Mankato Peewee A Thanksgiving Tournament 11/27-11/29

[Ron Hextall]

Thanksgiving weekend is here and since I have been 3 for 3 on tournament winners so far I will throw out a few more previews for people to discuss and post scores.

First up is the Mankato Thanksgiving tournament. This eight team tourney is broken into two pools, with the eight teams representing 4 different states, yet only two different Minnesota districts (6 and 4) and half of the field coming from D4. Each team plays each other in pool play and then they are ranked on points for Championship Sunday. Where Pool A #1 plays B #2 and Pool B #1 plays A #2 and the winners square off for the final.

Pool A:
Mankato - Typically a team that competes fairly well, beats the teams you would expect and loses to teams that you would consider stronger. A .500 club that gives up about as many goals as they score.

Kennedy - Kennedy is playing a full D6 schedule this year that should help them as they still struggle to compete with the top end team in D6 they are a team that battles with a short bench and not much depth. Had some success in Mankato last year until late when the short bench caught up to the legs. On par with Mankato as both teams lost to New Prague by identical scores.

Sioux Falls Flyers - A 'A' team by Minnesota standards they play a mixed schedule traveling to various sites in the Midwest to play tournaments. They have been coming to some of southern Minnesota's tournaments for the last few years with mixed results. Typically compete well in a tournament of this type and a 16 skater roster may help with playing multiple games over a few days.

Waterloo Jr. Hawks - A .500 club from Iowa, they look to be a scrappy team that will spend a little time in the penalty box this weekend. Scoring comes from one line, but with a 13 skater roster and a penchant for penalties, it could be a long weekend for the Jr. Hawks.

Pool B:
Luverne - Last years team jumped out to a big lead in D4 play, but then faltered as the season went along. This year they have started out playing some close games, but have been coming out on the losing end of those. With a roster of ten, too many close games in such a short span will takes its toll.

Albert Lea - Albert Lea is off to a similar start as Mankato, in record only. Playing .500 hockey against a mostly D4 field, they come in to a pool with very familiar foes (3 out of four from their own district). Hanging with New Prague recently shows they have a decent defense or a good goalie, but a lost to Marshall who has typically been a team at the bottom of D4 is a little puzzling.

Kansas City Stars - A 'AA' team from Kansas that has already played 28 games, won a tournament championship and is rated 15th in the nation for the 97' age group. They can definitely score averaging five plus a game and don't have to many problems with defense 15 wins giving up 1 or 0 goals (8 shutouts). Looks to be the team to beat.

St. Peter - The last D4 entrant into this tourney, they have already played Luverne (a win) and Mankato (a loss). Other than that they are a middle of the pack team from their district that could surprise in this pool, depending on what type of team comes up from Kansas City. They can score a little bit (almost five goals per game), but they also give it up at about the same rate.

Forgot the picks:
Pool A
1. Mankato
2. Kennedy
3. Waterloo
4. Sioux Falls

Pool B
1. Kansas City
2. St. Peter
3. Albert Lea
4. Luverne

Semifinals:
Mankato over St. Peter
Kansas City over Kennedy

Championship:
Kansas City over Mankato

[99GoalieDad]

Summary of the Mankato PeeWee A Tournament

Pool Play - Friday
Mankato 3 Bloomington Kennedy 3
Sioux Falls 2 Waterloo 2
Luverne 6 Albert Lea 0
Kansas City 4 St. Peter 2
Mankato 10 Sioux Falls 2
Bloomington Kennedy 8 Waterloo 2

Pool Play - Saturday
Kansas City 5 Luverne 0
St. Peter 6 Albert Lea 1
Mankato 5 Waterloo 1
Bloomington Kennedy 6 Sioux Falls 0
Luverne 4 St. Peter 3
Kansas City 8 Albert Lea 0

Sunday - Semi Final Games
Bloomington Kennedy 5 Luverne 2
Kansas City 6 Mankato 1

Championship
Kansas City 3 Bloomington Kennedy 1

[elliott70]

Why did Kansas City play Mankato in the semis??????

[99GoalieDad]

Kennedy won the pool on a tie breaker with Mankato of least goals given up in pool play.

[fastncrash]

The Olympic sheet was 2nd to ONLY the #6 sheet of ice at the Super Rink in JULY!!! Wet the whole weekend and 1/2" of water on it Friday Night in spots DURING A GAME! Cost a team a goal in a 2 to 2 tied game Sunday morning when they were trying to qualify for the Championship game!!! Sad.