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Elk River beats Duluth East in 7AA preview

By frederick61, 07/28/14, 12:00PM CDT

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Lukas Dow returns to Hounds

One of the last summer high school hockey tourneys for 2014 was completed Sunday at the Eagan Civic Ice Center.  It was a red and black day with Elk River edging Stillwater 6-5 in overtime and Duluth East beating Lakeville North 3-2 scoring the winning goal as the clock ran out in regulation.  All four semifinal high schools’ colors are red and black.  The championship was not close as the Elks jumped to an early 2-0 lead and cruised to a 8-2 win over Section 7AA rival Duluth East.  Last March, the Elks lost to Duluth East at the AMSOIL 3-2 in overtime.  Based on this tourney, another rivalry is heating up for next March when the two teams are likely to return to AMSOIL with a trip to the Xcel at stake again. 

Pool I Finish: Lakeville North, Blaine, SPA, and Rosemount

In Friday’s opening game, Lakeville North beat Rosemount 5-3.  The Irish took a 2-0 lead early in the game, the Panthers came back with 5 straight goals to win.  In the second Pool I game, Blaine scored twice early on SPA to take a 2-0 and held on to win 3-1.  The SPA forwards showed quickness and nice passing skills; Blaine is a big team.  Saturday morning North beat SPA 6-1 and Blaine beat Rosemount 4-1 setting a pool championship game Saturday night between the Panthers and the Bengals.  The Panthers won 3-1 and SPA beat Rosemount 6-4 to complete Pool I play.


Rosemount scoring in the opening minutes of their game against Lakeville North. The Irish showed some strength at this tourney and should be watched when the South Suburban starts play in November

Pool II Finish: Duluth East, Farmington, Delano, and Eastview

Friday, Farmington continued to show depth beating Eastview 5-0.  The Tigers put pressure on Eastview’s defense skating four lines and getting offense from all four.  Duluth East and Delano played a wide open game with the Hounds winning 4-1.  Delano kept the game close and had two excellent scoring opportunities in the last five minutes trailing 3-1.  Saturday morning, Delano beat Eastview 5-2 and in the key Pool II matchup, Duluth East beat Farmington 7-1.  The Tigers should have challenged the Hounds in that game.  Saturday evening, Farmington beat back to beat Delano 5-0 and Duluth East beat Eastview 9-1 to advance to Sunday’s semifinals.


Delano attacks the Duluth East net in 4-1 loss to the Hounds in Friday's opening game.

Pool III Finish: Stillwater, Prior Lake, Jefferson, and Shakopee

Prior Lake opened with a 13-1 win over Shakopee Friday; Stillwater beat Jefferson 3-0.  In Saturday’s first game, Prior Lake beat Jefferson 6-1 and Stillwater beat Shakopee 8-1 setting up a pool championship game Saturday evening.  In that game, Prior Lake drew three five minute majors in the first half of the game (two overlapping) and was forced to play shorthanded most of the first half.  The Lakers gave up five goals and lost 5-3.  The Ponies won the pool and advanced to Sunday’s semifinals.  In the second game Saturday evening Jefferson beat Shakopee 11-0. 


SPA's sophomore-to-be Weston Lombard (#6) scores off this rush against Blaine in Friday's opening game.

Pool IV Finish: Elk River, Cretin, Holy Angels, and Holy Family

Friday, Elk River opened with a strong statement beating Cretin 10-1.  The Elks showed depth at forward and a strong defense; Cretin has size but looked rusty with passes off the mark and trailing the play.   Holy Angels beat Holy Family 4-1; the Fire looked rustier than the Raiders often bunching in their defensive zone.  The Fire forward’s speed could beat the Stars’ defense at times but couldn’t finish the play.   In Saturday’s first game, the Elks beat the Stars 5-1 and Cretin shook some of their rust and beat the Fire 7-3.  Holy Family pressed the Elks in the opening minutes of their second Saturday game, but the Elks’ offense got rolling and took apart the Fire defense beating Holy Family 7-1 to sweep the pool.  Cretin beat Holy Angels 5-3.


Holy Angels attacks the Cretin net. Cretin used size and strength to beat the Stars and play better as the tourney progressed.

Pool Summary

The Suburban South powers, Lakeville North, Farmington, and Prior Lake played well.  North had a good run sweeping their pool and were narrowly edged by Duluth East in the semifinals.  Farmington has the talent, but could not get by Duluth East.  Farmington will learn to compete playing their inagural season in the South Suburban.

Prior Lake lost the pool championship via penalties to Stillwater, but will field an improved team.  With Edina potentially losing some of their top returning talent to junior hockey this year, the Lakers odds of winning Section 2AA have improved.

Eastview lost their top goalie Zach Driscoll to the NAHL.  Driscoll will play next season for the Austin Bruins before joining St. Cloud State for the 2015-2016 season.  Eastview will have trouble competing with with the top teams in the South Suburban without an experienced goalie in the net.  Driscoll started almost every game for the Lightning varsity the past two seasons.


Every so often the camera catches a shot the eye can't see. Here the puck can be seen hitting inside the upper left corner of the net crossing the goal line. It rebounds out of the net. No goal.

Rosemount played tough in their opening minutes of the pool games, but tired.  The Irish could be a challenger in the South Suburban and should be watched in November and December.

SPA offense is smaller, but showed great quickness and good passing skills.  Blaine is a big, tough team and could make a late season run to the state in Section 5AA.  Cretin and Holy Angels looked solid; Holy Family struggled.  The Fire should be better, but that has to wait till November.

Delano seems on the verge of a trip to the Xcel; they played well and had good goaltending.  The Class A Tigers pushed Class AA Duluth East, keeping the game close in the final minutes.        


Elk River's Jake Jaremko puts a neat weak side pass from the left side into the net against Stillwater

Championship Sunday

In the first semifinal game Stillwater played Elk River; the second semifinal matched Duluth East and Lakeville North.  The Elks scored twice in the first 4 minutes of the opening half and added a third goal on a breakaway before the Ponies put the puck in the net.  The first half ended with Elk River up 3-1.  The Ponies rallied in the second half to tie the score 5-5 at the end of regulation time.  Ninety seconds into the 5 minute overtime, the Elks scored on a shot from the center right blue line that was tipped in the high slot.  An Elk’s forward crossed into the slot as the shot was headed to the net and added to the confusion on the play screening the goalie.  It was a good play and it took a good play to beat Stillwater.

Duluth East and Lakeville North battled to a 2-2 late in the game when Ash Altmann picked up a puck in neutral ice and beat the North’s lone defender coming down the slot.  Altmann popped the puck over the Panther goalie’s left shoulder into the upper left corner for the game winner.


The Hounds' Ryan Peterson gets this shot off against Elk River in the championship game.

One minute into the opening half of the championship game, Duluth East drew an interference penalty.  Thirty seconds later, the Elks scored from the right faceoff circle on a hard shot that never left the ice.  Twenty seconds later the Elks scored again to take a 2-0 lead and for the next eight minutes locked the Hounds up in the Duluth East zone.  It took a Elk’s penalty to break the pressure and with 14 minutes to go in the first half, the Hounds scored off a nice 3-on-2 rush to cut the lead to 2-1.

The key play came at the 7 minute mark when the Elks caught the Duluth East over shifted to the left in the neutral zone with two Elks picking up the puck on the right boards.  The Elks scored on a rebound goal to go up 3-1.  East came back to cut the lead to 3-2 a minute later; but the Elks’ defenseman Matt Kiersted scored a power play goal from the left center blue line to put the Elks up 4-2.  The Elks added another goal at the end of the first half to take a 5-2 lead.

East came out physical at the start of the second half, trying to slow the Elks.  It worked for the next 10 minutes until Jake Jaremko set up a nice weak side goal at the 12 minute mark to put the Elks up 6-2.  The Elks went on to add two goals to win 8-2.

Joey Grillo had a good tourney in the nets for the Elks; goalie Josh Benson played well for the Hounds.  Jensen Zerban (a HP-16 final 54 player this year from the Elks Bantam AA team) centered a line for the Elks, played well, and will add depth to an already strong Elk River offensive.  The Hounds' Evan Little line with Ash and Nick Altmann as wings had a good tourney and with the return of junior-to-be Lukas Dow (#2 scorer for Duluth Marshall last season), Duluth East will be tough.  With Andover, Grand Rapids, and St. Michael/Albertville looking good, Section 7AA will have the best overall team strength in the state of any section next March.        


Junior-to-be Duluth East Ryan Peterson put this puck in the net against Lakeville North.

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