We took in two more games Sunday. One at Centennial and another at White Bear. Game 1 between OMG and Lakeville South was a low scoring affair with very few bright spots offensively. The game was scoreless after two periods. Both teams played sound defense and did a good job of keeping the top scorers for each team at bay. Jack Olsen (Lakeville South) and Trevor Janicke (Osseo Maple Grove) were held mostly in check. 

Early in the third, Olsen got loose on the left hash mark and drew a defender. He slid past him and got loose and attacked OMG Goalie Carson Nagel from a bad angle. He fired his patented quick release wrister past Nagel to make it 1-0. A few minutes later OMG got the equalizer when Miles Ezell knocked a loose puck past Lakeville's Isaiah DiLaura. 

Both teams would get their chances for a game winner. Olsen had a breakaway and was stymied by Nagel. OMG would have multiple loose pucks that danced near the Goal line, but not in. Fitting that no team won this game, neither really deserved to win, nor neither deserved to win either.

Both teams came into the weekend with some very high caliber players and high hopes for a good season. Rochester had two nice wins under their belt with wins over Duluth East and Eden Prairie. Hermantown came into Sunday having played three competitive games on Friday and Saturday. The script looked no different for the Hawks in their final game.

After a scoreless first period with both teams getting eight shots on goal, Rochester got on the board with two goals. The first was by Carson Sandwick and the second was by first year Dustin Sorenson. A minute later Tyler Watkins found Reese Fish for Hermantown and he buried it to narrow the Rochester lead to 2-1 after the second period. 

Early in the third, Watkins found Hermantown big man Sam Scott and he lit the lamp to tie the score at 2-2. Thirty seconds after Rochester killed off a Hermantown Power Play, Luke Newman got a good bounce on the blue line and he darted in on net where he beat the Hermantown Goalie with a backhand top shelf shot to give Roch a 3-2 lead. Both teams would trade goal scoring opportunities late in the game...Rochester was going for the throat and Hermantown wanted it bad. With the goalie pulled and under a minute to go, Hermantown got the puck in deep and were successfully controlling the zone. With under twenty seconds to go, Reese Fish fired a low slap shot that found it's way through a heap of traffic and past Rochester Goalie Alex Prindle to tie the score with 17 seconds left.

The game would end in a 3-3 tie.

Five teams that made their mark this weekend. Centennial, Edina, Grand Rapids, and Minnetonka are four teams with the tools to make it to Duluth in March. Here are five that caught our eye in October.

Eden Prairie: Started the season 5-1 with nice wins over White Bear, Duluth East and Hermantown.

Jefferson: went 2-1 in Centennial Preview including a nice win over STMA.

Osseo Maple Grove: went 2-0-1 at Centennial...great balance, good goaltending will take this team a long way.

Wayzata: getting a tie with Centennial gets your team on the YHH radar.

Rochester: went 2-1 on the weekend...big team with a lot of high end young talent, this team looks like the type of team that will be skating on Sunday of Regionals for one of the last couple spots to state.