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Four SEC Teams remain alive in the hunt for a trip to St. Paul in March. One team is a lock to make the Section 4AA final with Stillwater and White Bear Lake facing off in one of the semi’s. Both games feature offensively explosive teams in Hill Murray and White Bear Lake squaring off against defensive minded teams in Roseville and Stillwater. Hopefully the contrasting styles make for some great hockey games.

Wednesday March 2nd 6:00 PM at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum
Section 4AA Semifinal
#1 Hill Murray (22-3-1) vs. #5 Roseville (13-8-5)
Hill Murray (Regular Season)
Goals per game: 6.36
Goals against: 1.52
Power Play: 34.09%
Penalty Kill: 92.11%
Points Leaders: (Regular Season)
Bahe 26-29-55
Guentzel 15-28-43
LaValle 18-20-38
Goalie: Shaughnessy
GAA: 1.51
Save %: .917

Roseville (Regular Season)
Goals per game: 2.72
Goals against: 2.24
Power Play: 22.47%
Penalty Kill: 85.42%
Points Leaders: (Regular Season)
Effinger 6-16-22
Bartel 4-15-19
Betz 4-14-18
Goalie: Lehr
GAA: 1.78
Save %: .938

The Pioneers come in as the obvious favorite and rightfully so, their record, stats and schedule back up their #1 seed status. Hill gets ripped for their conference schedule (no fault of their own) but they played an extremely difficult non conference schedule and came through it nicely. They have depth and keep coming at you with all lines and are very solid in their own end as well, the Pioneers seem to be a team without any weaknesses. They are coming off a blowout 17-0 win over Como Park in the quarterfinal.

Roseville comes off yet another one goal victory, defeating North St. Paul 3-2 in the quarterfinals Saturday evening. The Raiders may have found some offense with an all junior line of McCann/Bartel/Hultman as that line has combined for five goals in their last two games, including a hat trick for Hultman against the Polars. Roseville will need to rely on their team defense approach and a hot goalie, lucky bounces, and grit to stay in this game and pull off an upset.

Wednesday March 2nd 8:00 PM at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum
Section 4AA Semifinal
#2 White Bear Lake (19-5-2) vs. #3 Stillwater (17-7-2)
White Bear Lake (Regular Season)
Goals per game: 4.20
Goals against: 2.00
Power Play: 38.03%
Penalty Kill: 73.81%
Points Leaders: (Regular Season)
Wahlin 27-26-53
Jansen 33-12-45
Birkinbine 16-16-32
Goalie: Schletty
GAA: 1.87
Save %: .910

Stillwater (Regular Season)
Goals per game: 2.76
Goals against: 2.28
Power Play: 19.15%
Penalty Kill: 78.50%
Points Leaders: (Regular Season)
Corbett 9-12-21
Dochniak 11-10-21
Mogren 4-14-18
Goalie: Cates
GAA: 1.91
Save %: .932

White Bear Lake comes into this section semifinal on a six game unbeaten streak and a 4-1 quarterfinal win over Mounds View. Offensively the Bears have the upper hand on Stillwater with their top scorers surpassing the Ponies top point getters by a wide margin. Schletty has picked up his game recently as the Bears have only given up three goals in their last four games.

The Ponies are the last team to beat White Bear Lake, but since that win they have not played particularly well, struggling to score goals, they did find the back of the net five times in their quarterfinal win over Tartan. Like Roseville they will need to rely on their team defense approach and goaltending to look to upend the Bears. Their power play numbers dwindled drastically towards the end of the year but they pounded in three against the Titans Saturday night so the Bears better stay out of the box to avoid the Ponies D men from unleashing shots from the point.

You hit it right on the head with your analysis. I think Lehr will keep Roseville in it as long as he can, but a goalie can only get you so far... I like Hill Murray in a 5-1 victory.

And for WBL, the penalties are starting to become a real concern. It has been for a while actually. They took far too many yesterday which included a penalty shot, but the Mustangs were only able to score on one of their PP's. Along with the poor passing in their own zone, the Bears can't afford to keep making these mistakes as the opponents keep getting tougher and tougher.

If they can keep the penalties to a minumum, and get some PP's of their own, they should win this game. Schletty was very good against Moundsview when he had to be, and will have to be better than his last performance against Stillwater. Wahlin will be the difference in this game and I believe he and the Bears will get one last crack at Hill Murray in the finals Friday. Should be a good one, but I like the Bears 4-3 Wednesday. Looking forward to it!

WBLHockeyfan04 wrote:You hit it right on the head with your analysis. I think Lehr will keep Roseville in it as long as he can, but a goalie can only get you so far... I like Hill Murray in a 5-1 victory.

And for WBL, the penalties are starting to become a real concern. It has been for a while actually. They took far too many yesterday which included a penalty shot, but the Mustangs were only able to score on one of their PP's. Along with the poor passing in their own zone, the Bears can't afford to keep making these mistakes as the opponents keep getting tougher and tougher.

If they can keep the penalties to a minumum, and get some PP's of their own, they should win this game. Schletty was very good against Moundsview when he had to be, and will have to be better than his last performance against Stillwater. Wahlin will be the difference in this game
and I believe he and the Bears will get one last crack at Hill Murray in the finals Friday. Should be a good one, but I like the Bears 4-3 Wednesday.
Looking forward to it!

Exactly wahlin and birki have been getting a lot of penalties lately ... Can't score if ur in the sin bin