Crowley's big day helps carry Eden Prairie

Scoring a hat trick is cool, scoring four goals is cooler, and scoring five times is downright obnoxiously cool. With all that cool on the table, Eden Prairie's Carter Crowley was an absolute ice cube on Friday. The son of some guy named Mike (??) followed his five-goal explosion in game one with another impressive effort in the nightcap, assisting on the Eagles' first goal of the contest and scoring the third and final tally. 

Crowley heads into Saturday's morning slate as the tournament's scoring leader with six goals and seven points, maintaining a two-point edge over Edina's Sebastian Sylvia. In the Hornets' lone game of the day, Sylvia dished out an also obnoxiously cool five assists. 

Brainerd is on the board...and then some

A year ago, Brainerd's Peewee AA team trekked over three hours and 215 miles to Rochester for the 2022 Big Pumpkin. After three days, the Warriors retraced all those hours and all those miles, rolling back up US-52 without a victory. In 2021, similar drives were made after going 1-3 in Big Pumpkin play. 

But today, the Warriors thumbed their noses at history, scoring three times in the third period to pull away from a talented Farmington squad for a 5-3 victory. In addition to erasing last year's memory, the win marks the first time the Warriors have won an opening game at the Big Pumpkin since 2018.

But wait, there's more. 

The Warriors downed host Rochester to close out Friday evening, putting the boys from the lake into the Elite Eight on Saturday morning. 

THE WARRIORS ARE BACK BABY. 

Top seeds own the day

Six of the eight teams advancing to Saturday's quarterfinal matchups were among the original top-eight seeds, and boy howdy, did those put some crooked numbers on the scoreboard. 

All six teams scored at least five goals in their games, with Woodbury and Osseo-Maple Grove leading the way with eight tallies in their respective wins over Prior Lake and Chaska/Chanhassen.

Little Pumpkin looks like an on-paper seesaw 

Four Little Pumpkin games were played among the 16 Big Pumpkin tilts, with White Bear Lake, Rogers, Rochester, Andover, Woodbury, Wayzata, Stillwater, and St. Michael-Albertville all gracing the Graham Arena complex ice. 

As for the seesaw analogy, two of the four games were achingly close and two were...not achingly close. 

Rogers eked out a 2-1 win over White Bear Lake and Rochester earned a shootout win over Andover by an identical 2-1 score. On the flip-side, Woodbury netted six in a 6-1 win over Wayzata while Stillwater defeated STMA 5-1. 

Pool play rolls along on Saturday for the Little Pumpkin.