There may be nothing stronger in our universe than belief, and this year’s Osseo-Maple Grove Peewee AA clearly believes in each other. 

After Sunday’s Big Pumpkin title game, the Leafbirds made believers out of everyone with eyeballs at the Graham Arena Complex. 

Osseo-Maple Grove and Woodbury put on a show on Sunday, to put it in the plainest terms. First, OMG scored once in the opening period and once in the second, with Wes Grossman and Zeke Perzhu spotting the Leafbirds a 2-0 lead entering the third period.

Undeterred, the Predators casually rattled off four straight goals in the third, as Jimmy Miller (yes, there’s another one), Wendel Fougner, Tyeson Salscheider, and Cade Christensen put Woodbury ahead 4-2 with just 3:13 to play in regulation. 

Cue the dramatic music and spacious panorama shots. 

After a timeout and a goalie pull, Keaton Vitzthum pulled the Leafbirds within one with a shot from the point. For the next two minutes and 36 seconds, the Leafbirds slammed pucks at Woodbury’s Anderson Colling, finding nothing but the Predator goalie’s pads and blocker. Finally, Brayden Dean ripped a loose puck past Colling’s glove, tying the game with 13 seconds remaining and sending the Leafbird faithful into a plaid frenzy. 

Amid the chaos, OMG’s Zeke Perzhu won the ensuing draw to himself at center-ice, angled right, and went through the legs of a Woodbury defender, and as he fell to his right, managed to smack the puck into Woodbury net for the game-winner with five seconds left on the clock. 

“Holy (expletive). You can’t write it any better than this.” - YHH’s Tony Scott

Jon Bakker didn’t have much to do during his team’s pool play run. The Leafbirds cruised through Pool A, outscoring opponents 41-0 and allowing fewer than 30 shots. The clean sheets looked impressive, but Bakker - nor his Chaska/Chanhassen counterpart Easton Weiby - had faced an offense capable of scaring his team. 

That all changed on Sunday afternoon, with Bakker making 20 saves on 22 shots as the Leafbirds and Stormhawks dueled to a 3-2 final, only decided in a shootout after three periods of regulation and two overtime sessions proved insufficient to determine a winner. 

All-Tournament Team selection Easton Nichols of Chaska/Chahassen drew first blood early in the opening period, but OMG’s Rocco Brooks answered the bell. Again, the Stormhawks took the lead, this time on a Cam Alrich tally, but the Leafbirds responded, getting a goal from Korbin Roeder with just over nine minutes to play in the third period. 

After four-on-four and three-on-three overtime sessions ended, the game became a three-player shootout. Again, Nichols converted for C/C. Again, OMG responded. Emmitt McDowell and Rocco Brooks scored for the Leafbirds during the one-on-ones, and Tournament Most Valuable Player Jon Bakker shut down two more Stormhawk skaters to capture the championship. 

A five-goal second period was the highlight of the Moorhead win in the Orange Bracket final, a stretch that included three goals in the first two minutes of the period. After going down 1-0 after Mahtomedi’s Kale Chinn scored just over two minutes into the game, Henry Corwin answered for the “anytime, anywhere” Spuds in the first period’s final minute. 

Bennett Hilleren, Tate Bergeson, and Trew Sando scored in rapid succession for the Spuds to open the second period, prompting a timeout to be called by the Zephyrs in an attempt to punch the momentum tide. Blake Walker and Bergeson’s second goal of the period made the score 6-1 after 28 minutes of play. 

Henry Corwin’s second of the game opened the third for the Spuds, and Trew Sando scored twice more in the final period for the Moorhead total of nine. Karter Miller scored the second goal of the game on the power play for Mahtomedi midway through the third. 

After being upset by Rogers in the first round (the team’s first game of the season), the No. 6 seed Spuds rattled off three straight wins. The Spuds defeated Stillwater 4-1 and STMA 5-3 before the win over the Zephyrs. Sando led the Spuds in scoring with five goals and eight points, followed by Henry Corwin and Tate Bergeson with seven points apiece. 

Mahtomedi concluded The Pumpkin with a record of 3-2, suffering losses against Minnetonka and Moorhead and earning wins over Wayzata 9-1, Duluth East 3-1, and Eden Prairie 4-2. Owen Coffey paced the Zephyrs with four goals and five points over the weekend, while Gioffre Rogosheske, Karter Miller, and Kale Chinn each totaled four points. 

After a brief delay due to a Zamboni malfunction (it happens), the Lakers and Bears took their talents to the vaunted Graham 3. During the summer months, according to TripAdvisor, Graham 3 functions as Olmsted County’s top-rated livestock showing area. 

Undaunted after the skate guard-clad migration to the other ice sheet, Prior Lake jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period, getting goals from Henry Stiehm and Tate Ulrich. White Bear Lake answered in the second with a goal from budding standout Emmett O’Leary, his sixth goal of the tourney. 

Any momentum the Bears swung by in the second was dashed early in the third when Connor Blanchette converted to extend the Laker lead to 3-1. Then Thomas Lesnar capitalized on the power play, and Ulrich added his second of the game with 1:50 to play for a final score of 5-1. 

The win gave the Lakers a 3-1 record for the weekend, earning victories over Rosemount, Centennial, and the Bears after losing in the opening round to Rogers. Tate Ulrich led the Lakers with three goals and six points in the tournament. White Bear Lake bookended its time in Rochester with losses, falling in overtime to Eden Prairie 5-4, beating Rochester 6-2 and Wayzata 6-5 in overtime, then losing in Sunday’s finale. The aforementioned Emmett O’Leary led the Bears with 10 total points.