Ten teams are entered in the tourney, headed by reigning 2012-2013 national champions, the Chicago Mission (the Mission is easy to spot among the 8 rinks of actions with their funky black, white, and green uniforms rumored to glow in the dark).

The Mission opened play Thursday night beating last season’s #2 ranked Compuware team 4-1.  It was a scoreless game after the first period.  The Mission’s Jason Dhooghe scored twice in opening minutes of the second period to put the Mission up 2-0.  Michael Joyaux and Alex Green scored two third period goals as the Mission built a 4-0 lead.  Compuware’s Keenan Suthers scored a late third period goal to end the scoring 4-1.

Two more HPHL teams, Honeybaked and the Chicago Young Americans tangled last night.  Each team scored in the first period and the 1-1 tie held until late in the game.  Luke Cowan scored for Honeybaked; Adam Marsh scored for the Young Americans.  A roughing penalty with less than a minute on the clock in the third, set up a Young American’s power play goal.  James Obrien scored the game winner.

Little Caesars beat Team Illinois 4-1 on goals from four players.  Martin Muchka scored in the first period to put the LC’s up 1-0; Kelly Klima and Kevin Klima scored second period goals to Little Caesars ahead 3-0 going into the final period.

Team Illinois’ Sam Craggs scored in the opening minutes of the third period to cut the LC’s lead to 3-1.  Hakon Nilsen scored a shorthanded empty netter in the last minute to end the game 4-1.

In the final game of the opening round, the Minnesota Blades beat the Artic Lions 6-1.

The Minnesota Blades scored five goals in the first period of their game against the Artic Lions.  It took Edina’s Mark Kaske one minute to score the Blades’ first goal.  It came on a nifty three pass sequence, the key pass being a short lead pass to a lead forward as they rushed into the Lions’ zone.  Chase Jungles and Jack Becker got the assists.

Cade Gleckel/Minneapolis, MN scored the second goal from just inside the blue line.  He beat the Lion’s goalie with a high hard shot to the upper right corner to put the Blades up 2-0.  Logan Haskins got the assist.

The Lions stiffened their defense after those two early goals and for the next 10 minutes, the two teams played evenly.  The Lions were able to move the puck well.

With 5 minutes to go in the period, the Lions drew a penalty and Kaske went to work again, this time scoring from the slot to put the Blades up 3-0.  Odeen Tufto and Peter Heimbold got the assists.

The Lions defense slowed after the third goal.  Odeen Tufto scored the fourth goal from the left faceoff and Kaske scored the fifth goal to get the hat trick in the first period of play.  Riley Tufte and Daniel Weihrauch assisted on Tufto’s goal.  Kaske’s third goal came from the right faceoff after a little quick fake that froze the goalie.  It was unassisted.

The Lions adjusted their defense and played well in the last two periods.  The Blades’ Casey Dornbach scored at the 13 minute mark to put the Blades up 6-0.  Tufte got the assist.  The Lions’ Dylan Steele scored with four minutes to go in the period to cut the Blades lead to 6-1.  Jason Donald got the assist.

The Minnesota Elite D team plays Team Wisconsin in a Friday morning to complete the first round of games.

The U16 High Performance tourney has each team playing four pool games over the weekend and culminates with the top four seeded teams vying for the championship in Sunday games.

Last weekend in Grand Rapids, Team Southeast (the TCF Bankers) beat Great Plains (Luther Auto) 11-1 Saturday morning.  The Bankers were upended by Team North (Muscle Milk) Saturday evening 5-1 and they won Sunday’s game against Team Southeast (Starkey’s) 10-3.  Despite the loss, the Bankers kept the top spot in the league with a 5-1 record.

At the NAHL Showcase, the TCF Bankers will play three games in a “scout rich” environment.  On Saturday, September 21 they will play Luther Auto again in the morning, Team Wisconsin Saturday evening, and Team Northwest (Velocity) Sunday morning.

Team Northeast (Mpls-St. Paul Magazine) swept their three games last weekend.  They beat the Velocity 6-3 at New Hope on Tuesday.  At Stevens Point, WI on the weekend, they beat Team Wisconsin 3-2 and the Chicago Fury 8-0.  Those three wins moved the MSPer’s into second place.

The Chicago Fury, a U18 Major Midget team, went 1-2 on the weekend at Stevens Point.  After losing to Velocity 5-3 Saturday morning, the Fury beat Team Wisconsin 2-0 Saturday evening.  The three games the Fury played end their Elite season.

Team Wisconsin continues be an enigma in the Elite League this year.  After losing to the MSPers and the Fury, they beat 7-3 to salvage one win on the weekend to remain at .500 for the season.  They are tied for third with the Velocity and Starkey’s going into this weekend’s play at the Showcase.  All three teams are 3-3.

Team North turned a corner in Grand Rapids winning all three games.  One of the key changes they made was at goal tending.  They had their two goalies playing the whole game instead of splitting game time as they did on opening weekend (the MMers lost all three opening weekend games).  On the first weekend, North could only manage 7 goals.  They doubled that at Grand Rapids, winning 4-1, 5-1, and 5-3.  Carter Roo/Benilde-St. Margaret’s put another three pucks in the net on the weekend and now leads North in points (11).

Team Southwest (Starkey’s) continues to struggle.  After opening with a nice 7-4 win over Velocity, the Starkey’s have managed only a 2-1 win over Luther Auto in their last five games.  Their defense has struggled.  The Great Plains (Luther Auto) team has a 1-5 record going into this weekend.

Shattuck enters Elite League play with their first three games at the Showcase this weekend.  Shattuck Prep team made it to the USA Hockey’s U18 National Tourney Semifinals last year before losing.  That loss ended the two-time defending U18 champions’ hopes of a “threepeat”.

The Sabres have a returning goalie in Luk Kania/Chicago, IL.  The 6’1” Kania posted a 26-3-1 record last season.  He gave up an average of 2 goals per game while stopping 92% of the shots on goal.  Evan Robert/Oakdale, MN and Kevin Resop/St. Petersburg, FL will be challenging Kania.  Both Robert and Resop are juniors and played for the Sabres’ U16 team last year.
Only one Sabre defense man returns to the prep team, Tyler Rockwell/San Jose, CA.  The first question is did Ryan Lindgren return and make the jump to the Preps.

Games continue all day Friday and Saturday and don’t slow down until Sunday.  It is wall-to-wall hockey at the Super Rink this weekend.