2024-25 Section 5A

[ClassAGuy]

Section 5A Scores Week #13
Tuesday (2/11/25)
#4 Monticello 2 Totino Grace 5
#11 Little Falls 2 #6 Northern Lakes 2 OT
#19 River Lakes 6 Willmar 0
Princeton 4 #14 Chisago Lakes 5 OT
Mora/Milaca 4 Prairie Centre 8
Pine City 6 Northern Edge 2

Thursday (2/13/25)
#6 Northern Lakes 10 Breckenridge/Wahpeton 0
#23 Alexandria 2 #4 Monticello 3
#25 Fergus Falls 2 #21 Detroit Lakes 4
Willmar 8 Wadena Deer Creek 5
Prairie Centre 5 Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato 2

Saturday (2/15/25)
#7 St Cloud Cathedral 4 #15 Mahtomedi 3 OT

5A Playoffs Play In Game
#8 Becker/Big Lake 6 #9 Mora/Milaca 3

[ClassAGuy]

Section 5A Playoff Schedule
Play In 2/15 High Seed (BBL defeated Mora/Milaca)
QF 2/18 High Seed
SF 2/22 High Seed
F 2/26 Furniture and Things Community Event Center

Section 5A Seeds
1- Monticello Moose (21-3-1)
2- St Cloud Cathedral Crusaders (15-8-2)
3- Little Falls Flyers (14-7-4)
4- Pine City Dragons (14-10-1)
5- Sauk Rapids Storm (16-8-1)
6- River Lakes Stars (15-8-2)
7- Princeton Tigers (8-17-0)
8- Becker/Big Lake Eagles (9-15-2)
9- Mora/Milaca Mustangs (10-16-0)

The Favorite- St Cloud Cathedral will attempt to do something that has never been done in their programs history and while, yes, repeating as State Champs is one of those never been done things, before that they have to get back to State. At no time through their dominant run has Cathedral ever won three Section Titles in a row. In order to make that happen they will need their Seniors John Hirschfeld & Joey Gillespie to play big as they have of late as they are the scariest duo that you will see in all of Class A. They have gotten some depth scoring as the year has gone on from Seniors Jaeger Wood & Caden Johnson and 9th grader Bo Schmidt. On the blueline, Junior Griffin Sturm is one of the top defenseman in the state for all of Class A. Goaltender Junior Keaton LaGrande has taken over as the starter and they will need him to be solid in net. It all adds up to a scary team that is playing its best hockey now and it will be very difficult to knock off as the Crusaders in 5A.

The Challengers- Monticello comes in having had a fantastic regular season and they are led by their big line of Seniors Landen Scherber & Nathan Poeppel and Junior Ashton Stoll who have put up massive numbers for the Moose. Defensively though is where Monticello’s strength lies as they have given up a microscopic 1.64 goals a game, Senior Aidan Widmark and Juniors Brady McGriff & Levi Welle along with super Sophomore Nicklas Nelson are very smooth and are able to get the puck out of their own end efficiently and have also created offense from the backend and they are what makes this team so tough to play against. Goaltender Senior Logan Blahnik has stepped into the net and been excellent and all pieces are in place for Monticello to make a serious competitive run at a return trip to state.

Little Falls is the other main contender as they come into the playoffs having played the many of the best in Class A and are a tough and rugged group that will be hard to knock off in the 5A sectional. They are led by Seniors Ryan Oothodt, Joey Welinski, Luke Avery & Lucas Jendro who have done most of the scoring for a team that has had issues with scoring punch. They also have talented Junior Remi Chisholm who is a swiss army knife type player and can play both up front and on the blueline. The reason though to like this team is in net as Junior Izaak Kalis is as good as they come in Class A and he can steal a game or two for the Flyers and help them make a run back to St. Paul. Little Falls is a team that no one wants to face because of his ability to take over games.

The Dark Horse- Sauk Rapids is the darkhorse in Section 5A this year and they could make a run. The Storm have wins over teams like Alexandria & Thief River Falls and a tie with Little Falls on the year. The Storm is led by their tremendous line of Juniors Bryden Prelvitz & Elijah Fitch and Senior Vincent Murn who have put up video game-like numbers all year. Add to them Junior Chase Hiltner on the blueline who has big numbers of his own it gives the Storm a serious scoring punch to put a scare into teams

Section Scary- River Lakes has shown they can surprise teams as evidenced by their upset wins over ranked teams like Little Falls and Detroit Lakes during the year. The Stars are led up front by their star Senior Blake Schultz who along with Juniors Parker Welz & Jaiken Mackedanz have had big years offensively. Senior Jace Griffin has patrolled the blueline again this year and leads the defense as the Stars. Add in transfer from STMA goalie Junior William Robinson who has really stabilized the net and this team could be a real scary section team in 5A.

The Rest- Pine City is another tough team in the 5A playoffs. Senior Blake Painovich & Junior McCall Leger have put up good numbers offensively to and are dangerous vs anyone they play. Defensively Junior Brady Berglund has had a very productive year and the Dragons are a very dangerous team that has been able to play with teams and stay close in most games due to goalie Senior Aaron Rootkie and they could pull a shocker and make a section 5A run. Princeton has had a disappointing year overall but they have played good hockey down the stretch. If the Tigers are gonna do damage in the playoffs they will need their Seniors Lane Olson, Connor Stokke & Brody Kok up front and Dominic Patnode on the blueline to have a big postseason as they have led the way all year. Becker Big Lake has put together a good second half of the year as Junior Tate Spilde has put up huge numbers and the development of 9th grader Owen Zahler to allow the Eagles to be competitive. Mora/Milaca has also had a solid year and they get most of their offense from 8th grader Ty Stanchfield & Junior Mitchell Haase up front and they are led on the the back end by Senior Charlie Kritzeck who leads the team in scoring as defenseman not something you see much of but it has worked well for the Mustangs.

[ClassAGuy]

Section 5A Playoffs
Section 5A Play In Games
#8 Becker Big Lake 6 #9 Mora/Milaca 3

Section 5A QF Games
#1 Monticello 8 #8 Becker/Big Lake 0
#4 Pine City 8 #5 Sauk Rapids 3
#3 Little Falls 4 #6 River Lakes 1
#2 St Cloud Cathedral 6 #7 Princeton 0

Section 5A Semifinals
#1 Monticello vs #4 Pine City
#2 St Cloud Cathedral vs #3 Little Falls

[Where is F3?]

How about that 5 seed...

[ClassAGuy]

How about that 5 seed...

Noted this on my X Account- Sauk Rapids getting the #5 seed was wrong they were a lock at #6

River Lakes & SR Split during the year

River Lakes beat LF who SR only tied
River Lakes beat BBL who SR lost too
River Lakes & SR both lost to Pine but both beat Princeton

There is no way you could seed RL at 6 below SR at 5

5A Coaches have a history of weird seeding the Moose at 1 over SCC is also very debatable

In the end it was a great draw for Pine City who pounded the Storm last night

Good Luck to the remaining 4 teams!

[BobSaget]

How about that 5 seed...

Noted this on my X Account- Sauk Rapids getting the #5 seed was wrong they were a lock at #6

River Lakes & SR Split during the year

River Lakes beat LF who SR only tied
River Lakes beat BBL who SR lost too
River Lakes & SR both lost to Pine but both beat Princeton

There is no way you could seed RL at 6 below SR at 5

5A Coaches have a history of weird seeding the Moose at 1 over SCC is also very debatable

In the end it was a great draw for Pine City who pounded the Storm last night

Good Luck to the remaining 4 teams!

In general, I think these seedings were questionable, but not criminal. Very competitive section from top to bottom this year.

That said, I heard that one of the coaches voted for Sauk Rapids to be seeded ahead of Pine City. Trying to justify that is nearly impossible.

[Where is F3?]

How about that 5 seed...

Noted this on my X Account- Sauk Rapids getting the #5 seed was wrong they were a lock at #6

River Lakes & SR Split during the year

River Lakes beat LF who SR only tied
River Lakes beat BBL who SR lost too
River Lakes & SR both lost to Pine but both beat Princeton

There is no way you could seed RL at 6 below SR at 5

5A Coaches have a history of weird seeding the Moose at 1 over SCC is also very debatable

In the end it was a great draw for Pine City who pounded the Storm last night

Good Luck to the remaining 4 teams!

In general, I think these seedings were questionable, but not criminal. Very competitive section from top to bottom this year.

That said, I heard that one of the coaches voted for Sauk Rapids to be seeded ahead of Pine City. Trying to justify that is nearly impossible.

I heard the same thing about a coach seeding SR at 3. 3! I will let you draw your own conclusions as to who that was. Unreal. Back to the ice, the semifinals will be very competitive however I am expecting a collision course between the moose and crusaders in the final. Good luck to all.