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Minnesota Peewee A versus USA Peewee AA 99 Hockey (Owatonna Tourney)

Owatonna has put on an annual hockey tourney in the first two weeks of December since who knows when? The great Jefferson Peewee A teams of the late 1980’s would play their opening tourneys down there. Their tourney always offers surprises and this year it was no different.

Four USA Peewee AA 99 teams are entered, three (Omaha Jr. Lancers, Des Moines Jr Bucs, and the Quad City Ice Eagles) are from the Midwest Peewee AA League. The fourth team, the Independence Jr Mavs plays, appropriately enough, an independent schedule. These four USA Peewee AA 99 teams will play four Minnesota Peewee A teams, all from D9.

The USA Peewee AA 99 teams are led by returning Owatonna champion and 16th ranked (out of 485 Tier II teams in the USA) Omaha Jr Lancers from Omaha Nebraska. The Lancers come into the tourney having beaten the Madison Capitals 00 AAA three times in November (6-3, 8-1, and 10-4) and after playing in East Grand Forks turkey day tourney. Omaha took third place in that tourney beating the EGF Green Wave 6-1, the Selkirk Fisherman 5-4, losing to the Morden Hawks 8-3 and beating Portage 7-1 in the third place game.

The Lancers play Austin in their first game of bracket play. This will be Austin’s second straight tourney weekend. Last weekend, they played in cross-35 Interstate rival, Albert Lea’s tourney won by Highland. They did not fare well in that tourney and after beating Rochester Black 5-3 in the opening weeks of the season, the Packers have struggled. Lancers should win.

In the other half of the bracket, Rochester Black plays Quad Cities Ice Eagles. The Ice Eagles play out of Davenport, Iowa and have been playing .500 hockey in the first part of this season. The Black started slow losing three straight games to D9 teams. In the Burnsville turkey day tourney, they showed improvement though losing all three of their games (Andover, Eastview, and Roseville). The Black continued to show potential since then; they have beaten defending D9 East champion Northfield twice. The Black should win this game.

In the upper bracket, Owatonna takes on the Des Moines Jr. Bucs. The Bucs fared well in the Albert Lea tourney last week, beating Austin 5-1 and Mason City 7-0, but lost big to eventual champion Highland 14-4 and lost to Mankato 5-1. Owatonna comes into this game with a 5-2 record against mostly D9 teams (a 5-3 loss to New Prague out of D6 is the only non D9 team played). The Huskies always seem to start slow and then come on strong as the season moves on. This is a strong opening month for the Huskies and a strong opening month means they will be tough in D9 as the season progresses. This game is a toss-up, but the hometown Huskies should win.

The final game of the opening round matches the #31 ranked Independence Jr Mavs out of Independence, Missouri against New Ulm/Sleepy Eye. The Mavs are struggling after having a winning early season and this tourney could be their re-start. New Ulm/Sleepy Eye is just starting to get going in their second month of play. Other than getting blown out by Shakopee in the Mankato tourney three weeks ago, the Eagles have played well, but have not found a way to win those close games. The Mavs should win this game.

That sets up the semifinal games with Owatonna playing the Independence Missouri team and Rochester Black playing the Omaha Nebraska team, D9 versus Midwest Peewee AA League. They should be a good pair of semifinal games, but it will likely be a Missouri versus Nebraska in Sunday’s championship game just like the old Big 12.

If that happens, the championship game would be the fifth game of the young season between these two teams. Omaha won the first three, 6-4, 7-6, and 6-3. Independence won the last game three weeks ago 6-0. Omaha should take the Owatonna title again this year beating a tiring Mavs team.

If they can set up a tourney with AA USA teams in Owatonna, why can't or don't we set up a tourney in say Edina and invite the best MN teams and the best USA AAA teams to square off?

Snap Happy wrote:If they can set up a tourney with AA USA teams in Owatonna, why can't or don't we set up a tourney in say Edina and invite the best MN teams and the best USA AAA teams to square off?

I have noticed that there are more Peewee "A-tyoe" teams entered in these tourneys this year then in previous years. I attribute it to the no-checking rule at the peewee level which allows the younger "A-type" teams to participate. Note there is the top ranked Tier II 99 AA team playing in Edina's tourney in a couple weeks. It will be interesting to watch what happens this and next year.

I believe that the top ranked teams are testing themselves and if they get soundly beaten, will not return since they want to get invites to top tourneys and can't afford loses to Minnesota teams that are "A" teams (there is an Tier 11 A classification). That is also why there will likely be few AAA teams playing in-state. That is one of the many problems with USA hockey, a AAA (Organizational team like Little Caesars) can't play teams "beneath them" on the USA totem pole and lose. They lose their reputations and parents began to wonder why they are paying $20,000 per season. So they essentially only play teams of similar "totem" which is why you see fewer and fewer top AAA teams in the country.

Still, I think Owatonna did a good job at putting this tourney together and it will be an interesting match; I wish more of this type of competition could be fostered and have suggested many times that Minnesota hockey should "open the borders" and let neighboring states participate in all levels of play in the Minnesota State tourneys.

All four of the USA 99's are from Midwest AA League. Omaha, Independence (former KC Stars), DesMoines and Quad Cities are half 99's and the other half 00's.
I would be surprised for any of those teams to be playing on Sunday as alot of our PWA teams a comprised of 98 talent.

I guess I am not exactly sure how MN does it. But I always thought the "A" teams in MN were basically looked at like "AA" teams for USA Hockey purposes. I know here in WI our "1A" teams are viewed as defacto "AA" teams for the purposes of cross over tournaments etc...Usually most Illinois AA teams will play 1A and 2A (and even occasionally 3A) teams from Wisconsin and it's viewed as being an even playing field. Some AA orgs are top flight orgs like the Omaha Lancers though and are practically AAA organiztions if not for the fact they do mix their age groups just like WI association hockey does, where as Tier 1 AAA orgs are straight up birth year. MN is a different animal though with your different age cutoff deadline. That said, I'd be surprised if Omaha was NOT in the championship game as I've seen them play and they are quite skileld and have some decent size to them.

maybe the idea of $20,000 for youth hockey has put a damper on the AAA programs???

Anyoen know where one can find out all the reults of this tourney. Went to Owatonna's website and didn't see any results. just curious...

I believe Omaha won the tournament 5-3 over the Independence team.