Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams Jan 5 2009

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It is 2009. And the holiday tourneys are over. Most of the Districts regular season play was suspended during the holidays although some significant games were played. There were seven Peewee A tourneys during the holidays; Bloomington (13 Minnesota teams), Edina (11 Minnesota teams), Bemidji (12 Minnesota teams), Crookston (4 Minnesota teams), Hermantown (6 Minnesota teams), Albert Lea (5 Minnesota teams) and International Falls (4 Minnesota teams). By my count, that’s 55 out of 104 Minnesota peewee A teams played in a holiday tourney.

To recap on format of this post, Minnesota Hockey has set the draw for regional and state tourneys this season. That draw was actually set about three years ago. It was set for four years and the draw is in its third of four years. Next year it will end and Minnesota Hockey will have to re-do the format for the following year.

But this year, each of the 12 Districts in the state are assigned to a region (North, East, South and West). There are three districts per region with one of the three districts assigned two seeds and the other two districts assigned three seeds.

This post looks at the current play of all the districts and teams within the district and posts an opinion of which team will likely win the seeds in each district. It groups the districts by the region they have been assigned to this year. This post then projects the winners of the region based on play up to this week and shows the potential state draw.

Unlike last year when the winner the red or blue pool in a region played the other pool runner-up, it is my understanding that there is another game added. The #1 seed will be determined by having the two pool winners play each other. The loser of that game plays the winner of the runner-up game played by the second place finishers of each pool. The winner of this third game gets the #2 seed.

North Regional
The North districts this year are D11 (2 seeds), D12 (3 seeds) and D16 (3seeds).

N1-District 11
Cloquet rolled through the Bemidji tourney pool play. They beat Warroad, Park Rapids and Fort Francis. In the Championship Bracket, they rolled over Hastings 10-1 and then ran into a stone wall in St. Cloud, losing 3-1. Cloquet plays Superior in a D11 game and then heads to Brainerd for a tourney on the weekend drawing Crookston in the opening round.

The Duluth Lakers lost to Hermantown 5-2 and beat Brainerd 6-4 and played in the Hermantown tourney beating Superior 9-4, tying Virginia 4-4 and beating Hermantown 5-1 in the Championship game. They play a league game against Hermantown this week and draw one of the top teams in D10, Blaine, in the opening round of the Brainerd tourney.

Hermantown lost to Brainerd 5-4, then took second in their own tourney beating Sauk Rapids 4-0, Forest Lake 3-0 before losing to the Lakers in the Championship game.

After being off for the Christmas holiday, Duluth East played in the Edina tourney on the New Year’s weekend, losing to Edina 7-2, Lakeville South 5-1 and Elk River 5-0 in pool play. The Hounds had a reasonably good showing in the Spirit tourney earlier this month, going 1-1-1 in pool play beating Stillwater. But their play in the Edina tourney shows that the Hounds are continuing to struggle.

The seeds this week are unchanged; Cloquet keeps the #1 seed and Duluth Lakers the #2 seed.

N2-District 12
Grand Rapids and Virginia played in the Bemidji tourney. This tourney was second in a row for the Thunderhawks. They beat LOW 8-1, Keweenow 4-0, but lost to Hastings 3-0. Pool play left them in the Lumberjack bracket where the Thunderhawks beat Fort Francis 2-0 and lost to Bemidji 3-0. The Rapids played Superior and Hibbing over the New Year’s weekend. Next week they have games against International Falls and Hermantown.

Virginia beat Crookston 6-1, tied St. Vital 1-1 and lost to St. Cloud 7-1. In bracket play, the Blue Devils lost to Grand Forks and beat Warroad 7-0. Virginia then played in the Hermantown tourney, playing the Duluth Lakers and Superior in pool play.

Hibbing heads to Brainerd to play in their tourney this week. They draw Mound Westonka in the opening round. International Falls hosted its tourney on the New Years weekend. The Broncos had Mpls Park, Grand Forks and Eveleth in the tourney.

For the fourth week in a row, the seeds in D12 remain unchanged; Virginia is the #1 seed, Hibbing #2 seed and the Thunderhawks #3 seed.

N3-District 16
Bemidji played well in their tourney. In pool play they beat Grand Forks 4-0, tied Armstrong 4-4 and beat Superior 6-2. The Lumberjacks lost the #1 pool seed via tie breakers to Armstrong. In bracket play, they beat St. Vital 3-2 in OT and Grand Rapids to win the Lumberjack Bracket. On the New Years weekend, they played Moorhead and lost to East Grand Forks. This week they travel to International Falls to play the Broncos.

Other D16 teams struggled in the Bemidji tourney. Crookston lost all three of their pool games (Virginia, St. Vital and St. Cloud). In bracket play the Pirates beat Superior 7-3 and Keneewaw 5-4 to win the Headwaters Bracket. Warroad loss pool games to Cloquet and Fort Francis before beating Park Rapids. In bracket play they lost to LOW and Virginia. LOW lost to Grand Rapids and Hastings before beating last year’s champion Keweenaw 1-0. In bracket play they beat Warroad and lost to Grand Forks.

Crookston had their own tourney on the New Year’s weekend. In the opening round of bracket play, the Pirates played the Minot Sabres. Other teams playing in the tourney were Pequot Lakes, Grafton North Dakota, Detroit Lakes, Grand Forks Greyhounds, St. Michael/Albertville and Devils Lake North Dakota. Next week the Pirates play in the Brainerd tourney drawing Cloquet in the opening round.

Roseau and East Grand Forks played their second D16 game of the season between the holidays. The Green Wave lost 6-3, but won four other games beating Thief River Falls 3-2, the Fargo Raiders 4-3, Warroad and Bemidji 7-1. Roseau beat the Fargo Flyers 8-5 and the Fargo Raiders 8-0 on their west tour. They beat Kenora 5-2 and Thief River Falls 7-2 on the New Year’s weekend. The Rams have the coming week off.

Roseau remains unbeaten in D16 and on top of the standings. EGF with their win over Bemidji is firmly entrenched in second in the standings. EGF started out the season strong and seems to be struggling. Bemidji seemed to be improving, so the Green Wave win over Bemidji has settled the question of “who’s #2?” Clearly the Green Wave is #2 this week. Bemidji falls to third but Thief River Falls could be narrowing the gap between the top three although they will really have to work to overtake one of them. Crookston is one team that is working hard and it will be interesting to see how the Pirates do in the Brainerd tourney.

Roseau has established themselves as number one in D16 this week. That is no surprise. Their tourney on the January 23rd weekend should be a barnburner and could result in establishing themselves as #1 in the state. The Rams were impressive in the Eden Prairie tourney and have won 13 in a row since.

One surprise this week is Bemidji. They had a good holiday season but couldn’t take the #2 seed. The Lumberjacks get the #3 seed. The Green Wave find themselves exactly where they were a year ago, with the #2 seed, struggling to overtake the Rams. They did so last year in the regional tourney to make it to the state.

The projected North Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
North Red Division: D16-#1 Roseau, D12-#2 Hibbing, D11-#2 Duluth Lakers, D16-#3 Bemidji.
North Blue Division: D12-#1 Virginia, D16-#2 East Grand Forks, D11-#1 Cloquet, D12-#3 Grand Rapids.

North Regional seeds: #1 Roseau and #2 Cloquet. At this point in the season, these two teams are clear favorites. EGF are the the best of the rest. The Duluth Lakers are starting to struggle. The Lakers play in the Brainerd tourney on the weekend could “right the ship”; they drawn Blaine in the opener.

South Regional
The South districts this year are D1 (3 seeds), D4 (2 seeds) and D5 (3 seeds). D1 has split their peewee A teams between D3 and D2 for regular season play.

S1-District 1
Most of the D1 teams took the past week off. There were few games played. After a quiet week, Richfield Washburn returned to D3 action playing Orono. This week they played two D3 games against Hopkins and Wayzata. Mpls Park also returned to action traveling to the Falls, International Falls, to play in their tourney. They beat Grand Forks, the Falls and Eveleth. The Storm need not worry about the cold weather; they should be relatively warm this weekend as long as they don’t stay in Embarrass. They play two D3 games next week, Orono and Hopkins.

Highland had last week off and this week play in the St. Paul Johnson tourney drawing Crow River in opening round action. Other teams playing in the Johnson tourney are MALM, Apple Valley, Mahtomedi, Chisago Lakes, North Metro and Tartan. Irondale lost to D10 St. Francis 4-2 this past week. They played in the Albert Lea tourney on the weekend, tying Spring Lake Park 5-5, losing to Albert Lea 3-1, beating Sioux Falls 5-1 and Waseca 9-1. The Knights play in the Waseca tourney this weekend.

With the D1 teams taking the holiday break, there is little action in D1. This week, the seeds remain unchanged with Mpls Park the #1 seed. Highland is #2 and Washburn takes #3.

S2-District 4
Albert Lea went 2-0-1 in three league games this week to move up in the standings. They beat New Ulm 6-1, Marshall, and tied Faribault 7-7. Albert Lea was the runner-up in their tourney on the New Years weekend losing to Spring Lake Park in the championship game.

Owatonna took over the top spot in D4 by a single point. They beat St. Peter 10-2. Then the Huskies took the New Year week off. Luverne played three league games New Years weekend to take the lead back. But they overlooked Faribault the day before they played New Prague in a key D4 match-up. They lost 5-4 and came back on Saturday to tie New Prague 4-4. Sunday, they beat Marshall. After the weekend play, Luverne has only one D4 game left (against Waseca). With only 29 points in league play, Mankato, Owatonna and New Prague can all over take Luverne in the next few weeks.

New Prague besides tying Luverne, beat Mankato 6-1. The Trojans remain the #1 seed with Luverne #2 seed. Owatonna takes the #3 seed.

S3-District 5
Buffalo handed Crow River in their first loss 7-2 in a battle of D5 unbeatens. Crow River beat Litchfield the following day 9-0. The Tigers play in the St. Paul Johnson tourney on the weekend. They open against Highland in a game that could be a pre-curser to South Regional play in February. The Bison play Mound Westonka and STMA this week. The Bison also beat MALM this week 5-3.

Those two Bison wins leave them the only unbeaten team in D5. MALM started slow last week, tying STMA 4-4, then beating Sartell 3-1 and Hutchinson 9-0. Besides Buffalo, the Stars played Anoka on the weekend and play in the Johnson tourney drawing Apple Valley. In addition to losing to MALM, Sartell lost to STMA 9-4 to continue to drop in the D5 standings. Mound Westonka returned to action with three games, Sartell, Kennedy and Litchfield as the White Hawks continue to struggle this season.

The seeds remains unchanged this week, Buffalo is #1. MALM takes the #2 seed and #3 seed goes to Crow River. In D5, the regular season Champion gets the #1 seed and does not play in the playoffs. These three teams have emerged as contenders for #1 seed to regional tourney with Buffalo in the drivers seat.

The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
South Red Division: D1-#1 Mpls Park, D4-#2 Luverne, D5-#2 MALM, D5-#3 Crow River
South Blue Division: D4-#1 New Prague, D1-#2 Highland, D5-#1 Buffalo, D1-#3 Owatonna or Washburn.

South Regional seeds: #1 New Prague and #2 Mpls Park. Both seeds look shaky this week and if the trend in play with these teams continues, the seeds to the state tourney will go to the two hottest teams and that can be anybody-even a team like Faribault can come out of the blue (or green if you are a Falcon fan).

East Regional
The East districts this year are D2 (3 seeds), D6 (2 seeds) and D8 (3 seeds)

E1-District 2
Moundsview had a terrific Bloomington Tourney. They swept pool play beating Kennedy 2-1, Jefferson 4-1 and Inver Grove Heights 7-1. That gave the Mustangs the #2 seed in the tourney and a pass in the opening round in bracket play. In the quarterfinals, they beat Inver Grove Heights again 4-2, then Lakeville North 1-0 in a shootout. The game ended in a 0-0 tie after double overtime. The shootout went eight players deep before the Mustangs won. In the semifinals, the Mustangs ran into a tough Woodbury team and in a very evenly skated game, lost 2-1 to finish second. In the toughest peewee A tourney in the state, the Mustangs played six games in six days and came in second.

There is some separation in D2 standings this week. Besides Moundsview, White Bear Lake, Forest Lake, Roseville and Stillwater are all contending. And North St. Paul with the twins still lurk slightly behind all of them. White Bear has 5 games left and a very narrow lead. The other teams have played fewer games. Three of the Bears remaining league games are against contenders.

Forest Lake is in second place in D2 and have six games to go, four with contenders and potentially a first place deciding game against White Bear at the end of the month. Roseville has eight games left, including a home and home series with Stillwater just before Valentine’s Day. That series could decide the championship. Stillwater has the most games left, nine. Seven of the games are stacked into the final two and a half weeks of season play. A key home and home is set-up with Moundsview in January is the only two D2 games the Ponies play in the next three weeks.

The Bears are in the Edina Tourney and have been playing well in the past month. They lost to Chaska, beat Centennial 5-3 and lost to the Colorado Thunderbirds 7-3. Stillwater played in the Edina tourney also, beating Eagan, losing to Wayzata 4-1, and losing to Eden Prairie 5-0. Forest Lake played in the Hermantown tourney, beating Sauk Rapids 4-0, losing to the Host 3-0, and beating Superior 4-3 in OT to take third place.

Roseville and Forest Lake play each other this week in a key D2 match-up. Roseville will be looking to avenge an earlier season lost to Forest Lake. Stillwater and Moundsview play in the other key game. Last week the Lakers held the #1 seed, but their loss to Hermantown is disappointing. Moundsview had a good tourney at Bloomington. The Mustangs deserves to be one of the seeds, but not the #1 seed. White Bear Lake and Stillwater struggled in the Edina tourney. Roseville didn’t play much over the holidays.

Tartan and Mahtomedi play in the St. Paul Johnson Tourney this week. Tartan draws North Metro and Mahtomedi draws Chisago Lakes in opening play.

In a situation like this, the decision always goes to who held it last; Forest Lake still has the #1 seed this week. Moundsview takes the #2 seed and is threatening to take the #1. White Bear Lake takes the #3 seed.

E2-District 6

The tourney action switched from Bloomington to Edina on New Years Day. The Bloomington Tourney proved tough for the seven D6 teams entered. It started off great as Apple Valley and Burnsville won the opening games in their pool with the Eagles beating Woodbury 2-1 and the Blaze beating Osseo/Maple Grove 1-0. Prior Lake beat Eastview 4-3 in their first game, but Jefferson, Kennedy, and Minnetonka all lost. In the second day’s games, Burnsville beat Apple Valley 6-1 in their pool, Eastview tied Littleton, Minnetonka beat Prior Lake, and Jefferson and Kennedy lost.

In the third day’s games, Burnsville beat Woodbury 3-1 to take the #1 seed into bracket play. Eastview tied Minnetonka, but Jefferson, Prior Lake, Kennedy and Apple Valley all lost. On the fourth day in opening round play, only Apple Valley advanced with a 4-3 win over Rosemount. Eastview, Minnetonka, Jefferson, Kennedy and Prior Lake were all knocked out of the tourney, leaving only Burnsville (#1 seed and a bye) and Apple Valley in the quarterfinals. After three tough pool games, six D6 teams ended up playing six non-D6 teams in bracket play and five were knocked out of the tourney.

The fourth day’s evening play was now the quarterfinals of a normal eight team bracket tourney, except six of the teams had played four tough games in the previous three plus days and two teams (Burnsville #1 and Moundsview #2) had played three games. The quarterfinal play knocked out Burnsville (lost 3-2 to Woodbury) and Apple Valley (lost to Littleton 7-1).

In the fifth and final day of the tourney, in the morning, Moundsview battled Lakeville North to a 0-0 double overtime draw and won the shootout. Woodbury beat Littleton 7-1 to advance to the afternoon Championship game against Moundsview winning 2-1. Littleton beat Lakeville North 2-1 to take third place. Woodbury won the Championship despite losing two games in pool play and emerged as the strongest team in the tourney winning the Championship game. That’s why the Bloomington tourney is the best and toughest tourney in the state.

It is also why the D6 teams do well in competition outside their district. They have to play hard every period for 6 or 7 games in five days to win in a tough environment.

Edina tourney started on New Year’s Day. Its format consists of 12 teams playing in three pools. Edina tries to draw into the tourney at least one tough team from out-of-state. This year is no different as the Colorado Thunderbirds were entered. The Edina draw had the host in a pool with Duluth East, Lakeville South and Elk River. The second pool had White Bear Lake, Chaska, Centennial and the Thunderbirds. The third pool had Wayzata, Eagan, Stillwater and Eden Prairie. With Eagan and Lakeville South struggling in D8 play and Duluth East yet to win a game in D11 play, the normally tough line-up of teams in this tourney had a few holes in it. At a casual glance, one would suppose that Edina and Elk River (winner of their game with the #1 seed and the loser with the wild card seed), Wayzata, and the Thunderbirds would all advance.

In a warm-up to the Edina tourney, the Hornets beat Wayzata 8-5. In tourney pool play, Edina beat Duluth East 7-2, beat Lakeville South 8-4, and lost to Elk River 6-2. The Hornets advanced because they had the edge in tie breaker (goal differential) to take the wild card spot in the Championship round where they played Elk River and lost again 3-1. The Hornets took third place by beating D6 rival Chaska 4-2 in the third place game.

Chaska had a good tourney, beating White Bear Lake 5-4, tying the Thunderbirds 2-2, beating Centennial 4-0 to advance out of pool play. In the Championship bracket, they lost to Wayzata in the semifinals 9-2 to be knocked out of the tourney. An opening round 6-0 lost to Wayzata virtually eliminated Eden Prairie from the tourney. The Eagles came back to beat Eagan 6-5 and Stillwater 5-0, but lost the goal differential tie breaker to Edina and were eliminated from the tourney.

The D6 standings changed. With all the tourney action in D6, there were few D6 games during the holidays but they were significant. Burnsville did play Jefferson on Sunday and the Blaze did not open 2009 well. They lost to the Jags in a D6 game Sunday 5-4. That loss, coupled with Eastview beating Kennedy 4-0, puts Eastview in second behind Edina. The top four teams remain Edina, Eastview, Eden Prairie and Burnsville in that order with each team having 8-9 games left.

This week Burnsville and Edina play a key game on Friday at Burnsville. Burnsville then ends the week playing Prior Lake and Edina plays Jefferson. Eden Prairie and Eastview have a second key match-up on Thursday at EP3 (one of the worst rinks to watch a hockey game in the state). Both the Eagles and Lightening also play Minnetonka this week in D6 action.

Apple Valley plays in the St. Paul Johnson tourney this week. In the opening round of bracket play, the Eagles draw MALM.

It is the start of a tough month in D6. Any of the top four could end up with the 1 or 2 seed for the D6 playoffs. And five teams (Apple Valley, Jefferson, Minnetonka, Chaska, and Prior Lake are all in the chase) are after the coveted #5 seed for the D6 playoffs. But this week, the top two seeds remain unchanged, Burnsville #1 and Eden Prairie #2.

E3-District 8
The top four teams in D8 did well in the Bloomington tourney this week. Woodbury took first, Lakeville North took fourth, Inver Grove Heights made it to the quarterfinals and Rosemount scored wins over D6 Jefferson and Kennedy in pool play to take the #5 seed into bracket play.

Woodbury was the star of the tourney as they took two tough loses in their “death pool” in stride and came out firing on all cylinders in bracket play sweeping by Prior Lake 4-3, upsetting #1 seeded Burnsville 3-2, and hammering Littleton 7-1. That set up a tough championship game against a big physical Moundsview team with excellent goal tending. Woodbury would be playing without one of their top scorers.

The first half of the game was deadlocked as each coach was content to match lines and the lines played each other evenly. With the score 0-0 in the middle of the second period, Woodbury went on a power play, the first of the game. Moundsview killed the penalty and the coach gambled on gaining the advantage by mismatching the lines coming out of the penalty.

It worked in that it put tremendous pressure on Woodbury, keeping the puck in the Woodbury zone for more then a minute. The Mustangs failed to score and Woodbury successfully transitioned to the attack with the advantage in the lines. Their counter attack worked easily and quickly as a simple pass from the left side caught the goalie flatfooted when the puck slid along the ice into the net. Woodbury led 1-0.

For the rest of the period, the line matching continued. The third lines out were not seeing as much action when the second period ended. As the last period started, the Woodbury coach changed his shifts. He now moved his fresher, patched up, third line out opposite Moundsview’s first line out. It worked as the fresher line tended to dominate and frustrate the more tired Moundsview line.

Most of the third period consisted of Moundsview attempting to rush the Woodbury zone, being frustrated and having to chase the puck down. This continued until about 5 minutes to go, when Woodbury caught Moundsview playing to high in their zone.

A wing snapped a pass from the deep corner to two forwards waiting with sticks on the edge of the crease. One rapped in the goal. Woodbury led 2-0. With less then 3 minutes to go, Moundsview pulled their goalie and Woodbury played patiently tending to avoid the temptation of a long shot at the net. Then with about 30 seconds to go, a Woodbury defenseman could not resist and tried to line up a shot from just outside the blueline only to have a Moundsview forward pick the puck off his stick. The Mustang forward top shelved the goalie to cut the led to 2-1.

That was the final score as the Mustangs could not mount another offense. It was a great game skated at a high pace, cleanly played. Both teams are to be congratulated, but Woodbury came out the champs.

Lakeville North had a good run in the tourney, stringing wins together over Rosemount 5-1, Inver Grove Heights 4-3, and Kennedy 4-2 in pool play. That gave the Panthers the #3 seed in bracket play. They opened the round of 12 with a close 1-0 win over Jefferson, followed that with a 3-3 double overtime, shootout win over Osseo/Maple Grove. Moundsview beat them in the semifinals in a 0-0 double overtime, shootout win. The shootout went eight men deep before a winner could be declared. Littleton beat the Panthers 2-1 in the third place game. The Panthers ended tying Hastings 1-1 in D8 play on the New Year's weekend.

Inver Grove struggle in this tourney in part because they showed up short handed. They opened with a 4-1 win over Jefferson in pool play, but then lost their next two games to Lakeville and Moundsview 7-1. In bracket play, they came back to knock out Eastview 4-3 in the round of 12, but ran into Moundsview again in the quarterfinal round. Moundsview jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first minute of play and held on to win 4-2.

Rosemount just quietly won two of three games in pool play, losing to D8 rival Lakeville North in the opener and beating Kennedy and Jefferson to earn the #5 seed. The Irish were knocked out by Apple Valley, losing 4-3 in OT.

Eagan and Lakeville South took the D8 flag to the Edina tourney. Both these teams have struggled in D8 play and it showed in the Edina tourney. Eagan lost to Stillwater 4-1, Eden Prairie 6-5 and Wayzata 8-2. Lakeville South lost to Elk River 8-2, Edina 8-4 before beating Duluth East 5-1. South then played Farmington on Sunday and were beaten in D8 play.

Hastings had a good Bemidji tourney, beating Keneenaw 8-0, LOW 8-0 and Grand Rapids 3-0 in pool play. But then they ran into a buzzsaw (good term for a Lumberjack tourney) in Cloquet and lost 10-1. In their second bracket game they lost to Armstrong 6-1.

While the top four were away playing in holiday tourneys, Cottage Grove and Hudson Wisconsin stayed home and played D8 games. Cottage Grove beat Hudson and Northfield. Hudson lost to Rochester and beat Red Wing. Rochester has a single game this week with Hastings. As pointed out here before, Rochester has 9 of their 16 D8 games crammed into the last 2 ½ weeks of the season.

Until this week the #1 seed went to Woodbury more as a courtesy. They have not looked that good despite some notable wins (Wayzata 4-1). But the way they won a tough Bloomington tourney, coming back from two defeats in pool play to take the championship, earned the Royals the #1 seed. It is theirs until someone takes it.

The #2 seed goes to Lakeville North. Like the Royals, the Panthers earned the #2 seed based on their play in the Bloomington tourney despite their tie with Hastings on the weekend. Last week, Inver Grove Heights took the #3 seed. They earned it. At Bloomington, the Heights lost three games to two tough teams, Moundsview and Lakeville North. In the Lakeville North game, they had the Panthers on the ropes, leading 3-2 with less then 5 minutes to play. They keep the #3 seed, but barely.

The projected East Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
East Red Division: D6-#1 Burnsville, D8-#2 Lakeville North, D2-#2 Moundsview, D8-#3 Inver Grove Heights
East Blue Division: D8-#1 Woodbury, D6-#2 Eden Prairie, D2-#1 Forest Lake, D2-#3 White Bear Lake.

East Regional seeds: #1 Woodbury, #2 Burnsville. Woodbury and the D8 teams will played well in a tough Bloomington tourney. Burnsville has lost their last two games and could start to struggle. It does not help that their next game is with Edina. Only Moundsview of the projected D2 teams is playing well. They will be tested by Stillwater and in the St. Cloud tourney in two weeks.

West Regional
The West districts this year are D3 (2 seeds), D10 (3 seeds) and D15 (3 seeds)

W1-District 3
Osseo/Maple Grove came into the Bloomington tourney riding high, tied with Wayzata on top of the D3 standings and having just tied Wayzata 2-2 in league play.

The Bloomington tourney pool play was a death pool with three tough teams. OMG struggled losing to Burnsville and Woodbury before beating Apple Valley 6-3. Still the bracket seeds gave OMG an opportunity to recover, but they couldn’t put it together (by the barest of margins) beating Minnetonka 4-1 in the round of 12 and getting knocked out by Lakeville North in the quarterfinals via shootout.

The tough format may serve OMG well in future tourneys, particularly the West Regional where a potential 5 games maybe needed to be played in three days to advance to the State Tourney. The biggest game of their year could be the fifth game on the third day of this regional tourney.

Wayzata had a tough tourney draw in their pool at Edina. They lost to Edina in a warm-up to the tourney on neutral ice 8-5. In their opening game of pool play, the Trojans proved ready to play, beating Eden Prairie 5-0. They followed that by beating Eagan and Stillwater to take the pool. In the Championship bracket, the Trojans beat Chaska in the semifinals. The Trojans lost in the Championship game to Elk River 4-1.

Orono beat Arvada, Colorado 3-1 this week and played a D3 game with Richfield-Washburn. Armstrong had a good Bemidji tourney, taking first in their pool. They beat Superior 8-0, tied the Host 4-4 and beat Grand Forks 7-2. In Championship Bracket play, they lost to the eventual Champion, St. Cloud, 7-3 and beat Hastings 6-1.

The top two teams in D3 this week are unchanged, Wayzata #1 and Osseo/Maple Grove #2.

W2-District 10
D10 has split the peewee A teams two divisions, Blue and Green, this year. Last week, it was corrected by someone who knows D10 hockey that the top four teams in each division advance to the D10 playoffs, not the top eight teams between the two divisions.

With that as background, the Green Division top seeds will likely be Elk River and St. Cloud. Elk River remains undefeated at 12-0 with eight games to play. They beat Sauk Rapids 9-1 and handed Andover their first D10 loss 2-0. The Elks played in the Edina tourney, beating Lakeville South 8-2, Duluth East and Edina in pool play. In bracket play, the Elks beat Edina again 3-1 and Wayzata 4-1 to take the title.

The championship game was fun to watch. Both teams played exceptionally. It was so cleanly and skillfully skated that there were only 5 whistles (Ref stopping play) in the first 15 minute period. Both teams are to be congratulated.

The game was mostly transitional. Neither team could hold the offensive zone for any long period. The Trojans took shots at the goal when they gained the zone, Elk River tended to move the puck looking for that good shot.

Elk River had success by hitting a forward behind the Trojan's defense a couple of times from their own zone and the solo rush on the goalie resulted in goals. The Elk River goalie played a very good game. Wayzata had better then 2-1 shot advantage for the game. The Trojan goalie had a good game also, just couldn't stop the breakaways.

St. Cloud took the Bemidji tourney championship over the Christmas Holidays. They tied St. Vital 2-2, beat Crookston 8-1 and beat Virginia 7-1 to take the #1 seed in their pool. In the Championship semifinals they beat D3 Armstrong 7-3 and D11 powerhouse Cloquet 3-1.

Spring Lake Park won the Albert Lea tourney, tying Irondale 5-5, beating Sioux Falls 8-1 and New Ulm 5-0 to advance to the Championship game where they beat the Host 10-0.

CINB seemed to have third place in the green division in their grasp and Rogers suddenly emerged. Rogers has been up and down all season, but may have found their stride. Over the holidays in D10 play, Rogers beat Champlin Park 6-3, Sauk Rapids 2-0, CINB 6-1, and Sauk Rapids again 8-0 to tie St. Cloud for second play. CINB lost to Andover 4-3, beat Princeton 6-1, lost to Rogers, and played Coon Rapids and Chisago Lakes. Next week they play two home games against Anoka and St. Cloud. The third and fourth spots are totally up in the air, with CINB, Chisago Lakes, Rogers, Princeton and Sauk Rapids all contending.

Over in the Blue Division, Centennial, Blaine and Andover are still leading the pack. That leaves only one playoff spot left and four teams; Anoka, Champlin Park, Coon Rapids and Spring Lake Park fighting it out for the final seed. Logic says that each division will have seeds 1-4 and have the eight team double elimination playoff draw matching 1 to 4, 2 to 3, 3 to 2 and 4 to 1.

Centennial played in the Edina tourney and in opening pool play beat Colorado Thunderbirds 5-3, and then lost to White Bear Lake and Chaska. Centennial tangles with the Elks on Saturday in a key D10 game. Blaine beat Chisago Lakes 11-1 and Champlin Park 7-3. They play Anoka this week and travel to Brainerd for their tourney drawing the Duluth Lakers in the opening round. Besides losing to Elk River, Andover beat CINB and St. Francis. The Huskies are off this week.

The #1 seed goes to Elk River with Blaine taking the #2 seed and Centennial the #3 seed.



W3-District 15
Brainerd went north for the holidays and beat Hermantown and lost to the Duluth Lakers. Then they beat Alexandria 4-2 in a key D15 match-up to hand the Cardinals their first D15 loss and played Fergus Falls. This week they host their own tourney. In bracket play they open against Hutchinson. Other teams in the tourney are Crookston, Cloquet, Hibbing, Mound Westonka, Duluth Lakers and Blaine.

Alexandria played Sauk Rapids in addition to Brainerd. This weekend they are at Thief River Falls for their tourney. Moorhead started to roll over the holidays losing to Roseau 10-1, played Fergus Falls, lost to the Fargo Flyers 8-2, played Bemidji and played West Fargo.

Park Rapids played in their first tourney as peewee A’s in Bemidji this year. They lost to Warroad, Cloquet and Fort Francis in pool play. In bracket play, the Panthers lost to Keweenaw 6-2 and Superior 5-0. It is tough playing your first season at the A level. Pequot Lakes is in the same boat, looking for their first tourney win as new peewee A team this year (they have a regular season win already). They played in the Crookston Tourney on the weekend drawing Grafton North Dakota in opening round play.

Fergus Falls has been struggling. They head to Thief River Falls to play in their tourney on the weekend.

Brainerd clearly is #1 in D15. Their play in their tourney this week should show improvement from early November. Alex (#2) and Moorhead (#3) will have to take it away from them.

The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
West Red Division: D10-#1 Elk River, D15-#2 Alexandria, D3-#2 Osseo/Maple Grove, D10-#3 Centennial
W Blue Division: D15-#1 Brainerd, D10-#2 Blaine, D3-#1 Wayzata, D15-#3 Moorhead.

West Regional seeds: #1 Elk River, #2 Wayzata. The Trojans play at the Edina Tourney was excellent, but they played Elk River who proved to be the best. Blaine is still a tough contender and could upset either one of these two teams in the regional. Osseo/Maple Grove has to re-group from a rugged Bloomington tourney. They can bounce back to contend. If Brainerd looks to be a contender in the regionals, then their tourney will be a test for them. My guess is that they will have to beat Cloquet and Blaine to get the Championship of their own tourney.

2009 Peewee A State Tournament Quarterfinal Pairings:
S1: New Prague
N2: Cloquet

W1: Elk River
E2: Burnsville

N1: Roseau
S2: Mpls Park

E1: Woodbury
W2: Wayzata

[O-townClown]

If there were money to be made following Pee Wee hockey in the state of Minnesota you'd be a rich man.

Very thorough.

You do love Woodbury, just like last year.

[Hattrick81]

Woodbury looked excellent in the Bloomington tourney. They thoroughly outplayed OMG in the round robin and had a great game vs Burnsville in the quarterfinals (and in the round robin where they lost to them). I didn't see their last 2 games but they won each so I'm assuming they again put up 2 solid efforts.

[GoGophersGuy]

The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
West Red Division: D10-#1 Elk River, D15-#2 Alexandria, D3-#2 Osseo/Maple Grove, D10-#3 Centennial
W Blue Division: D15-#1 Brainerd, D10-#2 Blaine, D3-#1 Wayzata, D15-#3 Moorhead.


Is this a 2 pool double elimination bracket formate from here?

And do 2 teams still go to state?

[simply said fred]

The top two teams in each pool advance to the two championship games on Sunday when the pools cross over with #1 from one pool playing #2 from the other (and ditto for the other pool winner and #2 team). Winners of these two games advance to state (as opposed to playing one another for state seeding). I am not sure which one goes to state as the #1 and #2 seed from the region. Anyone?

The projected South Regional Tourney draw is shown below.
West Red Division: D10-#1 Elk River, D15-#2 Alexandria, D3-#2 Osseo/Maple Grove, D10-#3 Centennial
W Blue Division: D15-#1 Brainerd, D10-#2 Blaine, D3-#1 Wayzata, D15-#3 Moorhead.


Is this a 2 pool double elimination bracket formate from here?

And do 2 teams still go to state?

[simply said fred]

And as a point of reference, here's the South Region draw from last year. While the districts/teams that comprise a region change from year to year, the format remains the same.

http://www.minnesotahockey.org/assorted ... ee%20A.pdf

All regional info (from last season) is located at:
http://www.minnesotahockey.org/tourname ... aments.asp

[elliott70]

2009 MINNESOTA HOCKEY TOURNAMENTS
Peewee & Bantam Region Tournament Site Rotation
North South East West
Columns 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Districts 12 16 15 4 1 8 2 10 11 3 5 6 2006-2007
Districts 10 11 12 4 6 1 2 3 8 5 15 16 2007-2008
Districts 16 12 11 1 4 5 6 8 2 10 15 3 2008-2009
Districts 11 2 12 3 5 4 8 6 1 15 16 10 2009-2010
Host B P B P B P B P
•
Four Regional tournaments for Peewee and Bantam levels
•
Each District sends three teams to Regions if not circled
•
Circled Districts send two teams to Regions
•
Four-year cycle will be repeated (5th year same as 1st year)
•
The number of district seeds will be looked at every four years for strength of District
B = District will host Bantam A & B Region Tournaments
P = District will host Peewee A & B Region Tournaments

Peewee & Bantam Region Hosts
North South East West
BA 16 Crookston 1 Richfield 6 Eden Prairie 10 Anoka
BB 16 TBD 1 Richfield 6 Eden Prairie 10 Anoka
PA 12 TBD 4 Mankato 8 Cottage Grove 15 TBD
PB 12 TBD 4 Marshall 8 Woodbury 15 TBD

Peewee & Bantam Region Pairings
Red Division Blue Division
A 1st Seed Column 1 E 1st Seed Column 2 D 3rd Seed Column 2 When Col. 1
B 2nd Seed Column 2 F 2nd Seed Column 1 H 3rd Seed Column 3 is circled
C 2nd Seed Column 3 G 1st Seed Column 3 D 3rd Seed Column 3 When Col. 2
D (see table to right) H (see table to right) H 3rd Seed Column 1 is circled
D 3rd Seed Column 1 When Col. 3
H 3rd Seed Column 2 is circled

Peewee & Bantam Region Schedule
Friday, March 6th Saturday, March 7th Sunday, March 8th
Red A vs B 10:00a Blue G vs E 8:00a 1st Place Red vs 2nd Place Blue
Red C vs D 12:00n Blue H vs F 10:00a 12:00n – Winner to State as 1st SeedBlue E vs F 2:00p Red C vs B 12:00n
Blue G vs H 4:00p Red D vs A 2:00p 1st Place Blue vs 2nd Place Red
Red A vs C 6:00p Blue F vs G 4:00p 2:00p – Winner to State as 2nd SeedRed B vs D 8:00p Blue E vs H 6:00p

Note: Teams listed first in pairings are "home." The times listed are the "standard" times, but are subject to change. Refer to minnesotahockey.org website for final schedule.

[elliott70]

The bold area was to be changed to reflect a third game.
1 vs 1 for championship

2 vs 2 winner plays loser from above for 2nd state seed.

That way at state

#1's would be place in quarterfinals agains #2's.
But alas it did not find its way into the book.

[GoGophersGuy]

Elliot:

So 1 plays 1 = winner goes to state
Loser of 1 and 1 plays winner of 2 and 2 to go to state?

[lamplighter]

Mankato is hosting the peewee A south region. They have posted the tourney schedule on their website (hit link and scroll down). It boils down to four teams (two games) on Sunday with #1 from each pool playing the #2 finisher from the other pool. Winners of these two games advance to state and not to yet another regional game. It's as simple as that. Take a look.

http://mankato.pucksystems2.com/page/sh ... ament-info

[elliott70]

Elliot:

So 1 plays 1 = winner goes to state
Loser of 1 and 1 plays winner of 2 and 2 to go to state?

That was what was suppoeed to happen.
Its not in the handbook so....

back to 1 - 2 and 2 - 1 with winners going to state


unless the cognizant VP's and tourney VP change it.....

I will mention it to those fellas come Janu 23.

[abc123]

Elliot:

So 1 plays 1 = winner goes to state
Loser of 1 and 1 plays winner of 2 and 2 to go to state?

That was what was suppoeed to happen.
Its not in the handbook so....

back to 1 - 2 and 2 - 1 with winners going to state


unless the cognizant VP's and tourney VP change it.....

I will mention it to those fellas come Janu 23.

Elliot I like the way it is now! If you add another game that is a long day for kids who will have to play a second game at or around 6:00 pm

[elliott70]

Elliot:

So 1 plays 1 = winner goes to state
Loser of 1 and 1 plays winner of 2 and 2 to go to state?

That was what was suppoeed to happen.
Its not in the handbook so....

back to 1 - 2 and 2 - 1 with winners going to state


unless the cognizant VP's and tourney VP change it.....

I will mention it to those fellas come Janu 23.

Elliot I like the way it is now! If you add another game that is a long day for kids who will have to play a second game at or around 6:00 pm

Hockey coaches made the request.
Game time would be approximate 4pm.
But I will take your words with me, also.
When a #1 from a pool does not make state based on one game the coaches, parents, players, get upset.

In the old 'Gold' division we had the 3 games on Sunday.

[MNWILD2009]

That was what was suppoeed to happen.
Its not in the handbook so....

back to 1 - 2 and 2 - 1 with winners going to state


unless the cognizant VP's and tourney VP change it.....

I will mention it to those fellas come Janu 23.

Elliot I like the way it is now! If you add another game that is a long day for kids who will have to play a second game at or around 6:00 pm

Hockey coaches made the request.
Game time would be approximate 4pm.
But I will take your words with me, also.
When a #1 from a pool does not make state based on one game the coaches, parents, players, get upset.

In the old 'Gold' division we had the 3 games on Sunday.

As a former coach, and in talking to a few coaches I know, the revised format would make more sense for all teams involved. A second game on Sunday is not a big deal at all. Most teams do this at least 2 or 3 times throughout the season.

[GoGophersGuy]

Makes sense, you have to reward the #1's with 2 opportunities to go to state. They won the pool, they deserve the option of:

1. Being able to play for the number 1 state seed
2. Getting 2 games to get in.

[MNWILD2009]

Makes sense, you have to reward the #1's with 2 opportunities to go to state. They won the pool, they deserve the option of:

1. Being able to play for the number 1 state seed
2. Getting 2 games to get in.

Yes, this is the way it SHOULD be done. Elliot, is this on the table for this season?

[simply said fred]

What does the third game on Sunday accomplish other than determining a true/sole regional champion? The two winners of the semi-final games advance to state. Nothing changes with these same two teams squaring off later in the day... they both still qualify.

The current regional format works well.....
Two pools / top two teams from each advance to Sunday / two games on Sunday with the two winning teams advancing to state (who really cares who gets the region's #1 seed and #2 seed at state).

Taking a look @ peewee regions, I'm sure everyone is wishing (like me) that their journey was going through the south. Many of teams not advancing from other regions would likely win the south without too much difficulty. What do you do? Play, have fun and give it your best effort. Nothing is guaranteed and it certainly seems like this will continue to be the season of surprises that will carryover into regional and state games. Best wishes.

Makes sense, you have to reward the #1's with 2 opportunities to go to state. They won the pool, they deserve the option of:

1. Being able to play for the number 1 state seed
2. Getting 2 games to get in.

Yes, this is the way it SHOULD be done. Elliot, is this on the table for this season?

[RickO'Shea]

What does the third game on Sunday accomplish other than determining a true/sole regional champion? The two winners of the semi-final games advance to state. Nothing changes with these same two teams squaring off later in the day... they both still qualify.

You better read a little closer.

[frederick61]

What does the third game on Sunday accomplish other than determining a true/sole regional champion? The two winners of the semi-final games advance to state. Nothing changes with these same two teams squaring off later in the day... they both still qualify.

You better read a little closer.

The discussion last year pointed out that the only way it can be assured that the best two teams in the regional advanced was to change the draw for the final games. The 2008 approach had Red Pool #1 playing Blue Pool #2 and Red Pool #2 playing Blue Pool #1 with the winners going to the state.

Since the pool draw is set years before, two better teams could end up in the same pool (for example the red pool) and in the blue pool, there could be three weaker teams. Using the 2008 approach, the winner of the red pool would have an easy final game to get to the state.

To try and balance this out, a rule was passed where the red and blue pool winners would play with the winner getting the #1 seed. The pool runner-ups played a game with the winner having a chance to play the loser of the first game for the #2 seed. By doing this, the imbalance was mitigated.

This change had a second effect. The 2008 approach assigned a #1 seed to the winner of one of the final games. With this new approach, the #1 seed of the regional was truly the team that played the best tourney.

[simply said fred]

Gotcha (ok, O'sheay)! I did not read things closely enough. It is all right there complimented by the summary of frederick. The approach makes sense (late learner here) providing for a true regional champ and an opportunity for second team's advancement to state via the back door.

[Hattrick81]

I need clarification because I am slow

So:

#1 plays #1 with winner going to state
#2 plays #2 with the winner plaing the loser of #1 vs #1, and the winner of that game gets the 2nd state draw

Is this correct or is this the way people want it to be?

[elliott70]

I need clarification because I am slow

So:

#1 plays #1 with winner going to state
#2 plays #2 with the winner plaing the loser of #1 vs #1, and the winner of that game gets the 2nd state draw

Is this correct or is this the way people want it to be?

This is the way come people wanted it.
It was to be changed but is not changed int the handbook.