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District 2 PWAA and PWA Playoffs Start

By frederick61, 02/11/16, 1:00PM CST

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St Paul AA wins 2-1 in 2OTs; Mahtomedi advances 6-2

White Bear Lake AA won District 2’s regular season title by a single point edging Mahtomedi AA and Stillwater AA, both tied for second place.  Monday night, the D2 Peewee AA playoffs played their first round of games.  St. Paul AA pulled a mild upset beating Forest Lake 2-1 in double overtime in a game played at Lily Lake Ice Arena in Stillwater.  Mahtomedi AA beat Tartan 6-2 in the second game.  St. Paul AA and Mahtomedi AA move forward in the six team double elimination tourney.  Friday, February 12th, at the St. Croix Rec Center District 2 Peewee AA action continues when St. Paul AA will play White Bear Lake AA and Mahtomedi AA will play Stillwater AA in the semifinal round.  Forest Lake and Tartan will wait until Sunday February 14th to play again in what will be a loser goes home game for the playoffs, but not necessarily for the regionals.  The losing teams still can be seeded into regional play depending on what happens in the remaining playoffs.  In District 2's Peewee A playoffs, NOW ranked #1 Mounds View/Irondale will be playing for one of two District 2's seeds to the East Regional.  They will be challenged by a tough Roseville team and will open playoff play Saturday at the St. Croix Rec Center.  This weekend, district tourneys will be plentiful as all levels of play transition from regular season hockey to playoffs.  Its state tourney time.

 


The puck is rebounding towards the viewer on this shot off a St. Paul AA rush in the Caps 2-1 win.

St. Paul AA-2 Forest Lake-1

When St. Paul and Forest Lake took the ice at Lily Lake, one thing was certain.  Both teams had grown since this corner of YHH saw them play in November.  They looked more like bantams than peewees.  But growth does not always translate into instant skill.  Though both teams struggled at time, one could see the improvement the two teams had made and the potential improvement ahead.  What was interesting is that both teams had developed a certain personality.  The St. Paul team was cool in their play and workmanlike in their execution as a team.  They did not let much fluster them except one time when a few fans got to them.  Forest Lake had grown.  The Rangers worked hard at making plays moving the puck at a faster pace, but the St. Paul team did just enough to spoil the Rangers timing.  But when Forest Lake connected, the play worked it resulted in good scoring opportunities for the Rangers.

Both goalies (St. Paul’s Carsten Lardy and Forest Lake’s Casey Sauve) played well for each team.  After a scoreless first period, three minutes into the second period, Forest Lake’s Sauve got frustrated with a St. Paul forward standing in the right side of the crease.  Sauve tried to move him out.  He turned to push the St. Paul player and another Capital forward William Skjold picked up a loose puck, skated into the lower left faceoff circle and put the puck through the open left side of the net.  Skjold got the goal.  Chet Skinner and Daniel Krizan got the assists.  St. Paul led 1-0 and held that lead until late in the second period.  The Caps on the attack were rushing the puck at the Forest Lake blue line when the Rangers’ Hunter Johnson stole the puck and turned the play into  a 2-on-1 rush on the Capitals net.  Johnson’s hard shot from the right slot rebounded left to the second rusher Chase Osterberg who put the rebounding puck into the net.  The game was tied going into the last period.  Forest Lake was controlling the play as the two teams headed for the locker room before the start of the third period.  The Rangers outshot the Caps 12-4 in the second period.


Forest Lake's defense cuts off this St. Paul third period rush.


Tartan goalie Jack Cashin sends this Mahtomedi AA shot wide.


Forest Lake's Ryan Neihart (#9) watches this shot just miss the St. Paul net in the first overtime period.

Third Period

The third period opened with St. Paul in control of the game.  The Capitals moved the puck well and held the puck in the Forest Lake zone for most of the first nine minutes of play, but failed to score.  With four minutes left to play, Forest Lake drew a tripping penalty.  Thirty seconds later, they drew a second penalty.  St. Paul had a 5-on-3 power play for ninety seconds, but couldn’t core.  Regulation ended in a 1-1 tie.  The first 10 minutes overtime period ended in a 1-1 tie.  The teams headed for the locker room while the ice was resurfaced.  With four minutes remaining in the second overtime, St. Paul scored off a faceoff in the Rangers’ zone.  The puck ended up high right and the winning shot appeared to be tipped before going into the Ranger net.  St. Paul won 2-1.

Mahtomedi AA-6 Tartan-2

In the second game played Monday at Lily Lake, Mahtomedi AA beat Tartan 6-2.  The Zephyrs used their speed at the forwards to beat the Tartan defense low scoring on rushes that took advantage of lapses in the Titans’ defense.  St. Paul will play #1 seeded White Bear Lake in the first Peewee AA playoff final at the Blizzard rink in the St. Croix Rec Center.  Mahtomedi AA plays #2 seeded Stillwater in the second semifinal game at the Blizzard.  Sunday, Forest Lake will play the loser of the Mahtomedi/Stillwater game and Tartan will play the loser of the St. Paul/White Bear Lake game.  Sunday’s games are not loser go home games.  All six District 2 teams remain eligible for the regional tourneys provided they are seeded in the top 24 in the state (minus the eight peewee AA teams in Districts 11, 12, 15, and 16.  Currently NOW has the six teams ranked as follows: #17 Stillwater, #18 White Bear Lake, #22 Mahtomedi, #31 St.Paul, #33 Tartan, and #39 Forest Lake.

What District 2 Peewee AA Teams will advance?

Five of the six teams in the D2 playoff will await the final seedings for the 24 teams that will play in the East, South, and West Regional tournaments.  The D2 playoff winner automatically gets District 2 #1 seed to the regionals.  It is a guaranteed ticket, but the winning team will still have to wait for the final seeds to know who and where they will play.  Two District 2 teams, Stillwater AA and White Bear Lake AA are likely to be seeded in the top 24 because of their play in regular season.  The two will likely get a regional ticket to either East, South, or West Regional.  Which regional will depend on where they are seeded.  If one uses the NOW rankings as a seeding guide, the rankings have to be adjusted by eliminating the eight peewee AA teams in the north and western districts.  Those eight teams will play each other for the two North Regional tickets to the state tourney.  Four northern teams (Grand Rapids, Cloquet, Roseau, and Duluth East) are ranked above Stillwater AA, White Bear Lake AA, and Mahtomedi AA.

All six District 2 teams remain eligible for the regional tourneys provided they are seeded in the top 24 in the state.  Currently NOW has the six teams ranked as follows: #17 Stillwater, #18 White Bear Lake, #22 Mahtomedi, #31 St.Paul, #33 Tartan, and #39 Forest Lake.  Adjusting the rankings makes the Ponies a potential #13 seed, the Bears a #14 seed, and the Zephyrs a #18 seed.  Those positions should make three regional contenders.   But the seeding and the rankings will change by the time the playoffs end, so every game matters.  The West Regional is played this year at the St. Croix Rec Center and two of these three teams will likely be seeded to the West Regional getting the #15, #16, #21, or #22 seed.

St. Paul beat Forest Lake and that win helps the Capitals in the seeding process.  The St. Paul AA is currently ranked #31 with six northern teams ranked above them.  Adjusting for the northern teams being gone, puts St. Paul AA at #25 in a potential seeding scenario.  The Caps needs some more wins.  St. Paul is on the border line of the 24 teams to be seeded with a potential #25 seed and so is Tartan with a potential #27 seed.  Both teams need wins.  So a victory Friday at the Blizzard against White Bear Lake could help St. Paul AA clinch a spot in the regional field.  Certainly winning the playoff guarantees the Capitals a regional seed as District 2’s #1 seed.  Losing to White Bear Lake would put St. Paul on a path to tangle with Tartan who is currently two spots behind St. Paul in the NOW ranking.  That puts the potential #23 or #24 seed up in the air where the outcome of that game being the potential decider. Either team winning will give them a claim to the slot especially if they can continue to win and get to the second place game against one of the top three teams providing there is not an upset in one of the other districts.  Forest Lake’s overtime loss to St. Paul was a tough loss.  The Rangers need to win, win, and win to make it to the regionals.  Forest Lake has the talent so don’t be surprised if they win.


It took a good stop by the Minnetonka A goalie on this Roseville penalty shot with no time left in the regulation to beat Roseville in the Anoka Tourney.

District 2 Peewee A Playoffs

The six team peewee A playoff begins Thursday night (tonight) at Lily Lake.  In opening round games, White Bear Lake A plays Mahtomedi A and Stillwater A plays St. Paul A.  The winner of the White Bear Lake A/Mahtomedi A game will play Mounds View/Irondale. The Stillwater A/St. Paul A winner plays Roseville.  But this tournament has significance in that only two teams will advance to play in the East Regionals.  One team, Mounds View/Irondale, is currently ranked by NOW as the #1 peewee A team in the state.  The MVI team has posted a 36-4-2 record this season.  They lost to Cloquet in the Cloquet’s peewee AA/A tourney championship game 6-2 two weeks ago after beating the #4 ranked peewee AA team, Rochester Red AA 4-0, to get to the championship game.  The six goals were the most goals given up by Mounds View/Irondale this season and it broke a 15 game winning streak during which on opponent scored more than two goals.  MVI has shutout 12 opponents and held another 13 opponents to a single goal.  They have a strong defense and should win D2’s playoff by winning their first game against the winner of White Bear Lake A and Mahtomedi A and winning the championship game.  MVI would then get the #1 D2 seed.

Given that Mounds View/Irondale get one of the two District 2 seeds to the East Regional, who gets the other?  Roseville, ranked #12, drew the #2 seed to the D2 playoffs and played well at Anoka before losing a tough shootout game to Minnetonka A in the championship.  The Raiders will play the winner of the first opening round game between Stillwater A and St. Paul A.  The Ponies beat the Caps 8-1 earlier in the season and 3-2 three weeks ago and have the edge; but St. Paul has been improving and played Mounds View/Irondale tough before losing 5-1 in mid-January.  The Raiders have beaten St. Paul twice 6-1 earlier and 3-1 three weeks ago and have tied Stillwater A 2-2 earlier and beaten Stillwater 5-2 at the end of January.  Roseville should win their semifinal game, but lose in the championship to MVI leaving Roseville to play the winner of the single elimination side of the tourney.  Roseville should beat Stillwater in their semifinal game.