In Saturday’s game, the Mahtomedi Peewee A team beat the Rogers Royals 10-0.  The Zephyrs, like the trains that ran on Dellwood avenue, steamrolled the Royals in the first two periods and cruised through a shortened third period to opened their season with an impressive win over team that made it to the South AA regional last March in St. Cloud and is likely to improve as the season progresses.

The Zephyrs fans needed no blankets Saturday, their team kept them warm.  One minute into the opening period, the Zephyrs executed a neat three pass rush from their own zone with a Zephyr breaking down the left boards and beating the Roger’s goalie Nathaniel Johnston on a hard shot to the right side to put Mahtomedi up 1-0 with one minute off the clock.

Two minutes later, Mahtomedi’s Tommy Paradise scored unassisted when he put a rebound into the net from the lower left crease to put the Zephyrs up 2-0.  A power play goal a minute later by the Zephyrs built the lead to 3-0.  The Zephyrs would add two more goals before the first period ended, Joey Paradise scored one.  The first period ended with Zephyrs up 5-0.

The Zephyrs added three more goals in the first five minutes of the second period to take an 8-0 lead and continued to roll to a 10-0 win.  Tommy Paradise got the hat trick and added an assist to lead the Zephyrs in scoring.  Jack McCarty and Nate Graslewicz each scored one goal and had two assists; John Luc Poirier got the shutout making some tough stops on Royal breakaways.

The Royals’ goalie Johnston played well under pressure.

Mahtomedi played excellent hockey in the first period, moving the puck well with multiple passing plays and aggressively attacking the Royals in the Royals’ zone.  The Royals on offense, could beat the low fore check and move the puck to the breakout spots along the side boards; but the Royal forwards could not transition taking the pass and moving it along the boards especially when pressured by the defensive point man.

The Zephyrs kept the Royals bottled up in their zone for minutes at a time, but  Once the Royals cleared their zone and carried the puck low into the Zephyrs’ zone, they could control the puck in the corners but could not find openings in the center ice.  The Mahtomedi defense would not give the Royals room to operate in front of the net and often would stop the Royal attack and clear Rogers’ centering passes directly into the neutral zone.

There is no doubt here that the Zephyrs are a good team and should contend; the Royals have size and can skate and should improve as the season progresses.  Mahtomedi’s peewee’s first big test will be the Spring Lake Park tourney that opens play November 15 (YHH will cover that tourney).  Last season, Mahtomedi lost to Sibley 5-0 in the championship game.

Rogers plays MAML and North Metro this week.  North Metro returns to A level hockey this year after playing B for the past few years.  The Royals first big test is at Thanksgiving when the play in the Super Rink tourneys held by Mounds View Association.