Oddly enough, it may not matter this Championship Saturday that the top talent is not on display.  The D6’s playoff focus has changed this year to the peewee A and bantam A playoffs.  The A teams will be front and center this weekend at Chaska and they are playing good hockey.  Four bantam A teams are still playing for the D6 trophies (Edina, Kennedy, Minnetonka and Prior Lake).  Last night at Eden Prairie, the Waconia peewee A’s came from behind in the last three minutes to beat Eden Prairie 2-1.  In a second game Chaska Chanhassen beat Minnetonka 7-2 to reduce the peewee A field to four teams (Edina, Prior Lake Savage, Waconia, and Chaska Chanhassen).

Waconia beats Eden Prairie A 2-1

The Wildcats opened the game slow and finished with a bang.  Eden Prairie’s forwards controlled the play in the opening minutes, cutting off the Wildcat’s rushes at the Eagles’ blue line and generating counter attacks.  Five minutes into the opening period, Eden Prairie’s Zac Bienkowski scored off of one those counter attacks.

The Eagles’ Ben Minnich hit Bienkowski with a pass to the right side of the Wildcat’s net.  Bienkowski circled the net, came back to the top of the crease and scored on a backhander to put the Eagles up 1-0.  After that opening goal, the game was off to the races with both teams continuously skating the puck into their opponent’s zone and attacking the net.  It resulted in 21 shots on goal (the Eagles got 13), but no more goals were scored.  The first period ended with Eden Prairie leading 1-0.

The second period opened with both teams playing cautiously.  Neither team forced the action in the first five minutes.  Play did not pick up until Waconia killed a roughing penalty.  Eden Prairies’ forwards started to beat the Wildcats’ defense high in the Waconia zone setting up shots from the slot area.  The Eden Prairie shots would beat the goalie, but miss the net.  The Eagles lost three scoring chances halfway through the second period that way.  The period ended with Eden Prairie still leading 1-0.  The Wildcats put 7 shots on goal in the period.  The Eagles put 17 shots on goal not counting the missed shots.

3:18 and 0:38

The Eagles continued to pressure Waconia in the third period (outshooting the Wildcats 12-10).  Waconia killed a penalty at the opening of the period and attacked the Eden Prairie goal only to have the Eagles nearly score on two good counter attacks.  The Eagles continued to control the game flow until the 4 minute mark.  They drew an interference penalty.

Waconia setup on the power play and moved the puck to the center blue line to defenseman Tyler Holmen.  Holman fired a hard shot low right that beat Eden Prairie’s goalie just clearing his right leg save attempt.  Waconia had tied the game 1-1 one minute into the power play with 3:18 left on the clock.  John Fischer and Zac Holm got the assists.

With less than two minutes left in the tied game, Eden Prairie drew a checking penalty.  Again, Waconia established control in the Eagle’s zone and moved the puck to the left point.  Defenseman John Fischer took a hard shot from the left point that skipped through Max Naslund’s screen of the Eagles goalie and hit the lower right corner of the net for the winning goal.  Waconia won 2-1; Fischer’s score came with 0:38 left on the clock.

Chaska Chanhassen A beats Minnetonka A 7-2.

The Hawks had finished second in D6’s league play, but were upset by Prior Lake Savage A 3-1 in the playoff's first semifinal round.  So it was no surprise when Chaska Chanhassen came out flying against Minnetonka in the first period.  They pinned the Skippers in Minnetonka’s zone for much of the opening period.  The Skipper defense, led by goalie Roddy Peterson, held up to the Hawks' high pressure attack for most of the opening 15 minutes.  Unfortunately, Minnetonka’s defense finally caved in a three minute span giving up three Hawk goals.

The second came after a battle along the left side of the Skipper’s net at the edge of the crease and resulted in Chaska forward Thomas Clauson gaining control of the puck in the “sweet spot” and beating Peterson high on the left side.  One minute later, a Hawk forward scored from the center blue when the puck snuck through a Clauson screen in the high slot and beat the Skippers' goalie Peterson low.

Chaska kept the pressure on the for the rest of the opening period, took a 3-0 lead into the second period and won 7-2.

What is Next?

The second round of semifinal games in the D6 playoffs will be played Thursday at Eden Prairie.  Edina A plays Prior Lake Savage A in one game with the winner advancing to the D6 championship games played Saturday at Chaska (all D6 playoff championships are played at Chaska on Saturday this year).  The winner of Thursday’s game will get either D6’s #1 or #2 seed to the East Regional.  The second game Thursday will match Waconia and Chaska Chanhassen A in a “loser goes home” game.  The winner will play the loser of the Edina/Prior Lake Savage game Friday for the D6’s #1 or #2 seed and a berth in the Championship game Saturday at Chaska.