Bluegold wrote:Wayzata gold lost to centennial 0 to 4
Wayzata blue lost to Roseville 2 to 1
Wayzata blue beat Sibley 7 to 0
OK Bluegold I will start the conversation. How does Wayzata Blue tie OMG who is a great team in my opinion, and lose to a very average Roseville team? I'm starting to miss the one team dominance of the Trojans.
Well I'm guessing it's the fact they are 12. They've also tied Eden prarie and tied Armstrong. 2 teams at entirely different levels of of skill. I certainly don't think wayzata will be dominant at the peewee level this year. I think they'll be lucky to be competitive.
I can't say I agree or disagree with the 2 team model. I would say at the a level there should be 1 team because this is an age when you should start to shift focus to competition. On the other side of the argument, my boy wouldn't probably be on an a team in wayzata so I guess it benefits him. Our team hasn't been as competitive as blue yet but they have had a tough schedule so far and I'm sure the teams will even out through the year. I hope both teams do great. My boy will hopefully play with these boys for the next 5 years. My hope is the development at the a level is better and our high school team benefits at some point.
A Sunday D6 score and some thoughts/scores on what is happening in D15/D16 area and North Dakota.
Score from Sunday afternoon at BIG (14 minute stop time periods, 1:30 minute penalties):
Prior Lake/Savage-8
Jefferson-2
Prior Lake scored an early power play goal from the point when the puck manage to trickle through two or three players in front of the goalie, drop to the ice, and slide into the net by the goalie’s skate. After that, Prior Lake dominated the play for the next 4 minutes, scoring two more goals to take a 3-0 lead. Then the Jaguars settled their defense down and the game became more even paced, up and down affair. The Jaguars scored at the 8 minute mark on a power play; the goal coming from a screened shot from the blue line. Prior Lake answered with their fourth goal a minute later. The first period ended 4-1.
Four minutes into the second period, Jefferson closed the score to 4-2 on a nice passing play with a number of touches by the forwards around the Prior Lake net, before the puck ended up in the slot for a open shot on the net. The critical play in this game came with less than three minutes to go in the period and the Jags on a 5 on 3 power play. They had Prior Lake pinned in their zone and were moving the puck until a Jag defense man lost control of the puck at the blue line board. The puck moved to center ice and was picked up by a Prior Lake forward. His attempt to attack the Jags goal was thwarted; but the Jags could never re-gain control of the puck in the Laker’s zone for the rest of the Laker's two penalties. With a minute to go in the period, the Lakers scored their 5th goal to take a 5-2 lead into the third period.
The Jags started the third playing lackluster hockey. Prior Lake racked up two quick goals in the first 3 minutes of the third period to take a 7-2. The Lakers added an eighth goal as the game wound down to end the scoring.
Earlier in the season, the Jags looked to have some tough offensive line play, this game proved they could play defense well. But the offensive was invisible for long periods of play. The Prior Lake team is a strong team with some great offensive punch, but they break down on defense needlessly; looking to play offense first when defending in their own zone. The Lakers also have developed some bad habits, going to trick individual moves on offense that do nothing and that can come back to haunt them.
As for D15, D16, and North Dakota, I start by throwing in some scores from D15:
Walker/Leech Lake is skating peewee A for the first time in D15. They call the team the Leech Lake Ice Wolves. In their first 2 games of the season, Ice Wolves lost to Moorhead and Fergus Falls. They have a peewee A tourney Dec 2-4 in Walker. Crookston, Litchfield, Sauk Rapids, Detroit Lakes, and Blaine are entered. It is a good thing.
Northern Lakes is skating peewee A in D15 again this year. They beat Sauk Rapids 2-1, tied Moorhead Orange 2-2, and lost to Brainerd 4-0. Those scores indicate they Northern Lakes team should be competitive this year and that is a good thing.
Besides beating Walker, Fergus Falls beat Brainerd 6-4, Fargo Freeze Black 4-3, and Little Falls 5-1. They lost to Fargo Freeze Blue 7-6 in their lone loss this season. Another good sign that D15 teams will be competitive this year.
Those Fargo scores lead me to the real story going on today. The Fargo Blue and Black teams are part of the same Fargo Freeze. They will play this year in the North Dakota Peewee A South Division along with West Fargo A1, Bismarck Blades, Bismarck Admirals, Fargo Angels, Jamestown, Dickinson, and Mandan.
There are 17 North Dakota peewee A teams this year. Eight are based in either Grand Forks or Fargo; towns separated from East Grand Forks and Moorhead by the Red River.
But the hockey team/association that will be interesting to watch is Williston in the north division. Williston is the center of the North Dakota oil boom and experts are forecasting that in 5-10 years, Williston and North Dakota will lead the shift along with Canada and South America to make these areas the oil producing and exporters of the world, not the Middle East.
North Dakota has already ready become the leading oil producer in the US (they and Pennsylvania natural gas have been the only positive impact on the US economy in the last two years, but the Feds last week shut down Penn's proposed oil shale production). The North Dakota state officials estimate that they can sustain a production rate of 700,000 barrels a day (current estimate is around 200,000 barrels). That translates at a $100/barrel into potential revenue around $250 billion per year (if my math is right). The labor content per barrel produced from North Dakota shale is high, meaning lots of jobs and lots of families.
That gets me to the real point of this launch into oil production, how fast will the Williston peewee A hockey team improve over the next few years? That program should boom. They should be looking for Zamboni drivers and coaches.
frederick61 wrote:
Walker/Leech Lake is skating peewee A for the first time in D15. They call the team the Leech Lake Ice Wolves. In their first 2 games of the season, Ice Wolves lost to Moorhead and Fergus Falls. They have a peewee A tourney Dec 2-4 in Walker. Crookston, Litchfield, Sauk Rapids, Detroit Lakes, and Blaine are entered. It is a good thing.
Northern Lakes is skating peewee A in D15 again this year. They beat Sauk Rapids 2-1, tied Moorhead Orange 2-2, and lost to Brainerd 4-0. Those scores indicate they Northern Lakes team should be competitive this year and that is a good thing.
These are great things! Nice to see the sport doing well.
Fascinating stuff about Williston and North Dakota in general. I heard the economy is good up there...didn't realize the details.
Aimforthefivehole wrote:Prior lake 12-7 Over Edina
Did both teams play without a goalie ?
The game was a D6 league game played at Edina. Prior Lake jumped out to a 7-1 at the end of the first period. The Lakers scored the first 6 goals of the game (3 power play goals) in the first 10 minutes of the first period. They simply had better individual skills and a big size advantage at forwards. Edina’s lone returning peewee A play returned for this game, playing defense. In the first period, Edina had 5 penalties and one 10 minute checking from behind to Prior Lake’s 2 penalties. But the Lakers just out skated Edina in the first period.
In the second period, the game became ragged. Seven penalties were called (four on Prior Lake, three on Edina); six goals scored (four by the Hornets, two power play goals, one in a delayed penalty 4 on 4 situation, and one when the lone Prior Lake defense man fell); and their were numerous stoppages in the play. When the dust had cleared, the score was 9-5. Edina took the edge of the Prior Lake team by tumbling or tripping when in contact with a Laker trying to draw a penalty, an old Fire trick. It worked as the Lakers backed off in the second period and that gave the smaller Hornets room to maneuver.
The third period was more cleanly skated then the second as Edina closed the gap to 9-7 by scoring two goals in the first 6 minutes. With a little less than 5 minutes to go in the third, Prior Lake mounted a 3-man rush and beat the Edina defense with nice passing to set up a wing for their 10th goal. Shortly after, Edina drew another 2 and 10 minute penalty. Prior Lake scored another power play goal and added a 12th goal as hour clock time ran out.
The two teams scored 19 goals tonight. They are two good teams, but this type of game maybe the norm between two good teams with high scores, increased penalties, and the kids game discipline breaking down as the game progresses. The best period of play this year at the peewee A level in Minnesota is tending to be the first period. After that, the game play starts to get ragged. Last year, these two teams played each other three times. A total of 14 goals were scored in those three games, five less then tonight.
Watched both Lakeville teams this week. They had back-to-back games in Lakeville. North was a well rounded team. Excellent team play, great defense and break outs. Puck reversal and passing was a joy to watch at this level. There were no star players on the team, they all worked hard, back checked and capitalized on mistakes. Goaltending is very strong. They beat Woodbury 2-1 coming out with a 2 goal lead and cruised to a win. Woodbury has a lot of talent but could not keep up much of time. Lakeville South then took on Farmington. North was not as polished as expected. They have 1 star player and 3 others that stand out but lack in defensive quality and speed. Break outs were slow and disorganized. Goaltending was excellent. South beat a small but very fast and tough Farmington team 4-1. I would say that North has a big edge in team play and is more focused. South relies to much on their star player and this will hurt them if it continues. If they can pull the team play together, work on defense and faster breakouts they may be unstoppable.
Score from Tuesday night at the Super Rink (D10 league game):
Irondale-5
Blaine-2
The thought occurred that the coaches from these two teams met sometime in September and said to each other “let us have our own championship game the week after Thanksgiving. One will bring the Burnsville championship trophy and the other the Super Rink trophy and we will throw in two league points to add spice to the game.”
It may not have been planned but that is what happened tonight. And Irondale walked away with it all including the 2 league points.
The Knights won the Super Rink tourney by beating Mankato 5-2, Armstrong 3-0 and St. James (Winnipeg team) 5-2 in the championship game. Blaine had a harder path to the Burnsville title, tying a tough Forest Lake 2-2 in their pool opener, beating Rosemount 6-4 and Apple Valley 8-2 to take the wild card slot on Sunday.
The Bengals drew the #1 seed Eastview Lightning on Sunday morning and fought hard to win 6-5 in a double overtime, double shot out game to advance. Burnsville had an equally tough time Sunday with Forest Lake in the other semifinal, coming back from a 5-3 deficit in the third period (as Blaine did) to win on a tricky power play goal scored with two minutes to go in the game. The Blaze ended that game (their second miracle game in a row) on a real high note; the Bengals were dragging their sticks as they left the ice.
Four hours later, the Bengals thumped the Blaze 8-0 to win the title. Kids!
But tonight, the Bengals ran into a buzz saw in Irondale. D10 skates 12 minute stop time periods for the first two periods. The third is running time until the 5 minute mark, when it becomes stop time again. This is done to play the game within an hour.
The first period was cleanly skated and flew by. Blaine drew a couple penalties; both teams had great scoring chances, but the puck never crossed a goal line. The period ended in a scoreless tie.
That scoreless tie ended in the first 10 seconds of the second period when a Bengal wing broke down the Knights defense and fired a hard shot at the goalie from the right faceoff circle. The puck softly rebounded down into the left side of the crease to be banged in by another breaking Bengal forward. Less than a minute later, Blaine scored again. The Bengals gained control of the puck behind the Knights net and set up a three way passing drill just like a coach would diagram with the puck ending up on the stick of a Bengal forward all alone in front of the Knights net.
A minute later, a Knight forward picked up the puck behind his net, skated the length of the ice and tried to backhand the puck past the goalie. He failed, but the puck dropped into the crease and a trailing second Knight forward banged it home. Less than thirty seconds later, the Knights tied the score 2-2 on a neat 2 on 1 passing play deep in the Bengal zone with the puck ending up in front of the goalie and net to be one-timed home.
As the second period wore on, the Knights started to dominate the Bengals, keeping them locked up in their own zone; but the Bengals launched their own pressure at the start of the third period. But a penalty at the 9 minute mark, put the Bengals back on the defensive. Unfortunately, the Bengal defense let a Knight forward walk out of the corner and top shelf the puck at a tough angle to give Irondale their first lead of the game, 3-2, on a power play goal.
At the 7:30 mark, Blaine caught a break when Irondale drew a penalty. But the Bengals could not mount any offense in the Knights zone. Shortly after killing the penalty, the Knights scored their fourth goal on a 2 on 1 break away. Irondale added a fifth goal on a power play with a minute to go to end the scoring, 5-2.
Blaine has a tough team this year and plays solid hockey. Irondale plays great position hockey and has great team awareness of the puck and how to move. Both teams are good and should improve. The problem is D10 has only two seeds this year to the North Regional (D11 and D12 each get 3 seeds) and these two teams will have to contend with Elk River, Centennial, and others for those two seeds.
Elk River won its pool at Eden Prairie, but lost to Prior Lake 4-3 in the semifinals and 6-3 to Minnetonka in the third place game. Centennial made it to the finals of the Hopkins tourney before being beat by Jefferson 3-0. Eight of the 12 D10 peewee A teams played in Thanksgiving tourneys locally and they all played well. D10 will be a donnybrook this year.
Score from Wednesday night’s D6 game at Dakota Arena:
Prior Lake-11
Burnsville-1
Burnsville came into this game after placing second in their Turkey Day tourney. The Blaze pulled off a couple of miracle wins to get there. After losing their opener to Hastings 3-2 in pool play, the Blaze came back to beat the Mpls Storm 5-3 setting up a small chance to gain Sunday’s finals by beating Anoka. The Blaze did not have to just beat Anoka; they had to win each period of the game to advance under their tourney’s pool play point system. They did.
Sunday morning, down 5-3 to Forest Lake and with the clock running down in the third period, the Blaze scored three goals to beat the Rangers 6-5 to make it to the finals. The Blaze “burned out” against Blaine in the championship game, losing 8-0. Still it was a respectable and surprising showing.
Prior Lake won the Eden Prairie tourney, as expected. The only team to challenge them was Lakeville South, and that challenge came late in the game. For the first two periods, the Lakers had the best of the play and took a 2-0 lead into the third period. Lakeville South’s lone goal came at the 6 minute mark when a Cougar center bottled himself up in a corner of the Prior Lake zone and passed the puck blindly to the slot. It connected with a breaking Cougar who put the puck in the net through the goalie’s 5-hole. The Cougars had two 5 on 3 advantages for a minute or more and couldn’t score. The second one came with 5 minutes to go in the third.
After that game, Prior Lake beat Wayzata Blue 6-3, Elk River 4-3, and Eden Prairie 3-2 in the Championship game.
Now, three days later on Prior Lake’s home ice, the Blaze and the Lakers tangled for the first half of the game. Elk River, in their game against the Lakers four days earlier, did not match up well with the Lakers three lines. All three Laker lines played well and tended to dominate any line Elk River had on the ice.
Burnsville found a match against Prior Lake, with a combination of lines that kept them in the first half of the game, but the Blaze could not maintain the speed. Prior Lake banged in 5 goals in the second period to put the Blaze on running time at the start of the third. The game was over for this Thursday night as Prior Lake added four more goals in the third period.
Burnsville proved they are gutty team that can surprise people, but they will struggle for a while until they can get their engine fully tuned. Lakeville South has a high powered engine when operating on all cylinders; unfortunately the engine really starts to shudder out of tune against tougher opponents. The Cougars should improve. Prior Lake is the “hare” of the old fable; they open up their engine and race away from their “opponent” only to rest by a “shady tree” as their opponent catches up.
But one thing is certain for this December, this second month of the five month season, Lakeville South and Prior Lake are a notch above the other peewee A teams in the state.
frederick61 wrote:Score from Wednesday night’s D6 game at Dakota Arena:
Prior Lake-11
Burnsville-1
Burnsville came into this game after placing second in their Turkey Day tourney. The Blaze pulled off a couple of miracle wins to get there. After losing their opener to Hastings 3-2 in pool play, the Blaze came back to beat the Mpls Storm 5-3 setting up a small chance to gain Sunday’s finals by beating Anoka. The Blaze did not have to just beat Anoka; they had to win each period of the game to advance under their tourney’s pool play point system. They did.
Sunday morning, down 5-3 to Forest Lake and with the clock running down in the third period, the Blaze scored three goals to beat the Rangers 6-5 to make it to the finals. The Blaze “burned out” against Blaine in the championship game, losing 8-0. Still it was a respectable and surprising showing.
Prior Lake won the Eden Prairie tourney, as expected. The only team to challenge them was Lakeville South, and that challenge came late in the game. For the first two periods, the Lakers had the best of the play and took a 2-0 lead into the third period. Lakeville South’s lone goal came at the 6 minute mark when a Cougar center bottled himself up in a corner of the Prior Lake zone and passed the puck blindly to the slot. It connected with a breaking Cougar who put the puck in the net through the goalie’s 5-hole. The Cougars had two 5 on 3 advantages for a minute or more and couldn’t score. The second one came with 5 minutes to go in the third.
After that game, Prior Lake beat Wayzata Blue 6-3, Elk River 4-3, and Eden Prairie 3-2 in the Championship game.
Now, three days later on Prior Lake’s home ice, the Blaze and the Lakers tangled for the first half of the game. Elk River, in their game against the Lakers four days earlier, did not match up well with the Lakers three lines. All three Laker lines played well and tended to dominate any line Elk River had on the ice.
Burnsville found a match against Prior Lake, with a combination of lines that kept them in the first half of the game, but the Blaze could not maintain the speed. Prior Lake banged in 5 goals in the second period to put the Blaze on running time at the start of the third. The game was over for this Thursday night as Prior Lake added four more goals in the third period.
Burnsville proved they are gutty team that can surprise people, but they will struggle for a while until they can get their engine fully tuned. Lakeville South has a high powered engine when operating on all cylinders; unfortunately the engine really starts to shudder out of tune against tougher opponents. The Cougars should improve. Prior Lake is the “hare” of the old fable; they open up their engine and race away from their “opponent” only to rest by a “shady tree” as their opponent catches up.
But one thing is certain for this December, this second month of the five month season, Lakeville South and Prior Lake are a notch above the other peewee A teams in the state.
Curious did PL finally break down and play there 2nd goalie or roll 3 lines evenly??
Didn't see much of that in EP, but I guess they are still considerd the greatest PW team on earth
?