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Hey guys, this is my first post on the forum!! I am a Prior Lake graduate from last year who played for the Varsity team, and I wanted to post this earlier but I didn't have account verification or something for a while, I'm not really sure how this website works.

I firmly believe the Prior Lake team will make it to state this year and Alex Bump will win the Mr. Hockey Award. They had a long streak of struggle which is the status quo for PL teams, but usually that struggle comes at the end of the year and ends up sinking the ship in the section quarters or semis every year. However, this year it's different, they fell flat at the beginning of the year and then hit the upswing towards the end of the season. I didn't get a chance to watch the semifinal yesterday in person, but I watched most of the game on my phone and what I saw makes me think they are going to be the tough out they were slated to be at the beginning of the season when Bump, Shoey, and Rice came back. It looked like they dominated Eden Prairie and they killed off penalties at key times which had been a pain point for most of the year. Moreover, their ability to score shorthanded is amazing to me, they are averaging one shorthanded goal for every eight penalties. They also got secondary scoring from Dueber which took pressure off the top line and didn't force them to score every goal. I played for the PL Bantam AA team a few years ago that got 5th in state, and we rode or died based on whether that top line scored. In state we lost game one because they didn't score, and game two we played a defensive gem, but it took probably 25-30 shots for us to score with someone else and win. To be able to get secondary scoring has always been on the Prior Lake wishlist, so seeing that against EP was a good sign to me.

I also love the fight of this team and the desire to prove people wrong. These playoffs have been a "revenge tour" of sorts for the team beating HF and EP, two teams they lost to in the regular season. Now they get Chaska who I know the seniors want to beat more than they want to breathe after the 2020 section semifinal loss at Braemar. In an ideal world they'd get a chance to continue the underdog mentality and the "revenge tour" against Moorhead, Edina, and Lakeville South at state so they can right all the wrongs from this year, but that is very wishful thinking.

I sincerely hope they win on Wednesday because there isn't much talent behind this group in Prior Lake at the youth level, so this is probably the last chance for a long time to finally break the seal and go to the state tournament.

Oh I also had a story I really wanted to share from last year...

Back in early March last season we lost on the road to Shakopee 4-2 for the first time since 2009 or something like that and everyone on here was going nuts about that loss. Two days earlier, we played Eastview on the road and won 8-1, but during the game some of our players were sadly disrespecting the clock operator in the box. Our coach wasn't happy we kept taking penalties, so he called our timeout sometime in the third and told us if we took another penalty we would regret it... We ended up taking two or three more penalties, and he told us to come to practice the next day ready to skate a little. I was pretty frustrated that some of the guys had taken dumb penalties, but we all figured we'd skate for a little bit Friday and then skate a lot Monday because we didn't play again for a week following the game Saturday against Shakopee. However, we got to practice without pucks and coach yelled at everyone for about ten minutes then sent us to the line. We ended up doing 26 down and backs, and had kids puking on the ice. None of us could feel our legs and everyone had bad cramps/severe pain the next day against Shakopee so we came out flat and lost our only road section seeding game of the year (thanks to the COVID schedule and only playing SSC).

Welcome to the forum Lake Show! Solid first post. I like Prior Lake, will be rooting for them to make an appearance at State

Was at both 2AA games at Braemar on Saturday. I thought Prior Lake played well. Eden Prairie had a hard time containing Alex Bump all game. Bump finished with two assists. I also thought EP played uptight...they didn't show a ton of energy on the ice and had difficulties with puck control which lead to too many turnovers. Even the EP goaltender had troubles gloving the puck a couple times, leaving juicy rebound opportunties in front of the net. Chaska is going to have a tough time with Prior Lake. Chaska has a nice team, but Prior Lake looked like the best team of the four teams that played at Braemar Saturday. Sam Rinzel is a good player for Chaska, although he can get a little too cute on the ice. He was skating circles with the puck around Tonka in the offensive zone until he got his pocket picked at the blue line and Tonka took it back on a breakaway which lead to a goal. I shook my head after the goal and I'm sure he learned from it. Should be a really good game on Wednesday.

Of the 4 2AA teams , Lakers had the best day yesterday

People talk about their big 3 , but Dueber’s forecheck and 2nd effort shots/goals won the game for them yesterday . Along with a few quality Boschee saves in the 3rd

Btw, in their podcast today , the YHH guys picked Lakers to beat Chaska by a 2-1 vote , with Tony being the tiebreaker !

It's nice to see some new teams playing for the right to go to State. I don't have a favorite here but the top line for PL has been something special for the last 3 years. Deubner definitely played a great game. He played like a Senior who knew this could be his last high school game.
On Saturday against EP they played 2 lines for most of the game. I noticed PL played the 3rd line a few times after scoring a goal but went with 2 lines after EP countered. I would be a concerned about them wearing down especially if they fall behind early.

WarmUpTheBus wrote: ↑Mon Feb 28, 2022 10:39 am It's nice to see some new teams playing for the right to go to State. I don't have a favorite here but the top line for PL has been something special for the last 3 years. Deubner definitely played a great game. He played like a Senior who knew this could be his last high school game.
On Saturday against EP they played 2 lines for most of the game. I noticed PL played the 3rd line a few times after scoring a goal but went with 2 lines after EP countered. I would be a concerned about them wearing down especially if they fall behind early.

Skating two lines will usually come back to bite you in the tokus. Except at State with all the TV timeouts. Usually end up with forwards going 100 mph one way and 55 the other.