North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds).
N1-District 11
Cloquet had a week of practice and no games last week and this week is no different. The Duluth Lakers took a short swing to the cities and played Blaine. They have a league game with Superior this week and play in the Hudson Wisconsin tourney drawing Antigo Wisconsin Red Robins (like that nickname) and the Southwest Wisconsin Eagles (currently 8-4-2 against teams from Wisconsin and Illinois) in pool play.
Hermantown maybe finding a winning stride. In games this past two weeks they played White Bear Lake tough losing in the Spirit 2-1. Unfortunately that was their best game in the tourney. This week they beat Duluth East by the same score 2-1. On the flip side of that game, Duluth East continues an up and down season, but also has no games this week.
Cloquet keeps the #1 seed, but the #2 seed could be won by any of the other three teams. So in the spirit of sharing this holiday season, it goes to Hermantown.
N2-District 12
Roseau took a short two game tour through D12 last week beating Hibbing and the Falls. Roseville will be touring “da Range” this week playing Hibbing, the Falls, Virginia and Eveleth. The Raiders have one of the fastest skaters in the state on one of their lines and are currently in the top third of D2 regular season standings. Besides Roseville, Virginia plays Hermantown this week.
In D12 league games, the Blue Devils beat Grand Rapids 3-1 before losing to Bemidji on OT 4-3 last week. Hibbing lost to Roseau and play Bemidji this week. The Blue Jackets play Roseau and Eveleth this week.
Grand Rapids played in the Moorhead tourney. The Thunderhawks beat Buffalo 5-2 in the opening game and Thief River Falls 3-0 in the quarterfinal game. They lost to Champlin Park 3-1 in the semifinal game and lost to Andover 4-0 in the third place game. In the 16 team tourney, they took 4th place.
This week the Rapids play their second of three tourneys in a row, their own Star of the North tourney. They open bracket play against D3 Hopkins, a team that has been struggling. In the other side of the bracket, Rochester meets Coon Rapids. The lower bracket pits D5 Sartell against Cloquet and D3 Orono against Superior. The nods in D12 this week remain unchanged; Virginia is the #1 seed, Hibbing #2 seed and the Thunderhawks #3 seed.
N3-District 16
Roseau beat Bemidji 11-5 in a D16 game and then traveled to the Range beating Hibbing 9-0 and International Falls 18-1. On their return home, they beat LOW in another D16 game 10-2. The Rams host EGF and Bemidji in D16 games this week. East Grand Forks beat D4 contender Mankato 8-3 in the opening game of the Moorhead tourney.
That placed the Green Wave in the championship, 8-team, bracket tourney against Andover losing a tough game 6-5. They then beat D6 Prior Lake 5-4 and Thief River Falls 10-1 to win the Consolation Championship. The Green Wave has three D16 games to play this week. Besides Roseau, they play LOW and Warroad.
Thief River Falls also opened the Moorhead tourney with a 3-2 win over Grand Forks and also lost in the quarterfinal round to Grand Rapids 3-0. The Prowlers play Crookston and Hallock this week.
After their loss to Roseau, Bemidji took a range tour beating Eveleth, Virginia 4-3 in OT and playing Hibbing. This week the Lumberjacks play D10 Rogers and three D16 games LOW, Warroad and Roseau.
The D12 tour by Roseau and EGF’s showing in the Moorhead tourney seem to point to two things, D16 and D11 are the stronger of the three districts in this region and D16 regular season is shaping up as two team race again with Roseau and EGF fighting it out. Bemidji still looks strong and may emerge as a challenger. The seeds are unchanged this week with Roseau #1 and EGF #2. Bemidji takes the #3 seed.
The projected North Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
North Red Division: D16-#1 Roseau, D12-#2 Hibbing, D11-#2 Hermantown, D16-#3 Bemidji.
North Blue Division: D12-#1 Virginia, D16-#2 East Grand Forks, D11-#1 Cloquet, D12-#3 Grand Rapids.
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. The New Ulm tourney takes center stage this week in D4.
S1-District 1
The Irondale Knights may have righted the ship and sailed onto some rocks, Highland Capital rocks in a D1/D2 game. The Knights were blitzed in the first two periods and couldn’t do anything against the Caps losing 5-1. In Shakopee for a tourney, the Knights woes continued losing to a tough Farmington team 3-0 and D10 Princeton 3-2 before beating St. Boniface.
After a trophy winning game in the Owatonna tourney last week end, Richfield-Washburn ran into a storm, the Mpls Park Storm. They jumped to a 5-2 lead after two periods and seemed on their way to a D1/D3 win when the Storm scored 6 goals in the final period. Mpls Park won 8-5. After that game, Richfield-Washburn traveled to Plymouth to take on #1 ranked Wayzata and lost 12-4. This week, Richfield-Washburn has a couple of shots at their first D3 victory playing Hopkins and Irondale.
Besides beating Richfield-Washburn, the Storm played Orono in a second D3 game on Sunday. A win over Orono would have given the Storm a strong lead in D3 setting up an interesting game with Wayzata this week. But the Spartans beat the Storm 3-0 on Sunday.
Highland appears to have gone to Moorhead to play in the Moorhead tourney, beating the host in the opening game 5-3, losing to Champlin Park 8-6 and playing Thief River Falls in the Championship Consolation Semifinals.
This week, Mpls Park continued to struggle but showed enough to edge Highland for the #1 seed. Highland is #2 and Washburn takes #3. Irondale maybe down, but should not be forgotten. It is only mid-December.
S2-District 4
New Prague took the Hutchinson tourney championship, beating Fargo 12-0, Sauk Rapids 4-2 and D4 leader Luverne 3-1. The Trojans have a busy week playing four games, Owatonna, St. Peter, Hastings and Kennedy.
Mankato had a tough Moorhead tourney, losing the opening game to East Grand Forks 8-3, beating Alexandria 2-1, losing to Fargo 6-0 to end up playing in the Consolation 3rd place game on Sunday. They play Hastings and Marshall in a D4 game this week. Owatonna plays a key D4 game against New Prague this week and then play in the New Ulm tourney on the weekend drawing D5 MAML in quarterfinal opening round play.
The draw in the New Ulm tourney has the host taking on D10 Chisago Lakes in their opening game. North Metro plays Marshall and Hutchinson takes on Shakopee to complete the opening round games. Luverne has set the standard thus far in league play with 10 of their 14 games played, taking 24 points to lead the league, but Owatonna, Mankato and New Prague are all starting to close the gap.
Luverne has a single league game with Faribault scheduled this week. But despite Luverne’s lead in D4, the strongest team D4 team is New Prague. The Trojans remain the #1 seed this week; with Luverne #2 seed and Mankato #3 seed to playoff with the D1 #3 seed for a regional ticket.
S3-District 5
Mound Westonka is playing .500 in D5 in their first six games with 8 or 9 points out of a possible 18. This week they have three D5 games, MAML, Litchfield and Crow River and these three games may well determine if the White Hawk domination with Buffalo will be the same this year as in the past few seasons. MALM and Crow River are capable of beating most teams. The White Hawks may not have an easy week.
Crow River played well in the Shakopee tourney beating Albert Lea 6-2 and then losing to Sibley 4-1 and Farmington 5-0. Both lost games were close for the Tigers going into the third period, only to have the Tigers tire. If the Tigers can get their defense squared away (they have talent, but tend to extend their shifts), they could be tough in D5 and a candidate to make the regionals.
Buffalo played in the Moorhead tourney losing to Grand Rapids in the opener, beating Grand Forks 7-6 and playing host Moorhead in the Consolation Semifinals. Buffalo has a single game with Litchfield this week. The Bison and Crow River are the only undefeated D5 teams as this week’s play starts. Sartell plays in the Grand Rapids tourney. They play D11 powerhouse, Cloquet in the opening game. MALM plays in the New Ulm tourney. They draw one of the top D4 teams, Owatonna in the opening game.
The seeds remain unchanged this week. Buffalo remains on top in D5 and takes the #1 seed. The #2 Seed goes to 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 Luverne, D5-#2 Sartell, D5-#3 Crow River
South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Highland, D5-#1 Buffalo, D1-#3 Mankato or Washburn.
East Regional
The East districts this year are D2 (3 seeds), D6 (2 seeds) and D8 (3 seeds)
E1-District 2
In D2 the Forest Lake/Mahtomedi game is the only game still forfeited for failure to follow league rules. A second forfeit was rescinded.
White Bear Lake sits on top of D2 by virtue of playing more games then either Roseville or Stillwater. The Bears play North St Paul in league play, their second game with the Polars in two weeks. They beat the Polars 7-5 last week. Roseville lost a tough game to Forest Lake 3-0 for their first league loss. The Rams take on Mahtomedi in a league game and then tour D12 playing Hibbing, International Falls, Virginia and Eveleth this week. Stillwater played White Bear Lake, lost to Forest Lake 2-1 and played Hudson last week. The Ponies play Rosemount and Tartan in games this week.
Tartan took lost to North St. Paul 5-3 and then took the Consolation Championship in the Red Wing tourney, losing to Rochester 3-2, beating D5 STMA 7-2 and Kennedy 5-2. That is four good games against four good teams for the Titans. They play Moundsview and Stillwater in D2 action this week.
The team that had a good week in D2 was Forest Lake winning three tough D2 games to move into the top echelon of D2 league. Forest Lake crosses the river to play in the Hudson tourney this week drawing Eau Claire and Richmond in opening pool play of this 7 team tourney.
But as last year, D2 remains balanced. Six teams have 2 losses or a loss and a tie of the10 teams in D2. That makes seeding difficult with Roseville, White Bear Lake, Stillwater and Forest Lake beating each other up. Going by play this week, the nod has to go Forest Lake with their three wins. They take the #1 seed. Stillwater takes the #2 seed and White Bear the 3rd seed.
E2-District 6
Last week, the D6 playoff format was outlined. To show how difficult it is to come out of the D6 playoff, the following scenario describes based on current D6 standings a worst case scenario for the 9th seeded team (this week Minnetonka) that makes it to the D6 championship game. Based on this week’s D6 standings, Minnetonka to gain one of the two D6 seeds would have to beat Kennedy, Apple Valley, Prior Lake, and Eastview in succession to play Edina. In a worst case scenario, a 9th seeded Minnetonka would lose the Edina game and drop to a play-in set of games playing a Jefferson followed by Burnsville and followed by an Eden Prairie. Only after beating Eden Prairie, would they be assured of either the #1 or #2 seed. To gain the #1 seed they would have to beat an Edina twice.
To summarize, a team like Minnetonka seeded 9th would have to play potentially 10 games in 11 days. This is not a complaint, but an admiration. The two D6 teams that survive, especially if they are seeded down for the playoffs, come prepared to play in the regional tourney. The regional tourney format is not as formable. That is one big advantage that D6 has over other districts.
The D6 season is half way through its 19 game regular season schedule. Edina and Eden Prairie are on top, but have the advantage of having played two more games then Eastview and Burnsville. Burnsville is the only unbeaten team in D6 as the week starts. They play Eden Prairie at home on Tuesday in another key D6 match-up and Chaska. Edina lost to Wayzata last week 1-0. After opening with 14 straight wins, the Hornets are 5-3 in their last 8 games. They play Apple Valley and Jefferson this week.
Eden Prairie tied Eastview 2-2 last week and only play Burnsville this week. Eastview steps outside D6 to play a border battle with neighboring Eagan. In D6 the Lightening play Jefferson. Eden Prairie and Eastview have one D6 loss and one D6 tie.
Shakopee lost a 1-0 game to Jefferson and then took their own tourney beating Princeton 7-2, Farmington and Sibley 6-1. The Sabers are a deceptive 1-9-1 in D6 play, but 6 of those 9 losses were by one or two goals including a late November 2-1 loss to Edina. Prior Lake played well in the Moorhead Tourney beating Brainerd 2-1 in the opening game, losing to Osseo/Maple Grove 3-2 in the Championship quarterfinals, and 5-4 to East Grand Forks in the Consolation Semifinals.
The Edina Tourney draw is out. Usually, this tourney overlaps with the Bloomington tourney, but this year Edina has scheduled the tourney Jan 1-4th and are playing a full days schedule at Minnesota Made. One pool has Chaska, White Bear Lake, Colorado Thunderbird, and Centennial. The second pool has Stillwater, Eagan, Wayzata, and Eden Prairie. The third pool has Edina, Duluth East, Lakeville South and Elk River.
The Bloomington tourney has scheduled their tourney right after Christmas. The draw is also out. I must warn you that I am biased because I always liked this tourney. Its format is based on the Silver Stick format. The winner of this tourney use to get an invitation to the Silver Stick before Minnesota Hockey and USA hockey went out of sync on age/level of play.
Fourteen teams are entered and divided in four pools, 2-four team pools and 2-three team pools. The 2-three team pools play one crossover game with each other. All fourteen teams are seeded into a single elimination tourney with the top two seeds getting a bye to the quarterfinal round. The two teams in the Championship game will be playing their 6th or 7th game.
Prior Lake, Eastview, Littleton, and Minnetonka are in the white pool. Jefferson, Inver Grove Heights and Mound Westonka are in the black pool. Woodbury, Apple Valley, Burnsville and Osseo/Maple Grove are in the red pool. And last, Kennedy, Rosemount and Lakeville North are in the gold (or green) pool.
The D6 seeds this week are unchanged; Burnsville is the #1 seed. Edina takes the #2 seed.
E3-District 8
Woodbury and Lakeville North remain on top of the D8 standings. They are followed by Hudson, Rosemount, Eagan and Rochester. These teams seemed poised to pull away from the rest.
Woodbury beat Red Wing this week and lost to Centennial 3-2 and beat Hastings 7-4. They take on Cottage Grove and Lakeville North in league play and scrimmage Wayzata this week. Lakeville North tied Rochester 1-1 in league play last week. This week the Panthers play a home and home series with Red Wing and take on Woodbury in a key D8 match-up on Sunday. Hudson has their own tourney going this week with top peewee A teams from Wisconsin competing with the Duluth Lakers and Forest Lake.
Cottage Grove played in the Red Wing tourney, beating D5 STMA and Rochester before losing to Anoka 4-3 in the Championship game. Eagan beat Northfield 7-0 last week and play Cottage Grove and Eastview this week. Rosemount tied Lakeville South in league play and play Farmington and Stillwater this week.
Sibley took second in the Shakopee tourney beat St. Boniface and Crow River 4-1 before losing to Host Shakopee 6-1.
This week the #1 seed goes to Woodbury and the #2 seed to Lakeville North. The #3 seed is still up for grabs. Cottage Grove had it last week as a result of taking the Orono tourney. With no D8 tourney winners this week, it’s Inver Grove Height’s turn by virtue of their winning the Owatonna tourney a week ago and for their 7-2 win over Hastings.
The projected East Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
East Red Division: D6-#1 Burnsville, D8-#2 Lakeville North, D2-#2 Stillwater, D8-#3 Inver Grove Heights
East Blue Division: D8-#1 Woodbury, D6-#2 Edina, D2-#1 Forest Lake, D2-#3 White Bear Lake.
West Regional
The West districts this year are D3 (2 seeds), D10 (3 seeds) and D15 (3 seeds)
W1-District 3
Osseo/Maple Grove headed to Moorhead and beat Fargo Flyers 5-3, Prior Lake 3-2, Andover 7-1 and Champlin Park 6-0 to take the Championship trophy home. The win over Andover was their second of the season and the second time they beat Andover in the second game of the day. They beat the Huskies in the Centennial Preview 6-1. Returning home, Osseo/Maple Grove plays two key D3 games against Armstrong and Wayzata.
Wayzata stayed home and beat Orono 3-0 and Washburn in D3 play. They also beat Edina 1-0 to clearly establish themselves as “king of the hill” by having beaten every potential contender except Osseo/Maple Grove. To add frosting to the Christmas Holiday, they are planning to add Woodbury to their conquered list this week by invading Bielenberg Arena the evening before playing OMG. They also have a D3 game with Mpls Park before their fun begins.
Orono lost to Wayzata 3-0 this week, but the Spartans did come back to beat Mpls Park 3-0. They didn’t “hold the pass” against the Trojans, but the Mpls Park victory essentially ties the Spartans with Armstrong for third. Third seed in the D3 playoffs could mean a better draw and a better shot at getting one of the two D3 seeds this year.
The top two teams in D3 this week are unchanged, Wayzata #1 and Osseo/Maple Grove #2.
W2-District 10
Elk River beat St. Cloud 9-0 in a game that should have been closer. That loss puts the Elks in the driver’s seat in the Green Division as they remain unbeaten in D10 play. This week they can cinch the seat belt tightly with wins over Anoka and Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch (CINB). St. Cloud has stumbled, but with a league point total in the low 20’s after 9 games, they are well positioned to make the playoffs (top eight teams in point total go to the D10 playoffs). The question is can any of the five other green division teams make it to the playoffs?
In the Blue Division all eight teams are in contention for the D10 playoffs. Andover is unbeaten in D10 play and returns from a good Moorhead tourney with wins over Alexandria 7-2 and East Grand Forks 6-5 before losing to Osseo/Maple Grove in the championship semifinals. The Huskies play Spring Lake Park in a league game this week.
Champlin Park had a great run at the Moorhead tourney with wins over Fergus Falls 6-1, Highland 8-6, and Grand Rapids 3-1 before losing to Osseo/Maple Grove in the championship game. The Rebels scrimmage Buffalo this week. Anoka tied Coon Rapids 3-3 in league play this week and took the Championship trophy at the Red Wing tourney on the weekend beating Kennedy 6-3, Red Wing 7-1 and Cottage Grove 4-3. Centennial beat Woodbury 3-2 and play three D10 games this week against Coon Rapids, St. Cloud and Blaine.
Blaine has three D10 games this week. They play St. Francis, Sauk Rapids, and Centennial. Blaine beat Princeton 7-1, Chaska 4-3 and played the Duluth Lakers last week.
For the second week in a row, the seeds are unchanged in D10. The #1 seed goes to Elk River with Blaine taking the #2 seed and Centennial the #3 seed. Perhaps things are settling down in D10.
W3-District 15
The Moorhead tourney spotlights D15 teams and they usually play well in this tourney. Not this year as all four D15 entrants ended up in the consolation tourney and worst Fergus Falls, Brainerd and Alexandria ended up contending for the consolation trophy. Only Moorhead won a quarterfinal game and they did that by beating Fergus Falls 4-1.
Brainerd did establish themselves as the team to beat in D15 this year beating Alexandria 6-2. Both Brainerd and Alex are undefeated this year in D15 and will have to re-group from their Moorhead adventure. Moorhead is another story, they continue to struggle. They play Alexandria and Crookston this week. A loss to Alex would be a blow to the Spuds picking up their second loss in two league games. But if you look beyond this week, the Spuds travel to Roseau and that game will be an interesting one to watch.
Pequot Lake CIA has not hesitated in getting games under their belt. They have played D2 Mahtomedi, Fargo Angels, Minot, Detroit Lakes twice and Park Rapids in the past two weeks. That’s great.
Brainerd takes the #1 Seed by virtue of beating Alex in the Moorhead tourney. Alex takes the #2 and Moorhead the #3. But it is apparent that all the D15 teams are still trying to find their “sea legs”.
The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
West Red Division: D10-#1 Elk River, D15-#2 Alexandria, D3-#2 Osseo/Maple Grove, D10-#3 Centennial
W Blue Division: D15-#1 Brainerd, D10-#2 Blaine, D3-#1 Wayzata, D15-#3 Moorhead
Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Dec 16
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