Another Way to Look at Peewee A teams February 10

[frederick61]

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.

Regular season play ends in most districts this week and most district playoffs start the following Friday February 20th. In the last post, I had Edina as having a lock on the #1 seed in D6. That was a mistake, as Burnsville strung a number of wins together to take #1 seed from Edina leaving the Hornets with the #2 seed.

The #1 seeds into their district playoffs are as follows: D1 seeding is based on D1 games played and it appears that Highland will take #1, but Mpls Park will be strong. D2 seeding is up in the air between Roseville, Stillwater and White Bear Lake as their season winds down this week. D3 is Wayzata. D4 is New Prague. D5 is Buffalo. D6 is Burnsville. D8 is Woodbury (Lakeville North can tie them, but the Royals hold the tie breaker). D10 is Elk River in the Green Division and either Blaine or Centennial in the Blue Division. D11 is Virginia. D12 is either Cloquet or the Duluth Lakers. D15 is Brainerd. D16 is Roseau.

Let the district playoffs begin!

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

N1-District 11
Cloquet and the Duluth Lakers are separated by a single point on top of the D11 regular season standings. Their D11 season will end this week when the Lumberjacks and the Lakers play each other.

Hermantown has been busy since upending Cloquet in Cloquet’s tourney championship game 4-2 two weeks ago. The Hawks have beaten Superior 4-3, tied Duluth East, lost to Brainerd 6-2 and East Grand Forks 4-3. This week they have games with Moorhead and Grand Rapids. The Duluth Lakers continue to struggle, beating Superior 3-2 and losing to Cloquet 3-2. The Lakers have won only twice in their last 8 games. They play East Grand Forks on the weekend.

After tying Hermantown, Duluth East went south to play in the White Bear Lake tourney. They lost the opening game to the host 7-3, beat Lakeville North 2-1 and lost the Consolation Championship to Elk River 5-2.

The D11 playoffs start on Feb 20 at Cloquet. The playoffs are a double elimination tourney. If the current standings hold this week, the opening round will match Cloquet and Duluth East. The Duluth Lakers and Hermantown would meet in the other game. Unlike other district playoffs, the game for fans to focus on is the first game of the losers’ bracket. The loser of that game is eliminated from the playoffs and the winner advances to play the loser of the semifinal game. The loser in that game is also eliminated, leaving two teams to fight it out for the #1 and #2 seeds.

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

N2-District 12
Virginia had only 3 losses in their last 13 games prior to playing Hibbing last Saturday. They had beaten Eveleth 11-4, Grand Rapids 2-0 and International Falls 12-0 in D12 play. Then Hibbing upset the Blue Devils 3-2 in OT. This week, the Blue Devils play Moorhead and St. Cloud.

The Bluejackets also play Moorhead and St. Cloud this week. Grand Rapids has a single game with St. Cloud this week. Last week, the Thunderhawks put up a great defensive game to hold Woodbury one of the top rated teams in the state to two goals in a 2-1 loss.

Virginia remains the #1 seed, but the #2 Thunderhawks continue to improve as the magic state tourney time approaches. Hibbing holds the #3 seed. The D11 tourney is scheduled to start February 21.

N3-District 16
There is nothing mysterious about Roseau. Win, lose or other, the Rams put it all out there. After being upended in their own tourney by Chaska, the Rams have strung seven wins together. Four of those wins came in the Warroad tourney that the Rams won, beating LOW, the Fargo Angels, Arborg and MALM. They added two D16 wins over Crookston and Hallock as the D16 playoffs near (February 20th at East Grand Forks).

East Grand Forks lost their two opening games in the Roseau tourney, but didn’t waste much time worrying about the losses to Wayzata and Lakeville South. They have strung their own 8 game wining streak together since then beating Thief River Falls 5-0, Crookston 4-1, Bemidji 6-0, Cloquet 7-5, Hermantown 4-3 and the Duluth Lakers 6-2. The Green Wave sit alone in second and have two D16 games left, LOW and Hallock.

The loss to East Grand Forks really hurt Bemidji’s chances of over taking the Green Wave in the D16 standings. In addition, they lost to Brainerd 5-1 on the weekend. With three D16 games this week, the Lumberjacks should lockup third in D16.

The general format for the D16 playoffs is to give the #1 team a bye in the first round and then seed six other teams to play a quarter final game. The general approach is to play down to two teams who will then fight for the #1 seed and the loser of that game gets the #2 seed. The teams that lose in the earlier rounds, drop into a single elimination tourney for the #3 seed.

Last year there were some real surprises in the D16 playoffs when Warroad with the #6 seed upset Bemidji 4-2, lost the second game to East Grand Forks 5-0, won the third game to eliminate Thief River Falls 6-3 and lost to Bemidji in the game for the #3 regional seed 5-2. Not bad for a team nobody expected to do well. But Warroad wasn’t the only team in the tourney to surprise. LOW with the #5 seed beat #4 seeded Thief River Falls and then pushed #1 seed Roseau before losing 3-0.

The seeds in D16 are changed again this week. Roseau is remains #1, but Bemidji drops to the #3 seed and East Grand Forks takes the #2 seed. Bemidji’s loss to the Green Wave did them in.

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

North Regional seeds: Roseau remains #1 in the North Regional. The Rams are still the best team in the state. But #2 is no longer the domain of Cloquet. The Lumberjack's loss to the Green Wave plus struggling in other games played in the past two weeks leave them looking vulnerable. This week East Grand Forks takes the #2 seed, but Cloquet, Virginia, Grand Rapids and Bemidji will all contend.

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. The South Region will have a play-in game scheduled for March 1 at the Richfield Arena. The game will be played between the teams seeded #3 in D1 and #3 in D4 with the winner advancing to the South Regional tourney in Mankato.

S1-District 1
With D1 playoffs scheduled to start February 22nd, Mpls Park has enjoyed the a great season. The Storm are currently third in D3 with two games to play (Osseo/Maple Grove and Armstrong) this week. The Storm lost to Wayzata 8-1 Sunday. They had won their previous two D3 games beating Richfield-Washburn 3-2 and North Metro 4-0. Mpls Park had a good St. Cloud tourney two weekends ago, beating Buffalo 5-3, losing to Burnsville 9-5 and beating the Grand Forks Seawolves 7-3 in pool play. In the consolation round, the Storm beat Eagan 10-4 before losing the consolation trophy game to Rogers 8-5.

Highland played two games on the weekend. Saturday the Capitals had a D2 game with Stillwater and Sunday a D1 game with Richfield-Washburn. The Capitals are one of the most “vague” teams around the cities. There is a rumor they may have beaten North St. Paul in D2 action 10 days ago. But their only known recent measure is a 4-2 loss to Mpls Park on Jan 13 and beating Irondale 5-2 a week ago Sunday.

Irondale has played an aggressive schedule the past week. They beat Richfield-Washburn in a D1 game 4-1, lost to Tartan 6-2 in a D2 game and played in the River Lakes tourney on the weekend. The Knights beat Fargo 5-2, lost to Superior 6-0 and beat Pequot Lakes 7-2. This week the Knights have their last D1 game against Mpls Park.

Richfield-Washburn played in the Sauk Rapids tourney two weekends ago. R-W lost to Orono 7-3, lost to St. Francis 7-1 and beat Princeton 6-3. Since then R-W has lost to Armstrong 7-2 and Orono 5-2 in D3 play. They end their regular season play with D3 games against Osseo-Maple Grove and North Metro.

Mpls Park retains the #1 seed. Highland is #2 and Washburn takes #3. But it appears that the Storm is pulling away from the other three D1 teams. Highland is a mystery.

S2-District 4
D4 has completed their regular season. New Prague beat Owatonna 4-2 in a key D4 game 10 days ago. That victory put the Trojans in a position to win the D4 crown by winning their last two games this weekend. They did beating Marshall 11-2 and Mason City 5-0. The Trojans also beat Crow River 7-2 last week. Owatonna came back from the loss to the Trojans to beat Mankato 5-2 last week and to take second in D4. The loss to Owatonna dropped Mankato to fourth behind Luverne.

The D4 playoffs will be a single elimination, eight team, tourney held in Albert Lea. The opening round will be played on Friday night, February 20th and Saturday morning, February 21st. But the Friday night games cross brackets leaving the #4/#5 seeded game and the #3/#6 seeded game being played Saturday morning. The winner of the 8:00 morning Saturday game then plays the key semifinal game at 1:00 Saturday afternoon. The winner of the 10:00 Saturday game then plays the key semifinal game at 5:00.

With the #1 seed, New Prague will draw the #8 seed, the winner of a play-in game between Marshall/Waseca/St Peter/Faribault) February 13-15th. Normally, the #1 seed would play a much weaker team, but D4 may have acted as “Greeks bearing a gift” if the Trojans end up drawing Faribault. Faribault has been playing tough and will not be an easy foe. The Trojans could end up in a battle royal and then have play the winner of #4/#5 game between Mankato/New Ulm. With the #2 seed, Owatonna will play the #7 seed determined by the play-in game and play the winner of the game between the #6 seed Albert Lea and the #3 seed Luverne.

The winners of the two semifinal games play for the D4 #1 and #2 seeds to the South Regional, the losers play for the right to play the D1 #3 seed March 1 for the D1 #3 seed to the South Regional. In the D4 playoffs, winning the quarterfinal bracket game is key to advancing. Losers of those games are out of the playoffs.

This week the seeds are unchanged. New Prague remains the #1 seed, Owatonna remains the #2 seed and Luverne remains the #3 seed.

S3-District 5

Buffalo returned to D5 action after playing in a tough St. Cloud tourney. They beat Hutchinson, Sartell and Wilmar to open a lead in the chase for the D5 regular season title and the #1 D5 seed to the South Regional. At St. Cloud, Buffalo lost to Mpls Park 5-3, Burnsville 4-1 and Grand Forks 6-3 in pool play. The Bison played Hutchinson and Crow River last week and end their D5 season playing St. Michael/Albertville and River Lakes. The Bison have the #1 seed to the South Regional firmly in their grasp.

That leaves the remaining nine D5 teams to contend for the #2 and #3 seeds in the D5 playoffs held February 27th and March 1st. The two semifinal games are played in Litchfield. MALM and Crow River should battle for the #2 spot in the D5 playoffs with the loser taking the #3 spot. But watch out for Sartell. The Sabres won the Alexander tourney this weekend, beating Jefferson 3-2, Farmington 4-3 and Grand Forks Blues 3-1.

MALM did something great, they went to Warroad and played in their tourney. In pool play they beat River Heights (Canada) 10-0, Kenora (Canada) 2-1 and host Warroad 9-1. They played Roseau (the top rated team in the state-my opinion) in the Championship game and lost 7-2. Good going Stars.

The winner of the #2 seed (Crow River or MALM) will draw the winner of the play-in game most likely played between River Lakes and Litchfield. Willmar is likely to take the #4 seed with the remaining teams fighting it out for the rest of the seeds.

Crow River (or MALM), River Lakes, STMA and Mound Westonka most likely play in the upper bracket of the D5 single elimination playoffs with the winner of that bracket earning a seed to the South Regional and Crow River (or MALM), Willmar, Sartell and Hutchinson in the lower bracket with the winner earning the other D5 seed.

The seeds remain the same this week. Buffalo is remains #1 and Crow River takes the #2 seed. MALM takes the #3 seed. But the Sartell Sabres made a statement in Alex this weekend.

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

South Regional seeds: #1 Mpls Park and #2 New Prague. Mpls Park continues to look stronger as the season winds down. Their play in St. Cloud shows some volatility, but their tie with Jefferson, a team that also looks stronger, last week plus their 10-4 win over Eagan at St. Cloud and a potential 3rd place finish in D3 make the Storm the team to beat in the South. New Prague was struggling and may have found themselves in beating Crow River last week. The South Region is really interesting, offering the prospects of a number of surprises.

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

E1-District 2
White Bear Lake’s tourney took the center stage this past weekend in D2. The Bear’s won their opening game beating Duluth East 7-3, lost the semifinal game to Edina 5-1 and lost to Eden Prairie 5-4 in double OT in the third place game. The Bear’s have one D2 game left with Forest Lake and hold a narrow lead in the standings over Roseville and Stillwater.

Roseville beat Tartan 2-0 and Moundsview 4-2 two weeks ago. The Raiders have three D2 games left to play this week (Stillwater twice and North St. Paul). Roseville should pass White Bear in the standings. That will end their season. The Raiders played in the New Hope tourney this week, beating Coon Rapids 9-2, tying Eastview 2-2 (but advancing on a shootout) and losing to Armstrong 4-1 in the Championship game.

Stillwater played Mahtomedi and Highland in D2 action last week. Besides beating Irondale, the Ponies tied White Bear 2-2 and beat Forest Lake 5-1 the previous week. The Forest Lake victory put the Ponies in contention for the D2 crown. The D2 regular season championship will likely be determined by the winner of the two games the Ponies play with Roseville this week.

Forest Lake’s losses to Stillwater and to North St. Paul 8-3 ended their title chase as did Moundsview’s loss to Roseville end the Mustangs hopes. Both teams conclude the D2 season this week playing each other.


Roseville still holds on to the #1 seed this week, but Stillwater has put together a good run to threaten the Raider’s hopes of the D2 title. The Ponies take over the #2 spot and White Bear drops to #3. Forest Lake and Moundsview are struggling after playing great earlier in the season.

E2-District 6
Last week, with four games to go in D6, Edina held a 5 point lead and a firm grip on the D6 playoff #1 seed. Now with two games to play (Minnetonka and Prior Lake this week), the Hornets trail the Burnsville Blaze by four points. The Blaze has one game to play (Eastview). The Hornets returned from Roseau, beat Kennedy 3-0 in their first D6 game and then lost to Eden Prairie 5-3 (a team they had beaten the previous week 8-1). On the Monday after the White Bear Tourney, they play Minnetonka and end the week and their D6 season against Prior Lake. The Hornets will need an Eastview upset of Burnsville to have a shot at the title.

The Hornets opened the White Bear tourney playing one half of the D8 powerhouses, Lakeville North, and beat them 8-2. The Panthers top line was out of action for the Hornets game missing players due to illness and injuries. Edina then beat host White Bear Lake 5-3 and took the Championship beating Woodbury 6-3.

The Blaze in the past 10 days has strung five wins together beating Eden Prairie 4-0, Apple Valley 4-1, Kennedy 7-0, Eastview 4-1 and Minnetonka 7-1 to put the Blaze in the driver’s seat for the D6 crown. Eden Prairie’s win over Edina could not kept their slim hopes alive for the #1 or #2 seed into the D6 playoffs. The Eagles beat Jefferson 7-2, but three consecutive D6 losses (Apple Valley, Edina and Burnsville) at the end of January ended the Eagles hopes.

Eden Prairie played in the White Bear tourney also beating Centennial 2-1 in their opener, losing to Woodbury 3-1 and beating White Bear for the third place trophy. Eastview struggled in D6 play this week, losing to Chaska 5-1 and to Shakopee 4-3 in OT. But the Lightening still have a good grip on the #4 seed. After losing to Burnsville this week, the Lightening beat Hopkins in the opening round of the New Hope Invitational, lost to Roseville 2-2 shot out in the semifinals and beat Hastings 5-1 to take the 3rd place trophy.

In the chase for the coveted #5 seed to the D6 playoffs, Jefferson fell as a result of losing to Chaska 7-1 and Eden Prairie 8-2. The Jaguars played at Alex in their tourney this week, losing to Sartell 3-2 in the opener. Chaska’s two wins (Jefferson and Eastview) left the Hawks in a good position for the #5 seed. With three D6 games to go (Prior Lake, Eden Prairie and Minnetonka), the Hawks now have the edge in the fight for the #5.

Apple Valley charge to get the #5 seed was slowed by losing to Burnsville, but the Eagles came back to beat Prior Lake 4-3 in OT and Kennedy 3-2. Valley is still in the hunt with one game left against cross town rival Eastview this week. One of the keys to the Eagles turn around is the improved play of one of their forwards, developing into one of the best forwards in the area. A win over the Lightening by the Eagles would really pressure Chaska. Minnetonka had an outside chance to take the #5 seed, but two successive losses to Prior Lake and the loss to Burnsville ended their hopes.

The double elimination portion of the D6 playoffs shapes up like this. Burnsville with the #1 seed will play the winner of the #4 Eastview/#5 (Chaska or Apple Valley). Edina with the #2 seed will play the winner of the #3 Eden Prairie/#6 (Chaska/Apple Valley/Jefferson/Minnetonka/Prior Lake/Shakopee/Kennedy) play-in tourney winner. The D6 play-off action begins February 19th at Bloomington and ends on D6 championship Saturday, February 28, at Edina.

Burnsville takes the #1 spot this week. Edina falls to #2. Chaska is playing well and could continue their late season charge. Add an up and down Eden Prairie and an improving Apple Valley team and it looks a great D6 playoff developing.

E3-District 8
The log jam atop the D8 standings has cracked. Woodbury beat Eagan 6-3 early last week and took a northern tour beating Cloquet 7-3, Grand Rapids 2-1 and Hibbing. The Royals came back and beat Inver Grove Heights 6-3 and Eagan. Lakeville North lost to Hastings 3-0, but came back on the weekend to beat IGH. That leaves Woodbury and Lakeville North in a deadlock for #1 with Woodbury holding the tie breaker. Woodbury has two D8 games with Rochester and Hudson and Lakeville North has two D8 games with Rochester and Northfield. Rochester has the spoiler role.

Both Woodbury and Lakeville North played in the White Bear Lake tourney this weekend. Woodbury beat Elk River 5-2 in the opener, beat Eden Prairie 3-1 in the semifinals and lost to Edina in the finals. Lakeville North were short a couple of players in the opening two rounds of the White Bear tourney and it showed as the Panthers were soundly beaten by Edina and edged by Duluth East in the consolation semifinals 2-1. Lakeville North came back to beat Centennial 2-0.

Inver Grove Heights opened last week with a 5-3 win over Hastings, but the two losses to Woodbury and Lakeville North leave them in third place being pressed by Eagan, Lakeville South, Rochester, Cottage Grove and Rosemount. Eagan lost to Woodbury 6-3 and came back to beat Northfield 4-0 and Red Wing 6-2 to move into the fourth spot. The Wildcats then lost to Rochester 1-0 leaving them in the pile with the other five teams with two games to go (Rosemount and Farmington). Lakeville South beat a short handed Cottage Grove team 1-0 (the Wolfpack were missing two players), beat Rochester 1-0 and played Northfield this past week. The Cougars have two games remaining (Farmington and Sibley).

Rochester beat Red Wing twice, lost to Hastings 2-0 and beat Eagan in D8 action. They have four games remaining, but they are all tough (Woodbury, IGH, Lakeville North and Cottage Grove. Both Cottage Grove and Rosemount have shots at getting in the top four. Rosemount has strung three D8 wins together beating Northfield twice and Sibley. The Irish traveled to Fergus Falls this weekend and play the Bismarck Admirals in the opener.

Woodbury and Lakeville North are set to make a championship run after the White Bear Tourney. IGH has fallen to third or lower. Rochester, Cottage Grove, Lakeville South Rosemount and Eagan are teams that can all emerge to take #3 or #2 if the Royals or the Panthers trip up. Rochester is the only team that controls its only destiny.

The top two seeds are changed this week. Lakeville North drops to the #2 seed, and Woodbury takes the #1 seed. Inver Grove Heights keeps the #3 seed but there is clearly a jumble of five teams fighting for the spot. The D8 season ends this weekend.

Injuries may have affected this districts outcome with so many balanced teams. Only Woodbury has established their team above the rest. And in the midst all this, Hastings, has started to play well going 5-2-1 in their last 8 games. They have beaten and tied Lakeville North and could make a run in the D8 playoffs that the Raiders will host in two weeks.

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

East Regional seeds: #1 Burnsville, #2 Woodbury. Both teams had a good two weeks, Burnsville in D6 and Woodbury in taking second in the White Bear Lake tourney. Last year, D2 teams really struggled in this Regional. If that happens again and Lakeville North suffers from injuries, then this regional looks like three teams fighting for the two state seeds.

Edina was dropped this week because of the stumble against Eden Prairie. The Hornets could really be in trouble in the D6 playoffs, in jeopardy of falling into the lower bracket in the playoffs and not emerging especially since D6 has only two seeds this year to the East Regional. This East Regional tourney is wide, wide open yet.

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

W1-District 3
The story this week in D3 is Armstrong. The Falcons won their own tourney this weekend after being the bridesmaid at Bemidji (losing to Cloquet) and at Rochester (losing to Jefferson). They won by beating St. Michael/Albertsville 4-3, a tough Hastings team 2-2 on a shotout and a tough Roseville team 4-1. The Falcons end their season this week playing North Metro and Mpls Park. Orono returned to D3 play and beat Richfield-Washburn 5-2. Both Orono and Armstrong are in a deadlock for the #3 seed to the D3 playoffs. But Orono ends their season against Wayzata and Hopkins.

Wayzata has opened a lead in D3. The Trojans beat North Metro last week 5-1 and beat Mpls Park. Wayzata and will likely take the #1 seed into the D3 playoff. Osseo/Maple Grove looks to take the #2 seed. They are a solid second with two D3 games to play this week, Richfield-Washburn and Mpls Park. Armstrong and Orono look to battle for the #3 seed with North Metro and Hopkins at #5 and #6.

The D3 playoff is a 6-team double elimination tourney similar to D6 (except no play-in games). Based on current standings, that will pit #1 Wayzata against the winner of game between #4 Orono or Armstrong/#5 North Metro. In the other bracket, #2 Osseo/Maple Grove will play the winner of the game between #3 Orono or Armstrong/#6 Hopkins.

The top two teams in D3 this week are unchanged, Wayzata #1 and Osseo/Maple Grove #2. Wayzata beat Osseo/Maple Grove 10 days ago 5-1.

W2-District 10
In the Blue Division, Blaine and Centennial will fight it out for the Championship and the #1 seed to the D10 playoffs on Friday. The winner of that game, their 21st D10 game, will take the championship. Blaine is coming into the game with 5 losses on the season; Centennial is coming off a disappointing appearance in the White Bear Lake tourney, losing three tough games to Eden Prairie 2-1, fellow D10 contender Elk River 3-2 and Lakeville North 2-0.

The two teams vying for the #3 seed also meet this week to settle who has the #3 seed. Andover and Anoka are knotted and will meet on Friday. It is a quirk in the scheduling to have contending teams playing each other for four seeds in the last two games scheduled.

The bad news is that Champlin Park, Coon Rapids, Spring Lake Park and St. Francis are out of the D10 playoffs. The Spring Lake Park/Blaine score from their game this week as reported on the Spring Lake Park site said it best; SLP’s score “nothing”, Blaine’s score “lots”.

Over in the Green Division, Elk River has long sown up the #1 seed. The Elks played in the White Bear tourney also. They lost the opener to Woodbury 5-2, beat Centennial and beat Duluth East 5-2 to win the consolation title. The Elks have a single game with CINB this week. St. Cloud has long since sown up the #2 seed. St. Cloud lost to Blaine 4-2, tied Centennial 3-3 and tied Andover 3-3 last week. They beat Eagan 5-3.

Rogers made a dramatic move at the season to take the #3 seed and CINB held on for the #4 seed. Rogers has one of the best defensemen in the region and a solid front line. They can be tough. Princeton, Chisago City and Sauk Rapids are out of the tourney.

The D10 brackets have not been posted and will not be until the regular season games this week are played. But if the seeding above hold, then the 8 team double elimination playoff will pair Elk River/Andover or Anoka; St. Cloud/Andover or Anoka; Rogers/Blaine or Centennial; and CINB/Blaine or Centennial. All these games look to be close in a tough opening round.

Despite their opening round loss to Woodbury, the Elks retain the #1 seed this week. Blaine lost to the Elks a week ago 3-1, but like the Elks they each have 5 losses on the season. Centennial keeps the #3 seed, but barely.



W3-District 15
Moorhead is no longer a mystery. They finally “played” their D15 schedule dumping into the D15 standings all their game scores from December, January and the first of February. As a result, the Spuds went from having played five games (and near last in the standings) to finish second behind Brainerd. Brainerd beat Moorhead 7-2 last week in their last D15 game. The Warriors then beat Bemidji and Hermantown 6-2.

The Warriors play Anoka and Andover this weekend in a prelude to the D15 tourney starting on February 20th in Fergus Falls. Fergus Falls ended in the D15 season in fourth place. After beating Sartell 7-1, in their own tourney this week, the Otters beat the Bismarck Blades 6-3, lost to West Fargo 5-0 and loss to Fargo North 6-1 in the third place game.

Alexandria had their tourney this week also. Alexandria beat Sibley, lost to Grand Forks and played Farmington for third place. Both Pequot Lakes and Park Rapids are in their first year of peewee A hockey. And both have won tourney games. Pequot Lakes beat River Lakes 3-2, tied St. Francis 1-1 and lost to Irondale in the Richmond tourney.

Park Rapids played in the Eveleth tourney two weeks ago. The Panthers lost to Osseo/Maple Grove, beat the host 7-2 in the consolation semifinals and lost to Cottage Grove 5-0 in the consolation finals. Congratulations to both teams and hope they do well in the D15 playoffs. It would be a rocking time in Park Rapids at the West Regional if the Panthers could take one of the D15 seeds.

Park Rapids and Pequot Lakes will have a play-in game to get to the D15 playoffs in Fergus Falls. D15 playoffs are double elimination, but differ from D6 playoff format. Both tourneys start with six teams, but D6 pits the losers of the first round games against the losers of the second round games.

D15 has the losers of the first round games playing each other with the loser of that game out of the tourney. The winner then plays the lower seeded team of the two teams that lose the semifinal game. The winner of that game then plays the higher seeded team of the two teams that lose the semifinal games for the #3 seed to the West Regional. The two winners of the semifinal games play for the #1 or #2 seed.

Based on this format, #1 Brainerd will play #4 Fergus Falls/#5 Detroit Lakes winner and #2 Moorhead will play the #3 Alexandria/#6 (either Park Rapids or Pequot Lakes) winner.

Brainerd remains #1 in D15. But the rest is jumbled. The Spuds remain a mystery and Alexandria beat Moorhead 4-0 and lost to the Spuds the night after playing in their own tourney. Fergus Falls has played well in the last month. Let’s give the Cardinals their due and give them the #2 seed. Moorhead because of their torrent of results reported this past week, get the #3 seed.

The projected West 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 Blaine. Elk River and Blaine have 5 losses each all season. That is an exceptional feat for two teams that play in the same conference. Last week, it was noted that Wayzata was 9-5-1 in their last 15 games. This week, the Trojans erased all their scores from their site. Perhaps they are “starting over”. The Trojans still no longer look invincible.

The 2009 Peewee A State Tournament Quarterfinal Pairings this week:
S1: Mpls Park
N2: East Grand Forks

W1: Elk River
E2: Burnsville

N1: Roseau
S2: New Prague

E1: Woodbury
W2: Blaine

If these pairing happen, only Blaine and Woodbury will have played each other in regular season and that game was a 4-4 tie.

[Playoffhockey]

Frederick - Great posting, again!!

It appears that Chaska has won its way to the #5 seed in D6 with a win over Prior Lake 7 - 4, a win over Eden Prairie 3 - 1, and an Eastview 5 - 0 win over Apple Valley.

From the D6 website, the double elimination portion of the D6 playoffs play like this:
#1 seed plays the winner of #4 vs #6 play-in winner.
#2 seed plays the winner of #3 vs #5.

http://www.district6hockey.net/playoffs/PA.html

Projected seeds are:
#1 B'ville/Edina (B'ville with 46pts, plays Eastview)
#2 B'ville/Edina (Edina with 45pts, plays Prior Lake)
#3 Eden Prairie (no games left 40 or 41pts)
#4 Eastview (with 36 or 37pts, plays B'ville)
#5 Chaska (with 31 or 32pts, plays Minnetonka)
#6 Play-in winner

[HawkeyPower]

District 11 Playoffs are at Proctor

[elliott70]

Opening paragraphs....

Virginia is D12
Cloquet/? is D11

[HawkeyPower]

"The D11 playoffs start on Feb 20 at Cloquet."

The District 11 playoffs are at Proctor

[defense]

I think Fergus Falls beat Alexandria twice already this year....don't know why they get the nod into the regional....unless this is done by seeding.

[MNWILD2009]

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


Wow, this looks like some good hockey.

[simply said fred]

0 and 4 at state for the two teams that advance from this region.

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


Wow, this looks like some good hockey.

[Reality Check]

0 and 4 at state for the two teams that advance from this region.

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


Wow, this looks like some good hockey.

Yeah, why not just make it six team pool play tournament. It would be a lot more exciting than watching these garbage teams.

[HockeySLP]

0 and 4 at state for the two teams that advance from this region.

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


Wow, this looks like some good hockey.

Yeah, why not just make it six team pool play tournament. It would be a lot more exciting than watching these garbage teams.

WOW, Very Harsh in judging 11-13 years olds playing hockey!!!!!

While I admit this is the weakest of the Regionals, They were picked at random a few years ago. Each team can only play the teams put before them and let the chips fall where they may. You might be surprised at how competative these teams will be once they get to State.

[MNWILD2009]

0 and 4 at state for the two teams that advance from this region.

Yeah, why not just make it six team pool play tournament. It would be a lot more exciting than watching these garbage teams.

WOW, Very Harsh in judging 11-13 years olds playing hockey!!!!!

While I admit this is the weakest of the Regionals, They were picked at random a few years ago. Each team can only play the teams put before them and let the chips fall where they may. You might be surprised at how competative these teams will be once they get to State.

Competitive? Not with with the stronger associations!!!

http://www.mnhockeyrankings.com/view_20 ... m_nbr=5321

[Zgoal557]

District 12 better watch out for Hibbing #16. He has upset a lot of MN Peewee teams this year.

[matthebat]

District 12 better watch out for Hibbing #16. He has upset a lot of MN Peewee teams this year.

Isnt he the kid with the really hard slapshot or was that someone else on the team?

[clutchngrab]

0 and 4 at state for the two teams that advance from this region.

Yeah, why not just make it six team pool play tournament. It would be a lot more exciting than watching these garbage teams.

WOW, Very Harsh in judging 11-13 years olds playing hockey!!!!!

While I admit this is the weakest of the Regionals, They were picked at random a few years ago. Each team can only play the teams put before them and let the chips fall where they may. You might be surprised at how competative these teams will be once they get to State.

I think garbage teams is a little extreme but "weakest of the regionals" is also an understatement. I would put Mpls Park as the top team in this group and for comparison sake they went 0-4 and were outscored 26-6 against Wayzata and OMG in their D1/D3 conference play. That to me, looks like a gap in talent.

[Zgoal557]

District 12 better watch out for Hibbing #16. He has upset a lot of MN Peewee teams this year.

Isnt he the kid with the really hard slapshot or was that someone else on the team?

That's him. He has a hard slapshot and can hit the net from just about anywhere. He almost took Roseville down single handed.

[watchdog]

zgoal do you have to come on every thread to pump yourself or what? my sons team played hibbing this year i watched the game never noticed anyone from hibbing as being the allstar to watch for. the score of the game was roseau 9 hibbing 0. not one goal in that game for the super star.

[Zgoal557]

zgoal do you have to come on every thread to pump yourself or what? my sons team played hibbing this year i watched the game never noticed anyone from hibbing as being the allstar to watch for. the score of the game was roseau 9 hibbing 0. not one goal in that game for the super star.

I'm sorry watchdog. There isn't too many teams that can go the distance with Roseau. I just think the kid is good.

[HockeySLP]

Yeah, why not just make it six team pool play tournament. It would be a lot more exciting than watching these garbage teams.

WOW, Very Harsh in judging 11-13 years olds playing hockey!!!!!

While I admit this is the weakest of the Regionals, They were picked at random a few years ago. Each team can only play the teams put before them and let the chips fall where they may. You might be surprised at how competative these teams will be once they get to State.

I think garbage teams is a little extreme but "weakest of the regionals" is also an understatement. I would put Mpls Park as the top team in this group and for comparison sake they went 0-4 and were outscored 26-6 against Wayzata and OMG in their D1/D3 conference play. That to me, looks like a gap in talent.

You are correct with the talent gap, but there is also a numbers gap. Wayzata and OMG are drawing from 3 to 4 times the amount of kids at all levels vs most of the smaller associations. I think Minnesota Hockey has it wrong! Instead of making the smaller associations merge like MPLS Park has done, they should make the larger association’s field more than one "A" team. Wayzata and OMG also have the top ranked B1 teams; you cannot tell me that the majority of their B1 players are not A caliber skaters in any other association?

[Vapor]

HockeySLP good post. With the numbers that some of these Associations have that makes sense. Why not give more players the "A" experience.

[gohawk4]

HockeySLP good post. With the numbers that some of these Associations have that makes sense. Why not give more players the "A" experience.

I'll tell you why. "A" hockey is for the top hockey players in the state. Not the top hockey players of an association. If you can't compete against top A teams, play B hockey. If a kid is good enough to play A hockey he should find an A team to play for. They have waivers for this reason. I have seen many A players that should not be playing A hockey. This doesn't help their development either. A kid getting circles skated around him doesn't learn anything, but how to ice a puck. All kids should play at the level of their ability. Not the level their association wants them to play. If there are 25 A players at Wayzata or MG they should have 25 A players on 1 or 2 teams. If Mpls park has 5 A players, they should waiver to another association and the other 10 that are B calibler should play B hockey.

[HockeySLP]

HockeySLP good post. With the numbers that some of these Associations have that makes sense. Why not give more players the "A" experience.

I'll tell you why. "A" hockey is for the top hockey players in the state. Not the top hockey players of an association. If you can't compete against top A teams, play B hockey. If a kid is good enough to play A hockey he should find an A team to play for. They have waivers for this reason. I have seen many A players that should not be playing A hockey. This doesn't help their development either. A kid getting circles skated around him doesn't learn anything, but how to ice a puck. All kids should play at the level of their ability. Not the level their association wants them to play. If there are 25 A players at Wayzata or MG they should have 25 A players on 1 or 2 teams. If Mpls park has 5 A players, they should waiver to another association and the other 10 that are B calibler should play B hockey.

Hawk, with that logic there or only about 10 - 20 "A" teams in the whole state, if the A players from the smaller associations waiver out, then we should just go to club hockey like the rest of the country. I think we are better than that in Minnesota. The only A teams in the state will be the biggest of the big with an occational Roseau size team. And there will be very few teams for those 10- 20 teams to play.

[gohawk4]

HockeySLP good post. With the numbers that some of these Associations have that makes sense. Why not give more players the "A" experience.

I'll tell you why. "A" hockey is for the top hockey players in the state. Not the top hockey players of an association. If you can't compete against top A teams, play B hockey. If a kid is good enough to play A hockey he should find an A team to play for. They have waivers for this reason. I have seen many A players that should not be playing A hockey. This doesn't help their development either. A kid getting circles skated around him doesn't learn anything, but how to ice a puck. All kids should play at the level of their ability. Not the level their association wants them to play. If there are 25 A players at Wayzata or MG they should have 25 A players on 1 or 2 teams. If Mpls park has 5 A players, they should waiver to another association and the other 10 that are B calibler should play B hockey.

Hawk, with that logic there or only about 10 - 20 "A" teams in the whole state, if the A players from the smaller associations waiver out, then we should just go to club hockey like the rest of the country. I think we are better than that in Minnesota. The only A teams in the state will be the biggest of the big with an occational Roseau size team. And there will be very few teams for those 10- 20 teams to play.

I either misspoke or was misunderstood. I think it is great that we give so many kids a chance to compete, but sometimes you have to realize you just don't have the depth to play at the top level. I think this is what Osseo realized. They went from never losing to losing tons of games when they split. So they decided if they wanted to compete again they should join with Maple grove again. Now they are good again, so why would they want to ruin this good thing by having another A team. I don't understand the philosophy of, "well you are to good so you should make your team worse." Why cant it be instead, "we can't compete and we look silly against the top teams so maybe we should play the next level down." Wayzata has tried 2 A teams at the squirt level. They asked the kids after if they enjoyed their season and many said No. Now if wayzata was winning the B tourny every year and didn't have an A team, I would think they should try to compete at the next level.

Lastly, Sometimes kids play B hockey because the A level is too physical.

[elliott70]

I'll tell you why. "A" hockey is for the top hockey players in the state. Not the top hockey players of an association. If you can't compete against top A teams, play B hockey. If a kid is good enough to play A hockey he should find an A team to play for. They have waivers for this reason. I have seen many A players that should not be playing A hockey. This doesn't help their development either. A kid getting circles skated around him doesn't learn anything, but how to ice a puck. All kids should play at the level of their ability. Not the level their association wants them to play. If there are 25 A players at Wayzata or MG they should have 25 A players on 1 or 2 teams. If Mpls park has 5 A players, they should waiver to another association and the other 10 that are B calibler should play B hockey.

Sorry, but you are wrong.

[Toomuchtoosoon]

The of imbalance at all levels can be solved one of three ways. The big associations need to go multiple "A" teams when their talent level warrants, small associations forgo the "A" team which would make them more competitive at the B level, or small associations start to merge. Last years Edina squirt B teams dominated, so Edina went with 2 squirt A teams this year. The problem is that the talent level is not as deep this year, and they had several kids opt for squirt choice.

Two years ago, Wayzata won Peewee A, and took first and second in Peewee B. Two A teams could have been made from that group. Instead, the A team is number 1, the B1 team with skaters 15-30 are number 1, and the b1 team with skaters 31-60 are number 5. The squirt B1 teams are also doing extremely well, with one of the teams still being undefeated, and only a few losses outside of the association with the others. The PeeWee B1 teams in Wayzata are struggling a bit, but that group does not have the depth in talent the Bantams and Squirts do. The Wayzata board will use that as an excuse to stay away from 2 "A" teams. Hint: the team make-up does not have to be the same every year-adjust to your numbers and talent level.

I find that these kids would be better served (skaters 16-60) by challenging them harder thoughout the year, starting at the squirt level. IF the "A" level is for the top 10% skaters in the state, then I would venture to guess there are a lot of Edina and Wayzata B1 players that fit that description. But instead of playing competive games, they have a lot of blowout wins.

I know Wayzata tried two "A" teams a few years ago with little success, but times are different now. For one, District 3 is extremely week, so the second A team would be very competive with most of the teams in the district. Edina is a little tougher since D6 is quite a bit deeper. THe second Edina A team could play in independent schedule in down years, but play the district teams in up years.

There are kids who just miss making the "A" team who are getting the short end of the stick. They should be properly challenged, but the boards usually are more interested in the top 15 and winning at the B level than setting up more kids for future success.


It should not be that tough to figure out a solution if the adults involved check their ego's at the door and do what is best for the kids.

[mplsparkpride7]

WOW, Very Harsh in judging 11-13 years olds playing hockey!!!!!

While I admit this is the weakest of the Regionals, They were picked at random a few years ago. Each team can only play the teams put before them and let the chips fall where they may. You might be surprised at how competative these teams will be once they get to State.

I think garbage teams is a little extreme but "weakest of the regionals" is also an understatement. I would put Mpls Park as the top team in this group and for comparison sake they went 0-4 and were outscored 26-6 against Wayzata and OMG in their D1/D3 conference play. That to me, looks like a gap in talent.

You are correct with the talent gap, but there is also a numbers gap. Wayzata and OMG are drawing from 3 to 4 times the amount of kids at all levels vs most of the smaller associations. I think Minnesota Hockey has it wrong! Instead of making the smaller associations merge like MPLS Park has done, they should make the larger association’s field more than one "A" team. Wayzata and OMG also have the top ranked B1 teams; you cannot tell me that the majority of their B1 players are not A caliber skaters in any other association?

I play for mpls park peewee A, we have some great players but there are just too many B players on our A teams. 3 great players of ours left too. Harrison Pajor- WI Fire
Miguel Fidler- Edina
Brandon Evers(goalie)- WI Fire
if we still had them instead of 3 less talented players we could be great