Friday's peewee AA quarterfinals opened with Sibley edging Prior Lake/Savage 2-1.  Sibley was favored to win, but had to hang on against the Lakers.  Rochester Red, the favorite played the next game and edged Cloquet 5-4.  At the Cloquet Barn Burner in early February, the Red beat the Lumberjacks 5-3 easily.  In the last game Friday night, Osseo/Maple Grove beat Hermantown 2-1 in their version of a barn burner.  Only Edina had an easier game.  The NOW #1 ranked AA Hornets beat rival Minnetonka 8-3.  Three weeks ago, Edina tied their District 6 rival Skippers 4-4 in their last D6 regular season game.

The tourney switched venues from Friday to Saturday.  Friday's games were played in the old adjoining arena.  Saturday's games were played at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.  The Engelstad was holding sectional high school basketball playoffs Friday night.  After the last basketball was played, the Thief River Falls' hockey association volunteers converted Engelstad from basketball to hockey.  The first consolation game Saturday started at noon, the conversion was finished by Friday midnight.

Prior Lake/Savage and Cloquet opened the consolation semifinals with a noon game.  The second consolation paired Minnetonka and Hermantown.

Prior Lake/Savage beats Cloquet 3-2

Prior Lake won the first consolation semifinal game to advance to the state consolation title game Sunday morning.  In the process, the Lakers sent a good Cloquet team home.  In the opening minute of play, Prior Lake generated a 3-on-1 rush, but failed to score.  Still, they picked up a Cloquet penalty.  Cloquet killed the penalty and drew a Laker penalty at the 10 minute mark.  Cloquets' Derian Durand scored an unassisted power play goal a minute later to take a 1-0 lead.  Prior Lake's Austin McNeil picked up a rebounding puck a minute later at the top of the crease.  McNeil batted the puck in the net to tie the game 1-1.  Nathan Whittier got the assist.

At the four minute mark, a Cloquet rush resulted in a Laker roughing penalty, but no power goal.  Late the period, Cloquet drew a too many players on the ice penalty but couldn't score.  The period ended in a 1-1 tie.  Prior led in shots on goal 9-5.

The second period opened with Prior Lake still on the power play.  The remaining penalty time was killed.  After killing the penalty, Prior Lake was effective in backing the Lumberjacks into the Cloquet zone.  The Lakers had a number of good scoring chances.  Controlling the puck in the Lumberjacks' zone, they finally worked the puck to Jackson Jutting in the slot.  Jutting cleared himself and buried the puck in the upper left side of the net to put the Lakers up 2-1.  Owen Neuharth got the assist.

A Prior Lake tripping penalty at the eight minute mark resutled in Landon Langenbrunner scoring the tying goal.  Langenbrunner picked up a loose puck in the slot.  His shot was a fooler.  By letting his left wrist loose, he turned a shot that looked to go right into a shot that went to the short side left between the goalie and the left pipe.  That tied the game 2-2.  Kullann Daikawa got the assist.

At the five minute mark of the second, Cloquet drew two successive penalties and ended up with a 5-on-3 penalty kill that they survived mostly because the Lakers' shooters could not find the net.  They worked the power play with nice perimeter passing finding the open shot, but the shooters could only hit the end boards.

A Prior Lake trip late in the period put the Lumberjacks on the power play giving Cloquet a chance to score, but no goal scored.  The period ended in a 2-2 tie.  Cloquet led in shots on goal 16-15 at the end of the second period.

The third period opened with Prior Lake on the offensive and ended with Cloquet doing everything possible to tie the game in the last two minutes of play.

The Lakers scored the winning goal early in the third period.  Prior Lake got pressure low in the Lumberjacks' zone and set up a couple attacks on Cloquet's goalie Owen Carlson.  Carlson made some big stops, but finally gave up a big rebound after three or four stops.  Prior Lake's Charlie Kashmark, breaking in the slot, manage to gain control of the hard rebound and sliding on his knee towards the Cloquet net, banged the puck towards the net.  The puck ended up popping into the net over Carlson's save attempt.  Prior Lake took a 3-2 lead and held on.

Cloquet came roaring back and attacked the Laker's net sending the Prior Lake's defense scrambling.  But the Lumberjacks couldn't score in the third period.  Prior Lake won 3-2.

Minnetonka beats Hermantown 3-2

Both teams opened the first period giving the other team's offense time to maneuver.  Over the first two periods, it resulted in a lot of shots from just inside the blue lines.  The first minutes of the opening set that tone as both teams were content to let the other team take the initiative.  Each team gave the other too much respect.

At the two minute mark, Hermantown paid the penalty.  The Skippers' Griffin Streeter picked up the puck along the right boards in the neutral ice, beat the backing up defense, cut to the slot, and fired a high hard shot that hit the upper left corner, bounced into the net on the right side and out again on the left side.  His score put the Skippers up 1-0.  Grant Doctor got the assist.

Problems didn't end for the Hawks in the period.  Late in the period they drew two successive penalties and ended the period on a 5-on-3 penalty kill.  Tonka outshot the Hawks 10-7 in the period.

The Hawks opened the second period still short two players.  They dodged two bullets off the opening Skipper rush and cleared the puck, but could not stop the Skippers' Jack Bayless.  Bayless picked up the loose puck in neutral ice and split the Hawk defense coming down the slot.  His shot misfired and but his shot beat the Hawk goalie by sliding through the 5-hole.  The score put Tonka up 2-0.

Two minutes later, the Hawks went on the power play and the Skippers gave them too much room to operate.  The Hawks' Elliot Peterson skated through Skippers' defense, cut to the right face off circle drawing the Skippers goalie right and buried the puck in the upper left corner to cut Tonka's lead to 2-1.  Wyatt Miller got the assist. 

At the six minute mark, Minnetonka started to pressure the Hawks in the Hermantown's zone.  The key to the Skipper's pressure is they started to backcheck.  Hermantown would start a rush and by time they hit the Skippers' blue line, all five Skipper forwards would be boxed around the rushers.  They backchecked well until the final minute when Hermantown's Carter Sullivan beat the defense into the right faceoff circle and buried the puck in the upper left corner to tie the game 2-2.  Zach Carson got the assist.  The period ended in a tie. 

Respect went out the window in the third period.  Both teams finally decided they wanted to win and came at each other hard.  There was no waiting, trying to turn the puck in the neutral zone and attacking.  Tonka still had the edge in play.

But overall, it was a great period of hockey that looked like it was headed to overtime until Minnetonka's Streeter put the puck in the net off a melee of players.  He scored the winning goal with just under two minutes left in the period putting the Skippers up 3-2.  Will Conen got the assist.  The Hawks tried to comeback in the final minute, but the Skippers went five across in the neutral zone and kept Hermantown from mounting a strong attack and establishing puck control in the Minnetonka zone.  The shots on goal ended 26-23 in Tonka's favor.

The season ends for Hermantown.  Minnetonka moves on to play a Sunday 10:00 AM in the peewee AA consolation championship game against Prior Lake.