Tournament November 19-21
Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 12:07 am
Should be an interesting tournament - who will be carrying the Championship trophy on Sunday afternoon?
I'll give it a shot. In Pool A, there are there are two matched teams, Hermantown and Highland, with Superior (a team that looks a little down from last year’s team) and the Northwest Stars. Highland battled a Dryden team for the championship last year, the Caps winning. Hermantown has struggled in the early season, but the Hawks always do. The Northwest Stars are from Winnipeg? They have been an up and down team in prior tourneys. Highland has played well and tied White Bear Lake 1-1 last Thursday, Hermantown lost to a tough Rosemount team 7-3 on the weekend. The edge goes to the Caps with the Hawks in second. Superior and the Stars battle for third and fourth.
The Thunder Bay team should dominate the pool B. Cloquet has the potential to challenge, but the Lumberjacks are just getting going (deer season ended last Sunday). Thunder Bay has played the last two weekends in Duluth. Two weeks ago, the Kings tied Duluth East 4-4 and lost to East 4-3. Last week in the Tommy Williams tourney in Duluth, the Kings beat the Duluth Lakers 10-2, lost to White Bear Lake 7-6 and Chaska 5-4. They played Minnetonka on Sunday. Cloquet beat Brainerd last weekend 5-1, a team Superior lost to 4-0 the same day. Eveleth-Gilbert is just getting their season going. Proctor holds a 6-5 win over Little Falls and pushed Superior this week in a D11 game before losing 6-4. The Kings should take first, Cloquet second. Eveleth-Gilbert and Proctor will battle for third.
Sunday’s championship would then match Highland and Thunder Bay. The Kings should win. Cloquet and Hermantown would battle for third place.
A very interesting tourney this week is the Spring Lake Park’s tourney at Forgerty. Friday’s opening round games (bracket play) matches Anoka/Shakopee, Princeton/Mahtomedi, Spring Lake Park/Sauk Rapids, and Omaha Jr Lancers/Waconia.
The Anoka/Shakopee game should be a good one. The Tornadoes tied Osseo/Maple Grove last week 4-4. Shakopee beat Chaska 7-3, split a home and home series with Spring Lake Park and lost their last game to Waconia 5-4. Anoka usually plays well in early season tourneys so they should be favored.
Mahtomedi lost last night to White Bear 4-2, but the Zephyrs are a neat passing team and should beat Princeton. Spring Lake Park beat OMG last Sunday 2-1 and lost three tough games on a St. Cloud swing to Stillwater, St. Cloud and Lakeville South. Sauk Rapids is just getting going. The Panthers win. Omaha Jr Lancers are a peewee AA traveling team that compete in the Midwest Amateur Hockey Association and have played in Minnesota tourneys before. Their record is around .500. Waconia should win.
The first semifinal match-up would be Anoka/Mahtomedi and that will be another tough game. So I flipped the old zinc penny and it came up Anoka. Spring Lake Park and Waconia would be a re-match, but this time the Panthers win setting up an Anoka/Spring Lake Park final. The Tornadoes prove too tough.