In one of the more emotional games played at the Walmart Tourney this weekend, Sauk Rapids-Rice beat TBD Roseville 4-3.  The Rapids team roster had mostly players from the Sauk Rapids-Rice varsity team last season that played Class A hockey in the Central Lakes Conference.  They posted a 5-9 record finishing seventh.

The TBD Roseville team was a late entry in the tourney and rostered mostly Roseville varsity players augmented by players from Cretin Derham Hall and Mahtomedi.  The Roseville varsity played Class AA hockey last season in the Suburban East Conference posting a .500 record (8-8-2).  Cretin Derham Hall won the Suburban East Conference title last season.

Hockey interest in the Sauk Rapids/St. Cloud area has been growing the past few years anchored by St. Cloud State, USA Hockey (USA Hockey hosts a number of National Team Development Program camps at St. Cloud), and local high schools (St. Cloud Apollo, St. Cloud Tech, St. Cloud Cathedral, Sartell, and Sauk Rapids high schools all have their arenas within a 10 minute drive of each other).  There are six sheets of ice in the St. Cloud area.  Prairie Center, River Lakes, Little Falls, and Monticello (MAML) are no more than a 30 minute drive away.  But what is most interesting is that the high school teams have a style of play emerging that is different from other parts of the state; a style that focuses on playing a solid defense first.  As the St. Cloud based teams have improved, that style has become more and more prevalent.

The Sauk Rapids-Rice team showed that style yesterday against a high octane fast moving good TBD Roseville team.

Sauk Rapids scored in the first minute of play.  Brandon Duray beat the defense breaking low into the right Roseville face off circle and buried the puck to put the Rapids up 1-0.  After Roseville’s Ryan Novotny scored at the 10 minute mark to tie the game 1-1, the TBD’s pinned the Storm in the Sauk Rapids zone only to be frustrated by the Rapids defense.  The Roseville defense mishandled the puck and the puck popped loose into the neutral zone where the Rapids’ Travis Kothenbeutel picked it up.

He soloed to the Roseville net only to be taken down without getting a shot on net.   Kothenbeutel was awarded a penalty shot.  He scored keeping it simple by skating down the slot pulling the goalie slightly right and burying the puck in the upper left corner.  The Storm led 2-1.

Roseville came back to pressure the Rapids’ netminder.  After William Mortenson came up with a big save on a great weak side play by the TBD’s, Sauk Rapids turned the rebound into a rush that resulted in  Nathan Shelander scoring for the Rapids.  Shelander and teammate Aaron Peckskamp ended up along the end boards behind the Roseville net.  Peckskamp from the left side passed to Shelander on the right.  Shelander tried to feed a breaking Rapids forward in the slot, but the pass deflected off a defenseman’s skate and rebounded on a 270 degree turn into the net.  The Rapids led 3-1.

TBD Roseville got back into the game via penalties and tied the game early in the third period.  Roseville’s Nick Bonine (Mahtomedi) scored a power play goal as the second period ended.  At the start of the third period, the Rapids drew two successive penalties.  The first penalty they killed, but Roseville’s Casey Goodmanson scored on the second penalty to tie the game 3-3.

In the end, the TBD Roseville team could not beat the Sauk Rapids defense and their goalie in the third period.  Roseville had the advantage with stronger skating and better puck movement against a Rapids team that was tiring.  But the Rapids was still mounting long range strikes off of rushes.  The winning goal was scored when Kothenbeutel soloed in the Roseville zone crossing the ice from left to right and firing a hard shot from the right faceoff beating the goalie’s glove low.  That ended the scoring.  The Rapids won 4-3.

It was a good game.

In earlier National games, Antigo Red Robins (WI) beat the Missouri River Mud Dawgs 4-3 in overtime.  The Robins’ Zack Levis scored the winning goal on a power play with one second left on the game clock. The Detroit Lakes Lakers beat the Canadian Hockey Club 3-2.  The Lakers scored all three goals in the second period.  Casey Paskey scored two for the Lakers including the winning goal; Wilson Lysford continued his scoring streak with an unassisted goal.  Jake Nitsche scored twice for the CHC team.  The CHC team outshot the Lakers by 2 to 1 but couldn’t beat Laker’s goalie Alex Fondrick.

Mankato West Scarlets- 4   Missouri River Muskrats-2

This game matched two teams that could be playing in State Tourney’s next March.  The Mankato West team came within a game of going to Minnesota’s Class A state tourney losing to Rochester Lourdes.  With Lourdes losing their top scorers (Alex Funk is likely to play NAHL in 2013-2014 for the Minnesota Magicians), the Scarlets will be challenging the Lourdes’ Section 1A dynasty .  The Missouri River Muskrats are from Bismarck ND and they have hopes of regaining the North Dakota state title after losing last year,

Both teams play a similar style of hockey.  West has more speed at forwards, but the Muskrats have size and play the game well, setting up plays that surprised fans time and time again.

Unfortunately, in the Championship game, the Muskrats could not stop the Scarlet’s Christian Klemme.  Klemme scored the only first period goal to put West up 1-0 going into the second period.  He then added two more second period goals to claim the hat trick.

The Muskrats’ Alex Flicek continued to be the opportunist scoring in the second period off a rebound.  The original shot came from the right side top of the face off circle.  The hard shot rebounded deep into the slot to the breaking Flicek who rapped the puck in the net.  West had to fight off a tough second period Muskrat attack after that goal.  Missouri River forwards worked the West zone well, moving the puck and then bang, going for the goal often with a player appearing out of the end boards to challenge the goalie.

The Muskrats managed to cut the Scarlets’ lead to 3-2 early in the third period on a power play goal by Cyril Nagurski.  Nagurski had a good tourney playing tough hockey for the Muskrats.  West shut down Missouri River after their second goal for the rest of the third period; Derek Frentz scored an empty netter in the last minute to end the scoring 4-2.

In earlier games, Minnehaha Academy beat Austin 6-1. The game was close (3-0) until the final four minutes when the Redhawks scored three goals.  Max Hobrough (1 goal, 2 assists) and Andre Larenzie (2 goals) led the Academy in scoring.  Issac Arnold scored for the Packers, a team that played well but could not quite earn a win at the Walmart.  In another early game, Kennedy edged St. Cloud Apollo 3-2 in overtime.  Kennedy’s Kyle Prady scored the winning goal; Prady had two goals in the game.  Michael Jost scored the first Kennedy goal.  Jason Omann continued to have a good Walmart Tourney for Apollo, he scored both of the Apollo goals.

Blaine-5 Minnesota Mustangs Orange-3

The story in this game is Blaine’s Kiersten Falck and their goalie Laura Fitzsimons.  Falck, a select player coming out of the St. Cloud National Team Player Development for U18 players held last week, continued her scoring way putting the puck in the net twice for the Bengals.  Laura Fitzsimons is a smaller goalie that just played fearlessly and had to be admired for her quick glove and unflinching determination in the nets. She stopped 11 of the Mustang’s 12 shots in the first half of the game.

The one shot Fitzsimons didn’t stop was Mustang’s Abby Auran power shot from the low left slot early in the first period.  Auran ripped a hard shot that beat Fitzsimons on the glove side.  It didn’t happen again.  Late in the first, Falck went to work scoring in the last minute of the period to tie the game 1-1.

In the second period, Blaine’s Sarah Ganley scored in the first minute to put Blaine ahead 2-1.  The Bengals would never relinquish the lead.  Falck  scored an unassisted with five minutes left in the second period to put Blaine up 3-1.

Blaine’s Gabi Rosenthal scored early in the third period to give Blaine a 4-1 lead.  The Orange’s Sam Boyer scored a minute later to cut the lead to 4-2.  Two minutes later, Sam Aaamodt scored an unassisted goal to Blaine up 5-2. The Mustangs’ Alex Pederson scored to end the scoring 5-3 late in the third period.

In earlier American games, St. Francis beat Superior 6-3.  The Saints Holly Anderson had a hat trick; Denielle Folk, Katie Sigfrinius, and Jessica St. Marie also scored for the Saints.  Superiors’ Sam Young, Sady Laurvick, and Ari Jago scored goals.  In a second game played Sunday at the Super Rink, Kaitlin Braidy scored the winning goal three minutes into the overtime period as the UWRF beat the Stormn Sabres 4-3.  Karin Larson, Jessica Boesfplug, and Niclole Stalboerger scored for the UWRF.  Olivia Stockinger scored twice and Alysa Gallagher scored once for the Stormn Sabres.

Lake Superior Stars-6  Owatonna-0

Owatonna’s defense could not stop the high scoring Stars forwards and their best players could not beat the Stars defense low.

In the first period, with the Huskies were on the power, their defense coughed the puck up at the Star’s blue line and gave up a short handed goal to Megan Snyder.  Snyder scored unassisted.

But the two goals scored by the Stars in the opening minutes of the second period explain the Huskies’ defensive problems.  Three minutes into the period, the Stars’ Megan Dulong beat the Owatonna defense breaking down the slot by positioning the defense on her hip and leveraging her position to open up for a hard shot on the Huskies’ net.  The puck was buried in the upper right corner for a 2-0 lead.

A minute later, Brielle Larson ended up unchallenged in the Huskies lower left corner.  She hesitated a second to let her breaking forward in the left lower slot clear herself and fed a pass.  The forward stepped right and shot while Larson broke clear to the lower left crease.  No Huskie stopped her.  At the crease, she picked up the rebound and easily beat a diving goalie for the Stars third goal.

Megan Dulong added a second period goal three minutes later.  The period ended with the Stars up 4-0.

Madi Peart and Savannah Holum each scored in the third period to end the scoring 6-0.  Owatonna’s goalie saw 40 shots (our count) in the game.  Madison Galligan got the Stars’ shutout.  She earned it making 23 saves (our count), stopping some tough close-in shots.

In earlier National games, Team Hazard beat the Jackets 5-2.   The Hazard’s Bobbie Schultz and Izzy Uhl-Chmiel each scored two goals.  The Jackets’ Jordan Ramey and Katie Carlson each scored for the Cambridge based team.  LDC’s Lauren Knisley scored a third period power play goal that turned out to to be the winner as LDC beat the Minnesota Mustangs Black 3-2.  Kennedy Sommerfeld and Addie Lokken each scored for LDC.  Morgan Christ and Nikki Nelson scored for the Mustang.

Almost every association has set up a program for their varsity players to skate once a week.  It would take very little to add the Walmart Tourney to their schedule and would excite the boys and especially the girls to participate in the association’s summer program.  The surprise here is that so few chose to do so.  All it would take is a volunteer coach to run the bench.  The TBD Roseville team is an example and the TBD’s got to play Detroit Lakes, Sauk Rapids, and Antigo WI, teams they would not likely meet in the winter.