AAA at U12 and U14

Marty · Post by **Marty** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:51 pm

Throw in a little discussion and controversy on the Girl's Youth Forum.

What AAA teams will likely be at the top of the tournament standings during the April - August Tournament season?

Top U12 Girl's Teams?

Top U14 Girl's Teams?

Night Train · Post by **Night Train** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 2:16 pm

It's a little different with girls than boys because some of the teams span 2 years. You have returning U14 teams and then new ones moving up from U12. Same at U12. Some girls teams will need to rebuild as they have players from a couple different birthyears. One popular movement is to build single birthyear girls teams so you don't have to re-shuffle every year. Very smart. A little young the first year but ready to rock the second.

So, it's quite a bit easier to forecast top teams with boys as they often just change a piece or two.

Meltdown, April 23-26, will yield some definite answers.
AAA Independent Classic, May 14-17, will yield some more.

Girls love the AAA season. AAA boy players often play on an association team with 6-8 AAA caliber players but the girls are often on an association team with just 1-2 AAA caliber players. For girls to skate with 15 players, with close to equal ability, is a real treat for them.

Night Train · Post by **Night Train** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:22 pm

U 12

1st Minnesota Jr. Gophers
2nd Winnipeg Royals
3rd Wisconsin Jr. Badgers
4th Minnesota Vipers

U 14 Campbell (stronger division)

1st Winnipeg Warriors
2nd Lake Superior Stars
3rd Minnesota Bulldogs
4th Minnesota Thunder

U 14 Wales

1st Fargo Metro Grizzlies 95s
2nd TPS Polar Express
3rd Minnesota Sting
4th Blackhawks

SECoach · Post by **SECoach** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:36 am

nighttrain.....There's a world of AAA girl's hockey outside of Showcase. Your previous post would be better titled top Showcase teams. Come out of the closet and post as a Showcase principle so we can take it for what it's worth. Showcase provides a valuable service to girl's hockey but let's not claim that the top teams play in your leagues. In fact, I don't believe that you allow independant AAA teams from the Metro to play in your tournaments or leagues.

royals dad · Post by **royals dad** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 8:47 am

SECoach wrote:nighttrain.....There's a world of AAA girl's hockey outside of Showcase. Your previous post would be better titled top Showcase teams. Come out of the closet and post as a Showcase principle so we can take it for what it's worth. Showcase provides a valuable service to girl's hockey but let's not claim that the top teams play in your leagues. In fact, I don't believe that you allow independant AAA teams from the Metro to play in your tournaments or leagues.

I don't know if I would call the 3 or 4 organizations a "world". I think the thread started asking for oppinons on who the top teams are, I didn't see you list any?

The Blades and the Machine teams that were there (at the U10 and U12 meltdown) did not look that solid. I saw more skilled 97s and 98s on the the showcase teams. I don't think the invite vs open split is as big as it is in the boys/youth side. Might be because it is still new or maybe girls parents are shying away from making the commitment to give up so much time and expense (don't have NHL dreams like boys Machine parents). The problem is still that there are elite teams and average teams playing. To many 7 to 10 goal differential games.

Top 3 or 4 in U12 at the meltdown played well, have not seen the 96 Blades or Ice Cats yet, how are they doing? Who else is out there?

jollyroger · Post by **jollyroger** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:57 am

Independent U12 AAA:
NW Acceleration Red and Blue
Minn/Wisc. North Stars - I think they're from the Duluth/Superior area
Minnesota Icecats
Minnesota Score - based in Stillwater, Tony Scheid coach
Minnesota Magicians - based in Prior Lake at the fabulous new Dakotah Arena where they had their own tournament.
Minnesota Blades
St. Croix Bandits and St. Croix Coyotes
Reebok Nationals have played in a couple tournaments--not sure where they're based.
The Edge - Lakeville area?
Wisconsin Jr. Badgers seem to show up at all the Minnesota tournaments.
Legacy Black and Legacy Silver(they're the old Cyclones)

I'm sure I'm leaving someone out. Point is, there are plenty if you're looking for a scrimmage.

Pens4 · Post by **Pens4** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:03 am

The 97 Icecats double booked two tournaments a couple weekends ago....The Warrior Cup and Stick It to Cancer. Won both tournaments.

Night Train · Post by **Night Train** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:38 am

Thanks Dad. Coach, you’re sounding a little bitter over something. I am not part of Showcase Hockey. I do have a son in high school, and a U14 daughter, so I do have some experience in this whole off season thang.

As I have stated, the boys are quite different as some levels have exploded to as many as 20 metro teams at a single birthyear. There’s some good to that but also some negatives. That can be debated on the boy’s forum.

Girls are more of a blank slate and all parents have an opportunity to shape the future of girls AAA hockey in the metro. As Royals Dad stated there are currently just a few independent organizations for girls AAA hockey that have teams at all levels. I know, and respect, the Machine and Blades organizations and am less familiar with some of the newer organizations.

My opinion is that after watching the boys get screwed up I’d like to see the girls stay together in the Minnesota AAA Hockey League. How fortunate we are to have enough good hockey playing girls, at so many levels, to actually have the Minnesota AAA Hockey League to play in. The Minnesota AAA Hockey League buys ice for the teams, schedules practices and games, has a Web site, keeps standings, offers tourney berths, sells additional practice ice as needed, holds tryouts for their teams at no expense, pre-pays for everything so no one has to raise, or put up, money to get your independent program off the ground, and, has very nice uniforms all at a very reasonable cost.

Several parents of boys thought it would be oh so easy to just bolt out and start their own team. Frankly, it’s not easy and it’s very expensive. If you’re a parent of a girl hockey player in the Twin cities metro area you’re extremely fortunate to have all the opportunities you do. No parent anywhere else in the world has as many opportunities for their daughter as you have.

There’s a Minnesota AAA Hockey League for girls, it has teams, they play games and tournaments, enjoy it.

mnhcp · Post by **mnhcp** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:46 am

Deleted.

Night Train · Post by **Night Train** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:49 am

That's cool. Now wouldn't it be neat if there was a League to play in? Oh, there is.

Pens4 · Post by **Pens4** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:11 am

My girls play in a league all year long....we aren't looking for an organized cookie-cutter league we want developement and some unique experiences. Choices are always good.

blondegirlsdad · Post by **blondegirlsdad** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:31 am

mnhcp: You can add Breakaway Hockey to that list of independent 12AAA teams.

Now, it would be even cooler if there were contacts on that independent list so teams could schedule a scrimmage occasionally...

The league concept is great if that's what you want. Some other teams are more developmental in nature, don't want to play a ton of tournaments, but would love to play a scrimmage every now and then.

OnFrozenPond · Post by **OnFrozenPond** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:43 am

Pens4 wrote:My girls play in a league all year long....we aren't looking for an organized cookie-cutter league we want developement and some unique experiences. Choices are always good.

I couldn't agree more! My daughter is a U19 so we have been through this. Summer hockey provides teams with the flexability to create a schedule that fits their team. We play the tournaments that fit our team goals/schedule. We schedule scrimmages with competitive teams that fit our schedule.

The only organized league I would recommend would be the 2 Nations Female Hockey League. Granted it is for older teams right now, but who is to say it has to stay that way. All of the games are played in sort of a tournament format over a series of weekends. US teams play each other in the metro over a weekend. Canadian teams travel here for a weekend and the US teams travel to Winnipeg for a weekend. I believe the championships will be held in Blaine. There is an entire thread dedicated to this in the Girls High School forum, but the website is http://www.2nationsfemalehockeyleague.com/

mitts · Post by **mitts** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:41 pm

U12 AAA comments -

MN Edge - currently only a 98 team, played Stick It To Cancer as U10, playing the St. Croix tournament this weekend as U12

http://stcroixhockey.pucksystems2.com/p ... -schedules

Jr. North Stars - Western Wisc, east and northern metro girls - probably 3rd U12 team in that org behind Jr Badgers Major (96) and Jr. Badgers Minor (97) - also in St. Croix this weekend. The Jr Badgers teams are more central and east Wisc.

Reebok Nationals - mostly west and south metro, includes girls from Brookings, Waterloo, St. Louis, and, Oklahoma City areas

CenRedFan · Post by **CenRedFan** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:21 pm

SECoach wrote:nighttrain.....There's a world of AAA girl's hockey outside of Showcase. Your previous post would be better titled top Showcase teams. Come out of the closet and post as a Showcase principle so we can take it for what it's worth. Showcase provides a valuable service to girl's hockey but let's not claim that the top teams play in your leagues. In fact, I don't believe that you allow independant AAA teams from the Metro to play in your tournaments or leagues.

Get over it already.......pretty sure there were more teams playing than Showcase teams in the Meltdown. If you want to pay $1800 to have your kid skate two hours practices, go for it. Mine has fun on her Showcase team and looks forward to playing on it. She's not going to be an Olympian for goodness sakes but she loves playing and does very well I might add. All I hear is development, development, development and that's great but what about just loving playing the game. Just because you drive them to their two hour practice doesn't mean they are going to get anything out of it. Be bitter about Showcase all you want, but my kid has made some great friends, gotten awesome coaching and works hard. She works hard because she wants to.

SECoach · Post by **SECoach** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:07 pm

CenRedFan wrote:
SECoach wrote:nighttrain.....There's a world of AAA girl's hockey outside of Showcase. Your previous post would be better titled top Showcase teams. Come out of the closet and post as a Showcase principle so we can take it for what it's worth. Showcase provides a valuable service to girl's hockey but let's not claim that the top teams play in your leagues. In fact, I don't believe that you allow independant AAA teams from the Metro to play in your tournaments or leagues.
Get over it already.......pretty sure there were more teams playing than Showcase teams in the Meltdown. If you want to pay $1800 to have your kid skate two hours practices, go for it. Mine has fun on her Showcase team and looks forward to playing on it. She's not going to be an Olympian for goodness sakes but she loves playing and does very well I might add. All I hear is development, development, development and that's great but what about just loving playing the game. Just because you drive them to their two hour practice doesn't mean they are going to get anything out of it. Be bitter about Showcase all you want, but my kid has made some great friends, gotten awesome coaching and works hard. She works hard because she wants to.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.......not the least bit bitter. Showcase Hockey has unquestionably done great things for girl's hockey. My comments were directed at my appearantly incorrect read that Night Train was associated with Showcase and was posting to pump up their business while excluding many fine organizations. My bad and for that I apologize. If I have any bone to pick with Showcase it is that they have directly excluded some independant teams from their tournaments due to players choosing to leave their teams. It's their tournament so they can do as they please. I just disagree with the methods. I'm not sure that qualifies as bitter.

I'm not sure how my post implies that parents should spend lots of money and hours to play on independants (not always the case by the way) but if that's how it came across then, well, what can I say. You didn't hear development, development, development from me and I don't drive anyone two hours to practice.

Showcase makes playing summer hockey easy and affordable. For that I salute them.

CenRedFan · Post by **CenRedFan** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:04 am

SECoach wrote:
CenRedFan wrote:
SECoach wrote:nighttrain.....There's a world of AAA girl's hockey outside of Showcase. Your previous post would be better titled top Showcase teams. Come out of the closet and post as a Showcase principle so we can take it for what it's worth. Showcase provides a valuable service to girl's hockey but let's not claim that the top teams play in your leagues. In fact, I don't believe that you allow independant AAA teams from the Metro to play in your tournaments or leagues.
Get over it already.......pretty sure there were more teams playing than Showcase teams in the Meltdown. If you want to pay $1800 to have your kid skate two hours practices, go for it. Mine has fun on her Showcase team and looks forward to playing on it. She's not going to be an Olympian for goodness sakes but she loves playing and does very well I might add. All I hear is development, development, development and that's great but what about just loving playing the game. Just because you drive them to their two hour practice doesn't mean they are going to get anything out of it. Be bitter about Showcase all you want, but my kid has made some great friends, gotten awesome coaching and works hard. She works hard because she wants to.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.......not the least bit bitter. Showcase Hockey has unquestionably done great things for girl's hockey. My comments were directed at my appearantly incorrect read that Night Train was associated with Showcase and was posting to pump up their business while excluding many fine organizations. My bad and for that I apologize. If I have any bone to pick with Showcase it is that they have directly excluded some independant teams from their tournaments due to players choosing to leave their teams. It's their tournament so they can do as they please. I just disagree with the methods. I'm not sure that qualifies as bitter.

I'm not sure how my post implies that parents should spend lots of money and hours to play on independants (not always the case by the way) but if that's how it came across then, well, what can I say. You didn't hear development, development, development from me and I don't drive anyone two hours to practice.

Showcase makes playing summer hockey easy and affordable. For that I salute them.

Sorry if I took it the wrong way. There just seems to be such negativity about Showcase and it is hard to take. I know they have their own issues and they probably don't let independent teams in the Metro in, I don't know for sure. We did play other teams but the closest to the metro would be the Wisconsin border.

It sometimes feels as if the independent teams think their teams are better than the Showcase ones. I don't always see that is true.

It would be great if all could just get a long!

mnhcp · Post by **mnhcp** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:45 am

Independent U12 AAA:
Minnesota Icecats - minnesotaicecats.com (Twin Cities)
Minnkota Wildcats - minnkotawildcats.com (Moorehead area)
Minnesota Blades - minnesotablades.com (Twin Cities)
Skate to Excellence - skatetoexcellence.com (N Metro)
NW Acceleration Red and Blue - accelerationnwaaahockey.com (W Metro)
Lake Superior Stars - lakesuperiorstars.com (Duluth area)
Minnesota Score - Tony Scheid coach (Stillwater?) same as Renegades?
Minnesota Magicians - minnesotamagicians.com (Prior Lake)
St. Croix Bandits - stcroixhockey.pucksystems2.com (E Metro)
St. Croix Coyotes - stcroixhockey.pucksystems2.com (E Metro)
Reebok Nationals ie Northern Edge Nationals - neehs.com (Twin Cities)
Mn Edge - mndedge.com (S Metro) 1998's
Wisconsin Jr. Badgers - minwisaaaelitehockeyleague.pucksystems.com (Eau Claire Major/Minor)
MN/WI Jr North Stars - minwisaaaelitehockeyleague.pucksystems.com
(MN/WI Border Team (Duluth or Twin Cities/Hudson?))
MN Stars - Jerry Clausen, Tom Smerkar, Dan Thomas, Mike Minneart (Farmington?)
Legacy Black and Legacy Silver - minnesotalegacyhockey.com (N Metro)
Minnesota Flames - minnesotaflames.com (St Cloud-Central MN)
Minnesota Ice Cougars - icemen.pucksystems.com (W Metro)
MN Fighting Loons - northlandhockeygroup.com (Bemidji)
Renegades - northstarhockey.net (Mahtomedi/St Croix)
Xpress - Tim Loughrey/Todd Steffen coaches (N Metro Centenial)
PAC Penguins - Robert Roy coach (St Louis Park/New Hope)
Stillwater Ponies - Mike Carter coach (Stillwater)
Southern MN Passion - Ruthann Kragh coach (SW MN/Mankato)
Breakaway Hockey - breakawayhockey.net (SW Metro)
Madison Stars - madisonstarshockey.com (Madison)
MN Northern Wings - northernwings.net

Independent 10's AAA 1998 and 1999's (Work in Progress)
Minnesot Fighting Saints -
99 Machine - minnesotamadehockey.com
00 Machine - minnesotamadehockey.com
Minnesota Icecats - minnesotaicecats.com (Twin Cities)
Minnkota Wildcats - minnkotawildcats.com (Moorehead area)
Minnesota Blades - minnesotablades.com (Twin Cities)
Skate to Excellence - skatetoexcellence.com (N Metro)
NW Acceleration - accelerationnwaaahockey.com (W Metro)
Lake Superior Stars - lakesuperiorstars.com (Duluth area)
Minnesota Flames - minnesotaflames.com (St Cloud-Central MN)
Mn Edge - Mnedge.com (S. Metro) 1998's
TNT - (Chaska/W Metro)
Legacy - minnesotalegacyhockey.com (N Metro)
St. Croix - stcroixhockey.pucksystems2.com (E Metro)
Minnesota Ice Cougars - icemen.pucksystems.com (W Metro)
PAC Penguins - (St Louis Park/New Hope)
Huskies -
MN Northern Wings (98/99) - northernwings.net
Wisconsin Jr. Badgers - minwisaaaelitehockeyleague.pucksystems.com (Eau Claire)

Night Train · Post by **Night Train** » Thu May 21, 2009 10:32 am

2009 Independent Classic

U12
1st WI Jr. Badgers
2nd MN Jr. Gophers
3rd MI Center Ice

U14
1st WI Jr. Badgers
2nd MN Bulldogs
3rd MN Rink Rats

T3 · Post by T3 » Thu May 21, 2009 11:37 am

The Rink Rats beat the Madison Stars in the 3rd place game at the U14's.
EastonAAA has the score posted wrong on their website.

Night Train · Post by **Night Train** » Thu May 21, 2009 12:00 pm

Thanks. Fixed it.

JrB · Post by **JrB** » Sun May 24, 2009 11:08 pm

Blondgirls Dad or any others looking for games. WI JR Badgers are looking for top end compitition. August 1st and 2nd we will be hosting 3 game round robin need teams at U-10, U-12 Major and Minor.
minwisaaaelitehockeyleague.pucksystems.com

Nhockeydad · Post by **Nhockeydad** » Tue May 26, 2009 2:07 pm

The Minnkota Wildcats is a perfect example of select northern players playing four tournaments and keeping it very affordable. The goal, no matter how much money you make there is a way to play AAA hockey on this team as long as you are selected for the team. There is no tryout, players are chosen on a number of criteria including being a good student. I think everyteam has there own philosophy, some are development teams and some are just competitive teams. Either way I agree we just all need to get along, parents aren't the only ones reading these forums. We are the models for our athletes.

Night Train · Post by **Night Train** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:50 am

International Cup for U14, U16 & U19 this weekend.
U10 and U12 next weekend.

http://www.nscsports.org/sports/hockey/ ... esults.htm

Looks like several strong teams.

Night Train · Post by **Night Train** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 11:59 am

U14 International Cup

1st Westman Wildcats (Manitoba)
2nd Minnesota Bulldogs

HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

AAA at U12 and U14

AAA at U12 and U14

U-12/14 AAA Contacts

Some Independents very inexpensive