Rochester. Eagan draws three tough teams, Wayzata, Stillwater and Centennial, for the tourney. Rochester could be the sleeper in the Eden Prairie tourney. They gave Hudson their only loss in D8. They open the Eden Prairie tourney against Roseau followed by Osseo/Maple Grove and Edina.

Next year, Woodbury will split into two peewee A teams as a new high school opens. That maybe having some impact on this year’s A team. Still it is hard not to envision Woodbury not be in the top four in D8 this year. But it is hard to see where the other contenders come from this year.

Hudson could be the best team in the league winning three of their first four games, losing to Rochester this past weekend. The Eden Prairie tourney may not prove much in that Eagan, Rochester, and Lakeville South could all be soundly beaten. Woodbury has a chance to prove they can contend, but Chaska and Elk River could prove too tough for the Royals.

The Burnsville tourney may hold the key with Lakeville North having the best chance to establish themselves as D8 contender playing Apple Valley, Eastview and Inver Grove Heights in pool play. Hastings, Inver Grove Heights and Sibley have yet to prove themselves and are not likely to do it in this tourney.

The top two seeds last year in D8 went to Woodbury and Eagan. This year D8 gets three seeds, but after Woodbury, the league still looks wide open. Best guess today is Woodbury #1, Rochester #2 and Eagan #3.

The projected East Regional Tourney draw is shown below.

East Red Division: D6-#1 Edina, D8-#2 Rochester, D2-#2 Roseville, D8-#3 Eagan

East Blue Division: D8-#1 Woodbury, D6-#2 Burnsville, D2-#1 White Bear Lake, D2-#3 Stillwater.

West Regional
The West districts this year are D3 (2 seeds), D10 (3 seeds) and D15 (3 seeds)

W1-District 3
Wayzata beat North Metro 9-1 and Armstrong 8-3 in league play this week. They play in Eden Prairie’s turkey day tourney drawing D2 Stillwater, D8 Eagan and D10 Centennial. The Stillwater game may give them some measure of atonement for their only loss this season to D2 White Bear Lake, 4-3, in early November. The Trojans are quick starters and dominate D3 in the early season, but the league tends to tighten as January and February rolls around.

Osseo/Maple Grove is different in one regard this year, they are wearing the orange and black of Osseo, not Maple Grove colors. Last year, they had good games followed by poor games. Will this year be different? Their only two losses are to two D10 teams, Blaine and Centennial and they hold a 5-2 win over Eden Prairie in the Centennial Preview. Against Blaine, they jumped to a 3-1 before losing 4-3. After a tune up scrimmage with Andover, their first test in the Eden Prairie turkey day is Edina in pool play, followed by Rochester and Roseau.

Hopkins was beaten by Eastview 3-2 and Mpls Park this week. They, like Moundsview, have all of their boys teams in their turkey day tourneys (9 tourneys). In their Peewee A tourney, they draw St Micheal/Albertville from D5, then play the winner of Blaine/Hutchinson. In the other bracket, Anoka plays Orono and Rogers plays Prior Lake. Orono opened D3 play with wins over Hopkins 5-1 and North Metro 4-3. They tied Armstrong 1-1. North Metro plays in the Moundsview tourney.

The top two teams this year are Wayzata #1 and Osseo/Maple Grove #2.

W2-District 10
D10 has split regular season play into two divisions, a Peewee A Blue that has most of the City’s Northwestern and Central suburb associations and a Peewee A Green has draws most of its teams from the I-94 corridor outside the 494/694 ring. With the teams playing a 16 game schedule with 12 games coming from teams within their own division (Blue or Green), travel distance especially during the week has been limited.

It would appear that for the D10 playoffs, there will be a single peewee A double elimination tourney with the top 8 teams seeded into the tourney from the fifteen teams playing in both the Blue and Green divisions.

Centennial and Elk River play in the Eden Prairie tourney. Blaine and Anoka play in the Hopkins tourney setting up a potential repeat of the Hall Of Fame tourney championship game where Blaine beat Anoka 5-2. Champlin Park, Andover, and Cambridge/Isanti play in the SuperRink tourney.

In the Peewee A Green Division, St. Cloud and Elk River look to dominate, but Cambridge/Isanti pushed St. Cloud before losing on Sunday 3-2. In the Blue Division, there is a scrum going on. Andover is the only undefeated and untied team remaining after three games (average) played by each team. Blaine looks to be the power, but Anoka tied them 1-1 last week. Centennial, the early season favorite, lost to Andover 4-1 last week. Andover was knocked out of the Hall of Fame tourney by Anoka earlier this month.

Add to the mix above Champlin Park, not an easy team to beat and defending champs Coon Rapids, it will be a “scrum” for quite a while.

This week, Blaine remains the #1, but #2 goes to Elk River. Elk River has lost two games this season, 5-1 to Edina and 5-3 to Wayzata. The Edina game was closer then the 5-1 score indicated. The game was penalty filled and was the most poorly refereed. The #3 seed should be Centennial’s, but their lost to Andover promotes Andover this week. The Huskies take the #3 seed.



W3-District 15
D15 is just starting to roll. They will have two teams in the East Grand Forks tourney this week. Alexandria is off to a strong start winning their first four games. They beat Sauk Rapids, Pequot Lakes, Park Rapids and Detroit Lakes. The Cardinals play host EGF and APHA Rangers in pool play in the EGF turkey day tourney. The second EGF tourney entrant is Detroit Lakes who play Sauk Rapids and Fargo Flyers in their opening pool play. Moorhead has struggled losing big to Eagan 8-1 then beating Fergus Falls 3-1. The Spuds have a Twin Cities swing planned for the weekend after Thanksgiving and then they host their own 16-team tourney in early December. Little Falls, last years champ, remains a mystery.

So until the Flyers show up on the radar screen, the #1 Seed has to go to Alex with Moorhead taking the #2 and Fergus Falls the #3. Still a long way to go in this district before a team emerges on top.

The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.

West Red Division: D10-#1 Blaine, D15-#2 Moorhead, D3-#2 Osseo/Maple Grove, D10-#3 Andover

W Blue Division: D15-#1 Alexandria, D10-#2 Elk River, D3-#1 Wayzata, D15-#3 Fergus Falls

[Night Train]

As always, thanks for the update.

[southernhockey1]

What are your thoughts after the Thanksgiving Tournament Weekend?

[frederick61]

What are your thoughts after the Thanksgiving Tournament Weekend?

I plan to post an update in a day or so. If you are interested here is the draw for the Spirit of Duluth Tourney this week end.

Spirit of Duluth Pools
Hermantown
Thunder Bay
White Bear Lake
Blaine

Duluth Lakers
Wayzata
Eagan
Burnsville

St Cloud
Stillwater
Fargo
Duluth East

Centennial
Green Bay
Minnetonka
Superior