Sixteen teams have entered the Summer Meltdown and have been divided into four pools.  Pool I and Pool II were reviewed in Part 1 of this post.  The Part I preview forecasted that Farmington would win Pool I and Eastview would win Pool II.  Pools III and IV winners are plus Sunday's championship games winners are picked in this post.  Watching these teams play at this point in the year is a fun thing.  There is less pressure on the players than regular season play and that seems to allow unknown players to suddenly attract attention. 

Pool III: Park, Eagan, East Ridge, and St. Francis

This pool has instant rivalry matching Park of Cottage Grove and East Ridge in the same pool.  Cottage Grove’s high school is named Park; hence Park of Cottage Grove (or PCG on their uniforms); East Ridge High School is located in Woodbury and draws its players from the Woodbury Association.  East Ridge does not use Woodbury’s Bielenberg Arena located on the same ground as the high school.  Instead East Ridge shares the Cottage Grove Arena with Park with each team having a dedicated sheet of ice.  Both Park and East Ridge high schools are in School District 833 (along with Woodbury) and both play in the Suburban East Conference (along with Woodbury).  Last season, East Ridge finished eighth in the Suburban East (6-12 conference record, 9-15-1 overall) and Park finished tenth (1-17 conference record, 3-20-1 overall).  Woodbury finished ninth.

The Park varsity has struggled over the past five years posting only one winning season (13-10-4 in 2011-2012).  It is not because the Park-Cottage Grove Association does not develop good hockey players.  Jack Dougherty who played youth hockey for PCG, was just selected in the second round of the 2014 NHL entry draft.  Unfortunately, Dougherty never played for the Wolfpack Varsity opting instead for a private school before joining the USA Hockey NTDP.

It is tough to struggle through a losing season and then lose most of your top players through graduation.  Eight of the Wolfpack’s top ten scorers are gone along with both starting goalies.  That is about to happen to the PCG team.  Core to the Wolfpack varsity next fall will be four junior defensemen, Tommy Koehnen, Bryce Solberg, Jason Miner, and Tyler Montez.  All four skated a full varsity season and Miner and Solberg showed they could score.  Miner made the Section 3A/AA HP-17 Festival team this year.  With both starting goalies graduating, the four will be fronting one of three goalies battling for the starting spot at the Eagan tourney, Rodney Stedt, Dylan Coulter, and Dalton Sokolowski.

The Wolfpack offensive was decimated by graduation.  Only Nick Lucas (20 points/8 goals), is returning this fall.  This tourney will test a young Wolfpack team.

East Ridge has swept Park in the past two seasons winning both games played at their shared rink; but the Raptors drew Eagan in their first Section 3AA game and lost 5-1 to end their season.  In 2008-2009, Woodbury Association’s Peewee A made the state championship game losing the title to Roseau.  The following year, the association’s peewee A team surprised people making the East Regional before losing to Rochester.  Ten of the players on those two teams ended up on the East Ridge varsity last season.  Five graduated and five are returning.  Six players from the two peewee A teams ended up on the Woodbury varsity last season and three are returning for their senior season.

East Ridge’s top scorer Derek Hammer (29 points/13 goals in 25 games) returns along with #3 scorer from last season Kevin Donohue (24 points/10 goals in 25 games).  Add to those two, Frans Koskinen (15 points/8 goals), Ryan Mcdonough, and Jarrod Ronquillo and the Raptors end up with depth on the offense.  The defense is led by Jack Dwyer, Alex Pape, Mitchell Mader, and Sam Kastner; all returning players from last season’s varsity team.  Dwyer and Hammer played on the HP-17 Section 3A/3AA team last April.  The Raptor’s problem will be lack of experience in the nets.  The two varsity goalies from last season graduated.  Woodbury got both peewee A goalies.  The Eagan tourney will be a test for the Raptor goalies.

Nobody can dislike a team with the nickname the Fighting Saints, especially in Minnesota.  When the World Hockey League started in the 1970’s, St. Paul got a franchise and drafted defenseman Wendell Anderson who declined to play for the Saints and kept his job up the hill from the new St. Paul Civic Center as governor.  The Saints had a policy of favoring Minnesota borne players on their team.  Leaning to Minnesota players, the Fighting Saints never missed a playoff or had a losing season in the three seasons they existed.  At one point, the Fighting Saints outdrew the Minnesota North Stars (NHL team that eventually became the Dallas Stars).

One of the Saints players was Bill “Goldie” Oglethorpe.  Oglethorpe had a short career with the Saints drawing 25 penalties in three games but was later immortalized as Ogie Oglethorpe in the movie “Slap Shot”.  Oglethorpe's wife wrote the script for the movie and it remains one of the most popular movies watch on long bus rides by hockey teams from youth to pros.

St. Francis plays in the Mississippi 8 conference with Buffalo, Chisago Lakes, St. Michael/Albertville, and Rogers among others.  They are stepping up to play in this tourney and will be really testing themselves.  The Class AA team had a good run at the end of last season stringing five wins together after struggling through a tough seven game January losing streak.  The Saints ended their season losing to Duluth East 6-0 in the Section 7AA quarterfinals.

But beware of a team like St. Francis stepping up to play in a tourney like Eagan’s.  That sends a signal that the Saints thinks they have a potentially competitive team.  Losing only five seniors re-enforces that idea, though four of the seniors were among the Saints top five scorers.  Lucas Carroll (40 points/12 goals) returns.  He was the Saints #2 scorer last season.  He will be joined by Tanner Schmid, Ryan Aldrich, and Kyle Carrigan.  All have shown they can score and should provide the Saints depth.

On defense, the Saints return five defenseman led by Travis Carroll and Tyler Struntz.  Travis Carroll put 12 points/3 goals on the board as a freshman defender.  An experienced defense will be fronting an experienced goalie in Logan Garaghty.  Garaghty posted a 4-8-0 record last season giving up an average of 4.2 goals a game while stopping 86% of the shots on net.

Eagan took third place in last March’s Class AA state tourney beating Eden Prairie 6-4 after losing to Edina 3-1 in the semifinals.  The Wildcats were having a so-so season (for them) and caught fire in February beating Prior Lake 5-1, narrowly losing to Lakeville North 4-3, beating Eastview 3-2, Apple Valley 7-0, East Ridge 5-1, Cretin-Derham Hall 2-1, St. Thomas Academy 4-2, and Duluth East 3-0.

The Wildcats lost seven of their top ten scorers from last season’s state tourney entrant.  They return three defensemen, Trevor Miklay, Joe Alfonso, and Ben Raymond.  Miklay made Minnesota Hockey’s HP-15 selects as an alternative but should be at this tourney.  The Wildcat have experience in the net, Andrew Lindgren and Jared Manzella are returning.  Lindgren started most of the Wildcat games last season posting a 15-9-1 record giving up an average of 1.8 goals a game while stopping 93% of the shots on net

Pool III Finish: Eagan, East Ridge, St. Francis, and Park

It is hard to ignore the Wildcats in this pool especially their defense.  If the Wildcats offensive can play a strong game, that will shake up some of the South Suburban teams.  East Ridge should handle St. Francis and Park, but their offense will struggle against Eagan.  St. Francis is the dark horse in this pool; they are stepping up to play in this tourney and must have some good reasons.  

Pool IV: Burnsville II, Lakeville North I, Andover, and BSM

The tendency here would be to rush to the big names in this pool and ignore Andover.  That would be a mistake.  The Huskies have had one of the winningest high school programs in the state the past three seasons, but have not gotten the publicity.  All they have gotten for their efforts is a February Saturday night at Duluth’s AMSOIL Arena playing a tough Section 7AA game.  Section 7AA is always tough especially if you are playing sectional games in the Duluth area.  What made it harder for the Huskies is that their starting goalie in 2012-2013, Chase Perry (10-10-2 giving up 2.7 goals a game while stopping 91% of the shots on net) jumped to the NAHL’s Wenatchee Wild; had a successful season with the Wild, ended up being taken in the 2014 NHL draft; and will play hockey for the Colorado College this fall.  At YHH, we see Perry as the first of a number of good Minnesota developed goaltenders to make the leap to the pros in the coming years.

Without Perry, Andover went on to post an 18-9 record last season.  They have lost offensive power and depth at forward with six of their top ten scorers graduating from a team that averaged nearly 5 goals a game.  Huskies’ offense will have significant firepower with Zach Sitarz (50 points/27 goals) and Reece Tullbane (24 points/8 goals) returning but will need to develop more offensive depth before they make next February’s trip to the AMSOIL Arena.  One interesting Husky forward to watch at the tourney will be Brent Sears. 

The good news is the Huskies will return most of their defensemen led by their #3 scorer Tyler Vold (42 points/10 goals in 25 games). Josh Strom, Dylan Holt, Byron Gunderson, and Matt Decowski also return giving Andover five experienced defensemen.  Strom, a 6’1” freshman last season, scored 12 points/11 assists in 23 games last year.  The Huskies will likely be relying on one of three junior varsity players in the nets (Blake Johnson, Jacob Ricke, or Austin Meissner).  They will be tested at this summer tourney.

BSM is Benilde/St. Margaret’s.  The Red Knights played an independent schedule last season and struggled as regular season ended posting a 4-6-1 record after January 1.  They upset Wayzata 2-1 in the Section 6AA playoffs, but lost to Eden Prairie 3-2 in double overtime to miss a trip to the Xcel for the second straight year.

Offensively, the Red Knights should be strong, but only if some of the undergraduate talent comes through to provide depth.  Their #2 scorer, Carter Roo (35 points/14 goals in 24 games) along with Chase Jungels (32 points/12 goals) and Mark Kaske (19 points/11 goals) return this fall.  Will Duda and Auggie Moore should have chances to shine; but the Red Knight’s Section 6AA success in February could lie in Zachery Risteau.  Risteau made the trip to New York this summer after being selected by Minnesota Hockey to participate in USA Hockey’s HP-16 camp and has come on strong this past summer.  

One of the most interesting stats from last season was posted by the Red Knight's defenseman Ben Newhouse.  In 24 game, Newhouse posted 28 assists (5 goals).  It is easy to see that he will be leading the Red Knights defense.  Nick Austin, Peter Heimbold, and Jack Lawton are on the same page as Newhouse when it comes to assists.  Newhouse, Austin, Heimbold, and Lawton collectively posted 75 points/63 assists in the Red Knights’25 game regular season.  All are returning along with Jerry Calengor who played both offense and defense in 23 games last season.

The Red Knight’s goaltending corps-senior Jalen Long (10-6-1 with a 3.5 goal average stopping 87% of the SOG), senior Matt Knuth, and sophomore Ryan Bischel-will return.  It is a strong threesome.  Bischel is making the trip with the HP-15’s to New York this summer and won’t be playing at Eagan; but will be pushing the two seniors for ice time in the fall.  Strong goaltending plus a strong defensive corps makes Benilde a favorite in Section 6AA this coming year.

Burnsville II and Lakeville North I is the second teams entered; they have been covered previously.

Pool IV Finish: BSM, Lakeville North I, Andover, and Burnsville II

This pool groups four potential 2015 Class AA State Tourney entries; Lakeville North/Section 1AA, BSM/Section 6AA winner, Andover/Section 7AA winner, and Burnsville/Section 2AA.  The Lakeville North I/BSM game scheduled to be played Saturday, July 17 at 4:30 PM.  This will be the last pool game for both teams with the winner likely advancing.  The game should match a high powered North offense against a strong BSM defense.  That will be interesting to see; but North I’s defense will be suspect for this tourney.  BSM wins.  Andover is the dark horse in this pool and could be a surprise winner.

Championship Sunday

The Pool I champion (Farmington) should play the Pool II Champion (Eastview) in the first semifinal Sunday morning; the Pool III champion (Eagan) should play the Pool IV champion (BSM) in the second semifinal if the predictions are correct.  All four of these teams could be in the Class AA State Tourney next March.  Depending on the draw at the Xcel, all four could be in the same quarterfinal bracket.

The Farmington/Eastview game will match two strong defenses with Eastview having the edge in the goaltenders.  But it will be the Lightning offense that will make the difference.  Eastview’s offense will need to be able to move the puck well, but this is a mid-summer game and that will be a tough task for the Lightning players coming from a swimming hole.  Farmington’s offense has more experience playing together, they should be able to move the puck, but can the Tigers beat Eastview’s goaltending?  They should. The Farmington offense prevails.  In a close game, the Tigers win.

The second semifinal matches two teams that have not played each other in the last three years; they don’t know each other.  The winner will be decided by what players are on the ice at the start of the game.  BSM wants to get back to the Xcel this year after winning the title three years ago.  Eagan has gone to the Xcel two times in the past three years and came close to beating last year’s Class AA champs Edina in the semifinals.  BSM should have the edge offensively; Eagan should have the edge in overall game play.  A tough pick, but the nod goes to Eagan playing on the home ice.

That sets up a championship game with Farmington playing Eagan.  The two teams played an early in last season with the Wildcats winning 2-0.  Eagan holds the edge and should win, but the nod here goes to Farmington.  In the Tigers’ peewee A team run to the state tourney championship game in 2011, they beat Eagan’s peewee A team 6-0 and 7-1.  Now these teams have reformed at the varsity level and though Farmington has lost Jake Oettinger, Nate Knoepke, and Bennett Norlin from that team, they should beat the Wildcats again.  If they do, Section 1AA hockey and the South Suburban Conference will become the hockey powers in the 2014-2015 season.