Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Dec 2

[frederick61]

North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds). The turkey day tourneys are over, but the Spirit of Duluth draws the most attention this week in this Region and perhaps the state.

N1-District 11
Cloquet beat D12 Hibbing 7-0 in their only game this week. They play Hermantown in a league game and have a D16 swing planned this weekend with games at Bemidji, Roseau and East Grand Forks. The Duluth Lakers played Hibbing also, play a league game against Duluth East on Monday and play in the Spirit of Duluth tourney drawing Wayzata, Eagan and Burnsville.

Hermantown beat Virginia 2-1 and in the Spirit of Duluth tourney draw Thunder Bay, White Bear Lake and Blaine in pool play. Duluth East went west to East Grand Forks for their turkey day tourney and finished third, beating Crookston 7-3 and Northwest Stars (Manitoba) 10-1 before losing to host East Grand Forks 8-5. The Hounds came back to beat Grafton (North Dakota) 6-1 for third place.

The Hounds draw St. Cloud, Stillwater and Fargo (Flyers?) in the Spirit of Duluth Pool Play this week. As a side note, Superior (Wisconsin) plays in the D11 league and play in the Spirit. In pool play, they draw Centennial, Green Bay and Minnetonka. Look at this districts week’s past activities is sort of like picking through the bones of the turkey carcass on Black Friday; you sort of know something was good and was there, but nothing seems changed. Top two seeds remain, #1 Cloquet, #2 Duluth East.

N2-District 12
Eveleth is finally getting going this week, but the Golden Bears are 6-8 weeks behind other teams. They opened last week with an 11-1 loss to Virginia. This week they play International Falls, Grand Rapids and Apple Valley. After Roseau, the Golden Bears are the most sentimental favorite in the state and seemed bent on building their youth program. They will have one of the more interesting tourneys in January. Go Bears.

The Falls finally got going also, losing to Grand Rapids 6-0. Besides beating the Falls, the Rapids beat Brainerd 1-0 last week and play Apple Valley on the weekend. One should be cautious because the Rapids always start slow, but this maybe a year for a change. The Blue Devils will be playing Apple Valley this week as the Eagles make a northern tour through D12. Add to that a stop at Hibbing and some measure of D12 should emerge. The way the Eagles are playing in the last few weeks, they may sweep all four games. The top three seeds from this district remain Grand Rapids #1 with Hibbing and Virginia battling it out for #2 and #3.

N3-District 16
There were two significant events in D16 this past week, Roseau played in the Eden Prairie tourney beating Rochester 6-4, losing to Edina 4-3 and beating Osseo/Maple Grove 6-2. Then they had a disastrous Sunday in the championship round losing 5-1 to Wayzata and 10-1 to Elk River.

Roseau is a team that was formed a few weeks ago and came down and made a statement. They should have won the Edina game because they have the speed, skills and team play to match Edina. And they have size. If they continue to develop and play well, then they should put an exclamation point on the statement when the stronger teams in the Eden Prairie tourney return to play in Roseau’s tourney in January. Roseau is potentially the best team in the state.

The second event this week was a twelve team tourney at East Grand Forks. The Green Wave took second beating APHA Rangers 5-3, Alexandria 8-2, and Duluth East before losing to the Fargo Flyers 3-0 in the Championship Game. They beat the Flyers earlier this month 4-3 giving them their first defeat of the season. This week the Green Wave play Crookston as well as Cloquet.

Crookston was the second D16 team in their tourney and played well beating Northwest Stars 8-1, APHA Rangers 7-5 and Winnipeg East 6-5 to take fifth in the tourney. Their only loss was to Duluth East. Besides EGF, the Pirates play Bemidji and Lake of the Woods (LOW) in D16 play.

Bemidji had two league games, Hallock and Thief River Falls, last week. This week they play Crookston in a D16 game and Cloquet. The two top seeds this week go to Roseau #1 and EGF #2, but Crookston based on their performance in the Green Wave tourney take the #3 seed.

The projected North Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
North Red Division: D16-#1 Roseau, D12-#2 Virginia, D11-#2 Duluth East, D16-#3 Crookston.
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 Owatonna Tourney this week takes center stage in D4.

S1-District 1
Mpls Park and Irondale went after a trophy last weekend and Irondale came home with one as the Moundsview Consolation Champs. They did that by beating Russell Stover Stars 3-2 and Tartan 3-0 after losing to CINB 2-1. Have the Knights righted the ship after three bad beatings in D2 by beating a quality D2 team in the consolation game?

Mpls Park played in the Eden Prairie tourney, beating Alaska 3-2 and losing to White Bear Lake 6-4 and host Eden Prairie 5-1. The Storm continues to juggle players in search of finding the right combinations. Richfield-Washburn is finally getting started, playing Armstrong in D3 this week and playing in the Owatonna tourney. They draw D10 Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch in the opening round. Highland has a quiet week.

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

S2-District 4
The sorting out process started this week with the Mankato tourney. Five D4 teams were entered with two tough D6 teams and one D8 team. That meant at least one D4 team would make the Championship Round. New Prague did by beating New Ulm 11-0, Shakopee (D6) 5-4 and Albert Lea 3-1. But they lost in the semifinals to Kennedy 3-1, a team they had beaten to open the season. Adding an earlier in the week win over Hopkins 7-1, New Prague is now 10-2 on the season.

The host Mankato had tough going losing to Kennedy 5-2 in the opener, Rosemount 5-1 and Luverne 3-2. They beat New Ulm in the seventh place game 7-0. Luverne, the current D4 conference leader did not fair much better then Mankato, losing to Rosemount 3-2 and Kennedy 5-2 before beating Mankato. They then lost to Albert Lea 8-4 in the fifth place game. Mankato takes on Owatonna in league play this week as they attempt to rebound from the tourney and will have another shot at Luverne on the weekend. Luverne also plays a league game with New Ulm.

Owatonna then hosts their own tourney on the weekend playing D4 rival Marshall in the opener. North St. Paul and Willmar complete their bracket. In the other bracket, Richfield-Washburn plays D10 Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch (or CINB) and Sioux Falls Flyers take on D8 Inver Grove Heights.

With very few league games played this past week, Owatonna and Luverne remain on top of the D4 league. But the Mankato tourney re-enforces New Prague as being the #1 Seed in D4. Owatonna and Luverne look to contend for the #2 and #3 seeds this week. Owatonna has a chance in their tourney to prove that they can be #1 or #2 in D4. A good game or games against one of the D2, D10 or D8 teams would show improvement.

S3-District 5
Mound Westonka played in the Burnsville tourney while Hutchinson and St Michael/Albertsville played in the Hopkins tourney. Mound Westonka lost in pool play to Minnetonka and Roseville, beating Hastings 4-1. STMA won their opening round game against Hopkins 3-1 before losing to Blaine 7-2 and Prior Lake 6-3 in the third place game. Hutchinson lost to Blaine 6-0, Hopkins 4-1 and Rogers 8-2.

Sartell is still on top of D5 but took a tough loss to Crow River 4-1 this past week. Buffalo had a good week beating River Lakes 7-0 and Mound Westonka 7-3 to remain unbeaten in league play. That was River Lakes first loss. Crow River is the only other unbeaten D5 team in league play. The Tigers travel down Highway 12 to Orono to take on Cottage Grove in the opening round of the Orono tourney. Litchfield is also in the Orono tourney playing D5 rival MALM in the opening round.

In D5 league play this week, Sartell plays River Lakes and Buffalo. Mound Westonka will have a chance to re-group playing Hutchinson and STMA. Except for the emergence of Buffalo this week, the league remains wide open.

The top seed this week has to goes to Buffalo. The #2 Seed is Sartell with the #3 going to Crow River.

The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
South Red Division: D1-#1 Mpls Park, D4-#2 Owatonna, D5-#2 Sartell, D5-#3 Crow River
South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Highland, D5-#1 Buffalo, D1-#3 Luverne or Irondale.

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

E1-District 2
The big news in D2 is that the Forest Lake/Mahtomedi, North St. Paul/Tartan and Irondale/Moundsview games have been forfeited for failure to follow league rules. Will the forfeits stand and if so what does that mean in the league standings?

On the lighter side, Roseville and North St. Paul made the turkey trip to Burnsville; Stillwater and White Bear Lake traveled to Eden Prairie; Moundsview stayed home for its own tourney and Tartan joined them.

Forest Lake last week played in their tourney and the Monday after lost to Tartan 2-1 in D2 play. This week they have a chance to reverse that coming off a week of practice, they play White Bear Lake on Monday. The Lakers then travel to Orono for tourney play and open against the host in the first round. Northfield (D8) takes on Moundsview in the other game in the bracket. Crow River plays Cottege Grove and Litchfield plays MALM to round out the field.

White Bear Lake played four games in the Eden Prairie tourney over the weekend, beating Alaska 3-2 and Mpls Park 6-4 before losing to host Eden Prairie 7-4. In the consolation round on Sunday WBL lost to Woodbury 5-4. Stillwater also played in the Eden Prairie tourney, losing all three games to Wayzata 7-1, Centennial 7-2 and Eagan 5-2.

The North St. Paul Polars played in the Burnsville tourney this week tying Sibley 4-4, losing to Jefferson 7-4 and to host Burnsville 6-2. They play a league game with Stillwater in mid-week and play in the Owatonna tourney on the weekend. They are bracketed with Owatonna, Marshall and Willmar and play Willmar in the opener. Stillwater Ponies had a bad outing at Eden Prairie and the Ponies schedule does not give them much time to re-group. After the North St. Paul game they head north to the Spirit of Duluth and have a tough draw against Duluth East, Fargo Flyers (?) and St. Cloud.

Roseville fared better in the Burnsville tourney taking second place. They beat Mound Westonka 5-0, Hastings 4-0 and tied Minnetonka 5-5 in pool play taking the pool. In Sunday’s semifinal game, they beat Lakeville North 3-1 before losing to the host 7-1 in the Championship game. This week they entertain White Bear Lake in good D2 match-up.

Tartan made it to the consolation finals in the Moundsview/SuperRink tourney losing to Andover 6-2 beating Champlin Park 4-3 before losing to Irondale 3-0. Moundsview won their first game in the tourney beating Champlin Park 5-0.

Forest Lake, White Bear Lake and Roseville are all unbeaten in D2 play. The games this week between the three teams will start the sorting out process. Stillwater is struggling.

The #1 seed still goes to White Bear Lake with Roseville #2 as a result of their 2nd place showing in the Burnsville tourney. Stillwater drops out, but there is no team emerging to replace them. Mahtomedi and Tartan are not there yet, Forest Lake has shown some talent and their 2-0 win over D8 leader Hudson (Wisconsin) last week impressive. North St. Paul may still yet get going. The Owatonna tourney will be an indicator this week on where the Polars are at. But this is still a wide open district. The #3 seed this week goes to Forest Lake.

E2-District 6
Burnsville, Eden Prairie, Edina and Eastview are all unbeaten in D6 play. But Edina will have something to say this week about “unbeatens”. They play Burnsville on Tuesday and Eastview on Sunday. Burnsville has been on a hot streak winning 19 games in a row after a strange opening loss. The Blaze cruised through their tourney, soundly beating Jefferson, Sibley, North St. Paul, Minnetonka and Roseau.

Edina on the other hand, had it’s hands full playing in the Eden Prairie tourney losing to Osseo/Maple Grove 4-0 (for their first season loss leaving the Hornets with a 16-1 record), beating Roseau in a tough game 4-3 and blitzing Rochester 10-2 in the final game. The Osseo loss was enough to knock them out Sunday tourney play.

The Hornets should be rested for Burnsville game. It should be a barn burner. But it will not stop there for the Blaze as they play on the weekend in the Spirit of Duluth tourney drawing the Duluth Lakers, Eagan and Wayzata in pool play.

Eden Prairie returns to league play after taking 2nd place in their tourney by beating Mpls Park, White Bear Lake, Alaska, and Elk River before losing in the final to Wayzata. They play Prior Lake and Shakopee this week. Eastview had the Championship Round ticket in the Burnsville tourney in their grasp until with no time left on the clock, a Lakeville North forward scored to take a 2-1 victory. The Lightening had tied Inver Grove Heights in their first game (but won the shoot out point). The disappointment showed as the Lightening lost to Apple Valley 3-1 in the final game of pool play. The Lightening play a return match with Lakeville South this week in preparation for Edina on the weekend.

Apple Valley played well in this tourney tying Lakeville North 4-4 (winning the shootout point), losing to Inver Grove Heights 5-4 and beating Eastview. They will take a swing up north through D12 this week. Minnetonka was the wild card team in the Burnsville tourney by virtue of beating Mound Westonka and Hastings by identical 6-1 scores and tying Roseville 5-5. The Skippers play in the Spirit of Duluth also, drawing Centennial, Green Bay and Superior in pool play.

Kennedy took 2nd place in the Mankato tourney beating Mankato and Luverne before losing to Rosemount in pool play. In the Championship round, Kennedy beat New Prague, but then lost big to Rosemount in the Championship game 8-0. Prior Lake took 3rd place trophy in the Hopkins tourney, beating Rogers 3-0, losing to Orono 2-0 and beating St. Michael/Albertsville 6-3.

Despite winning their own tourney, the Blaze still have to establish themselves as the best in D6. Tuesday will decide that, but until then the seeds remain unchanged in D6 this week with Edina #1 and Burnsville #2.

E3-District 8
Woodbury opened the Eden Prairie with two wins, beating Chaska 4-3 and Lakeville South 5-3. Then they ran into some raging Elks and got blitzed 9-0. That loss knocked them out of the Championship round. But in the Consolation Round, they rallied to beat White Bear Lake 5-4 before losing to Osseo/Maple Grove 4-2 in the Consolation Championship game. Throw out the Elk River game and it was a respectable showing in a tough tourney.

The other three D8 entrants did not fair well at all. Lakeville South was blitzed in its other two games losing to 8-1 to the Elks and 5-0 to Chaska. Rochester had even a rougher go. After losing to Roseau 6-4 and Osseo/Maple Grove 6-5, they were soundly beaten by Edina 10-2. Eagan managed to win one game beating Stillwater. They played Centennial fairly even losing 5-3 and were beaten by Wayzata 6-1.

Lakeville North made the Burnsville Championship round by the barest of margins edging Inver Grove Heights by virtue of winning the shootout point after the teams had tied their game 1-1 in regulation. That gave the Panthers the right to sit in watch the Apple Valley/Eastview game with point totals from that game still potentially knocking them out. It didn’t happen, but Roseville took care of them in the semifinals on Sunday beating the Panthers 3-1. Still the Panthers had a good tourney.

One surprise in the Burnsville tourney was Inver Grove Heights as they managed to tie Eastview 4-4 and Lakeville North 1-1 and beat Apple Valley 5-4 and not advance because they lost the two shootout points.

Hastings selected their team late. It showed as they lost all three games, Minnetonka, Mound Westonka 4-1 and Roseville. Sibley showed something in the tourney tying North St. Paul and beating Jefferson 5-3. The Generals only loss was to Burnsville. Congratulations to Rosemount, the only D8 team to win a title. The Irish took the Mankato title, beating Luverne 3-2, Mankato 5-1, and Kennedy 6-3 in pool play. In the Championship round they beat Shakopee 4-2 and Kennedy again 8-0.


Hudson still sits on top of D8. Lakeville North is in second. Woodbury has played games, but the results have not been reported, so who knows? Is there a D8 forfeit rule?

Hudson has two games this week, one with Lakeville North and one with Rosemount. Lakeville North plays Rochester on Sunday. Woodbury has a single game with Red Wing.

Eagan goes north to play in the Spirit of Duluth tourney playing the Duluth Lakers, Wayzata (again) and Burnsville. That is a tough pool. Inver Grove Heights plays in the Owatonna tourney on the weekend, playing Sioux Falls Flyers in the opening game. In their bracket’s other game, Richfield-Washburn takes on CINB. Northfield and Cottage Grove travel to Orono to play in their tourney. Cottage Grove plays Crow River in the opening round and Northfield takes on Moundsview in the other bracket.

The top two seeds last week in D8 went to Woodbury and Rochester. Best guess today is Woodbury #1, Eagan #2 and Lakeville North #3 (because of their showing in the Burnsville tourney).

The projected East Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
East Red Division: D6-#1 Edina, D8-#2 Eagan, D2-#2 Roseville, D8-#3 Lakeville North
East Blue Division: D8-#1 Woodbury, D6-#2 Burnsville, D2-#1 White Bear Lake, D2-#3 Forest Lake.

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

W1-District 3
Wayzata and Osseo/Maple Grove had a big week last week with Wayzata wining the Eden Prairie tourney and Osseo/Maple Grove taking the consolation title. Wayzata beat Centennial 5-3, Eagan 6-1 and Stillwater 7-1 in pool play. In the Championship Round, they beat Roseau 5-1 and host Eden Prairie 5-2 for the title. Osseo/Maple Grove beat Edina 4-0 (handing the Hornets their first loss of the season) and Rochester 6-5. But they lost to Roseau 6-2 to fall to the consolation round.

In the consolation round, they beat Centennial 5-2 and Woodbury 4-3 for the trophy. Wayzata didn’t attract much attention at the tourney, most of the attention went to the Roseau/Edina/Maple Grove pool. The Trojans just breezed unnoticed their pool. They gained some measure of revenge in beating D2 Stillwater for their only loss to D2 White Bear Lake.

Osseo/Maple Grove returns to league play this week taking on Orono and Hopkins. Wayzata however continues on the tourney trail going to the Spirit of Duluth playing the Duluth Lakers, Eagan (again) and Burnsville in pool play. Orono took 2nd place in the Hopkins tourney beating Anoka 3-2, Prior Lake 2-0 before losing to Blaine 2-0. They host their own tourney this week playing Forest Lake in the opener.

Other first round games have Northfield playing Moundsview, Crow River playing Cottage Grove, Litchfield versus Monticello. Hopkins had a rough tourney as they lost to St Michael/Albertville, beat Hutchinson and lost to Anoka 3-2 in the consolation championship game.

North Metro played in the Moundsview tourney and beat Russell Stover Stars in the opening round.

Wayzata at this point is playing the best hockey in the state. But playing in Eden Prairie’s new rink 3 (which is the only times I saw them play-twice), they looked tough but ordinary. I have concluded that EP’s rink 3 would make anybody’s team look ordinary because it is a poor rink to watch a hockey game. The Wayzata/Roseau game in rink 3 was really bad because everybody was there to watch. The rink has little crowd capacity, is a little dingy and has no site lines. Looking around or over people is not the best view.

The Wayzata/Roseau game should have been in Rink 1, but the coaches, parents, et. Al. worry about one team getting an hour’s extra rest if both semifinal games aren’t played simultaneously. The top two teams this week are Wayzata #1 and Osseo/Maple Grove #2.

W2-District 10
Centennial and Elk River played in the Eden Prairie tourney. Centennial beat Eagan, Stillwater and lost to Wayzata 5-3 (that was their second loss to Wayzata this year) in pool play. That was good enough though to gain the consolation round, but lost to Osseo/Maple Grove in the semifinals.

Elk River beat Chaska, Lakeville South and Woodbury to advance to the championship round only to be eliminated by the host Eden Prairie, 4-3 in a game they should have won. The Elks came back to win 3rd place, beating Roseau 10-1.

Blaine, Rogers and Anoka also tangled with D3 teams in the Hopkins tourney. Orono sprang the upset beating Anoka 3-2 in the opening round game. Anoka went on to win consolation beating Rogers 3-1 and Hopkins 3-2. Blaine won the Hopkins tourney. They beat Hutchinson in the opener, STMA in the semifinals and Orono in the championship game. Champlin Park, Andover, and Cambridge/Isanti played in the SuperRink tourney. Champlin Park lost to Moundsview and Tartan.

In the Peewee A Green Division, St. Cloud and Elk River still dominate with unbeaten records and sitting on top the division. In the Blue Division, the scrum continues. Centennial put a couple of wins together to climb to the top, but if you count losses, five of the eight teams have one or less. This week in league play, Andover plays one game with Coon Rapids. Centennial plays one game with Spring Lake Park.

Centennial, Blaine and St. Cloud head to the Spirit of Duluth tourney. Centennial draws Green Bay, Minnetonka and Superior. Blaine draws Hermantown, Thunder Bay and White Bear Lake. St. Cloud plays Stillwater, Fargo Flyers (?) and Duluth East. Elk River stays home and plays league games this week against St. Cloud, Champlin Park and St. Francis. The Elk River/St. Cloud game should provide some perspective on the potential Green Division champ.

This week the #1 seed goes to Elk River with Blaine taking the #2 seed and Centennial the #3 seed. Elk River’s performance in the Eden Prairie tourney was exceptional and they should have beaten the host in the semifinal game. Blaine rolled along taking the Hopkins championship and deserves #2 seed. Centennial takes the #3 seed based on their Eden Prairie tourney, but Andover remains a threat.



W3-District 15
Alexandria played in the EGF tourney, beating the Northwest Stars 11-1 and Sauk Rapids 5-4. The Cardinals lost to host EGF 8-2 and the APHA Rangers 4-2 in pool play. The second EGF tourney entrant was Detroit Lakes. They beat Sauk Rapids 2-1, lost to the Fargo Flyers 9-3, Winnipeg East 5-1 and APHA Rangers 11-1.

The Spuds have a Twin Cities swing planned for the weekend playing Hastings, Lakeville South, Armstrong and North Metro. They host their own 16-team tourney next week with the open draw being Fargo/Osseo-Maple Grove, Brainerd/Prior Lake, EGF/Mankato, Alexandria/Andover, Grand Rapids/Buffalo, Grand Forks/TRF, Moorhead/Highland, Fergus Falls/Champlin Park.

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 Elk River, D15-#2 Moorhead, D3-#2 Osseo/Maple Grove, D10-#3 Centennial
W Blue Division: D15-#1 Alexandria, D10-#2 Blaine, D3-#1 Wayzata, D15-#3 Fergus Falls

[decksave]

Stunning F61! Thanks for taking the time to pull this together. As a D6 guy, I admit to sometimes forgetting the world outside our little kingdom!! Good stuff.

[watchdog]

thanks fred for confirming to me you have an eye for hockey!!!!!!!

[elliott70]

thanks fred for confirming to me you have an eye for hockey!!!!!!!

What, Crookston #3 in D16?????

[DMom]

I don't really understand the D2 forfeits. It is the away team that has to turn in the score sheet in this District. If they fail to do it, why would you forfeit both teams? It could, often times, be in the best interest of the away team to not turn in the sheet. I'm not saying anyone would do it on purpose but what is the point of hanging onto your hep points if you're just going to lose points on the forfeits? Why would that be fair to the host team? If the host team wins, that's a big swing in the points.

And a score from D2 on 12/1: White Bear Lake 2, Forest Lake 1

[watchdog]

thats very possible elliot. dont worry roseau will be down next weekend to give you and jigsaw the real perspective of things in peewees.

[jigsaw]

thats very possible elliot. dont worry roseau will be down next weekend to give you and jigsaw the real perspective of things in peewees.

You are going to be Bemidji and that will prove to me what? that you can beat a sub par team?

[watchdog]

whats roseau? we were beat 10-1 you better step down a couple more like maybe we can beat a celler dweller....

[jigsaw]

whats roseau? we were beat 10-1 you better step down a couple more like maybe we can beat a celler dweller....

You act like said Roseau is a terrible team! Never said that. I know that they are a quality team and will be a force. I just like to get under your skin because you give nobody else a chance and act like your boys are unstoppable.

[watchdog]

act is the KEY word your alittle slow but youll catch on.. if we show up and skate like we did against elk river anyone could beat roseau.

[jigsaw]

[quote="watchdog"]act is the KEY word your alittle slow but youll catch on.. if we show up and skate like we did against elk river anyone could beat roseau.[/quoteThat is with any team. I mean if your Pee-wee team played your Bantam "A" and the Bantams didn't show up and take a game off the Pee wees might sneek out a win.

[elliott70]

Bemidji has Cloquet and Crookston this weekend, that will give us a little better picture.

And SB, I'll be there for the Roso game AND I will let you buy me a coffee.

[GoGophersGuy]

"Roseau is a team that was formed a few weeks ago and came down and made a statement. They should have won the Edina game because they have the speed, skills and team play to match Edina. And they have size. If they continue to develop and play well, then they should put an exclamation point on the statement when the stronger teams in the Eden Prairie tourney return to play in Roseau’s tourney in January. Roseau is potentially the best team in the state."

I think they have a very good team and will be there for the state tourn, but you could also say this about alot of teams here in the "bubble 5 or 6" behind Wayzata right now. The team with the best coaches will emerge to challenge them by years end. The Rams Tourn will be a great one to keep an eye on.

[watchdog]

i'll gladly buy you a coffee elliot....

[elliott70]

i'll gladly buy you a coffee elliot....

Great, I am easy to find.

Is the game at the new rink, the City, or Nymore?
I know its not at BSU.

[elliott70]

i'll gladly buy you a coffee elliot....

Great, I am easy to find.

Is the game at the new rink, the City, or Nymore?
I know its not at BSU.

I checked the schedule - looks like the City Rink (behind Perkins).

Friday the 12th at 6 pm.
Should be back from Fergus by then or a little after 6, should work out fine.

[slow feet no hands guy]

Nice Regional Summary Fredrick 61, just a few comments re Dist 15:

Alex and Moorhead will be competitive as usual, Fergus not so sure as they just lost to Pequot Lakes 5-1. According to the Brainerd Website, you had the score wrong with Grand Rapids. Brainerd won 1-0. They also beat Moorhead 5-1 and tied Bemidji 4-4. The Northern teams are ramping up their season and it will be interesting to follow the progress.
Keep up the fun posts!

[Reality Check]

I would like to congratulate Minnesota Hockey for putting together such a competitive South Pewee A Regional.

The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
South Red Division: D1-#1 Mpls Park, D4-#2 Owatonna, D5-#2 Sartell, D5-#3 Crow River
South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Highland, D5-#1 Buffalo, D1-#3 Luverne or Irondale.

There's not a legitmate top 40 team in the state in this group. It's bad enough these teams can qualify for a regional tournament, but two of them will actually go to state.

This is a joke. I can't believe someone at Minnesota Hockey actually approved this region.

Since when are towns like Buffalo and Sartell considered farther south than Rochester or Burnsville?

[jigsaw]

I would like to congratulate Minnesota Hockey for putting together such a competitive South Pewee A Regional.

The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
South Red Division: D1-#1 Mpls Park, D4-#2 Owatonna, D5-#2 Sartell, D5-#3 Crow River
South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Highland, D5-#1 Buffalo, D1-#3 Luverne or Irondale.

There's not a legitmate top 40 team in the state in this group. It's bad enough these teams can qualify for a regional tournament, but two of them will actually go to state.

This is a joke. I can't believe someone at Minnesota Hockey actually approved this region.

Since when are towns like Buffalo and Sartell considered farther south than Rochester or Burnsville?

I may be wrong but I believe that dist 5 is in the same region with dist 15 and 10? if I am wrong please clarify.

[jigsaw]

i checked and I stand corrected. those are the right pairings. that is a very very weak regional.

[Night Train]

Remember, the teams that play off in any particular Region rotates around every year.

[jigsaw]

Remember, the teams that play off in any particular Region rotates around every year.

True but that is one awful region and 2 teams will be at state and get beat by 10

[frederick61]

Most people who follow youth hockey believe that the better the competition that a kid experiences, the more he improves. I would add that the top rated teams in the state succeed in part because the kids on their team have been playing in some organized form prior to the peewee A team being formed. They then proceed during the season to go from tourney to tourney playing each other in the belief that top rated competetion is the best for their kids.

They maybe right, but the result is they never allow the other 80% to compete with them. In a way, it is a self fulfilling prophecy. This gives these top rated teams a season edge.

In contrast, normally teams in D1, D4 and D5 have historically had late starts in forming their team. Most of these kids in these districts have not been playing hockey (smaller towns, no ice). Now teams in D1, D4, districts now have an opportunity to go to state. They will be noticed by the top rated teams.

And as a result of this opportunity, D1, D4 and D5 teams are searching out and playing more competitive teams. That is a positive sign for youth hockey in this state. More competitive hockey breeds more interest to support hockey in the associations, fans and parents.

But before anybody states the South region teams are weak, I would point to some early season successes of teams in these districts.

Mpls Park (D1) now playing a D3 regular season schedule has a good chance to finish third or better in D3. Park's problem is their losing to other D1 teams such as Highland. Or how about Highland wining the Spring Lake Park tourney or New Prague beating both D3 and D6 teams. And it is earlier in the season.

One team I am aware of won very few games last year, but in the 60 days snce they have been selected, the dedicated coaches have had them on ice or involved in some training activity 50 days. Will they improve? Compare that to your own team's schedule.

Competition does make a team better, not only on the ice in game situations, but in the desire to win because there is opportunity. On the other hand, to watch the "better teams" that are highly rated going from tourney to tourney playing each other can become boring.

So I am glad that this year the South Region has an opportunity to send to teams from D1, D4 or D5 to the tourney. I have a feeling they will do well. There will be no blow out. Why should these teams be excluded from the opportunity to compete?

[penman]

Another great and refreshing post, frederick61.

[DMom]

I book the tournaments for our association and I can tell you that it is tough to crack some of those invite tournaments. It's a bit like being with some of the summer teams, If you lose to a team from New York, well that's more impressive and better for your program than if you lose to a local club, so they play a limited local schedule. Don't want to ruin their reputations. I remember years ago being at a B squirt game that our local team beat an Edina team at, the parents were stunned. They had never heard of our team before. I don't know, we've had a program for thirty years.Just because some of these programs have never been high profile does not mean they can't find good coaching and train their kids well, after all this is the state of hockey.

I agree with Fred, it's a positive for Minnesota. And, you can't have an all D6 "state" tournament, even if you wanted to.