This post looks at the current play of all the districts and teams within the district and posts an opinion of which team will likely win the seeds in each district. It groups the districts by the region they have been assigned to this year. This post then projects the winners of the region based on play up to this week and shows the potential state draw.
This past week, a number of key district games and tournaments were played. There are twelve districts in Minnesota and surprisingly only three districts have been basically decided. They are District 6 (Edina), District 10 (Elk River-Green Division), and District 16 (Roseau)). District 10 Blue Division (Centennial and Blaine), District 11 (Cloquet and Duluth Lakers) and D3 (Wayzata and Osseo/Maple Grove) each have two contenders. The remaining districts are wide open with the widest open being District 8.
District playoffs are scheduled to be played on February 20-22 mostly. Some districts will spread their playoffs (and play-in games) to start earlier.
North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds).
N1-District 11
The Duluth Invitational tourney was held two weekends ago. Hermantown, Duluth East and the Duluth Lakers were three of the eight teams that played in the tourney. Hermantown lost to Prior Lake 7-2 and Rosemount 5-2. The Hawks came back to beat the Lakers 3-2 and tied Duluth East 2-2. Duluth East opened with an impressively tying Woodbury 3-3. The Hounds then lost to Stillwater 2-1 and Lakeville North 5-3. The Duluth Lakers beat Rosemount 6-3 and lost to Stillwater 7-2. In this tourney against outside competition, the D11 teams finished 1-5-1.
This does not bode well for D11 in the North Regional tourney in early March. Cloquet had their tourney this past weekend. Unlike past years, the Lumberjacks had a 12 team, four pool, draw set up. But three D11 teams each had their own pool. Did they atone for their performance at the Duluth Invitational the previous week?
The Lumberjacks won their pool beating Rogers 5-2 and North St. Paul 9-3. Hermantown won their pool beating Fort Frances (Canada across the border from International Falls) 6-0 and Andover 3-1. The Duluth Lakers lost their pool, losing to Brainerd 6-3 and Shakopee 4-3. The fourth pool had Eastview, Faribault and River Lakes.
The D11 teams came through in the Championship round as Hermantown beat Brainerd 4-3 and Cloquet beat Eastview 6-2. In the Championship game, Cloquet lost to Hermantown 4-2, a team they had beaten six days earlier in league play.
Earlier in January, Cloquet returned from the Brainerd tourney and played Duluth East in a league game on the following Monday. They lost 5-4 for their first D11 loss of the year. This past week, they beat Hermantown 3-2. The Lumberjacks close out January by visiting Hibbing. The Duluth Lakers tied Duluth East 3-3 on Tuesday before playing in the Cloquet tourney. The Lakers have the coming week off. Duluth East toured Thunder Bay this past weekend.
The seeds are changed this week; Cloquet keeps the #1 seed and Hermantown takes the #2 seed. The Lumberjacks loss to Duluth East or the loss to Hermantown is not enough to knock them out of the top spot. The Lakers are starting to struggle and Duluth East is simply an unknown. The Hounds are a dangerous team, but if they win a seed, it will be with a record that is .500 at best.
N2-District 12
Virginia held their tourney two weekends ago. In that tourney, the Blue Devils lost to Hudson 4-0, beat Northfield 6-2 and International Falls 7-0. With all the attention this weekend focused on Roseau’s tourney, Eveleth had their own tourney and had a good draw. Virginia coming off a so-so performance in their own tourney, opened play in the Eveleth tourney by beating Cottage Grove 4-3 and Eagan 3-0 before losing to Osseo/Maple Grove 5-4 in OT in the Championship game.
Hibbing also played in the Eveleth tourney and lost to Eagan 8-3 and Cottage Grove 5-1. Eveleth was the third 12 team in the tourney. The Golden Bears lost to Osseo/Maple Grove and Park Rapids 7-2.
Grand Rapids lost to Bemidji 4-1, played Hibbing and then headed to Roseau. In the Roseau tourney opener, the Thunderhawks lost to the host Roseau 6-3. In Silver Division play, Grand Rapids lost to the Fargo Flyers 5-0, beat Warroad, and lost to East Grand Forks 2-1. This week the Thunderhawks play Eveleth, Bemidji and Woodbury.
Woodbury is making a D12 tour and will also play Hibbing, Grand Rapids and a TBD team.
The seeds in D12 change this week. Virginia remains the #1 seed, but the Thunderhawks take the #2 seed based on their play in the Roseau tourney. Hibbing falls to the #3 seed based on their play in the Brainerd and Eveleth tourney. The Thunderhawks are coming on again late in the season.
N3-District 16
Roseau beat Warroad in a D16 game two weeks ago and then headed to Fargo. They ran over the Fargo teams, beating West Fargo Packers 7-3, the Fargo Angels 8-2, and the Fargo Raiders 6-2. In the Championship game they beat Bismarck 8-0. The Rams then returned home to play in their own tourney, a 16-team tourney that included a number of highly ranked teams in the state. As a warm-up to the tourney, the Rams beat cross-state rival Edina 7-5. Any game between a Ram’s team and a Hornet’s team is always played more intensely. They should all be called Henry Bouche games.
In the opening game of the tourney, the Rams beat Grand Rapids to advance to the Gold Division. In the opening bracket round, they beat Eden Prairie 3-0, lost to Chaska 6-3 and beat Wayzata 5-2 for third place. Chaska went on to win the title.
Roseau had one big party last weekend.
East Grand Forks beat Grand Forks Seawolves 5-3 and Grafton 7-3 before playing in the Roseau tourney. They lost to Wayzata in the opening game 6-2 at Roseau. In the opening round of the Silver Division, the Green Wave lost to Lakeville South and came back to take the Silver Division consolation title beating Thief River Falls and Grand Rapids.
What really made the Roseau tourney more interesting was the play of Bemidji in the St. Cloud Tourney. Bemidji took third in the 16 team tourney, beating Eagan 7-5, tying North Metro 3-3, beating Sartell 7-1 in pool play. The Lumberjacks lost a tough game to the eventual champ, Burnsville 6-4 in the championship round and came back to beat Inver Grove Heights 5-3 in the third place game. That set the stage for D16 teams Crookston, Warroad and Thief River Falls to prove their play in the Roseau tourney. But all three lost their opener, Crookston lost to Centennial, Warroad lost to Chaska and Thief River Falls lost to Edina.
The seeds in D16 are changed this week. Roseau is #1, but Bemidji takes the #2 seed based on their play in St. Cloud. East Grand Forks drops to #3. Bemidji did prove itself to be a contender in this Regional tourney. They made it to the championship round in St. Cloud and went one better beating Inver Grove Heights to take third place.
The projected North Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
North Red Division: D16-#1 Roseau, D12-#2 Grand Rapids, D11-#2 Hermantown, D16-#3 East Grand Forks.
North Blue Division: D12-#1 Virginia, D16-#2 Bemidji, D11-#1 Cloquet, D12-#3 Hibbing.
North Regional seeds: Despite their loss to Chaska, Roseau remains #1 in the North Regional. The Rams did beat Edina, Grand Rapids, and Eden Prairie before losing to Chaska (Chaska beat Warroad and Centennial prior to playing the Rams). The Rams came back to beat Wayzata. At this point in the season, the Rams are still the best team in the state. The question is who is #2 in the North Region? Two weeks ago Cloquet was the clear favorite. This week Hermantown, Bemidji, East Grand Forks, Virginia and Grand Rapids could all contend for the #2 seed?
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 South Region will have a play-in game scheduled for March 1 at the Richfield Arena. The game will be played between the teams seeded #3 in D1 and #3 in D4 with the winner advancing to the South Regional tourney in Mankato.
S1-District 1
Richfield-Washburn and Mpls Park both headed for St. Cloud two weekends ago, but they played in different tourneys. Richfield-Washburn played in the Sauk Rapids tourney and Mpls Park played in the St. Cloud Tourney. R-W lost to Orono 7-3, St. Francis 7-1 and beat Princeton 6-3. R-W has a off week.
Mpls Park faired better in the St. Cloud tourney beating Buffalo 5-3, losing to Burnsville 9-5 and beating the Grand Forks Seawolves 7-3 in pool play. In the consolation round, the Storm beat Eagan 10-4 before losing the trophy game to Rogers 8-5. In D1 action before the St. Cloud tourney, the Storm beat rival Highland 4-2. This past week the Storm tied Jefferson 4-4.
Highland played two D1 games in the past two weeks. In addition to Mpls Park game, Highland beat Irondale 5-2 on Sunday. Irondale played four games the past two weeks, losing to Roseville 3-1 and Mahtomedi 3-0 in D2 games. Besides the Highland game, they lost to Coon Rapids 4-1.
This week, the seeds remain unchanged with Mpls Park the #1 seed. Highland is #2 and Washburn takes #3. But it appears that the Storm is pulling away from the other three D1 teams and Highland is starting to struggle.
S2-District 4
Luverne finished their D4 schedule by beating Waseca. The Cardinals ended their D4 season with 32 points. Now they have to sit back and wait to see if any of the other teams can over take them. This week they played in the Worthington tourney drawing Sioux Falls, Sioux City and Omaha. Worthington is a member of D4 but are not skating a peewee A team this year.
New Prague beat Faribault 10-4 and Waseca 8-0 in D4 play. The Trojans then played in the Little Falls tourney this past weekend. They drew Crow River and Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch (CINB) in pool play, but did not make the Championship game losing the pool to Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch. New Prague has three D4 games left (Owatonna, Mason City and Marshall). They play Owatonna on Tuesday.
Owatonna had a strange Rochester tourney two weekends ago. They tied a Champlin Park team 5-5 and came close to beating Rochester losing 3-2. But in between those games they lost to Jefferson and Mankato by identical 7-1 scores. After playing at Rochester, the Huskies returned to D4 action beating Faribault 3-2.
Mankato had a tougher two weeks. They started the week coming off a 3-1 win over D8 Farmington and played in the Rochester tourney. In pool play the Mustangs lost to Armstrong 7-1, Omaha 6-2 and then turned around and beat a tough Forest Lake team 5-4. On Sunday, they beat D4 rival Owatonna. This past week, they were upended by New Ulm 4-3 in D4 action and lost to Hasting 4-1.
Owatonna has three games left. After New Prague, they play Faribault and Mankato. Mankato has three D4 games the first week of February to end their D4 play. The Mustangs play Faribault, Owatonna and Albert Lea, all tough games.
Faribault was doing well at the turn of the New Year, tying Shakopee and beating Luverne. But they went north to the Thief River Falls tourney and were beaten by TRF 11-1 and Mandan North Dakota 11-4 and have lost three straight since their return to slip out of the running for the D4 title chase. This past weekend, Fairbault played well in the Cloquet tourney. They split their games in pool play, beating River Lakes 11-3 and losing to D6 Eastview 6-0. In consolation play, they lost to a tough North St. Paul team 7-3 and nearly tied Shakopee again losing 7-6.
Luverne has set the mark at 32 points. Owatonna has 31 and New Prague has 28. The winner of the Owatonna/New Prague game will likely take the D4 title. Both Owatonna and New Prague should over take Luverne. The final question is can Mankato over take Luverne. They will need seven points in their remaining three games.
This week the seeds change. New Prague remains the #1 seed, Luverne drops to the #3 seed, and Owatonna takes the #2 seed. Mankato and Fairbault can still make a charge in the playoffs. A team seeded #3 or greater has to play a single play-in game to get to bracket play. A single win in the first round of the 8 team bracket play, guarantees the winner two shots at getting a D4 seed.
S3-District 5
Buffalo returned to D5 action after a tough St. Cloud tourney beating Hutchinson and playing Sartell. Buffalo lost to Mpls Park 5-3, Burnsville 4-1 and Grand Forks 6-3 in pool play. On Sunday they beat Sartell 9-3 to end their St. Cloud tourney play. The Bison play Willmar in D5 action this week. Crow River beat Willmar 6-2 and STMA 4-1 in D5 action before they left to play in the Little Falls tourney. In pool play, the Tigers drew New Prague and the eventual tourney Champs CINB and did not advance.
Buffalo pulled slightly ahead of Crow River in the chase for the #1 seed and the automatic #1 seed to the South Regional. Both teams have 5 games remaining with the key game being played in two weeks when they tangle at Buffalo. MALM and Mound Westonka can be the “spoilers” in the chase.
Mound Westonka looked like they would make a charge to get into the mix only to be upended by Willmar 4-2. Willmar also put a dent in MALM’s D5 run, tying them 3-3.
The seeds change this week. Buffalo is remains #1 and Crow River takes the #2 seed but very narrowly. MALM drops to the #3 seed.
The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
South Red Division: D1-#1 Mpls Park, D4-#2 Owatonna, D5-#2 Crow River, D5-#3 MALM
South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Highland, D5-#1 Buffalo, D1-#3 Luverne or Washburn.
South Regional seeds: #1 Mpls Park and #2 New Prague. Mpls Park continues to look stronger as the season winds down. Their play in St. Cloud shows some volatility, but their tie with Jefferson, a team that also looks stronger, last week plus their 10-4 win over Eagan make them the team to beat in the South. New Prague is now starting to struggle and may find themselves in a donnybrook with Buffalo, Owatonna or MALM to take the second seed. The South Region is no longer wide, wide open. It is ½ wide, wide open.
East Regional
The East districts this year are D2 (3 seeds), D6 (2 seeds) and D8 (3 seeds)
E1-District 2
In two weeks, White Bear Lake’s tourney will take center stage. The 8-team bracket play tourney draw is out with the Host opening the tourney against Duluth East. Lakeville North and Edina will play in the second game of the upper bracket. Lower bracket games match Woodbury and Elk River and Eden Prairie and Centennial. One can note that this is the fourth tournament that Edina, Duluth East, White Bear Lake, Centennial and Eden Prairie will have played in as a group. Duluth East had conflicts with two other tourney dates and didn’t make them otherwise these five teams would have appeared in five tourneys and one preview together.
D2 is a difficult district again this year. On the surface, White Bear Lake would appear to be the dominant team, but they haven’t been. The Bears sit on top of the standings with 13 games played and three more yet to play (Stillwater, Tartan and Forest Lake). Roseville has played 12 games and has four yet to play (Moundsville, Stillwater twice and North St. Paul). That puts Roseville and White Bear in a virtual tie for the lead with Roseville holding the edge in games and White Bear running out of time. Forest Lake, Stillwater and Moundsview all have shots at catching the top two. Forest Lake has the best opportunity based on number of games and schedule.
Moundsview is in third with three games left to play (Roseville, North St. Paul and Forest Lake). Forest Lake is in fourth with four games left to play (Stillwater, North St. Paul, White Bear Lake and Moundsview). Stillwater trails with seven games left to play (White Bear Lake, Irondale, Forest Lake, Mahtomedi, Highland, and Roseville twice).
White Bear Lake played a single game in the past two weeks losing to Roseville 3-2 in D2 play. This week the Bears play Stillwater. Roseville played three games in addition to beating the Bears. The Raiders lost to Centennial 8-4 in a game that was close until the third period. The Raiders then tied St. Cloud 4-4 and beat Tartan 2-0. This week they play Moundsview in a D2 game.
Moundsview played in the St. Cloud tourney two weekends ago and were missing one of their key players. They tied Minnetonka 3-3 and St. Cloud 5-5 in pool play. The Mustangs beat Osseo/Maple Grove 3-1 to advance to the consolation round where they lost to a good Rogers team 4-1. Forest Lake played in the Rochester tourney two weekends ago and struggled. The Lakers beat Armstrong 6-3, lost to Mankato 5-4 and tied Champlin Park 2-2. Forest Lake returned to D2 action and beat Tartan 2-1. This week they play Stillwater and Superior.
Stillwater traveled to Duluth to play in the invitational losing to Lakeville North and Woodbury but beating Duluth East 2-1 in pool play. On Sunday, the Ponies followed up with another win over a D11 team, beating the Duluth Lakers 7-2. The Ponies tied Moundsview last week 2-2. Besides playing White Bear, the Ponies play Irondale and Forest Lake in D2 action this week.
Tartan played in the Sauk Rapids tourney two weekends ago, beating Princeton 3-1, Sauk Rapids 3-1 and Orono 4-2 to win the title.
The Bears were beaten by Roseville in the past two weeks and to the victor goes the spoils. Roseville takes the #1 seed this week, White Bear drops to #2 and Forest Lake takes the #3 seed. Moundsview struggled after a great Bloomington tourney and had St. Cloud on the ropes leading 5-2 at the start of the 3rd period in St. Cloud’s tourney only to let the host off the ropes and escape with a tie and a ticket to the championship round. Stillwater did the same at Duluth, losing to two D8 teams before beating two D11 teams. But as last year, the difference between the D2 teams is narrowing.
E2-District 6
The Eden Prairie Eagles didn’t soar these past two weeks. The Eagles lost two of the three D6 games they played before they headed to Roseau. They opened the week by beating Chaska 2-1, but then lost to Apple Valley 4-3 and Edina 8-1. In the Roseau tourney, the Eagles beat the Fargo Flyers 4-2, lost to host Roseau 3-0, beat Centennial 6-3 and lost to Elk River 5-1. All tough games, but off set by those two tough D6 losses before the tourney started. The Eagles problem is that they have to play Burnsville and Edina in two tough D6 games this week. A loss to the Blaze will leave the Eagles fighting for the #3 or #4 seed.
Edina did its job. They beat Eastview 6-3 besides beating Eden Prairie. Now with four games to go in D6, they hold a 5 point lead and a firm grip on the D6 playoff #1 seed. The Hornets are not likely to be caught. The Hornets had a good trip to Roseau. They lost to the host in a pre-tourney game, came back to beat Thief River Falls, Rochester and Wayzata before losing to D6 rival Chaska in the Championship game.
Burnsville went to St. Cloud on two weekends ago and came back with the Championship. In pool play the Blaze beat the Grand Forks Seawolves 5-3, Buffalo 4-1, and Mpls Park 9-4. They then beat Bemidji 6-4 and St. Cloud 7-1 (championship game) to win the title. They beat Shakopee 4-3 before they left for St. Cloud. The Blaze trail Eden Prairie in the chase for the #2 seed to the D6 playoffs by three points, but they have six games left to the Eagles four games. Besides playing Eden Praire this week, the Blaze play D6 games with Apple Valley and Kennedy.
Eastview won their pool at the Cloquet tourney this weekend. The Lightening beat Faribault and River Lakes in pool play. In the Championship round the Lightening lost to Cloquet 6-2 and to Brainerd 3-2 in the 3rd place game. The Lightening have a tight grip on the #4 seed for the D6 playoffs.
The only real question in the D6 standings appears to be who will get the #5 seed. All seeds below the #5 drop down into a tough single elimination tourney with the winner getting the #6 seed into the double elimination part of the D6 playoffs. The seeding is determined by regular season play.
Jefferson has a small grip on the #5 seed and have a key game with Chaska who is coming off winning the Roseau Tourney. Jefferson also won big two weekends ago, winning the Rochester tourney. In pool play, the Jags tied Rochester 2-2, beat Champlin Park 3-1 and Owatonna 7-1 to win the pool. In the Championship game they beat Armstrong 4-3 in OT. But Apple Valley upended their cart in D6 beating the Jags 3-1 earlier this week. The Jags also tied the Mpls Storm.
Chaska are the Roseau champs and are to be congratulated! Now they have to get work in D6 to avoid being buried in the single elimination tourney. They won the title by beating Warroad in the opener. In Gold Division play, the Hawks beat Centennial 6-4, Roseau 6-3 and Edina 3-0. This week, they return to D6 play needing points. Besides playing Jefferson on Sunday, the Hawks play Eastview earlier in the week.
Amid all the hullabaloo of tourneys, Apple Valley started a charge to get the #5 seed by beating Eden Prairie and Jefferson. A win over the Blaze on Saturday will put Valley in the driver’s seat in the chase for #5. Minnetonka has their own shot at #5 and they control their own destiny by simply winning games, but it is a tough D6 schedule for them.
Edina returns to take the #1 spot and Burnsville takes the #2 in D6 this week. Eden Prairie played well in the Roseau tourney, almost well enough to continue to be #1, but the two D6 losses dropped them this week. The Eagles will remain a threat and can easily turn it around with a win over the Blaze this week. Eastview remains in contention, but Edina will likely take the #1 seed into the D6 playoffs. The Blaze and the Eagles will fight it out for the #2 and #3 seeds. The Lightening will likely end the season with the #4 seed.
E3-District 8
In the past few weeks, Woodbury Hockey Association published a letter stating that there will be no new hockey association split from the existing association to specifically support the new East Ridge High School opening next year.
This position was supported by Cottage Grove also, but the real question is what does “no new split” mean? Will the association follow Lakeville and have two associations within the single? It may be impossible to follow the Lakeville model since there is no East Ridge community and the East Ridge students will come from Cottage Grove and Woodbury.
It won’t be long before the parents of East Ridge hockey players demand access to home ice specifically for the East Ridge bound players. Associations have to remember that a community owns the arena (that means East Ridge parents and Woodbury parents) and the associations have to figure out how to live with it and parent’s preceptions. The model Woodbury should follow is that of Apple Valley and Eastview (Eastview is a high school, not a community) and get out in front of the problem.
But enough talk of politics. If one looks at D8 standings as the week starts, the log jam continues as Lakeville North, Woodbury, Inver Grove Heights and Cottage Grove sit atop the league. Not far behind is Lakeville South, Rosemount and Farmington. Eagan, having played only 10 league games, and Rochester, having played only 7 league games, are lurking.
Lakeville North has been busy the past two weeks. The Panthers played Prior Lake, won the Duluth Invitational tourney, and played three league games this past two weeks. In the Duluth Inviational tourney, Lakeville North beat Stillwater 5-3, tied Woodbury 2-2 and beat the Duluth Lakers 5-3 to win their pool and advance to the Championship games, beating Prior Lake 6-4. Back in D8 play, the Panthers were upended by Hastings 3-0, tied Woodbury again and beat Hudson 2-0. This week Lakeville North plays Inver Grove Heights in one of number of key D8 games in their only action.
Woodbury went to Duluth also, but took on Blaine before they left. They tied the Bengals 4-4. At Duluth, the Royals tied Duluth East 3-3 and beat Stillwater 5-2. They beat D8 rival Rosemount 9-2 in the third place game.
This week Woodbury plays Eagan and then takes the Northern tour, playing Hibbing, Cloquet, Grand Rapids and a TBD opponent. Inver Grove lost their 3rd D8 game to Rochester 3-2 and then traveled to St. Cloud. The Heights won their pool, losing to Moorhead 7-6, beating Rogers 5-3 and Hopkins 5-2. In the Championship round, they were forced to play the game less then 3 hours after the final pool game ended and lost to the host, St. Cloud, 5-3. The next day, Bemidji beat the Heights 5-3 in the 3rd place game. Back in D8 play last week, Inver Grove Heights beat Hudson 7-1. This week the Heights play Hastings besides Lakeville North.
Cottage Grove beat Rosemount and tied Eagan 3-3 in D8 play before going North to Eveleth. In the Mariucci Tourney, they were beaten by Virginia in the opening round of bracket play 4-3, but came back to beat Hibbing 5-1 and Park Rapids 5-0 to take consolation. This week they play Lakeville South in D8 action. Lakeville South beat Eagan and Hastings before traveling to Roseau. They ran into a buzz saw in Roseau losing the opener to Elk River 10-1, but the Cougars came back to place second in the Silver Division beating East Grand Forks 3-2 and Grand Forks before losing to Fargo Flyers 4-3.
Rochester played in their tourney two weekends ago. In pool play they tied Jefferson 2-2, beat Owatonna 3-2 and tied Champlin Park. In the 3rd place game Rochester beat Omaha 6-2. They then made the trip to Roseau.
Rochester won their opener, beating Grand Forks 4-2. But they lost the opening game of the Gold Division to Edina 7-1, then lost to Elk River 6-1 and lost to Centennial. Rochester has three D8 games this week, two with Red Wing and one with Hastings. Rosemount played in the Duluth Invitational tourney two weekends ago. The Irish lost to the Duluth Lakers 6-3, beat Hermantown 4-2 and lost to Prior Lake 7-3. On Sunday, the Irish lost the 3rd place game to Woodbury.
After tying Cottage Grove, Eagan played in the St. Cloud tourney. The Wildcats got to the Consolation Round by beating Sartell 6-0 and North Metro 5-2 in pool play. Their only pool loss was 7-5 to Bemidji. In the consolation round, Eagan ran into a tough Mpls Park team losing 10-4. At Eveleth, Eagan opened with an 8-3 win over Hibbing, lost to Virginia 3-0 and beat Anoka 6-5 in OT to take third place.
Woodbury, Lakeville North and IGH have opened a small gap over the next group of teams (Rochester, Cottage Grove, Lakeville South and Eagan). After this week Woodbury and Lakeville North will have two games remaining in league play, IGH will have three. One of these three will set the mark for the other teams to catch.
The top three seeds get jumbled again. Woodbury essentially lost the Duluth tourney to Lakeville North two weekends ago and the two teams tied last weekend. That is good enough to give Lakeville North the #1 seed and Woodbury the #2 seed.
Inver Grove Heights had a tough St. Cloud tourney, so that drops them down. But nobody has stepped forward to take IGH’s spot, so the Heights keep the #3 seed. Eagan had a difficult St. Cloud tourney and played well at Eveleth. Cottage Grove had an okay tourney in Eveleth. Rochester did not do well in their tourney and in Roseau’s. Rochester will start their charge for the D8 title this week.
The projected East Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
East Red Division: D6-#1 Edina, D8-#2 Woodbury, D2-#2 White Bear Lake, D8-#3 Inver Grove Heights.
East Blue Division: D8-#1 Lakeville North, D6-#2 Burnsville, D2-#1 Roseville, D2-#3 Forest Lake.
East Regional seeds: #1 Edina, #2 Burnsville. Both teams had a good two weeks, Edina in D6 and in taking second in the Roseau tourney; Burnsville in D6 and taking the St. Cloud tourney. Lakeville North won the Duluth Invitational, but that was not enough to claim a seed. Woodbury struggled at the Duluth tourney and in D8 the past two weeks. The East Regional is wide, wide open yet.
West Regional
The West districts this year are D3 (2 seeds), D10 (3 seeds) and D15 (3 seeds)
W1-District 3
Osseo/Maple Grove came off a week’s rest and beat Armstrong and tied Orono 3-3 in D3 games to remain unbeaten. OMG then headed for St. Cloud and really struggled losing in pool play to St. Cloud 6-0, Moundsview 3-1 and Minnetonka 3-2 before beating Moorhead 12-4. They lost to Blaine 5-1 and left town again to play in Eveleth’s tourney. This time, they put it all together and won the Championship beating Park Rapids, Anoka 7-1 and Virginia 5-4. This week they return to D3 playing Hopkins and Wayzata.
Wayzata is the other unbeaten team. The Trojans in the past two weeks have focused on the Roseau tourney. They beat East Grand Forks and Elk River 2-1 before losing to Edina in the semifinals 6-5. They lost the third place game 5-2 to the host Roseau. This week Wayzata has the one game with OMG. The winner of that Friday game will be in the driver’s seat for the D3 crown.
Armstrong took second in the Rochester tourney. In pool play they beat Mankato, lost to Forest Lake and beat Omaha. In the Championship game they lost to Jefferson. Hopkins also played in St. Cloud, beating Moorhead 2-1, losing to Rogers, Inver Grove Heights and Minnetonka. They returned to D3 action and lost to North Metro 3-1.
The top two teams in D3 this week are unchanged, Wayzata #1 and Osseo/Maple Grove #2, but the D3 title is down to a single game this week. Winner takes the #1.
W2-District 10
Elk River and Blaine have been the hot teams in D10. The Elks are dominating the Green Division and have the Green Title locked up with three games to go (Blaine, Princeton and CINB). St. Cloud has lock on the #2 spot in the Green with five games to go. But the real surprise in the Green is Rogers. They appeared out of nowhere to put a lock on 3rd place in the Green.
Fourth place and the final spot for the Green Division teams in the D10 playoffs is up in the air between Princeton, CINB and Sauk Rapids. Based on games remaining to be played, CINB has the advantage.
Two weekends ago, St. Cloud and its neighbor Sauk Rapids had their tourney. St. Cloud took second in their tourney, beating Osseo/Maple Grove, tying Moundsview and beating Minnetonka 1-0. In the championship round, St. Cloud beat Inver Grove Heights 5-3 and lost the championship to Burnsville 7-1. St. Cloud returned to league play beating Chisago Lakes and Princeton.
Sauk Rapids opened their tourney with an exciting game beating Kennedy 3-3 in a shoot out. In their semifinal game they lost to Tartan 3-1 and they lost to STMA 3-2 in OT in the 3rd place game.
Last weekend, the Elks traveled to Roseau and came away with the Consolation title. They beat Lakeville South 10-1 in the opening game to gain the Gold Division, but lost the quarterfinal game to Wayzata 2-1 in a repeat of the Edina Championship game. The Elks went of to beat Rochester 6-1 and Eden Prairie 5-1 to take consolation. The Elks will close out this January with a D10 game against Blaine in a match-up between the two top teams in D10.
Blaine continued their winning ways the past two weeks. It started with a tie at Woodbury 4-4 and followed with wins over CINB 10-0, Andover 7-2, Coon Rapids 7-0, Osseo/Maple Grove 5-1, and Armstrong 3-1. This week the Bengals play Elk River and Coon Rapids. They have moved into a virtual tie with Centennial atop the Blue Division. The two teams have moved away from the other teams and will likely battle for the #1 and #2 seeds to the D10 playoffs. Blaine has seven games left and Centennial has six games left. Centennial plays four of those games this week (Andover, Anoka, Rogers, and St. Cloud).
Andover lost to Champlin Park 2-1, tied Anoka 1-1, lost to Blaine, and beat Chisago Lakes this past week. But those games resulted in Andover falling out of the title chase and being lodged in 3rd place in the Blue Division. Anoka, Coon Rapids, Champlin Park and Spring Lake Park will all fight it out with an average four games left for the fourth and final Blue Division seed to the D10 playoffs.
The seeds remain unchanged in D10 this week. The #1 seed goes to Elk River with Blaine taking the #2 seed and Centennial the #3 seed.
W3-District 15
What happened to Fergus Falls? They opened their season by winning only three of their first 11 games. Since then, the Otters have gone 9-1-1 to turn their season around. Now there are four teams contending in D15. Besides the Otters, there is Brainerd, Alexandria and Moorhead. So what has been a tale of two unbeatens contending for the D15 title is now a case of four teams mixing it up.
Brainerd still has the upper hand. The Warriors have three D15 games left, Moorhead, Fergus Falls and Park Rapids and will likely set the mark around 30 points for the title, but a second loss to Fergus Falls could drop them in the D15 race. Alexandria concludes their season this week end, playing Fergus Falls and Moorhead. Alexandria has their tourney in a couple weeks. Besides Alex, Jefferson, Sartell, Grand Forks, Sibley, Farmington, Princeton and Willmar are entered.
Moorhead is a mystery. They did play in the St. Cloud tourney and lost in pool play to Rogers and Hopkins. Their one good game was a 7-6 win over Inver Grove Heights. On Sunday, the Spuds lost to Osseo/Maple Grove 12-4. Most of their D15 games are unreported, a Spud habit. So they remain a mystery as to how they are playing.
Brainerd did play in the Cloquet tourney last weekend and did well winning their pool and advancing to the Championship round. There, the Warriors lost to Hermantown 4-2 and beat Eastview 3-2 to win 3rd place. This weekend the Warriors conclude D15 play.
Brainerd remains #1 in D15. Alex remains #2, but Fergus Falls takes over #3. The Spuds have to earn a #3 seed. They can do that this weekend.
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 Fergus Falls.
West Regional seeds: #1 Elk River, #2 Blaine. Elk River’s loss to Wayzata at Roseau stopped a 21 game winning streak. But the Trojans victory was not enough to knock the Elks out of the #1 spot in the West. Blaine has strung together 22 games without a loss against top teams in D10, D11, D3, D8 and D6. The Trojans in their last 15 games are 9-5-1. The Trojan losses came against good teams, but this week, Blaine takes their spot. The Trojans no longer look invincible.
There are a number of changes to the 2009 Peewee A State Tournament Quarterfinal Pairings this week:
S1: Mpls Park
N2: Cloquet
W1: Elk River
E2: Burnsville
N1: Roseau
S2: New Prague
E1: Edina
W2: Blaine
Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Jan 27, 2009
Moderators: Mitch Hawker, east hockey, karl(east)
-
frederick61
- Posts: 1039
- Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:54 pm
-
MNWILD2009
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 12:13 pm
Fred,
It's great to have your post back again!
Just for the record, Wayzata has outplayed and out shot Elk River the last two times they have played (a 4-1 loss and 2-1 win in Roseau).
Chaska is one of the most improved teams so far....they will push Edina, Burnsville, EP and others come District Tournament time!
Go Chaska
It's great to have your post back again!
Just for the record, Wayzata has outplayed and out shot Elk River the last two times they have played (a 4-1 loss and 2-1 win in Roseau).
Chaska is one of the most improved teams so far....they will push Edina, Burnsville, EP and others come District Tournament time!
Go Chaska
-
royalhockey999
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:09 pm
Re: Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Jan 27, 2009
[quote="frederick61"]This post looks at the current play of all the districts and teams within the district and posts an opinion of which team will likely win the seeds in each district. It groups the districts by the region they have been assigned to this year. This post then projects the winners of the region based on play up to this week and shows the potential state draw.
This past week, a number of key district games and tournaments were played. There are twelve districts in Minnesota and surprisingly only three districts have been basically decided. They are District 6 (Edina), District 10 (Elk River-Green Division), and District 16 (Roseau)). District 10 Blue Division (Centennial and Blaine), District 11 (Cloquet and Duluth Lakers) and D3 (Wayzata and Osseo/Maple Grove) each have two contenders. The remaining districts are wide open with the widest open being District 8.
District playoffs are scheduled to be played on February 20-22 mostly. Some districts will spread their playoffs (and play-in games) to start earlier.
North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds).
N1-District 11
The Duluth Invitational tourney was held two weekends ago. Hermantown, Duluth East and the Duluth Lakers were three of the eight teams that played in the tourney. Hermantown lost to Prior Lake 7-2 and Rosemount 5-2. The Hawks came back to beat the Lakers 3-2 and tied Duluth East 2-2. Duluth East opened with an impressively tying Woodbury 3-3. The Hounds then lost to Stillwater 2-1 and Lakeville North 5-3. The Duluth Lakers beat Rosemount 6-3 and lost to Stillwater 7-2. In this tourney against outside competition, the D11 teams finished 1-5-1.
This does not bode well for D11 in the North Regional tourney in early March. Cloquet had their tourney this past weekend. Unlike past years, the Lumberjacks had a 12 team, four pool, draw set up. But three D11 teams each had their own pool. Did they atone for their performance at the Duluth Invitational the previous week?
The Lumberjacks won their pool beating Rogers 5-2 and North St. Paul 9-3. Hermantown won their pool beating Fort Frances (Canada across the border from International Falls) 6-0 and Andover 3-1. The Duluth Lakers lost their pool, losing to Brainerd 6-3 and Shakopee 4-3. The fourth pool had Eastview, Faribault and River Lakes.
The D11 teams came through in the Championship round as Hermantown beat Brainerd 4-3 and Cloquet beat Eastview 6-2. In the Championship game, Cloquet lost to Hermantown 4-2, a team they had beaten six days earlier in league play.
Earlier in January, Cloquet returned from the Brainerd tourney and played Duluth East in a league game on the following Monday. They lost 5-4 for their first D11 loss of the year. This past week, they beat Hermantown 3-2. The Lumberjacks close out January by visiting Hibbing. The Duluth Lakers tied Duluth East 3-3 on Tuesday before playing in the Cloquet tourney. The Lakers have the coming week off. Duluth East toured Thunder Bay this past weekend.
The seeds are changed this week; Cloquet keeps the #1 seed and Hermantown takes the #2 seed. The Lumberjacks loss to Duluth East or the loss to Hermantown is not enough to knock them out of the top spot. The Lakers are starting to struggle and Duluth East is simply an unknown. The Hounds are a dangerous team, but if they win a seed, it will be with a record that is .500 at best.
N2-District 12
Virginia held their tourney two weekends ago. In that tourney, the Blue Devils lost to Hudson 4-0, beat Northfield 6-2 and International Falls 7-0. With all the attention this weekend focused on Roseau’s tourney, Eveleth had their own tourney and had a good draw. Virginia coming off a so-so performance in their own tourney, opened play in the Eveleth tourney by beating Cottage Grove 4-3 and Eagan 3-0 before losing to Osseo/Maple Grove 5-4 in OT in the Championship game.
Hibbing also played in the Eveleth tourney and lost to Eagan 8-3 and Cottage Grove 5-1. Eveleth was the third 12 team in the tourney. The Golden Bears lost to Osseo/Maple Grove and Park Rapids 7-2.
Grand Rapids lost to Bemidji 4-1, played Hibbing and then headed to Roseau. In the Roseau tourney opener, the Thunderhawks lost to the host Roseau 6-3. In Silver Division play, Grand Rapids lost to the Fargo Flyers 5-0, beat Warroad, and lost to East Grand Forks 2-1. This week the Thunderhawks play Eveleth, Bemidji and Woodbury.
Woodbury is making a D12 tour and will also play Hibbing, Grand Rapids and a TBD team.
The seeds in D12 change this week. Virginia remains the #1 seed, but the Thunderhawks take the #2 seed based on their play in the Roseau tourney. Hibbing falls to the #3 seed based on their play in the Brainerd and Eveleth tourney. The Thunderhawks are coming on again late in the season.
N3-District 16
Roseau beat Warroad in a D16 game two weeks ago and then headed to Fargo. They ran over the Fargo teams, beating West Fargo Packers 7-3, the Fargo Angels 8-2, and the Fargo Raiders 6-2. In the Championship game they beat Bismarck 8-0. The Rams then returned home to play in their own tourney, a 16-team tourney that included a number of highly ranked teams in the state. As a warm-up to the tourney, the Rams beat cross-state rival Edina 7-5. Any game between a Ram’s team and a Hornet’s team is always played more intensely. They should all be called Henry Bouche games.
In the opening game of the tourney, the Rams beat Grand Rapids to advance to the Gold Division. In the opening bracket round, they beat Eden Prairie 3-0, lost to Chaska 6-3 and beat Wayzata 5-2 for third place. Chaska went on to win the title.
Roseau had one big party last weekend.
East Grand Forks beat Grand Forks Seawolves 5-3 and Grafton 7-3 before playing in the Roseau tourney. They lost to Wayzata in the opening game 6-2 at Roseau. In the opening round of the Silver Division, the Green Wave lost to Lakeville South and came back to take the Silver Division consolation title beating Thief River Falls and Grand Rapids.
What really made the Roseau tourney more interesting was the play of Bemidji in the St. Cloud Tourney. Bemidji took third in the 16 team tourney, beating Eagan 7-5, tying North Metro 3-3, beating Sartell 7-1 in pool play. The Lumberjacks lost a tough game to the eventual champ, Burnsville 6-4 in the championship round and came back to beat Inver Grove Heights 5-3 in the third place game. That set the stage for D16 teams Crookston, Warroad and Thief River Falls to prove their play in the Roseau tourney. But all three lost their opener, Crookston lost to Centennial, Warroad lost to Chaska and Thief River Falls lost to Edina.
The seeds in D16 are changed this week. Roseau is #1, but Bemidji takes the #2 seed based on their play in St. Cloud. East Grand Forks drops to #3. Bemidji did prove itself to be a contender in this Regional tourney. They made it to the championship round in St. Cloud and went one better beating Inver Grove Heights to take third place.
The projected North Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
North Red Division: D16-#1 Roseau, D12-#2 Grand Rapids, D11-#2 Hermantown, D16-#3 East Grand Forks.
North Blue Division: D12-#1 Virginia, D16-#2 Bemidji, D11-#1 Cloquet, D12-#3 Hibbing.
North Regional seeds: Despite their loss to Chaska, Roseau remains #1 in the North Regional. The Rams did beat Edina, Grand Rapids, and Eden Prairie before losing to Chaska (Chaska beat Warroad and Centennial prior to playing the Rams). The Rams came back to beat Wayzata. At this point in the season, the Rams are still the best team in the state. The question is who is #2 in the North Region? Two weeks ago Cloquet was the clear favorite. This week Hermantown, Bemidji, East Grand Forks, Virginia and Grand Rapids could all contend for the #2 seed?
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 South Region will have a play-in game scheduled for March 1 at the Richfield Arena. The game will be played between the teams seeded #3 in D1 and #3 in D4 with the winner advancing to the South Regional tourney in Mankato.
S1-District 1
Richfield-Washburn and Mpls Park both headed for St. Cloud two weekends ago, but they played in different tourneys. Richfield-Washburn played in the Sauk Rapids tourney and Mpls Park played in the St. Cloud Tourney. R-W lost to Orono 7-3, St. Francis 7-1 and beat Princeton 6-3. R-W has a off week.
Mpls Park faired better in the St. Cloud tourney beating Buffalo 5-3, losing to Burnsville 9-5 and beating the Grand Forks Seawolves 7-3 in pool play. In the consolation round, the Storm beat Eagan 10-4 before losing the trophy game to Rogers 8-5. In D1 action before the St. Cloud tourney, the Storm beat rival Highland 4-2. This past week the Storm tied Jefferson 4-4.
Highland played two D1 games in the past two weeks. In addition to Mpls Park game, Highland beat Irondale 5-2 on Sunday. Irondale played four games the past two weeks, losing to Roseville 3-1 and Mahtomedi 3-0 in D2 games. Besides the Highland game, they lost to Coon Rapids 4-1.
This week, the seeds remain unchanged with Mpls Park the #1 seed. Highland is #2 and Washburn takes #3. But it appears that the Storm is pulling away from the other three D1 teams and Highland is starting to struggle.
S2-District 4
Luverne finished their D4 schedule by beating Waseca. The Cardinals ended their D4 season with 32 points. Now they have to sit back and wait to see if any of the other teams can over take them. This week they played in the Worthington tourney drawing Sioux Falls, Sioux City and Omaha. Worthington is a member of D4 but are not skating a peewee A team this year.
New Prague beat Faribault 10-4 and Waseca 8-0 in D4 play. The Trojans then played in the Little Falls tourney this past weekend. They drew Crow River and Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch (CINB) in pool play, but did not make the Championship game losing the pool to Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch. New Prague has three D4 games left (Owatonna, Mason City and Marshall). They play Owatonna on Tuesday.
Owatonna had a strange Rochester tourney two weekends ago. They tied a Champlin Park team 5-5 and came close to beating Rochester losing 3-2. But in between those games they lost to Jefferson and Mankato by identical 7-1 scores. After playing at Rochester, the Huskies returned to D4 action beating Faribault 3-2.
Mankato had a tougher two weeks. They started the week coming off a 3-1 win over D8 Farmington and played in the Rochester tourney. In pool play the Mustangs lost to Armstrong 7-1, Omaha 6-2 and then turned around and beat a tough Forest Lake team 5-4. On Sunday, they beat D4 rival Owatonna. This past week, they were upended by New Ulm 4-3 in D4 action and lost to Hasting 4-1.
Owatonna has three games left. After New Prague, they play Faribault and Mankato. Mankato has three D4 games the first week of February to end their D4 play. The Mustangs play Faribault, Owatonna and Albert Lea, all tough games.
Faribault was doing well at the turn of the New Year, tying Shakopee and beating Luverne. But they went north to the Thief River Falls tourney and were beaten by TRF 11-1 and Mandan North Dakota 11-4 and have lost three straight since their return to slip out of the running for the D4 title chase. This past weekend, Fairbault played well in the Cloquet tourney. They split their games in pool play, beating River Lakes 11-3 and losing to D6 Eastview 6-0. In consolation play, they lost to a tough North St. Paul team 7-3 and nearly tied Shakopee again losing 7-6.
Luverne has set the mark at 32 points. Owatonna has 31 and New Prague has 28. The winner of the Owatonna/New Prague game will likely take the D4 title. Both Owatonna and New Prague should over take Luverne. The final question is can Mankato over take Luverne. They will need seven points in their remaining three games.
This week the seeds change. New Prague remains the #1 seed, Luverne drops to the #3 seed, and Owatonna takes the #2 seed. Mankato and Fairbault can still make a charge in the playoffs. A team seeded #3 or greater has to play a single play-in game to get to bracket play. A single win in the first round of the 8 team bracket play, guarantees the winner two shots at getting a D4 seed.
S3-District 5
Buffalo returned to D5 action after a tough St. Cloud tourney beating Hutchinson and playing Sartell. Buffalo lost to Mpls Park 5-3, Burnsville 4-1 and Grand Forks 6-3 in pool play. On Sunday they beat Sartell 9-3 to end their St. Cloud tourney play. The Bison play Willmar in D5 action this week. Crow River beat Willmar 6-2 and STMA 4-1 in D5 action before they left to play in the Little Falls tourney. In pool play, the Tigers drew New Prague and the eventual tourney Champs CINB and did not advance.
Buffalo pulled slightly ahead of Crow River in the chase for the #1 seed and the automatic #1 seed to the South Regional. Both teams have 5 games remaining with the key game being played in two weeks when they tangle at Buffalo. MALM and Mound Westonka can be the “spoilers” in the chase.
Mound Westonka looked like they would make a charge to get into the mix only to be upended by Willmar 4-2. Willmar also put a dent in MALM’s D5 run, tying them 3-3.
The seeds change this week. Buffalo is remains #1 and Crow River takes the #2 seed but very narrowly. MALM drops to the #3 seed.
The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
South Red Division: D1-#1 Mpls Park, D4-#2 Owatonna, D5-#2 Crow River, D5-#3 MALM
South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Highland, D5-#1 Buffalo, D1-#3 Luverne or Washburn.
South Regional seeds: #1 Mpls Park and #2 New Prague. Mpls Park continues to look stronger as the season winds down. Their play in St. Cloud shows some volatility, but their tie with Jefferson, a team that also looks stronger, last week plus their 10-4 win over Eagan make them the team to beat in the South. New Prague is now starting to struggle and may find themselves in a donnybrook with Buffalo, Owatonna or MALM to take the second seed. The South Region is no longer wide, wide open. It is ½ wide, wide open.
East Regional
The East districts this year are D2 (3 seeds), D6 (2 seeds) and D8 (3 seeds)
E1-District 2
In two weeks, White Bear Lake’s tourney will take center stage. The 8-team bracket play tourney draw is out with the Host opening the tourney against Duluth East. Lakeville North and Edina will play in the second game of the upper bracket. Lower bracket games match Woodbury and Elk River and Eden Prairie and Centennial. One can note that this is the fourth tournament that Edina, Duluth East, White Bear Lake, Centennial and Eden Prairie will have played in as a group. Duluth East had conflicts with two other tourney dates and didn’t make them otherwise these five teams would have appeared in five tourneys and one preview together.
D2 is a difficult district again this year. On the surface, White Bear Lake would appear to be the dominant team, but they haven’t been. The Bears sit on top of the standings with 13 games played and three more yet to play (Stillwater, Tartan and Forest Lake). Roseville has played 12 games and has four yet to play (Moundsville, Stillwater twice and North St. Paul). That puts Roseville and White Bear in a virtual tie for the lead with Roseville holding the edge in games and White Bear running out of time. Forest Lake, Stillwater and Moundsview all have shots at catching the top two. Forest Lake has the best opportunity based on number of games and schedule.
Moundsview is in third with three games left to play (Roseville, North St. Paul and Forest Lake). Forest Lake is in fourth with four games left to play (Stillwater, North St. Paul, White Bear Lake and Moundsview). Stillwater trails with seven games left to play (White Bear Lake, Irondale, Forest Lake, Mahtomedi, Highland, and Roseville twice).
White Bear Lake played a single game in the past two weeks losing to Roseville 3-2 in D2 play. This week the Bears play Stillwater. Roseville played three games in addition to beating the Bears. The Raiders lost to Centennial 8-4 in a game that was close until the third period. The Raiders then tied St. Cloud 4-4 and beat Tartan 2-0. This week they play Moundsview in a D2 game.
Moundsview played in the St. Cloud tourney two weekends ago and were missing one of their key players. They tied Minnetonka 3-3 and St. Cloud 5-5 in pool play. The Mustangs beat Osseo/Maple Grove 3-1 to advance to the consolation round where they lost to a good Rogers team 4-1. Forest Lake played in the Rochester tourney two weekends ago and struggled. The Lakers beat Armstrong 6-3, lost to Mankato 5-4 and tied Champlin Park 2-2. Forest Lake returned to D2 action and beat Tartan 2-1. This week they play Stillwater and Superior.
Stillwater traveled to Duluth to play in the invitational losing to Lakeville North and Woodbury but beating Duluth East 2-1 in pool play. On Sunday, the Ponies followed up with another win over a D11 team, beating the Duluth Lakers 7-2. The Ponies tied Moundsview last week 2-2. Besides playing White Bear, the Ponies play Irondale and Forest Lake in D2 action this week.
Tartan played in the Sauk Rapids tourney two weekends ago, beating Princeton 3-1, Sauk Rapids 3-1 and Orono 4-2 to win the title.
The Bears were beaten by Roseville in the past two weeks and to the victor goes the spoils. Roseville takes the #1 seed this week, White Bear drops to #2 and Forest Lake takes the #3 seed. Moundsview struggled after a great Bloomington tourney and had St. Cloud on the ropes leading 5-2 at the start of the 3rd period in St. Cloud’s tourney only to let the host off the ropes and escape with a tie and a ticket to the championship round. Stillwater did the same at Duluth, losing to two D8 teams before beating two D11 teams. But as last year, the difference between the D2 teams is narrowing.
E2-District 6
The Eden Prairie Eagles didn’t soar these past two weeks. The Eagles lost two of the three D6 games they played before they headed to Roseau. They opened the week by beating Chaska 2-1, but then lost to Apple Valley 4-3 and Edina 8-1. In the Roseau tourney, the Eagles beat the Fargo Flyers 4-2, lost to host Roseau 3-0, beat Centennial 6-3 and lost to Elk River 5-1. All tough games, but off set by those two tough D6 losses before the tourney started. The Eagles problem is that they have to play Burnsville and Edina in two tough D6 games this week. A loss to the Blaze will leave the Eagles fighting for the #3 or #4 seed.
Edina did its job. They beat Eastview 6-3 besides beating Eden Prairie. Now with four games to go in D6, they hold a 5 point lead and a firm grip on the D6 playoff #1 seed. The Hornets are not likely to be caught. The Hornets had a good trip to Roseau. They lost to the host in a pre-tourney game, came back to beat Thief River Falls, Rochester and Wayzata before losing to D6 rival Chaska in the Championship game.
Burnsville went to St. Cloud on two weekends ago and came back with the Championship. In pool play the Blaze beat the Grand Forks Seawolves 5-3, Buffalo 4-1, and Mpls Park 9-4. They then beat Bemidji 6-4 and St. Cloud 7-1 (championship game) to win the title. They beat Shakopee 4-3 before they left for St. Cloud. The Blaze trail Eden Prairie in the chase for the #2 seed to the D6 playoffs by three points, but they have six games left to the Eagles four games. Besides playing Eden Praire this week, the Blaze play D6 games with Apple Valley and Kennedy.
Eastview won their pool at the Cloquet tourney this weekend. The Lightening beat Faribault and River Lakes in pool play. In the Championship round the Lightening lost to Cloquet 6-2 and to Brainerd 3-2 in the 3rd place game. The Lightening have a tight grip on the #4 seed for the D6 playoffs.
The only real question in the D6 standings appears to be who will get the #5 seed. All seeds below the #5 drop down into a tough single elimination tourney with the winner getting the #6 seed into the double elimination part of the D6 playoffs. The seeding is determined by regular season play.
Jefferson has a small grip on the #5 seed and have a key game with Chaska who is coming off winning the Roseau Tourney. Jefferson also won big two weekends ago, winning the Rochester tourney. In pool play, the Jags tied Rochester 2-2, beat Champlin Park 3-1 and Owatonna 7-1 to win the pool. In the Championship game they beat Armstrong 4-3 in OT. But Apple Valley upended their cart in D6 beating the Jags 3-1 earlier this week. The Jags also tied the Mpls Storm.
Chaska are the Roseau champs and are to be congratulated! Now they have to get work in D6 to avoid being buried in the single elimination tourney. They won the title by beating Warroad in the opener. In Gold Division play, the Hawks beat Centennial 6-4, Roseau 6-3 and Edina 3-0. This week, they return to D6 play needing points. Besides playing Jefferson on Sunday, the Hawks play Eastview earlier in the week.
Amid all the hullabaloo of tourneys, Apple Valley started a charge to get the #5 seed by beating Eden Prairie and Jefferson. A win over the Blaze on Saturday will put Valley in the driver’s seat in the chase for #5. Minnetonka has their own shot at #5 and they control their own destiny by simply winning games, but it is a tough D6 schedule for them.
Edina returns to take the #1 spot and Burnsville takes the #2 in D6 this week. Eden Prairie played well in the Roseau tourney, almost well enough to continue to be #1, but the two D6 losses dropped them this week. The Eagles will remain a threat and can easily turn it around with a win over the Blaze this week. Eastview remains in contention, but Edina will likely take the #1 seed into the D6 playoffs. The Blaze and the Eagles will fight it out for the #2 and #3 seeds. The Lightening will likely end the season with the #4 seed.
E3-District 8
In the past few weeks, Woodbury Hockey Association published a letter stating that there will be no new hockey association split from the existing association to specifically support the new East Ridge High School opening next year.
This position was supported by Cottage Grove also, but the real question is what does “no new split” mean? Will the association follow Lakeville and have two associations within the single? It may be impossible to follow the Lakeville model since there is no East Ridge community and the East Ridge students will come from Cottage Grove and Woodbury.
It won’t be long before the parents of East Ridge hockey players demand access to home ice specifically for the East Ridge bound players. Associations have to remember that a community owns the arena (that means East Ridge parents and Woodbury parents) and the associations have to figure out how to live with it and parent’s preceptions. The model Woodbury should follow is that of Apple Valley and Eastview (Eastview is a high school, not a community) and get out in front of the problem.
But enough talk of politics. If one looks at D8 standings as the week starts, the log jam continues as Lakeville North, Woodbury, Inver Grove Heights and Cottage Grove sit atop the league. Not far behind is Lakeville South, Rosemount and Farmington. Eagan, having played only 10 league games, and Rochester, having played only 7 league games, are lurking.
Lakeville North has been busy the past two weeks. The Panthers played Prior Lake, won the Duluth Invitational tourney, and played three league games this past two weeks. In the Duluth Inviational tourney, Lakeville North beat Stillwater 5-3, tied Woodbury 2-2 and beat the Duluth Lakers 5-3 to win their pool and advance to the Championship games, beating Prior Lake 6-4. Back in D8 play, the Panthers were upended by Hastings 3-0, tied Woodbury again and beat Hudson 2-0. This week Lakeville North plays Inver Grove Heights in one of number of key D8 games in their only action.
Woodbury went to Duluth also, but took on Blaine before they left. They tied the Bengals 4-4. At Duluth, the Royals tied Duluth East 3-3 and beat Stillwater 5-2. They beat D8 rival Rosemount 9-2 in the third place game.
This week Woodbury plays Eagan and then takes the Northern tour, playing Hibbing, Cloquet, Grand Rapids and a TBD opponent. Inver Grove lost their 3rd D8 game to Rochester 3-2 and then traveled to St. Cloud. The Heights won their pool, losing to Moorhead 7-6, beating Rogers 5-3 and Hopkins 5-2. In the Championship round, they were forced to play the game less then 3 hours after the final pool game ended and lost to the host, St. Cloud, 5-3. The next day, Bemidji beat the Heights 5-3 in the 3rd place game. Back in D8 play last week, Inver Grove Heights beat Hudson 7-1. This week the Heights play Hastings besides Lakeville North.
Cottage Grove beat Rosemount and tied Eagan 3-3 in D8 play before going North to Eveleth. In the Mariucci Tourney, they were beaten by Virginia in the opening round of bracket play 4-3, but came back to beat Hibbing 5-1 and Park Rapids 5-0 to take consolation. This week they play Lakeville South in D8 action. Lakeville South beat Eagan and Hastings before traveling to Roseau. They ran into a buzz saw in Roseau losing the opener to Elk River 10-1, but the Cougars came back to place second in the Silver Division beating East Grand Forks 3-2 and Grand Forks before losing to Fargo Flyers 4-3.
Rochester played in their tourney two weekends ago. In pool play they tied Jefferson 2-2, beat Owatonna 3-2 and tied Champlin Park. In the 3rd place game Rochester beat Omaha 6-2. They then made the trip to Roseau.
Rochester won their opener, beating Grand Forks 4-2. But they lost the opening game of the Gold Division to Edina 7-1, then lost to Elk River 6-1 and lost to Centennial. Rochester has three D8 games this week, two with Red Wing and one with Hastings. Rosemount played in the Duluth Invitational tourney two weekends ago. The Irish lost to the Duluth Lakers 6-3, beat Hermantown 4-2 and lost to Prior Lake 7-3. On Sunday, the Irish lost the 3rd place game to Woodbury.
After tying Cottage Grove, Eagan played in the St. Cloud tourney. The Wildcats got to the Consolation Round by beating Sartell 6-0 and North Metro 5-2 in pool play. Their only pool loss was 7-5 to Bemidji. In the consolation round, Eagan ran into a tough Mpls Park team losing 10-4. At Eveleth, Eagan opened with an 8-3 win over Hibbing, lost to Virginia 3-0 and beat Anoka 6-5 in OT to take third place.
Woodbury, Lakeville North and IGH have opened a small gap over the next group of teams (Rochester, Cottage Grove, Lakeville South and Eagan). After this week Woodbury and Lakeville North will have two games remaining in league play, IGH will have three. One of these three will set the mark for the other teams to catch.
The top three seeds get jumbled again. Woodbury essentially lost the Duluth tourney to Lakeville North two weekends ago and the two teams tied last weekend. That is good enough to give Lakeville North the #1 seed and Woodbury the #2 seed.
Inver Grove Heights had a tough St. Cloud tourney, so that drops them down. But nobody has stepped forward to take IGH’s spot, so the Heights keep the #3 seed. Eagan had a difficult St. Cloud tourney and played well at Eveleth. Cottage Grove had an okay tourney in Eveleth. Rochester did not do well in their tourney and in Roseau’s. Rochester will start their charge for the D8 title this week.
The projected East Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
East Red Division: D6-#1 Edina, D8-#2 Woodbury, D2-#2 White Bear Lake, D8-#3 Inver Grove Heights.
East Blue Division: D8-#1 Lakeville North, D6-#2 Burnsville, D2-#1 Roseville, D2-#3 Forest Lake.
East Regional seeds: #1 Edina, #2 Burnsville. Both teams had a good two weeks, Edina in D6 and in taking second in the Roseau tourney; Burnsville in D6 and taking the St. Cloud tourney. Lakeville North won the Duluth Invitational, but that was not enough to claim a seed. Woodbury struggled at the Duluth tourney and in D8 the past two weeks. The East Regional is wide, wide open yet.
West Regional
The West districts this year are D3 (2 seeds), D10 (3 seeds) and D15 (3 seeds)
W1-District 3
Osseo/Maple Grove came off a week’s rest and beat Armstrong and tied Orono 3-3 in D3 games to remain unbeaten. OMG then headed for St. Cloud and really struggled losing in pool play to St. Cloud 6-0, Moundsview 3-1 and Minnetonka 3-2 before beating Moorhead 12-4. They lost to Blaine 5-1 and left town again to play in Eveleth’s tourney. This time, they put it all together and won the Championship beating Park Rapids, Anoka 7-1 and Virginia 5-4. This week they return to D3 playing Hopkins and Wayzata.
Wayzata is the other unbeaten team. The Trojans in the past two weeks have focused on the Roseau tourney. They beat East Grand Forks and Elk River 2-1 before losing to Edina in the semifinals 6-5. They lost the third place game 5-2 to the host Roseau. This week Wayzata has the one game with OMG. The winner of that Friday game will be in the driver’s seat for the D3 crown.
Armstrong took second in the Rochester tourney. In pool play they beat Mankato, lost to Forest Lake and beat Omaha. In the Championship game they lost to Jefferson. Hopkins also played in St. Cloud, beating Moorhead 2-1, losing to Rogers, Inver Grove Heights and Minnetonka. They returned to D3 action and lost to North Metro 3-1.
The top two teams in D3 this week are unchanged, Wayzata #1 and Osseo/Maple Grove #2, but the D3 title is down to a single game this week. Winner takes the #1.
W2-District 10
Elk River and Blaine have been the hot teams in D10. The Elks are dominating the Green Division and have the Green Title locked up with three games to go (Blaine, Princeton and CINB). St. Cloud has lock on the #2 spot in the Green with five games to go. But the real surprise in the Green is Rogers. They appeared out of nowhere to put a lock on 3rd place in the Green.
Fourth place and the final spot for the Green Division teams in the D10 playoffs is up in the air between Princeton, CINB and Sauk Rapids. Based on games remaining to be played, CINB has the advantage.
Two weekends ago, St. Cloud and its neighbor Sauk Rapids had their tourney. St. Cloud took second in their tourney, beating Osseo/Maple Grove, tying Moundsview and beating Minnetonka 1-0. In the championship round, St. Cloud beat Inver Grove Heights 5-3 and lost the championship to Burnsville 7-1. St. Cloud returned to league play beating Chisago Lakes and Princeton.
Sauk Rapids opened their tourney with an exciting game beating Kennedy 3-3 in a shoot out. In their semifinal game they lost to Tartan 3-1 and they lost to STMA 3-2 in OT in the 3rd place game.
Last weekend, the Elks traveled to Roseau and came away with the Consolation title. They beat Lakeville South 10-1 in the opening game to gain the Gold Division, but lost the quarterfinal game to Wayzata 2-1 in a repeat of the Edina Championship game. The Elks went of to beat Rochester 6-1 and Eden Prairie 5-1 to take consolation. The Elks will close out this January with a D10 game against Blaine in a match-up between the two top teams in D10.
Blaine continued their winning ways the past two weeks. It started with a tie at Woodbury 4-4 and followed with wins over CINB 10-0, Andover 7-2, Coon Rapids 7-0, Osseo/Maple Grove 5-1, and Armstrong 3-1. This week the Bengals play Elk River and Coon Rapids. They have moved into a virtual tie with Centennial atop the Blue Division. The two teams have moved away from the other teams and will likely battle for the #1 and #2 seeds to the D10 playoffs. Blaine has seven games left and Centennial has six games left. Centennial plays four of those games this week (Andover, Anoka, Rogers, and St. Cloud).
Andover lost to Champlin Park 2-1, tied Anoka 1-1, lost to Blaine, and beat Chisago Lakes this past week. But those games resulted in Andover falling out of the title chase and being lodged in 3rd place in the Blue Division. Anoka, Coon Rapids, Champlin Park and Spring Lake Park will all fight it out with an average four games left for the fourth and final Blue Division seed to the D10 playoffs.
The seeds remain unchanged in D10 this week. The #1 seed goes to Elk River with Blaine taking the #2 seed and Centennial the #3 seed.
W3-District 15
What happened to Fergus Falls? They opened their season by winning only three of their first 11 games. Since then, the Otters have gone 9-1-1 to turn their season around. Now there are four teams contending in D15. Besides the Otters, there is Brainerd, Alexandria and Moorhead. So what has been a tale of two unbeatens contending for the D15 title is now a case of four teams mixing it up.
Brainerd still has the upper hand. The Warriors have three D15 games left, Moorhead, Fergus Falls and Park Rapids and will likely set the mark around 30 points for the title, but a second loss to Fergus Falls could drop them in the D15 race. Alexandria concludes their season this week end, playing Fergus Falls and Moorhead. Alexandria has their tourney in a couple weeks. Besides Alex, Jefferson, Sartell, Grand Forks, Sibley, Farmington, Princeton and Willmar are entered.
Moorhead is a mystery. They did play in the St. Cloud tourney and lost in pool play to Rogers and Hopkins. Their one good game was a 7-6 win over Inver Grove Heights. On Sunday, the Spuds lost to Osseo/Maple Grove 12-4. Most of their D15 games are unreported, a Spud habit. So they remain a mystery as to how they are playing.
Brainerd did play in the Cloquet tourney last weekend and did well winning their pool and advancing to the Championship round. There, the Warriors lost to Hermantown 4-2 and beat Eastview 3-2 to win 3rd place. This weekend the Warriors conclude D15 play.
Brainerd remains #1 in D15. Alex remains #2, but Fergus Falls takes over #3. The Spuds have to earn a #3 seed. They can do that this weekend.
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 Fergus Falls.
West Regional seeds: #1 Elk River, #2 Blaine. Elk River’s loss to Wayzata at Roseau stopped a 21 game winning streak. But the Trojans victory was not enough to knock the Elks out of the #1 spot in the West. Blaine has strung together 22 games without a loss against top teams in D10, D11, D3, D8 and D6. The Trojans in their last 15 games are 9-5-1. The Trojan losses came against good teams, but this week, Blaine takes their spot. The Trojans no longer look invincible.
There are a number of changes to the 2009 Peewee A State Tournament Quarterfinal Pairings this week:
S1: Mpls Park
N2: Cloquet
W1: Elk River
E2: Burnsville
N1: Roseau
S2: New Prague
E1: Edina
W2: Blaine[/quote]
AHHHHHH I got my fix for the week, dont leave me hanging next week now!!!!
This past week, a number of key district games and tournaments were played. There are twelve districts in Minnesota and surprisingly only three districts have been basically decided. They are District 6 (Edina), District 10 (Elk River-Green Division), and District 16 (Roseau)). District 10 Blue Division (Centennial and Blaine), District 11 (Cloquet and Duluth Lakers) and D3 (Wayzata and Osseo/Maple Grove) each have two contenders. The remaining districts are wide open with the widest open being District 8.
District playoffs are scheduled to be played on February 20-22 mostly. Some districts will spread their playoffs (and play-in games) to start earlier.
North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds).
N1-District 11
The Duluth Invitational tourney was held two weekends ago. Hermantown, Duluth East and the Duluth Lakers were three of the eight teams that played in the tourney. Hermantown lost to Prior Lake 7-2 and Rosemount 5-2. The Hawks came back to beat the Lakers 3-2 and tied Duluth East 2-2. Duluth East opened with an impressively tying Woodbury 3-3. The Hounds then lost to Stillwater 2-1 and Lakeville North 5-3. The Duluth Lakers beat Rosemount 6-3 and lost to Stillwater 7-2. In this tourney against outside competition, the D11 teams finished 1-5-1.
This does not bode well for D11 in the North Regional tourney in early March. Cloquet had their tourney this past weekend. Unlike past years, the Lumberjacks had a 12 team, four pool, draw set up. But three D11 teams each had their own pool. Did they atone for their performance at the Duluth Invitational the previous week?
The Lumberjacks won their pool beating Rogers 5-2 and North St. Paul 9-3. Hermantown won their pool beating Fort Frances (Canada across the border from International Falls) 6-0 and Andover 3-1. The Duluth Lakers lost their pool, losing to Brainerd 6-3 and Shakopee 4-3. The fourth pool had Eastview, Faribault and River Lakes.
The D11 teams came through in the Championship round as Hermantown beat Brainerd 4-3 and Cloquet beat Eastview 6-2. In the Championship game, Cloquet lost to Hermantown 4-2, a team they had beaten six days earlier in league play.
Earlier in January, Cloquet returned from the Brainerd tourney and played Duluth East in a league game on the following Monday. They lost 5-4 for their first D11 loss of the year. This past week, they beat Hermantown 3-2. The Lumberjacks close out January by visiting Hibbing. The Duluth Lakers tied Duluth East 3-3 on Tuesday before playing in the Cloquet tourney. The Lakers have the coming week off. Duluth East toured Thunder Bay this past weekend.
The seeds are changed this week; Cloquet keeps the #1 seed and Hermantown takes the #2 seed. The Lumberjacks loss to Duluth East or the loss to Hermantown is not enough to knock them out of the top spot. The Lakers are starting to struggle and Duluth East is simply an unknown. The Hounds are a dangerous team, but if they win a seed, it will be with a record that is .500 at best.
N2-District 12
Virginia held their tourney two weekends ago. In that tourney, the Blue Devils lost to Hudson 4-0, beat Northfield 6-2 and International Falls 7-0. With all the attention this weekend focused on Roseau’s tourney, Eveleth had their own tourney and had a good draw. Virginia coming off a so-so performance in their own tourney, opened play in the Eveleth tourney by beating Cottage Grove 4-3 and Eagan 3-0 before losing to Osseo/Maple Grove 5-4 in OT in the Championship game.
Hibbing also played in the Eveleth tourney and lost to Eagan 8-3 and Cottage Grove 5-1. Eveleth was the third 12 team in the tourney. The Golden Bears lost to Osseo/Maple Grove and Park Rapids 7-2.
Grand Rapids lost to Bemidji 4-1, played Hibbing and then headed to Roseau. In the Roseau tourney opener, the Thunderhawks lost to the host Roseau 6-3. In Silver Division play, Grand Rapids lost to the Fargo Flyers 5-0, beat Warroad, and lost to East Grand Forks 2-1. This week the Thunderhawks play Eveleth, Bemidji and Woodbury.
Woodbury is making a D12 tour and will also play Hibbing, Grand Rapids and a TBD team.
The seeds in D12 change this week. Virginia remains the #1 seed, but the Thunderhawks take the #2 seed based on their play in the Roseau tourney. Hibbing falls to the #3 seed based on their play in the Brainerd and Eveleth tourney. The Thunderhawks are coming on again late in the season.
N3-District 16
Roseau beat Warroad in a D16 game two weeks ago and then headed to Fargo. They ran over the Fargo teams, beating West Fargo Packers 7-3, the Fargo Angels 8-2, and the Fargo Raiders 6-2. In the Championship game they beat Bismarck 8-0. The Rams then returned home to play in their own tourney, a 16-team tourney that included a number of highly ranked teams in the state. As a warm-up to the tourney, the Rams beat cross-state rival Edina 7-5. Any game between a Ram’s team and a Hornet’s team is always played more intensely. They should all be called Henry Bouche games.
In the opening game of the tourney, the Rams beat Grand Rapids to advance to the Gold Division. In the opening bracket round, they beat Eden Prairie 3-0, lost to Chaska 6-3 and beat Wayzata 5-2 for third place. Chaska went on to win the title.
Roseau had one big party last weekend.
East Grand Forks beat Grand Forks Seawolves 5-3 and Grafton 7-3 before playing in the Roseau tourney. They lost to Wayzata in the opening game 6-2 at Roseau. In the opening round of the Silver Division, the Green Wave lost to Lakeville South and came back to take the Silver Division consolation title beating Thief River Falls and Grand Rapids.
What really made the Roseau tourney more interesting was the play of Bemidji in the St. Cloud Tourney. Bemidji took third in the 16 team tourney, beating Eagan 7-5, tying North Metro 3-3, beating Sartell 7-1 in pool play. The Lumberjacks lost a tough game to the eventual champ, Burnsville 6-4 in the championship round and came back to beat Inver Grove Heights 5-3 in the third place game. That set the stage for D16 teams Crookston, Warroad and Thief River Falls to prove their play in the Roseau tourney. But all three lost their opener, Crookston lost to Centennial, Warroad lost to Chaska and Thief River Falls lost to Edina.
The seeds in D16 are changed this week. Roseau is #1, but Bemidji takes the #2 seed based on their play in St. Cloud. East Grand Forks drops to #3. Bemidji did prove itself to be a contender in this Regional tourney. They made it to the championship round in St. Cloud and went one better beating Inver Grove Heights to take third place.
The projected North Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
North Red Division: D16-#1 Roseau, D12-#2 Grand Rapids, D11-#2 Hermantown, D16-#3 East Grand Forks.
North Blue Division: D12-#1 Virginia, D16-#2 Bemidji, D11-#1 Cloquet, D12-#3 Hibbing.
North Regional seeds: Despite their loss to Chaska, Roseau remains #1 in the North Regional. The Rams did beat Edina, Grand Rapids, and Eden Prairie before losing to Chaska (Chaska beat Warroad and Centennial prior to playing the Rams). The Rams came back to beat Wayzata. At this point in the season, the Rams are still the best team in the state. The question is who is #2 in the North Region? Two weeks ago Cloquet was the clear favorite. This week Hermantown, Bemidji, East Grand Forks, Virginia and Grand Rapids could all contend for the #2 seed?
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 South Region will have a play-in game scheduled for March 1 at the Richfield Arena. The game will be played between the teams seeded #3 in D1 and #3 in D4 with the winner advancing to the South Regional tourney in Mankato.
S1-District 1
Richfield-Washburn and Mpls Park both headed for St. Cloud two weekends ago, but they played in different tourneys. Richfield-Washburn played in the Sauk Rapids tourney and Mpls Park played in the St. Cloud Tourney. R-W lost to Orono 7-3, St. Francis 7-1 and beat Princeton 6-3. R-W has a off week.
Mpls Park faired better in the St. Cloud tourney beating Buffalo 5-3, losing to Burnsville 9-5 and beating the Grand Forks Seawolves 7-3 in pool play. In the consolation round, the Storm beat Eagan 10-4 before losing the trophy game to Rogers 8-5. In D1 action before the St. Cloud tourney, the Storm beat rival Highland 4-2. This past week the Storm tied Jefferson 4-4.
Highland played two D1 games in the past two weeks. In addition to Mpls Park game, Highland beat Irondale 5-2 on Sunday. Irondale played four games the past two weeks, losing to Roseville 3-1 and Mahtomedi 3-0 in D2 games. Besides the Highland game, they lost to Coon Rapids 4-1.
This week, the seeds remain unchanged with Mpls Park the #1 seed. Highland is #2 and Washburn takes #3. But it appears that the Storm is pulling away from the other three D1 teams and Highland is starting to struggle.
S2-District 4
Luverne finished their D4 schedule by beating Waseca. The Cardinals ended their D4 season with 32 points. Now they have to sit back and wait to see if any of the other teams can over take them. This week they played in the Worthington tourney drawing Sioux Falls, Sioux City and Omaha. Worthington is a member of D4 but are not skating a peewee A team this year.
New Prague beat Faribault 10-4 and Waseca 8-0 in D4 play. The Trojans then played in the Little Falls tourney this past weekend. They drew Crow River and Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch (CINB) in pool play, but did not make the Championship game losing the pool to Cambridge/Isanti/North Branch. New Prague has three D4 games left (Owatonna, Mason City and Marshall). They play Owatonna on Tuesday.
Owatonna had a strange Rochester tourney two weekends ago. They tied a Champlin Park team 5-5 and came close to beating Rochester losing 3-2. But in between those games they lost to Jefferson and Mankato by identical 7-1 scores. After playing at Rochester, the Huskies returned to D4 action beating Faribault 3-2.
Mankato had a tougher two weeks. They started the week coming off a 3-1 win over D8 Farmington and played in the Rochester tourney. In pool play the Mustangs lost to Armstrong 7-1, Omaha 6-2 and then turned around and beat a tough Forest Lake team 5-4. On Sunday, they beat D4 rival Owatonna. This past week, they were upended by New Ulm 4-3 in D4 action and lost to Hasting 4-1.
Owatonna has three games left. After New Prague, they play Faribault and Mankato. Mankato has three D4 games the first week of February to end their D4 play. The Mustangs play Faribault, Owatonna and Albert Lea, all tough games.
Faribault was doing well at the turn of the New Year, tying Shakopee and beating Luverne. But they went north to the Thief River Falls tourney and were beaten by TRF 11-1 and Mandan North Dakota 11-4 and have lost three straight since their return to slip out of the running for the D4 title chase. This past weekend, Fairbault played well in the Cloquet tourney. They split their games in pool play, beating River Lakes 11-3 and losing to D6 Eastview 6-0. In consolation play, they lost to a tough North St. Paul team 7-3 and nearly tied Shakopee again losing 7-6.
Luverne has set the mark at 32 points. Owatonna has 31 and New Prague has 28. The winner of the Owatonna/New Prague game will likely take the D4 title. Both Owatonna and New Prague should over take Luverne. The final question is can Mankato over take Luverne. They will need seven points in their remaining three games.
This week the seeds change. New Prague remains the #1 seed, Luverne drops to the #3 seed, and Owatonna takes the #2 seed. Mankato and Fairbault can still make a charge in the playoffs. A team seeded #3 or greater has to play a single play-in game to get to bracket play. A single win in the first round of the 8 team bracket play, guarantees the winner two shots at getting a D4 seed.
S3-District 5
Buffalo returned to D5 action after a tough St. Cloud tourney beating Hutchinson and playing Sartell. Buffalo lost to Mpls Park 5-3, Burnsville 4-1 and Grand Forks 6-3 in pool play. On Sunday they beat Sartell 9-3 to end their St. Cloud tourney play. The Bison play Willmar in D5 action this week. Crow River beat Willmar 6-2 and STMA 4-1 in D5 action before they left to play in the Little Falls tourney. In pool play, the Tigers drew New Prague and the eventual tourney Champs CINB and did not advance.
Buffalo pulled slightly ahead of Crow River in the chase for the #1 seed and the automatic #1 seed to the South Regional. Both teams have 5 games remaining with the key game being played in two weeks when they tangle at Buffalo. MALM and Mound Westonka can be the “spoilers” in the chase.
Mound Westonka looked like they would make a charge to get into the mix only to be upended by Willmar 4-2. Willmar also put a dent in MALM’s D5 run, tying them 3-3.
The seeds change this week. Buffalo is remains #1 and Crow River takes the #2 seed but very narrowly. MALM drops to the #3 seed.
The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
South Red Division: D1-#1 Mpls Park, D4-#2 Owatonna, D5-#2 Crow River, D5-#3 MALM
South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Highland, D5-#1 Buffalo, D1-#3 Luverne or Washburn.
South Regional seeds: #1 Mpls Park and #2 New Prague. Mpls Park continues to look stronger as the season winds down. Their play in St. Cloud shows some volatility, but their tie with Jefferson, a team that also looks stronger, last week plus their 10-4 win over Eagan make them the team to beat in the South. New Prague is now starting to struggle and may find themselves in a donnybrook with Buffalo, Owatonna or MALM to take the second seed. The South Region is no longer wide, wide open. It is ½ wide, wide open.
East Regional
The East districts this year are D2 (3 seeds), D6 (2 seeds) and D8 (3 seeds)
E1-District 2
In two weeks, White Bear Lake’s tourney will take center stage. The 8-team bracket play tourney draw is out with the Host opening the tourney against Duluth East. Lakeville North and Edina will play in the second game of the upper bracket. Lower bracket games match Woodbury and Elk River and Eden Prairie and Centennial. One can note that this is the fourth tournament that Edina, Duluth East, White Bear Lake, Centennial and Eden Prairie will have played in as a group. Duluth East had conflicts with two other tourney dates and didn’t make them otherwise these five teams would have appeared in five tourneys and one preview together.
D2 is a difficult district again this year. On the surface, White Bear Lake would appear to be the dominant team, but they haven’t been. The Bears sit on top of the standings with 13 games played and three more yet to play (Stillwater, Tartan and Forest Lake). Roseville has played 12 games and has four yet to play (Moundsville, Stillwater twice and North St. Paul). That puts Roseville and White Bear in a virtual tie for the lead with Roseville holding the edge in games and White Bear running out of time. Forest Lake, Stillwater and Moundsview all have shots at catching the top two. Forest Lake has the best opportunity based on number of games and schedule.
Moundsview is in third with three games left to play (Roseville, North St. Paul and Forest Lake). Forest Lake is in fourth with four games left to play (Stillwater, North St. Paul, White Bear Lake and Moundsview). Stillwater trails with seven games left to play (White Bear Lake, Irondale, Forest Lake, Mahtomedi, Highland, and Roseville twice).
White Bear Lake played a single game in the past two weeks losing to Roseville 3-2 in D2 play. This week the Bears play Stillwater. Roseville played three games in addition to beating the Bears. The Raiders lost to Centennial 8-4 in a game that was close until the third period. The Raiders then tied St. Cloud 4-4 and beat Tartan 2-0. This week they play Moundsview in a D2 game.
Moundsview played in the St. Cloud tourney two weekends ago and were missing one of their key players. They tied Minnetonka 3-3 and St. Cloud 5-5 in pool play. The Mustangs beat Osseo/Maple Grove 3-1 to advance to the consolation round where they lost to a good Rogers team 4-1. Forest Lake played in the Rochester tourney two weekends ago and struggled. The Lakers beat Armstrong 6-3, lost to Mankato 5-4 and tied Champlin Park 2-2. Forest Lake returned to D2 action and beat Tartan 2-1. This week they play Stillwater and Superior.
Stillwater traveled to Duluth to play in the invitational losing to Lakeville North and Woodbury but beating Duluth East 2-1 in pool play. On Sunday, the Ponies followed up with another win over a D11 team, beating the Duluth Lakers 7-2. The Ponies tied Moundsview last week 2-2. Besides playing White Bear, the Ponies play Irondale and Forest Lake in D2 action this week.
Tartan played in the Sauk Rapids tourney two weekends ago, beating Princeton 3-1, Sauk Rapids 3-1 and Orono 4-2 to win the title.
The Bears were beaten by Roseville in the past two weeks and to the victor goes the spoils. Roseville takes the #1 seed this week, White Bear drops to #2 and Forest Lake takes the #3 seed. Moundsview struggled after a great Bloomington tourney and had St. Cloud on the ropes leading 5-2 at the start of the 3rd period in St. Cloud’s tourney only to let the host off the ropes and escape with a tie and a ticket to the championship round. Stillwater did the same at Duluth, losing to two D8 teams before beating two D11 teams. But as last year, the difference between the D2 teams is narrowing.
E2-District 6
The Eden Prairie Eagles didn’t soar these past two weeks. The Eagles lost two of the three D6 games they played before they headed to Roseau. They opened the week by beating Chaska 2-1, but then lost to Apple Valley 4-3 and Edina 8-1. In the Roseau tourney, the Eagles beat the Fargo Flyers 4-2, lost to host Roseau 3-0, beat Centennial 6-3 and lost to Elk River 5-1. All tough games, but off set by those two tough D6 losses before the tourney started. The Eagles problem is that they have to play Burnsville and Edina in two tough D6 games this week. A loss to the Blaze will leave the Eagles fighting for the #3 or #4 seed.
Edina did its job. They beat Eastview 6-3 besides beating Eden Prairie. Now with four games to go in D6, they hold a 5 point lead and a firm grip on the D6 playoff #1 seed. The Hornets are not likely to be caught. The Hornets had a good trip to Roseau. They lost to the host in a pre-tourney game, came back to beat Thief River Falls, Rochester and Wayzata before losing to D6 rival Chaska in the Championship game.
Burnsville went to St. Cloud on two weekends ago and came back with the Championship. In pool play the Blaze beat the Grand Forks Seawolves 5-3, Buffalo 4-1, and Mpls Park 9-4. They then beat Bemidji 6-4 and St. Cloud 7-1 (championship game) to win the title. They beat Shakopee 4-3 before they left for St. Cloud. The Blaze trail Eden Prairie in the chase for the #2 seed to the D6 playoffs by three points, but they have six games left to the Eagles four games. Besides playing Eden Praire this week, the Blaze play D6 games with Apple Valley and Kennedy.
Eastview won their pool at the Cloquet tourney this weekend. The Lightening beat Faribault and River Lakes in pool play. In the Championship round the Lightening lost to Cloquet 6-2 and to Brainerd 3-2 in the 3rd place game. The Lightening have a tight grip on the #4 seed for the D6 playoffs.
The only real question in the D6 standings appears to be who will get the #5 seed. All seeds below the #5 drop down into a tough single elimination tourney with the winner getting the #6 seed into the double elimination part of the D6 playoffs. The seeding is determined by regular season play.
Jefferson has a small grip on the #5 seed and have a key game with Chaska who is coming off winning the Roseau Tourney. Jefferson also won big two weekends ago, winning the Rochester tourney. In pool play, the Jags tied Rochester 2-2, beat Champlin Park 3-1 and Owatonna 7-1 to win the pool. In the Championship game they beat Armstrong 4-3 in OT. But Apple Valley upended their cart in D6 beating the Jags 3-1 earlier this week. The Jags also tied the Mpls Storm.
Chaska are the Roseau champs and are to be congratulated! Now they have to get work in D6 to avoid being buried in the single elimination tourney. They won the title by beating Warroad in the opener. In Gold Division play, the Hawks beat Centennial 6-4, Roseau 6-3 and Edina 3-0. This week, they return to D6 play needing points. Besides playing Jefferson on Sunday, the Hawks play Eastview earlier in the week.
Amid all the hullabaloo of tourneys, Apple Valley started a charge to get the #5 seed by beating Eden Prairie and Jefferson. A win over the Blaze on Saturday will put Valley in the driver’s seat in the chase for #5. Minnetonka has their own shot at #5 and they control their own destiny by simply winning games, but it is a tough D6 schedule for them.
Edina returns to take the #1 spot and Burnsville takes the #2 in D6 this week. Eden Prairie played well in the Roseau tourney, almost well enough to continue to be #1, but the two D6 losses dropped them this week. The Eagles will remain a threat and can easily turn it around with a win over the Blaze this week. Eastview remains in contention, but Edina will likely take the #1 seed into the D6 playoffs. The Blaze and the Eagles will fight it out for the #2 and #3 seeds. The Lightening will likely end the season with the #4 seed.
E3-District 8
In the past few weeks, Woodbury Hockey Association published a letter stating that there will be no new hockey association split from the existing association to specifically support the new East Ridge High School opening next year.
This position was supported by Cottage Grove also, but the real question is what does “no new split” mean? Will the association follow Lakeville and have two associations within the single? It may be impossible to follow the Lakeville model since there is no East Ridge community and the East Ridge students will come from Cottage Grove and Woodbury.
It won’t be long before the parents of East Ridge hockey players demand access to home ice specifically for the East Ridge bound players. Associations have to remember that a community owns the arena (that means East Ridge parents and Woodbury parents) and the associations have to figure out how to live with it and parent’s preceptions. The model Woodbury should follow is that of Apple Valley and Eastview (Eastview is a high school, not a community) and get out in front of the problem.
But enough talk of politics. If one looks at D8 standings as the week starts, the log jam continues as Lakeville North, Woodbury, Inver Grove Heights and Cottage Grove sit atop the league. Not far behind is Lakeville South, Rosemount and Farmington. Eagan, having played only 10 league games, and Rochester, having played only 7 league games, are lurking.
Lakeville North has been busy the past two weeks. The Panthers played Prior Lake, won the Duluth Invitational tourney, and played three league games this past two weeks. In the Duluth Inviational tourney, Lakeville North beat Stillwater 5-3, tied Woodbury 2-2 and beat the Duluth Lakers 5-3 to win their pool and advance to the Championship games, beating Prior Lake 6-4. Back in D8 play, the Panthers were upended by Hastings 3-0, tied Woodbury again and beat Hudson 2-0. This week Lakeville North plays Inver Grove Heights in one of number of key D8 games in their only action.
Woodbury went to Duluth also, but took on Blaine before they left. They tied the Bengals 4-4. At Duluth, the Royals tied Duluth East 3-3 and beat Stillwater 5-2. They beat D8 rival Rosemount 9-2 in the third place game.
This week Woodbury plays Eagan and then takes the Northern tour, playing Hibbing, Cloquet, Grand Rapids and a TBD opponent. Inver Grove lost their 3rd D8 game to Rochester 3-2 and then traveled to St. Cloud. The Heights won their pool, losing to Moorhead 7-6, beating Rogers 5-3 and Hopkins 5-2. In the Championship round, they were forced to play the game less then 3 hours after the final pool game ended and lost to the host, St. Cloud, 5-3. The next day, Bemidji beat the Heights 5-3 in the 3rd place game. Back in D8 play last week, Inver Grove Heights beat Hudson 7-1. This week the Heights play Hastings besides Lakeville North.
Cottage Grove beat Rosemount and tied Eagan 3-3 in D8 play before going North to Eveleth. In the Mariucci Tourney, they were beaten by Virginia in the opening round of bracket play 4-3, but came back to beat Hibbing 5-1 and Park Rapids 5-0 to take consolation. This week they play Lakeville South in D8 action. Lakeville South beat Eagan and Hastings before traveling to Roseau. They ran into a buzz saw in Roseau losing the opener to Elk River 10-1, but the Cougars came back to place second in the Silver Division beating East Grand Forks 3-2 and Grand Forks before losing to Fargo Flyers 4-3.
Rochester played in their tourney two weekends ago. In pool play they tied Jefferson 2-2, beat Owatonna 3-2 and tied Champlin Park. In the 3rd place game Rochester beat Omaha 6-2. They then made the trip to Roseau.
Rochester won their opener, beating Grand Forks 4-2. But they lost the opening game of the Gold Division to Edina 7-1, then lost to Elk River 6-1 and lost to Centennial. Rochester has three D8 games this week, two with Red Wing and one with Hastings. Rosemount played in the Duluth Invitational tourney two weekends ago. The Irish lost to the Duluth Lakers 6-3, beat Hermantown 4-2 and lost to Prior Lake 7-3. On Sunday, the Irish lost the 3rd place game to Woodbury.
After tying Cottage Grove, Eagan played in the St. Cloud tourney. The Wildcats got to the Consolation Round by beating Sartell 6-0 and North Metro 5-2 in pool play. Their only pool loss was 7-5 to Bemidji. In the consolation round, Eagan ran into a tough Mpls Park team losing 10-4. At Eveleth, Eagan opened with an 8-3 win over Hibbing, lost to Virginia 3-0 and beat Anoka 6-5 in OT to take third place.
Woodbury, Lakeville North and IGH have opened a small gap over the next group of teams (Rochester, Cottage Grove, Lakeville South and Eagan). After this week Woodbury and Lakeville North will have two games remaining in league play, IGH will have three. One of these three will set the mark for the other teams to catch.
The top three seeds get jumbled again. Woodbury essentially lost the Duluth tourney to Lakeville North two weekends ago and the two teams tied last weekend. That is good enough to give Lakeville North the #1 seed and Woodbury the #2 seed.
Inver Grove Heights had a tough St. Cloud tourney, so that drops them down. But nobody has stepped forward to take IGH’s spot, so the Heights keep the #3 seed. Eagan had a difficult St. Cloud tourney and played well at Eveleth. Cottage Grove had an okay tourney in Eveleth. Rochester did not do well in their tourney and in Roseau’s. Rochester will start their charge for the D8 title this week.
The projected East Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
East Red Division: D6-#1 Edina, D8-#2 Woodbury, D2-#2 White Bear Lake, D8-#3 Inver Grove Heights.
East Blue Division: D8-#1 Lakeville North, D6-#2 Burnsville, D2-#1 Roseville, D2-#3 Forest Lake.
East Regional seeds: #1 Edina, #2 Burnsville. Both teams had a good two weeks, Edina in D6 and in taking second in the Roseau tourney; Burnsville in D6 and taking the St. Cloud tourney. Lakeville North won the Duluth Invitational, but that was not enough to claim a seed. Woodbury struggled at the Duluth tourney and in D8 the past two weeks. The East Regional is wide, wide open yet.
West Regional
The West districts this year are D3 (2 seeds), D10 (3 seeds) and D15 (3 seeds)
W1-District 3
Osseo/Maple Grove came off a week’s rest and beat Armstrong and tied Orono 3-3 in D3 games to remain unbeaten. OMG then headed for St. Cloud and really struggled losing in pool play to St. Cloud 6-0, Moundsview 3-1 and Minnetonka 3-2 before beating Moorhead 12-4. They lost to Blaine 5-1 and left town again to play in Eveleth’s tourney. This time, they put it all together and won the Championship beating Park Rapids, Anoka 7-1 and Virginia 5-4. This week they return to D3 playing Hopkins and Wayzata.
Wayzata is the other unbeaten team. The Trojans in the past two weeks have focused on the Roseau tourney. They beat East Grand Forks and Elk River 2-1 before losing to Edina in the semifinals 6-5. They lost the third place game 5-2 to the host Roseau. This week Wayzata has the one game with OMG. The winner of that Friday game will be in the driver’s seat for the D3 crown.
Armstrong took second in the Rochester tourney. In pool play they beat Mankato, lost to Forest Lake and beat Omaha. In the Championship game they lost to Jefferson. Hopkins also played in St. Cloud, beating Moorhead 2-1, losing to Rogers, Inver Grove Heights and Minnetonka. They returned to D3 action and lost to North Metro 3-1.
The top two teams in D3 this week are unchanged, Wayzata #1 and Osseo/Maple Grove #2, but the D3 title is down to a single game this week. Winner takes the #1.
W2-District 10
Elk River and Blaine have been the hot teams in D10. The Elks are dominating the Green Division and have the Green Title locked up with three games to go (Blaine, Princeton and CINB). St. Cloud has lock on the #2 spot in the Green with five games to go. But the real surprise in the Green is Rogers. They appeared out of nowhere to put a lock on 3rd place in the Green.
Fourth place and the final spot for the Green Division teams in the D10 playoffs is up in the air between Princeton, CINB and Sauk Rapids. Based on games remaining to be played, CINB has the advantage.
Two weekends ago, St. Cloud and its neighbor Sauk Rapids had their tourney. St. Cloud took second in their tourney, beating Osseo/Maple Grove, tying Moundsview and beating Minnetonka 1-0. In the championship round, St. Cloud beat Inver Grove Heights 5-3 and lost the championship to Burnsville 7-1. St. Cloud returned to league play beating Chisago Lakes and Princeton.
Sauk Rapids opened their tourney with an exciting game beating Kennedy 3-3 in a shoot out. In their semifinal game they lost to Tartan 3-1 and they lost to STMA 3-2 in OT in the 3rd place game.
Last weekend, the Elks traveled to Roseau and came away with the Consolation title. They beat Lakeville South 10-1 in the opening game to gain the Gold Division, but lost the quarterfinal game to Wayzata 2-1 in a repeat of the Edina Championship game. The Elks went of to beat Rochester 6-1 and Eden Prairie 5-1 to take consolation. The Elks will close out this January with a D10 game against Blaine in a match-up between the two top teams in D10.
Blaine continued their winning ways the past two weeks. It started with a tie at Woodbury 4-4 and followed with wins over CINB 10-0, Andover 7-2, Coon Rapids 7-0, Osseo/Maple Grove 5-1, and Armstrong 3-1. This week the Bengals play Elk River and Coon Rapids. They have moved into a virtual tie with Centennial atop the Blue Division. The two teams have moved away from the other teams and will likely battle for the #1 and #2 seeds to the D10 playoffs. Blaine has seven games left and Centennial has six games left. Centennial plays four of those games this week (Andover, Anoka, Rogers, and St. Cloud).
Andover lost to Champlin Park 2-1, tied Anoka 1-1, lost to Blaine, and beat Chisago Lakes this past week. But those games resulted in Andover falling out of the title chase and being lodged in 3rd place in the Blue Division. Anoka, Coon Rapids, Champlin Park and Spring Lake Park will all fight it out with an average four games left for the fourth and final Blue Division seed to the D10 playoffs.
The seeds remain unchanged in D10 this week. The #1 seed goes to Elk River with Blaine taking the #2 seed and Centennial the #3 seed.
W3-District 15
What happened to Fergus Falls? They opened their season by winning only three of their first 11 games. Since then, the Otters have gone 9-1-1 to turn their season around. Now there are four teams contending in D15. Besides the Otters, there is Brainerd, Alexandria and Moorhead. So what has been a tale of two unbeatens contending for the D15 title is now a case of four teams mixing it up.
Brainerd still has the upper hand. The Warriors have three D15 games left, Moorhead, Fergus Falls and Park Rapids and will likely set the mark around 30 points for the title, but a second loss to Fergus Falls could drop them in the D15 race. Alexandria concludes their season this week end, playing Fergus Falls and Moorhead. Alexandria has their tourney in a couple weeks. Besides Alex, Jefferson, Sartell, Grand Forks, Sibley, Farmington, Princeton and Willmar are entered.
Moorhead is a mystery. They did play in the St. Cloud tourney and lost in pool play to Rogers and Hopkins. Their one good game was a 7-6 win over Inver Grove Heights. On Sunday, the Spuds lost to Osseo/Maple Grove 12-4. Most of their D15 games are unreported, a Spud habit. So they remain a mystery as to how they are playing.
Brainerd did play in the Cloquet tourney last weekend and did well winning their pool and advancing to the Championship round. There, the Warriors lost to Hermantown 4-2 and beat Eastview 3-2 to win 3rd place. This weekend the Warriors conclude D15 play.
Brainerd remains #1 in D15. Alex remains #2, but Fergus Falls takes over #3. The Spuds have to earn a #3 seed. They can do that this weekend.
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 Fergus Falls.
West Regional seeds: #1 Elk River, #2 Blaine. Elk River’s loss to Wayzata at Roseau stopped a 21 game winning streak. But the Trojans victory was not enough to knock the Elks out of the #1 spot in the West. Blaine has strung together 22 games without a loss against top teams in D10, D11, D3, D8 and D6. The Trojans in their last 15 games are 9-5-1. The Trojan losses came against good teams, but this week, Blaine takes their spot. The Trojans no longer look invincible.
There are a number of changes to the 2009 Peewee A State Tournament Quarterfinal Pairings this week:
S1: Mpls Park
N2: Cloquet
W1: Elk River
E2: Burnsville
N1: Roseau
S2: New Prague
E1: Edina
W2: Blaine[/quote]
AHHHHHH I got my fix for the week, dont leave me hanging next week now!!!!
-
DannyNoonan
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:33 am
Re: Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Jan 27, 2009
Didn't the Chief play for Warroad?frederick61 wrote: As a warm-up to the tourney, the Rams beat cross-state rival Edina 7-5. Any game between a Ram’s team and a Hornet’s team is always played more intensely. They should all be called Henry Bouche games.
royalhockey999: To quote, just click the "quote" button in the upper right hand corner of the post....just a tip.
More often than not Fergus Falls teams play to the level or lower than the competition, (call it sandbagging, sluggs, Vikings....whatever), every once in a blue moon they can turn a corner and do something special, maybe that's what is up with this team... They could be something to watch.
More often than not Fergus Falls teams play to the level or lower than the competition, (call it sandbagging, sluggs, Vikings....whatever), every once in a blue moon they can turn a corner and do something special, maybe that's what is up with this team... They could be something to watch.