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With the season nearing the halfway point, there was some movement in this week's edition of bb's top 10 JGA teams.

1 - Tonka. Remains at #1 with an impressive 3rd period comeback win over Wayzata (the only regular season game btwn them). Tonka has back-to-back interesting games this week against Centennial and SLP. I've heard from my sources that a big crowd of 400+ is expected for the SLP game on Tuesday night at the Pagel Center. Last season's game at the Pagel Center drew a great crowd for a wild Friday night game. I expect more of the same this year.

2 - Wayzata. Lost to Tonka on Monday after holding a 2-1 lead going into the third period by the score of 4-3. On Tuesday, they barely squeaked by Jefferson by a score of 5-4. Are the Trojans slipping? This is a big week for Wayzata with four games, starting tonight against Burnsville and book ended by Edina next Thursday night.

3 - EP. Went 1-1-1 on the week with a tie to Burnsville and a nice win over Edina that was sandwiched between a loss to Lakeville. Did the Eagles overlook the kitties from Lakeville? If they did, they took it out on Edina. One concern I have about EP is that they have only played 6 league games. In reviewing their schedule they have 17 games from Jan 19th through the end of the season with 10 in February. That's a tough way to end up prior to playoffs when you need to be rested up to make the run to Duluth for State.

4 - Edina. It's news when Edina loses one game a year, but for that program to lose two games, back-to-back, is unheard of. The hornets bounced back after the 2 losses with a nice 4-0 over Burnsville. I would have bet the house that there was no way Edina was going to lose three in a row (sorry lace ). Edina now has a week to rest up and prepare for the Wayzata game which is always one of the premier games of the JGA regular season.

5 - Burnsville. Went 2-1-1 this past week, which should have been 3-0-1 had they held on to beat Tonka. They are hosting Wayzata as I draft this week’s top 10. I'm looking forward to the post-game comments from LaceEmUp17. I am expecting big things from this team (see below).

6 - Stillwater. A lot of JGA followers questioned my #6 ranking of the Ponies last week. Well, they proved me right and their doubters wrong with wins over Eagan and Centennial, who had just defeated Edina the day before. The Ponies need to be wary of their lack of fair play points (fpp’s), with only 6 of 9 earned. This could cost them a higher seed come region time, but I'm told their goalie is the real deal and could steal a game if the team is not playing up to their potential.

7 - Lakeville. It looks like the kitties from Lakeville finally woke up. They had an impressive week, going 4-0-0 with wins over EP, Centennial, Jefferson and Champlin Park. For their efforts, Lakeville gets the first blueblood "JGA Team of the Week" honor. Congrats braggen and company. Hopefully the Sports Illustrated jinx of pimping a team doesn't happen to the kitties.

8 - Centennial. Had a 2-1-0 week and a nice win over Edina with one game pending. Like Stillwater, Centennial also has to be careful about their fpp's. But, based on the past couple of seasons, I don't think they care too much about them.

9. White Bear Lake - went 1-2-0 last week with a win over Wessy and losses to Burnsville and Tonka. 'da bears have a big game against Lakeville on Sunday and a rematch with Wessy on Monday.

10. Eagan. Not much to say here as I had to have a team fill out this week's top 10. SLP has been disappointing this season, so the mildcats get this week’s #10 ranking.

JGA outlook for the next two weeks:

EP is hosting their 6-team JGA tourney this week. The pools are:

Black: EP, SLP and Sioux Falls, SD
Red: Edina, Stillwater and Eagan

Everyone expects an EP vs. Edina final, but don't count out Stillwater as they tied Edina right after Christmas 1-1.

Wayzata and Edina will be hosting their annual invitational tournaments next weekend. The Wayzata pools are:

White: Wessy’s, WBL and the CR Comets (Canadian team)
Yellow: Champlin Park, Duluth and Lakeville
Navy: Burnsville, Jefferson, and Ft. Francis, ONT
Royal: Moorhead, Wayzata, Shattuck

bb’s picks are:
CR Comets, Lakeville, Burnsville and Wayzata with Burnsville winning it all.

The Edina Reimann JGA Tournament has the following pools:

Pool A: Blaine, Centennial, EP and Eagan
Pool B: Tonka, Brookings, SD; Stillwater and Edina

Watch out for Brookings, SD; as this is their high school team and they are a really good squad. I expect EP to win Pool A with all four of the Pool B teams capable of winning the pool

That’s it for now. I’m going to hold off on a new top ten until the Wayzata and Edina tourney champions are crowned next week.

Wayzata - 4
Burnsville - 1

Another great post BB! I would maybe move Lakeville up a spot or two. Looks like they are hitting stride.

Another tough loss for Burnsville last night against Wayzata 4-1. Wayzata carried play in the first two periods, with Burnsville carrying the 3rd.

We've had a tough stretch, playing #1 Tonka, #2 Wayzata, #3 EP, and #4 Edina all in the past 10 days. We finished 0-3-1, but did mix in wins against WBL and Champlin in that same stretch.

I still like us a #5 for now, as we have either beaten or tied any of the teams behind us. We do need to find a way to score against the top teams in the league though.

I went and watched the past two wayzata games and your right they did not look on there game against Bloomington, Shots were Wayzata-32 Bloominton-18. Wayzata looked bad in their own zone. Against Burnsville it was a different story, Wayzata took it to them from the start. Burnsville had hardly any sustained pressure in the wayzata zone except for one nice odd man rush goal. Wayzata controlled all 3 periods.

Wayzata was outshot by 6 in the 3rd and barely had the puck in the offensive zone. I'll give them the first two, but certainly not the 3rd. End score is what matters anyway, and they got the W.

blueblood wrote:JGA outlook for the next two weeks:

EP is hosting their 6-team JGA tourney this week. The pools are:

Black: EP, SLP and Sioux Falls, SD
Red: Edina, Stillwater and Eagan

Everyone expects an EP vs. Edina final, but don't count out Stillwater as they tied Edina right after Christmas 1-1.

Went to watch the games today and saw the Edina/Stillwater game, SLP/Sioux falls game, Stillwater/Eagan game, and Souix Falls/EP game.

Stillwater fell to Edina 3-1 scoring an empty netter. The first goal was questionable, being there was and Edina player in the crease on the back door when there was a scrum in front of the net and the goalie couldnt move.

The game before that, SF got walked on by EP and I believe the score was 9-2.. Not much to say there other than EP can definetely score some goals..

Then SF played SLP and SLP won 5-2 I believe. SF couldn't stay out of the box and their lack of skating skills didn't help them. SLP had some nice goals and pouned their goalie with shots.

Also in a 6 team tourney, i dont't get why two of the teams had to play two games within 4hrs of eachother (Stillwater and Sioux Falls) when the other teams had their first games Friday night. Thus putting these two teams at a disadvantage playing two games compared to the other teams playing one while still fresh.

The final game was kind of flukey.. Stillwater vs Eagan. Stillwater was flat footed and got caught off guard and Eagan ended up scoring on a break away/2 on1 in the first 8 sec of the game. Then Stillwater went up 3-1 until about 4min left in the game. Stillwaters goalie made a nice save on a close in shot but his teamate scored on him accidently. Then with 2min left there was a kid on a breakaway and the goalie made a nice save but the skater fell on the goalie but managed to hack it in, the ref called it a goal though even though the goalie was in the crease being layed on and restricted from movement by the Eagan player? This ended up making it 3-3 and the tiebreaker came down to Penalty Minutes to see who gets to go to the 3rd place game!?? (kidna ridiculous if you ask me)

Tonka SLP wont be as big as last year, BSM varsity plays edina that night

SLP beat both Stillwater and Eagan (twice)

Win some more and I will consider your team for top 10 considerations.

very good rankings this week. i still question stillwater being that high. burnsville also got accepted into a notional tourney at shattuck at the end of the month playing chicago shattuck and florida. I also like your pics for trhe wayzata tourney but if we are going to win like you picked we are going to have to play a lot better against wayzata than we did before.

jvail19 wrote:very good rankings this week. i still question stillwater being that high. burnsville also got accepted into a notional tourney at shattuck at the end of the month playing chicago shattuck and florida. I also like your pics for trhe wayzata tourney but if we are going to win like you picked we are going to have to play a lot better against wayzata than we did before.

Ummm, let's not pretend that BV's inclusion in the Shattuck tourney is more than it is. We were asked to play because they needed a team to fill the brackets, have a good relationship with your coach, and see BV as a team that can be competitive. Plenty of other teams in this league could have filled the same slot. I doubt the "invitation" should have any bearing on rankings for this level.

My advice to BV- Be more consistent and stay out of the box! A good team doing good things, not great quite yet!

YHD -

Spot on with everything you mentioned!

Burnsville happened to fall into, what looks like a very good tournament with different teams than we usually play. There was certainly not an "invitation" or selection process.

And also correct, until Burnsville can get over themselves and stay out of the box, they won't go anywhere. Especially against the top JGA teams in the league.

burnsville needs ppl to start playing as a team and figure everything out. they need everyone contributing to every game

yes bville does and also hockey dad if you reread nowhere in there did it say we were invited we got accepted into it when they needed someone to fill in a spot.

Just wait until after the tourney to go low on bville. Your just mad cause the team you cheer for doesn't have any potential.

also with being more consistant we lost 4 time 2 to wayzata 1 to tonka and 1 to edina. all top 3 in state. tied ep who is 4. tied lakeville who has been very good lately even tho it was our first game of the year and as far as i understand it theirs too. and our final tie was to slp who can be very good but also cam very early in the saeson so other than staying out of the box i dont think being consistnat is something we need to worry about. get the facts straight hockeydad