skip navigation

Edina AA #1 MN...#1 USA

By frederick61, 03/17/14, 10:30AM CDT

Share

Hornets attack in their 6-2 championship win

It is hard for a team to play any undefeated season.  Once a team stands out, all their competition plays their best.  They want to beat that team.  It means success to them.  The Edina Peewee AA team has faced that all season, in every game they played.  The Hornets lost once in posting 50-1-3 record this season.  They didn't go unbeaten, but every team they played knew they were playing the best.  It takes something extra to keep your game together when you face that inspired competitor every game.  The Hornets did against Minnesota competition and against USA competition.  They won.  They are the #1 peewee team in Minnesota and in the USA.  Congratulations to all 17 Hornets players, their coaches, and their parents.  Well done.


Just as the game ends, the Hornets clear their bench to begin celebrating their championship season

The Peewee AA State championship game was played between the two top ranked Minnesota teams; NOW ranked #1 Edina and NOW ranked #2 Rochester Red (YHH was the only ranker to have these two teams on top going into the tourney).  Edina had won a strange game betting OMG 6-3 in the semifinals.  It was strange because halfway through the game, the Hornets led 6-1 despite being outshot 14-10.  Grant Sillanoff went on a scoring spree in the first half of the Hornets semifinal game.  He figured in 5 of the 6 goals scored (4 goals/1 assist).  In Sunday's championship game, Sillanoff did it again.


Rochester's Luke Newman (#10) scores late in the game to end the score 6-2 Edina.

Rochester Red played a good defensive game and their semifinal and succeeded in keeping Sibley big guns off the scoreboard.  The Red won 3-1.  The two teams matched up well, but the Red needed to stop the Edina big guns and needed to stop them early.  If Edina follows form, the Hornets will come out of their locker room trying to put the Red away in the first period. 

There was no quick start for Edina in the first period of the championship game.  It took the Hornets seven minutes to score.  Liam Malmquist got the score.  Edina continued to build pressure on the Red defense.  But the Rochester defense was just pesky enough to keep the Hornets' offense off their timing.  The Hornets lead evaporated four minutes later on a Rochester breakaway.

The Red's Jared Anderson picked up the puck along his blue line right and burst into neutral ice beating the Edina defense to the Hornets' right faceoff where he blistered a shot into the left side of the Hornets' goal to tie the game 1-1.

After the Red scored, Edina softened their defense at the Rochester blue line.  The extra space gave the Red opportunities to move the puck and it took the Edina offense out of the game.  Without the pinch, the Hornets couldn't control the puck deep.  They could get shots on net but were stopped by Red's goalie Jacob Gathje.  The first periiod ended in a 1-1 tie.  Edina outshot the Red 13-3 in the period, but Rochester's defense had kept most of the shots long and from the blue line or side boards.


Edina's Grant Sillanoff had a great state tourney getting at least two plus size hat tricks (4 goals or more) in semifinal and championship games

For most of the second period, the two teams played evenly.  Both had good scoring chances and both could not score.  But the Red defense could not stop Sillanoff.  With five minutes left in the second period, Sillanoff picked a puck in the Red's zone, broke wide left, skated down the goal line and top shelved the puck to put the Hornets up 2-1.  Three minutes later, Rochester drew a tripping penalty.  With the faceoff in the Red's right circle, it took Sillanoff six seconds to score.  He won the faceoff, moved towards the Rochester net, and buried the puck to put Edina up 3-1.

Sillanoff did not stop there.  A minute later, Sillanoff scored again to give the Hornets a 4-1 lead as the period ended.  The Hornets outshot the Red 22-10 in the first two periods, but Sillanoff's three goal burst broke the game open.  His quick hard shot was beating some of the best goalies in the state.

Rochester Red needed offense coming out of the locker room at the start of the third period.  That meant loosing up their defense and giving Edina room for Edina's big guns to maneuver.  In either case, things looked tough for the Red if they were to get back into the game.

The third period didn't start off well for Rochester.  The Red drew an early penalty and had to work hard to kill that penalty.  When Edina drew a penalty two minutes later, the Red had their chance.  Instead, Edina scored a shorthanded goal to go up 5-1.  With five minutes left in the period, Edina drew another penalty and again the Red had a chance to close the gap.  Instead, Edina scored a shorthanded goal to go up 6-1.  Sillanoff got that score.  In the semifinal and final games, Sillanoff put eight goals on the scoreboard and assist on one other goal.  Edina scored a total of 12 goals in those two games.  Rochester Red's Luke Newman scored late in the period to end the scoring 6-2.


Edina scores in their championship win over Rochester Red

Sillanoff had a terrific tourney and has been Edina's main scorer.  But the Hornets succeed as a team.  Liam Malmquist and Mason Nevers are consistently assisting on Sillanoff's goals.  The Hornet defense led by Ben Brinkman, Drew Bishop, and Mike Vorlicky keep the pressure on the opponents' defense and if their opponents break through to the net, either goalie Weston Gervals or Jack Wolfe is there to make the tough save.  Perhaps what is strange about this year's team is that they have been very efficient in their play.  The Hornets this year did not need alot of shots on goal to quickly run up the score. 

Recent MN YHH News