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Prior Lake's first ever trip to a section championship. Can they pull another upset?

Have not watched Prior Lake but have watched Eden Prairie a few times. They have always been a very consistent team over the years. You really need to play well to beat them.

Eagles 5-2.

Going to be a close one....but Prior Lake is going to take this one. All they have to do is stop Middlestadt (hard thing to do) and Prior Lake should be fine. Graham can't carry the team and Prior Lake's defense and goaltending is head and shoulders above EP's. Season was too early when these two teams first met.

Prior lake 4-3

EP should be a heavy favorite. The large ice surface should favor them. They are used to playing in big games (this is all new to PL). EP will have the best 2 players on the ice. A lot of upsets thus far, maybe PL can pull off another?

This one has the potential to be a good game, and we can probably toss that Game One meeting out the window as we look at this one--both teams have taken wandering roads since. For all their travails, EP is still probably better than anyone when they're on, and PL has come a long way and has the talent to break through.

Prior Lake has plenty of speed and is capable of possessing the puck, so I don't think the big ice will be a liability for them the way it could be for some other mild surprise team making its first trip to a section final. They do need to stay disciplined and make sure they don't get caught too far up ice, though, because EP obviously has the finishers to take them apart if Denman and company wander too far forward. They also do have a clear edge in goal, which will be key to their hopes for an upset.

I don't think Eden Prairie needs to do anything particularly special here. They just need to turn their stars loose, keep the pressure of their goaltender, and avoid doing anything stupid. They've been killer on the power play lately--as they should be, with all that talent--so PL needs to stay out of the box.

Will there be a live video stream for this game and the other at Mariucci? They usually have them but maybe not this year?

EP is 5-5-2 in last 12 Games. Not exactly peaking!
PL is 10-2 over the same stretch

Goalie : PL
Defense: EP
Forwards : EP
Coaching: EP

On paper this game should belong to EP. PL has to stay out of the box and play Def. Scites could steal this game. EP has to just play EP game and stay out of the box.
Should be an close exciting game.

buttend wrote:EP is 5-5-2 in last 12 Games. Not exactly peaking!
PL is 10-2 over the same stretch

Goalie : PL
Defense: EP
Forwards : EP
Coaching: EP

On paper this game should belong to EP. PL has to stay out of the box and play Def. Scites could steal this game. EP has to just play EP game and stay out of the box.
Should be an close exciting game.

Coaching?

Is there live streaming of this game?

Updates

last i seen it was 1-1 second period

2-1 EP, Mittelstadt

3-1 EP 11:42 left in 2nd.

Middlestadt 3- Prior Lake 2 Final

Good game to watch. Lots of quality chances from both sides. Easily could have been 5 goals apiece. Mighty Casey was good the first half. Kinda disappeared the second half. Missed the net on his last 5 or so shots in a row, but he's fun to watch. Too bad PL couldn't have snuck one of their many many chances in earlier and made the game more exciting.

Three Tourneys in a row for Eden Prairie, who's becoming a Tournament fixture. They do it with their stars, and they sure came to play tonight, with Mittelstadt scoring the first two (the second was a beauty of a snipe), and Graham setting up the third for Leivermann's deflection. Durocher had one of his better nights in net for the Eagles, too.

Prior Lake was certainly capable of skating with EP, but didn't quite have the difference-makers; they had a lot of chances to cut the EP lead to 3-2 a lot earlier than they did, but just couldn't finish. They came a long way this year and certainly deserved to be in this game, but couldn't quite pull it out. Jutting is going to be a player for them. Great fan support for the Lakers, too.

Final was 4-2 and Mittlestedt had 2 goals.

My phone died so sorry I could not update the 2nd game.

Prior Lake scored the first goal pretty early in the game by Hansen. If I remember correctly, a Laker D flipped the puck into the air from his zone, it landed with some backspin so a Laker player picked it up just entering the EP zone. The EP D expected the flipped puck to come closer to him instead of backspinning, so there was a lot of space between him and Laker skater. A check was thrown, the puck dropped back to a trailing laker, now on a 2-1 passed it to Hansen, but kind of in his feet, who got off a shot that squeaked by Durocher.

Mittlestedt scored quickly after to make it 1-1. The lakers had a ton of chances to clear the puck, but they made bad decisions and bad passes which eventually led to a loose puck near the left side of the net which Casey scored on.
Casey scored again to make it 2-1, this time in the 2nd period. The lakers were sloppy in the Eagles Zone and Mittlestedt picked it up and went down the left wall. He didn't have a great angle, but right when PL goalie went down, he went up with a goal.
Leiverman, who should be mentioned much more, scored to make it 3-1. No clue what PL was doing on this goal. Ep player coming down the right wall, PL has 3 players watching him, Lieverman comes right down the slot, gets the pass and scores a good one. It was a tough one to score, but you could see the play generating from a mile away. Nobody bothered to pick him up.

In the 3rd, with about 2;30 left, PL scored on the PP to make it 3-2. Not sure who got the goal, believe it was #15, but after an attempted shot that got lost in a PL player, Ep sort of lost track of the puck. I believe Denman or Harris grabbed the puck found #15 on the left side of the slot who scored a very nice one timer.
Johannes scored an empty netter with 30 seconds left to make it 4-2, prior lake did make it interesting with a chance or two when the goalie was pulled.

Again, I thought the better team won this game. Prior lake looked nervous, gripping the sticks too tight. They continuously made bad passes and bad decisions with the puck. They just looked sloppy to me. In the 3rd I thought they made a decent push, but they never seemed to hit the net.
I thought Jutting was their best player tonight, he had the best work ethic and decision making, to me at least. Only a freshman so look out for him. Fellows was probably their best player talent wise, he showed he could take control, but sometime he did one or two too many moves.
I don't think PL tested Durocher enough, if they just would have thrown it on net and crashed it I think we might have seen a different result.

PL was nervous, but I think they played the game they were expected to play. A little desperate at times. Too quick to dump the puck at other times. But they had plenty of scoring chances. 1st and 3rd goals by EP were due to poor defensive lapses. The score easily could have been flipped. Agree the EP won that game as the better more confident team, but PL played a solid game considering the pressure.

LASERBLUE135 wrote:PL was nervous, but I think they played the game they were expected to play. A little desperate at times. Too quick to dump the puck at other times. But they had plenty of scoring chances. 1st and 3rd goals by EP were due to poor defensive lapses. The score easily could have been flipped. Agree the EP won that game as the better more confident team, but PL played a solid game considering the pressure.

I'll have to respectfully disagree. I don't think the score could have been flipped, and I don't think they generated enough chances. Perhaps they had a good amount of looks, but they missed the net over and over so they were wasted. Even when they got that 2nd goal, I never thought EP was in much danger.