2022 Class A Section Final Notes & Tidbits

[ClassAGuy]

Some notes and tidbits looking at the upcoming Class A Section Finals

Section 1A Finals
Backup Goalie punches the state ticket again?
Way back in 2004 Albert Lea under Coach Roy Nystrom who was in his 50th season behind the Tigers bench was trying to clinch their first ever state tournament berth. One problem they were trying to do with backup 9th grader Clay Casanova turns out the Backup Goalie was the good luck charm from Albert Lea then as they made it to their first State Tournament. Fast forward 18 years and here we are with Albert Lea trying to clinch their 4th state tournament bid and wouldn’t you know it they are doing with again a backup goalie up until the Section 1A playoffs Sophomore Tanner Nelson played exactly ZERO minutes but an injury forced him into action and now maybe this backup goalie thing is just the answer for another Albert Lea trip to state.

Class A Classification Benefactors
New Prague since moving up to AA hasn't won a playoff game and this year they struggled going (10-15-2) with losses to teams like Waconia, Bloomington Kennedy, Hopkins on the resume most would have considered this a well rebuilding year. Add the Trojans recent nasty off-ice news and most would have assumed the hockey season might be heading for another early postseason end. However, thanks to the MSHSL cutoff changes New Prague went from one AA’s smallest schools and slid in just under the new cut off number to be one of Class A’s biggest and they will be nasty blackeye for the High School league to try and cover next week if they win as most expect in the 1A Final.

Section 2A Finals
Under the Radar… More like History Makers!
The local news networks stated that MPLS hockey was coming in under the radar this postseason, more like they have been making history all winter. Not only where they the first MPLS team ever ranked in the Class A Top 10 poll they also are the first to ever get a #1 seed, make section final and now they want to be the first group of history makers to punch their ticket to the X. We have not seen a Minneapolis school in State hockey since 1994 (When MPLS Edson won the consolation title of the first ever Class A tourney).

Class A Elite Company
Delano is quickly becoming the newest blueblood program in Class A and being referred to as an elite A program. With all the other Elite Class A Programs (Hermantown, Warroad, Breck, TRF, Mahtomedi, Orono, EGF, SCC) to name a few having a State Title if Delano wins this week they are quickly becoming the best program in Class A to not have State Title or should I say a 1st round State Tournament win.

Section 3A Finals
COVID Revenge
One of the Programs that felt that pain of the COVID protocols the worst in the Sectionals was Mankato East as they had a legit Top 15 team with a core of Seniors who had experience and wanted last year to be their best finish yet. However, just hours before their Section 1A Quarterfinals game they were notified that their entire varsity would be out due to contact tracing and they lost to the #10 seed La Crescent. This year this group seems determined to make up for that and get back to State to honor that great team that never got compete and had to watch rival Dodge County make a run to the Class A Title Game.

Big South Dynasty
New Ulm will be looking to make it’s 6th state tournament since 2010 which is pretty impressive meaning that in the last 12 years they will have appeared in half of the Class A tournaments… They also will be looking for their first win ever should they make it next week.

Section 4A Finals
4A Supremacy
One of the programs that benefited the most from STA’s move to AA in 2014 was the Zephyrs as in the 8 years since the Cadets moved up Mahtomedi has represented it in 5 of those years. Look for them to make it 6 of 9 years this winter.

Senior Spartans
Simley is having its best year since 2018 when these group of Simley seniors were middle schoolers in the Bantam ranks watching a 2018 SImley version of Seniors make a great push all the way to the schools first Section Final since 2003 now the Class of “22” will look to make their own history and do the same and take it step further than the “18” class when they lost to well who else Mahtoemdi in the 2014 4A Final.

Section 5A Finals
Crusader Curse
Monticello will have a mighty challenge on its hands when it faces off against St Cloud Cathedral for the 5A Title. Not only are they the heavy underdog at (12-14-1) on the year but add in this fun fact the Moose have NEVER beaten Cathedral in their programs history. Pretty crazy for two elite Class A teams that meet regularly during the year.

Central MN Private Power
Since 2012 Cathedral has been a dominant force in Central MN Hockey going to Section Finals in nine of the 10 years and playing in 5 State Tournaments in that stretch. They made last year's disastrous year all the more confusing but just a year later it appears the Crusaders are back on track to make the X and be a Force in 5A for the next few years.

Section 6A Finals
A Return To The Glory Days
From 1997 to 2003 Fergus Falls went 7 straight Class A State tournaments the Otters became a very well known successful program. Then Little Falls groups came through, Alexandria dropped into Class A, Sartell grew into a powerful Class A program and SCC moved into the section for a period of time and all the sudden it's been 19 long years since the Otters have been to St Paul. Will this be the group to return Fergus Falls to old glory years when they used to make the annual trip to state.

Red Hot Cards
Name the hottest team going in Class A no its not Hermantown or Warroad it's the Alexandria Cardinals actually who are riding the States longest unbeaten streak in Class A at 11 games as they are looking to cash on the section realignment that gives them a real chance to become a team that goes to state year after year in weakened new 6A.

Section 7A Finals
Same Old Routine
Forgive the Hawks if they didn't seem too excited about punching a ticket to the Section final but that trend has become the norm as they are like the Moorhead of Class A and have now reached the Section Final 14 straight years. The last time they lost in a Section Semifinal was way back in the 2008 5A Playoffs to St Cloud Cathedral.

Third time's a charm?
Duluth Denfeld is making consecutive Section final appearances of their own as they will try to take Hermantown down for the third straight year. The Hunters have not been to state since 1989 and this will be their last hope of any such trip for the next few years at least.

Section 8A Finals
Hockeytown USA
The Warroad city moniker could not ring any more true this winter as with the Girls winning the Class A title this past weekend the boys will be looking to the do the same and have true hockey supremacy of owning both the Boys and Girls State Titles in the same year which was done in 2019 by Edina but an honor that would mean a lot to hockey faithful up north.

The Loeffler Lift
Through the first 10 games of the year the Prowlers were really struggling going (3-7-0) and had almost no offense outside of Senior Sniper Brendan Bottem. Then Coach Bergland moved some players around and the biggest breakthrough for the second half (13-3-0) TRF record has been the emergence of Junior Tysen Loeffler. Through those the first 10 games Loeffler registered just 4 points (1 goal and 3 assists) since the lineup shuffle the Junior has put up 38 points in the last 16 games (21 goals and 17 assists) to give the Prowlers a dangerous duo to lift this TRF team to their brilliant second half success.

[Mite-dad]

My personal opinion is that the Monticello win over LF was not a monumental upset. Also SCC is not a heavy favorite over Monticello in the section championship game. I think the teams are very even, as I thought the top 4 teams in the section were at the start of Sections. This should be a very good game, especially if it is on neutral ice.

[ClassAGuy]

My personal opinion is that the Monticello win over LF was not a monumental upset. Also SCC is not a heavy favorite over Monticello in the section championship game. I think the teams are very even, as I thought the top 4 teams in the section were at the start of Sections. This should be a very good game, especially if it is on neutral ice.

I had LF on upset watch after watching them struggle with Sauk Rapids and I think they just got wore out on the year they only played 10 kids for 25 games never developed depth and you could tell they were wore out. The goals for the Moose were not pretty and 2 of the 4 were just lack of coverage effort because the Flyers looked tired.

SCC has NEVER lost to Monticello in their program history and they were easily beating the Moose 4-1 late when they met in late Jan on Monticello's Home Ice. The Moose got 2 PP goals near the end of the game to make the score appear closer the game really was. SCC was also missing their second leading scorer 9th grader Hirschfeld in that game.

I think it has potential to be a good one but Monticello really struggles producing offense they wont be gifted a few goals like they were in the Flyers game.

Gonna go with History and assume Crusaders roll as they have never lost to Monti in their history. Cathedral really benefitted from getting out of 6A and back over to 5A as they will struggle at State.