The Edina PeeWee AA team is off to Detroit again this Winter to take on some top competition in Detroit, MI.  A great opportunity for the Hornets to face some top National competition as well as a different style of play. Beyond the different competition, the Edina kids will get a chance to learn a different style of play as well as show off how a community based team from a population base of 50,000 can compete with a team that draws from a city of five million.

In a strange way, it's akin to small towns like Roseau or Warroad coming through the Twin Cities and playing big associations like Edina, OMG, or White Bear.

The Hornets fought through  a couple of hours of Michigan traffic and arrived to the game a few minutes prior to game time.  To which they found the number 7 rated 2001 team from Detroit waiting.  The Tiress scored first when #15 Ruh scored on a pretty pass from #8 Pieltila at the 1:41 mark of the first on a two on one break. It was 1-0 after 1 and the shots were in favor of Belle Tire who were clad in their cardinal red and white Detroit Red Wings jerseys. Unofficial shots after 1 were Belle Tire 12, Edina 4.

In the second, the Cake Eaters got it rolling. Jack Jensen used his strength and got behind the Belle Tire cage and found his linemate Michael Shoemaker alone in front of the net and Shoey buried it on a one timer to to tie it 1-1. Later in the second, Edina went on the power play.  Mike Vorlicky got the puck down low and found Jett Jungels on the weak-side and the golden boy buried top shelf to give the Hornets a 2-1 lead. Unofficial shots evened out...Belle Tire 18 total, Edina 17 total.

In the third, it was a fairly even game until the Hornets took two penalties within 30 seconds of each other. Fortunately for the visitors, they came out unscathed. As the game wore on, the Hornets wore down. Having played five games in four days prior, a 4:00 am flight and travel prior the boys got tired. Late in the third, Belle got a puck to the net and after a long scrum in front finally got it past Edina netminder Jack Wolfe for the equalizer with 3:12. Wolfe was a stand out for Edina again after having a great game earlier in the week against Stillwater.

Final Score: Edina 2, Belle Tire 2.

Next Up:

• Edina vs. Toronto Nationals (10:00 Eastern) who are #8 in MyHockey Rankings' Ontario AAA Rankings
• Edina vs. Colorado Thunderbirds (6:00 Eastern) who are #6 in MyHockey Rankings' USA Tier 1 and have an impressive 20-2-0 record.

In the morning game, Edina looked to prove their number one rating in Minnesota versus the kids from Toronto. Grant Silianoff got the party started with a great individual effort when he picked up the in neutral zone, drove wide, got a nice backhander off and scored on a forehand rebound. The Nationals would battle back when Stephen Smyte (#97) scored on backhand screen from the top of the right circle. But the Hornets would answer when Nico Vega would score on the Power Play when he beat Nats Goalie Sean Wu on the short side. End of two, the Cake Eaters lead 2-1. 

The third period would see a flurry of goals. The Hornets would take an ill-advised penalty and  Robert Calisto (#15) shot from point 3 seconds into the PP got tipped nicely by (#53) Lucas Panzani. With the score 2-2, the Hornets needed to turn up the heat on their "northern" neighbors. Nico Vega got a pass from from Mike Vorlicky and got his second power play goal of the morning. Sixteen seconds later, Jett Jungels slid a pretty pass to Grant Silanoff and he streaked in on the right side, as he was being hauled down, he jammed it in past goalie Wu for his second goal.  Score was 4-2 with 4:46 to play.  

The barage of goals conintued, half a minute later on a 2 on 1 Mason Primeau (#18) displayed great patiene and floated a nice pass over to Liam Richardson, (#88) who went bar down making it 4-3. Now with 3:17 remaining, Liam Malmquist drove wide and saucered a nice pass to Michael Shoemaker who finished off the play making it 5-3 in favor of the boys clad in lime green. Toronto did not pull their goalie in the final 3 minutes and failed to generate much offense.

Final Score was 5-3.

The Hornets next game is at 6:15 pm (Eastern) against the Colorado Thunderbirds at the Team USA Development facility in Ann Arbor.  

The Hornets scored first when Grant Silinoff scored top shelf after he stepped out in front from behind the net after a nice cyle play with linemate Mason Nevers. 1-0 after one.

The Hornets scored early in the seond on a nice breakout pass from Ben Brinkman to Aaron Frenkel who sent Nico Vega in alone breakawy, number 11 scored on the backhand...it was 2-0 and the Hornets were starting to hit their stride. Edina just kept coming. They got a great head-man pass by Mason Nevers to Jett Jungels who flipped a pretty pass to his long time linemate Grant Silianoff for a one timer. It was 3-0 after 2.

Thunderbird player, Hubbard converted a 2 on 1 pass from (#12) Alex Harlan and scored on a pretty short side wrist shot to get the Birds on the board. Shortly after the Thunderbird goal, they found themselves short handed and the Edina big man Ben Brinkman made them pay.  He got a pass at the point and he let go of a rocket that dashed the Thunderbird hopes of a comeback, 4-1 in favor of the Limeys. The T-Birds would keep battling, (#37) Dominick Sandavol scored a pretty back door powerplay goal on a pass from his brother (#34) Lucas to make it 4-2 with under five minutes to play. 

Edina would add an empty net goal to finish off the boys from Colorado 5-2 and complete a nice two game sweep for the day.

Next Up:

• HoneyBaked (2:00 Eastern)...the Hams are 0-2 so far losing to LA and Colorado. They are #12 in MyHockeyRankings.
• LA Jr. Kings (7:45 pm Eastern)...the Kings are 2-0 and will likely be 3-0 heading into their night game with Edina. If so, this game will likely decide which team has the most points at the end of the Showcase.  The Kings feature two Minnesota natives, Drew Helleson and Jackson Lacombe who now live in LA and play for the Kings. The Kings are #18 in MyHockey Rankings.

Edina entered Saturday 2-0-1 in their first three games and needed two wins to emerge as the best team on paper in the Michigan Border Battle Showcase. HoneyBaked got on the board early when Edina turned in over on a clear attempt and (77) Larson scored for the Hams. Edina would come right back and get a goal from big Drew Bishop who got a pass at the point from Aaron Frenkel, Drew fired a low shot and beat the goalie. The Hornets grabbed the lead when Grant Silianoff pressured the HoneBaked defense and got a turnover in front and Jett Jungels knocked in to give the Limeys a 2-1 lead after one.

Early in the second (2) Mitchell Miller got a loose puck in the slot and fired a knuckle ball glove side to tie the score at 2-2. At this point is was a very even game with both teams getting scoring chances. Jack Jensen had a great individual effort first poking the puck loose in the left corner and firing a nice wrist shot past the Ham goalie to give Edina a 3-2 lead. After a Hornet penalty, HoneyBaked would knot the score at three when (77) Joey Larson scored with 1:40 left in the second. End of 2, it was 3-3.

Early in the third, Edina got their chance on a power play.  Jensen won the draw to linemate Grant Silianoff, Silly gave it right back to Jensen who powered his way to the net and scored for the Hornets...4-3. 

Goal 7 was a pp goal scored by Jack Jensen. Jensen won the draw to Silianoff. Silianoff gave it right back to Jensen and Jensen barreled his way to the net with a power move. Minutes later Edina would get the all important next goal when Jungels and Silianoff would trade passes on a give and go and Silly fired it in short-side to give the Hornets a 5-3 lead. Later, HoneyBaked would battle the puck to the net and (91) Keechoff would get a loose puck in front and cut the Edina lead to 5-4. 

The Hams would pull their goalie and mount some pressure, but the Edina defense prevailed. Final score 5-4 Hornets. Edina's record after 4 games is 3-0-1 with one game left vs LA Jr Kings at 7:45.

Final Shots 25 to 19 in favor of the Hornets.

This was one of the best games of the trip for the Hornets.  Edina got the party started with a goal by Jett Jungels with a wrist shot over the Goalie's right shoulder from the top of the left face off circle, Grant Silianoff got credit with the assist. A few minutes later, Jr. Kings Goalie, (32) Wolf, made a timely save on an Aaron Frenkel break away.  Frenkel won a puck battle in the neutral zone and raced down the left wing before cutting to the middle and attempting to jam home a back hander. On the next shift, Jack Jensen snuck one in on the short side from a pass by Jungels, 2-0 in favor of Edina.  But the Kings would keep battling. Holding the Edina zone, a Kings Defenseman fired a shot on goal and (22) Brendan Brissonoff tipped it in to make it 2-1 in favor of Edina after 1.

Just like that Kings' (22) Brendan Brisson scored 24 seconds into the 2nd period to make it 2-2 early in the second. Not long after that, Johnny Tucker sent a long stretch pass Silianof and he scored on a break away to give the Limeys a 3-2 lead after 2.

Down by one, the Kings went on the power play to start the third period and they capitalized nicely when (87) Papp scored on a pretty back door pass to tie it 3-3 1:01 into the final stanza. With the score tied, each team had some great scoring chances.  With 3:15 min left, Michael Shoemaker tipped a Ben Dexheimer shot that went just wide. 

With one minute remaining, the Hornets had an offensive zone face-off.  From the left circle, Jungels opened the blade of his stick as the puck was being dropped.  The puck hit Jungels blade and slipped through the opposing center's legs.  Jungels slipped passed him on the left side and fired a forehand pass to the back door where Silianoff banged home a one-timer into an open net.  4-3 Hornets.  The Kings pulled their goalie and had a frantic last minute chances but were not able to get the equalizer.   4-3 final. Final shots 24-18 Hornets.

Including the Edina invitational, where they beat Chaska/Chan, the Hornets went 9-0-1 in a seven day stretch, beating four (and tying one) of the top 2001 teams in the process.   

The Edina PWAA team has put the word travel into the term Traveling hockey here in Minnesota, going to Michigan the last two years to take on some top end Tier I hockey clubs. 

Someone once compared the Minnesota Hockey model to the old Iron Curtain in the Cold War.  The comparison has some merit.  We have our own rules for ages (mostly to protect our prized jewel the MN State HS Hockey Tournament), we play 99 percent of our games in Minnesota and only against Minnesota teams and when we do line up against non-Minnesota teams we generally perform pretty well.  But, our youth participation in USA Hockey events is a rarity and our relationship with USA Hockey has always been a little strained.

Calling these trips to Detroit ground breaking would be a stretch, but they have broken down some barriers for future teams in Minnesota to do the same. Last year and even moreso this year, the Minnesota kids got a great view of how teams from outside our borders assemble their teams and play the game.

First of all, Tier I Hockey is not community based.  A Tier I team can take any player it wants and compete for a USA Hockey national championship, no matter his or her residence. These teams are often run by for-profit organizations with paid coaches, playing in private non-municipal rinks at a very high cost to the parent and players. In American communities such as Denver, Chicago, Detroit and Boston there is still community based hockey (Tier 2 or AA). But how Minnesota is different, the "Elite" players play community based Tier 2/AA hockey.

And they play it in spades.

They are coached mostly by volunteers and they play in municipal rinks dedicated to our beloved model.

This past weekend, Tier I players from Colorado, Ontario, California and Michigan got to see 17 kids from one community, Edina, line-up several elite players like Ben Brinkman, Grant Silianoff and Jett Jungels play for their community at a very high level. 

Edina is a large and very successful hockey association in Minnesota. Minnesota is a microcosm of what these people got to witness. If Minnesota were a country, we would be the fourth largest country participation-wise in the world behind Canada, the rest of the US, and Russia.

We participate.

Minnesota is also very successful in the way they perform. Evidence of that was proven last Wednesday when a third of the US Olympic team announced on New Year's Day was from the land of 10,000 Lakes (and stud hockey players).

Huge thanks to a handful of Edina parents for supplying YHH the necessary information to compose this article to our readers this past week.