The Upper Midwest High School Elite League ended its regular season play this past weekend.  TCF Bank won the league title officially on Sunday, but the Bankers had wrapped up the championship the week before.  TCF finished with 34 points (15-2-4).  Starkey, the Bankers nearest competitor, finished with 21 points (12-8-1).  MAP’s Jacob Jaremko led the league in scoring (42 points).  Jaremko’s MAP teammate, Reggie Lutz, led the league in goals scored with 17.  Both Jaremko and Lutz are seniors at Elk River this year.

Luther’s and Shattuck’s goalies ended in a draw for the best goalie.  Jacob Dittmer/Moorhead and Shattuck’s Frederic Foulem tied for the best save percentage (0.907).  Foulem had the best goals per game average in the league (2.1 goals per game).  TCF goalie Dyllan Lubbesmeyer was not far behind the two posting a save percentage of 0.905 while giving up an average of 2.6 goals per game.

 The playoff picture went as expected here.  The Weekend Eight playoffs have league leader TCF Bank playing the MEPDL Stars in the opening game of the quarterfinal round.  Starkey held on to second place Weekend Seven and plays the #7 seed Muscle Milk team in the last quarterfinal game.  As expected here, the Mpls/St. Paul Magazine team rallied on the weekend at Duluth’s MARS Lakeview Arena to take 3 points (tying Luther’s 3-3 and beating Muscle Milk 5-3) to beat out Team Wisconsin and MAP for third place.  The Magaziners will play Luther’s in the opening round.  MAP and Team Wisconsin (#4 and #5 seeds) will play in the second quarterfinal game.

TCF Bank versus MEPDL Stars

In the 2013 UMHSEL playoffs, the TCF Bankers were in the same position.  They needed to beat the MEPDL Stars and they did to advance; but then they ran into a tough Team Wisconsin who beat the Bankers and went on to finish second in the 2013 playoffs.  This season, the Bankers have had consistency in defense.  Jack Ahcan/Burnsville, Brady Schoo/Eden Prairie, and Lakeville North’s two senior defense men, Jack McNeely and Jack Sadek, have collectively missed only 2 of 84 game appearances.  It has resulted in the Bankers outscoring their opponents nearly 2-1 (101 to 64 goals).  Burnsville’s Dyllan Lubbesmeyer had a great fall in the UMHSEL league and ended up posting a 7-1-3 record; Ryan Edquist had a good fall posting a 8-1-1 record but has yet to hit stride after playing on the USA U17 team in an August tourney in Germany.

The Banker forwards have generated a lot of offense, but the coaches have consistently had to address a patched set of offensive lines with skaters missing in random numbers throughout the season.  At one point, the Bankers skated two lines for a whole game (3 20 minute stop time periods).  Their offense has been anchored by those two lines (Peter Tufto/St. Thomas Academy, Casey Mittlestadt/Eden Prairie, and Nick Swaney/Lakeville South; Lakeville North’s Ryan and Nick Poehling, and Derek Hammer/East Ridge).  Lukas Gillett/Rosemount, Michael Graham/Eden Prairie, Parker Mismash/Edina, and Will Duda/Benilde-St. Margaret’s have made most of the games, but the Banker coaches had to do a lot of “on the fly” adjusting with their offense.  For all that, the Bankers still placed four players in the top 10 scorers this season (Tufto, Middlestadt, Swaney, and Graham).  Hammer, Gillett, and Duda had good seasons.

The MEPDL Stars are the top players from the MEPDL.  They have played two games together this season in the UMHSEL losing both games (6-3 to Luther’s and 5-1 to MAP).  The Stars were outshot by a total of 100-46.  Defense will be the key for the Stars and both goaltenders have to be prepared to come in off the bench in mid-game. 

The Stars goaltenders are River Alander/Denfeld and Will Graves/Minneapolis.  Alander split goaltending duties for the Hunters last season and posted a 3-4-1 record giving up 2.8 goals a game while stopping 90% of the shots on goal.  Graves split goaltending duties for the Novas posting a 3-6-0 record giving up an average of 3.3 goals a game while stopping 90% of the shots on net.  Both Alander and Graves are juniors this year.

The Stars defense for the two league games consisted of Logan Lindstrand/Wayzata, Nick Leivermann/Eden Prairie, Tanner Breidenbach/St. Cloud Apollo, Eric Gotz/Hermantown, Jack Kelly/Maple Grove, and Peter Heimbold/Benilde-St. Maragaret’s.  For the playoffs the Stars have four additional defense men on the roster, so expect changes.  Offensively, the Stars skated four lines in the two games; Jax Murray/Elk River centering Hill-Murray’s duo of Dylan Mills and Luke Ranallo; Sam Huff/Maple Grove centering Jarrett Cammarata/Maple Grove and Austin Dollimer/Rosemount; Sky Brown/Benilde-St. Margaret’s centering Jack Fahrendorf/Moorhead and Mario Bertogliat/Minnetonka; and Ryan Sandelin/Hermantown centering Griffen Ness/Wayzata and Micah Miller/Grand Rapids.  Kelly, Cammarata, and Huff played well in the two games.  Cammarata and Ness have had a good fall.

The Stars defense gets pushed by the Bankers, TCF wins.

MAP vesus Team Wisconsin

These two teams played each other three times this fall.  MAP won all three (9-3, 5-4, and 8-5).  MAP has the top two offensive players in the league, Jaremko and Lutz, but this team has depth when it comes to scoring.  Fifteen skaters showed up regularly for the MAP games this season.  Thirteen of the sixteen posted double digits points while playing an average of 20 games.  The three who just missed posting double digits, posted 9, 8, and 7 points on the season. 

Five MAP defense men (Tyler Vold/Andover, Alex Stevens/Wayzata, Marc Sullivan/Eden Prairie, Matt Kiersted/Elk River, and Tyler Lindstrom/Breck) formed the MAP defensive corps and it proved to be a blessing and a problem.  On days the MAP was more blessed, they won by a high score.  On days when it was a problem for MAP they lost.  MAP offense averaged slightly over 5 goals a game.  The MAP defense gave up slightly under 5 goals a game.  For the MAP goalies, Alex Schilling/Wayzata and Josh Kuehmichel/Hopkins, it could be a nightmare of pressure or a game to relax against the crossbar and watch the action at the other end of the ice.  The coaches split the MAP goalies time in the net exactly during regular season and each posted similar records (Schilling 5-4-2, 4.5 goals per game, 88% SOG saved; Kuehmichel 4-4-2, 4.6 goals per game, 88% SOG).  The defensive five posted 59 points/15 goals in 20 games.

Offensively, Jaremko centered Lutz and Henry Enebak/Lakeville North. The line collectively posted 80 points/37 goals this season.  Carter Roo, Benilde’s leading scorer last season, centered a line with Knight’s teammate Cade Gleekel and Breck’s Chase Ellingson.  Ben Meyers/Delano often centered a line with Jacob Nystrom/Spring Lake Park and Mark Lyman/Blake.  Roo’s play worked to set up Ellingson (22 points/12 goals).  Meyer’s play set up Nystrom (Spring Lake Park’s leading scorer last season and Lyman (Breck’s #2 scorer behind Gleekel).  The fourth line with Josh Passolt centering Zach Sitarz/Andover and Tyler Nyman/Centennial scored goals consistently.  MAP has four solid lines goings into the playoffs and a hit or miss defense backed by veteran goalies.

MAP’s opponent in the playoff opener, Team Wisconsin, is essentially last March’s USA U16 Tier I Championship team.  The majority of the players on the Badgers played on that championship team.  They posted a .500 record (10-10-1) in the UMHSEL this season.  Twelve of the player on Team Wisconsin played on the U16’s.  Nine are seniors this year.  Seven were among Team Wisconsin’s top 10 scorers including top scorer Ty Pelton-Byce (22 points/11 goals) and #3 scorer Alex Broetzmen (17 points/11 goals).

Offensively, Pelton-Byce centering Paskus and Peters (Badger’s #2 scorer with 20 ponts/12 goals) has been their most productive line.  William Jerry centering Broetzmen and Conner Blanck has been productive also.  Defensively, Anthony Stillwell and Steven Mordini have been good goal scorers for the Badgers and have played consistently on defense along with Bret Schwengler.    Henry Cutting and Nathan Siclovan have shared Team Wisconsin’s goaltending and have posted similar records.

Team Wisconsin’s key to success last year in the UMHSEL was the patience they showed playing defense and the quickness the team had to transition to defense.  That quickness has slowed on this season’s Badgers.  In MAP’s 8-5 win over Wisconsin last weekend, they put 26 shots on net.  Experience here says that at least half-dozen shots can be added to that total.  30+ shots in one period indicates that MAP’s offense will dominate the Team Wisconsin’s defense.  MAP wins

Starkey versus Muscle Milk

Starkey took second place in the UMHSEL posting a 12-8-1 record.  One would think that winning at a 67% clip would mean outscoring your opponents.  Starkey didn’t, they tied their opponents in goals with 90 each.  The offense was spread among 18 skaters.  The all Edina line of Dylan Malmquist, Casey Dornbach, and Garrett Wait collectively scored 58 points/20 goals.  Malmquist led the team in goal scored with 12; Marshall Barnes and Malmquist tied for the teams’ scoring lead.  Alex Gregor/New Prague had a good fall.  Josh Laven took Kieffer Bellows spot when Bellows opted for the USHL and posted 14 points/8 goals in 21 games.  Defense men Matt Denman/Prior Lake and Casey Staum/Hill-Murray provided some offensive power; Staum took over when Ryan Zuhlsdorf opted to play hockey in the USHL this fall.  Jon Flakne/Orono and Jacob Berger/Minnetonka shared the nets.

Muscle Milk team roster is comprised of players from the Northeastern Minnesota high schools.  Playing in the friendly confines of Grand Rapids’ Arena on Weekend Two, they won two of three games.  Playing in the friendly confines of Duluth’s MARS Lakeview Arena last weekend, they could only manage a tie in three games.  After the two wins at Grand Rapids, the MMs failed to win another game, settling for four ties and finishing with a 2-14-5 record.  Three of those loses were to Starkey (6-3, 5-1, and 4-3).  In their 4-3 loss two weekends ago, the MMs took a 3-2 into the third period after surviving a rough second period where they were out shot 24-8.  Muscle Milk gave up two quick goals in the opening of the third to lose 4-3.

The MMs’ problems this year are with their offense.  They scored only 62 goals in the 21 games, less than half of league leading MAP’s total of 106.  Tanner Tweten /East Grand Forks and Mitchell Mattson/Grand Rapids led the team each scoring 15 points.  Defensively, the MMs used three goalies evenly (Gabe Heifort/Bemidji, Gunnar Howg/Duluth East, and Lucas Murray/Virginia).  Collectively they gave up 4.7 goals per game while stopping 88% of the shots on net.

This game could be close and the temptation is to pick the Muscle Milk team in an upset; but Starkey’s has too much firepower for the MM’s.  Starkey advances.

Mpls/St. Paul Magazine versus Luther’s

Two weekends ago, Luther’s was thumped the Mspers 8-1.  Last weekend, they tied Luther’s 3-3.  Defense men Nick Leitner and Brock Montgomery and forwards Tyler Bossert and Logan Nau played in the tie game.  They did not play in the 8-1 loss.  Luther’s goalie Tyler Bender played in the nets for the 3-3 tie, Jacob Dittmer, the UMHSEL’s leading goalie this season, was in the nets for the 8-1 loss.  Bender started the season slow, but has played well as the season ended.  That is hockey.

Luther’s has been a pleasant surprise this season.  They posted a 4-10-7 record and had a good season ending the season with strong goaltending.  The defense led by Alex Mehnert/Moorhead, Toby Sengyongxay/Luverne, Nick Leitner/Bemidji, and Luke Jaycox/Warroad has played well, but not consistently.  They tied the Mspers twice but also lost twice big (6-1 and 8-1).

Offensively, the Luther’s forwards could not find the net.  Chaz Smedsrud/Luverne centering Jake Leitner/Bemidji and Eric Leach/Grand Forks Red River skated well as did the line centered by Jon Richards/Detroit Lakes with wings Kobe Roth/Warroad and Brady Tatro/Bemidji.  Luther’s top scorers were Doug Larson/Crookston, Roth, Smedsrud, and Richards in that order.  Larson posted 12 points.  Roth played only 10 games and scored 10 points.

The Mpls/St. Paul Magazine team has firepower on offense in Luke Noterman and Riley Tufte (both Blaine), Zach Mills/Hill-Murray, and Christiano Versich/St. Thomas Academy.  Versich led the team in scoring with 25points/5 goals, Noterman was the #2 scorer with 22 points/9 goals.  Riley Tufte led the team in goals scored with 12 and was the #3 scorer for the Mspers with 21 points.  Mills was second in goals scored with 11.  These four forwards were joined by Benilde/St. Margaret’s seniors Mark Kaske and Chase Jungles and St. Thomas Academy defenseman Seamus Donohue (17 points/8 goals in 17 games).

Their defense has played well, but could play better.  Donohue, Hank Sorenson/Wayzata, Mike Anderson/Hill-Murray, Keith Muehlbauer/Eastview, Griff Slightam/Rochester Lourdes, and Riese Zmolek/Rochester Marshall for a tough defensive corps that can score.  Slightam and Zmolek skated well at the start of the season and were impressive.  The two MSP goalies, Matt Snow/St. Thomas Academy and Jack Burkel/Rochester Lourdes have split the duties in the net. 

The Mspers have the talent to be in the finals, but will they show.  Their offensive power matches any other team in the league.  Their defense plays tough, but not consistently and their goaltending has struggled at times.  The Mspers should beat Luther’s in Friday’s final game.

Semifinals

In the first semifinal game Saturday, TCF Bank should play MAP.  The Bankers have beaten MAP twice this season 8-3 and 6-3.   TCF outshot MAP 40-29 in the first game and 46-29 in the second game.  The Bankers took an early lead in both games.  MAP’s best chance to win will be to keep the Bankers off the scoreboard early and keep the game close.  That will be a tough chore for the MAP defense, TCF wins.

Starkey should play Mpls/St. Paul Magazine in the second semifinal game Saturday.  Starkey opened the season with a 6-2 loss to the Mspers and came back to beat them 7-1 three weeks later.  They have not played each other since.  This will be a close game and one of the keys will be how ex-Edina teammates Jungles and Kaske fare against Starkey’s all Edina line of Malmquist, Dornbach, and Garrett Wait.  The nod here goes to the workhorses, Jungles and Kaske.  Mpls/St. Paul Magazine wins.

The UMHSEL 2014 Championship Game

If the predictions hold, TCF Bank will play Mpls/St. Paul Magazine for the title.  That will be a great game, but the nod here goes to the Bankers.  In the end, champions are crowned because they have a solid defense to match a good offense.  The Bankers have the solid defense in this game.  And with that game, the 2014 UMHSEL season ends.

But there is one more “what is next”, the CCM International Invitational Tourney played on Weekend Nine at New Hope.  That tourney matches two Minnesota All-Star teams (Red and White) against six teams (Michigan U18, EC Red Bull Slazburg, Northwood School (NY), Massachusetts All-Stars, Shattuck, and Czech U17 team.  The Minnesota All-Star teams are chosen from the UMHSEL players.  It is a unique tourney that combines multiple levels of hockey teams in a single tourney that is not found elsewhere.  The Minnesota White won last year’s tourney.  Last year’s tourney was tough especially the Northwood School team in it.  Northwood's returns this year and if they play like last year, they will force their opponents to use all of their skills.  This year’s tourney looks tougher.