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My daughter's coach was asking me what are the best U14 tournaments in the Minnesota area. I never gave it much thought. I'm sure there are some informed opinions out there. Which tourneys have the highest end teams? Fire away.

Clash

Looks like last year's 14U Clash had quite a few 7 to 10 goal differential games. I don't think that falls under many definitions of 'best'.

Thanks for responses. Looks like the top 3 teams of that tourney were talented, so if you're scouting for talent show up Sunday afternoon.

Just my opinion most talented tournaments are any tournaments with these teams in the same tournament.
Os selects
Machine Orange
Minn Blades
Ice cougars
Ice Cats
Jr. Whitecaps
Miracle Gold
Skate to excellence
OS Jamboree and the Caribou cup in August usually have the best teams in them

It doesn't look like MG will skate 14U; likely due to MAP.

InigoMontoya wrote:It doesn't look like MG will skate 14U; likely due to MAP.

Perhaps they will move their older U12 team(s) to the U14 Tier 2 brackets for end of summer tournaments. Since a fair number of the 2002 girls will be 8th graders this fall, that might be appropriate.

Heard they changed their name to the Monarchs
They have teams in the upcoming meltdown 14u and up
Miracle Gold 12 u and down

I didn't think MG and MAP were the same organization.

InigoMontoya wrote:I didn't think MG and MAP were the same organization.

MG and MAP are not the same organizations. But due to both being located at Super Rink, this past winter they reached an agreement where MG takes all the girls 12U and under, and MAP-Monarchs gets 14U and older. Proof is that MAP no longer runs their 3 month summer program for younger gals, and there's no more options above 12U for MG. The agreement seems to be working well for both - rinks 5-8 are packed with either MAP or MG practices every day right now from 4-9pm. Not to mention that Skate to Excellence pretty much has rinks 1, 2, and 4 everyday too. Those 3 organizations own that place right now.

As for girls summer tournaments, there's only a couple that designated tier 1/tier 2, or open/invite options like the boys have - The Caribou Cup and The USA International Cup up at Super Rink are the local ones.

IMO, the Clash could be considered a higher-end tournament. So could the Caribou Cup. The biggest tournament is the MN Meltdown. They currently have 70 total girls teams registered, and it's the 20th year so it probably the oldest. Next biggest is the Independent Classic in May. Last year they had 64 girls teams (15th year). There are many very good teams in both, but some games become mismatched because of the lack of separation between the upper and lower teams. You also have teams like the Machine who commonly move their teams up a level. Sometimes it works out for them, sometimes it doesn't. Shock Doctor in June is a good tournament too - smaller but good teams involved.

The Battle by the Bay, Northern Wings Showdown, and the newer Hobeytown Showdowns are all northern/Duluth tournaments - if you're looking to get out of down. The Battle by the Bay is probably the biggest and divides the 10U and 12U into tier1/tier2. Northern Wings is very small (looking at last year). Hobeytown is gaining strength, and I hear more teams will be heading up there this year.

Along with the Caribou Cup, the USA International, the Easton Cup and Summer Finale tournaments are the biggest August tournaments. But compared to April/May, they simply do not get the same number of teams, but similar quality/decent teams.

The Northland Hockey Group (NHG) runs 4 tournaments throughout the spring/summer: AAA Opener, Mountain Dew Blast, NHG Cup, Combat Cup. The NHG also runs 20 "AAA" teams throughout the upper Midwest (mainly MN). They are a lower cost option (about half price) for kids that mainly just want to play games (only 8 practices for the entire season). Their tournaments are heavy populated by their own group of teams, with other clubs jumping in here and there. Rarely would you see any of the teams zambonidriver mentioned in the NHG tournaments. Thus, IMO, their tournaments would be considered tier 2.