Each year a collection of top Minnesota players enter The Brick (aka The Brick Super Novice Invitational).  With special emphasis on the word invitational.  The tournament only allows one team per state or province (except Onatario, they field two teams). The Minnesota Blades AAA club own the rights to Minnesota Charter. Setting up a few scenarios each year: a) Players from prior Blades teams are left off the team in favor of top players from other Minnesota AAA clubs b) new players sometimes not even from Minnesota are added to the roster and c) some kids from Minnesota elect not to try out for a variety of reasons (AAA club loyalty, other sports, cost, etc).  But for the most part each year, Minnesota puts together a really nice team.

My records only go back 7 years (the site only dates back 4), but a winning record in this event is a badge of honor.  The 1997 Blades made it to the finals, but editions after that (98-01) did not make it out of pool play.  Until last year’s team, they had a winning record in Pool Play and lost to eventual champion the Toronto Bulldogs.

YHH had a chance to see the ’03 Blades play a few times this Spring in anticipation of their appearance in the Brick. I was impressed with their speed, puck movement and goaltending.  Playing against stronger “02 kids the ’03 Blades held their own.  A few weeks prior to the Brick, the Blades took second in the North American Hockey Classic in Winnipeg.  For some, this meant optimism. For me, their final game and seven goal loss was a dose of reality.  They lost to Team Alberta (aka one of the mid range teams headed to the Brick).

Heading into the Brick, I told Squirt Hockey people that I thought that Team Minnesota had all of the tools to go 4-2 in their pool and advance to Bracket Play. In order to get to 4-2, they would have to get by the Sask Jr. Pats, Detroit Jr. Red Wings, Chicago Jr. Blackhawks and a new edition this year Team Pennsylvania. Two teams that we thought would contend for the Brick championship were the defending champs Toronto Bulldogs and BC Jr Canucks (we were right, they played in the finals yesterday with Toronto winning).

Game 1: In Game 1, Chaz Lucius showed why he is one of the best 03 kids in Minnesota by scoring two goals and helping Team Minnesota to one of their much needed wins over the Jr. Wings 4-1.

Game 2: The BC Jr. Canucks are a very good team and they showed it against team Minnesota.  Having three bonafide superstars on one team: Tyler Schweitzer, Trevor Wong and Caeden Bankier is hard enough to stop, much less on game worn legs.  Team Minnesota played their second game of the day vs. BC who only had one.  Jackson Blake scored TM’s only goal.

Game 3: Minnesota got down early, but they hung tough when Cruz Lucius (Chaz’s ’04 little brother) scored to tie it.  In the third, “big” brother Chaz got the GWG after a Jr. Pats player nailed a MN kid in the head with an aggressive hit. Pint sized Lucius got a pass from his brother and gave MN the lead for good. Final score, TM 2, Jr. Pats 1.

Game 4: 18 seconds into the game, Chaz Lucius scored to give TM a 1-0 lead.  This is a common theme throughout the tournament (scoring early). In the second period, the Minnesota speed began to wear down the Blackhawks.  As they tired, Minnesota pounced, scoring 2 goals, all from District 6. Pahos (Edina) from Mittelstadt (EP) and Blake (EP) and Blake from Mittelstadt. Final score TM 4, Chicago 1.

Game 5: The Toronto Bulldogs is all anyone needs to type.  This is a well run team with 3 fire-powered forward lines and great defensemen.  This team can score in bunches.  The first period looked more like a track meet than hockey.  Pahos scored to give MN a lead (I lost track how many times he scored the first goal of the game)….Brett Harrison scored for Dogs to tie it and then 30 seconds later Chaz Lucius gave MN the lead 2-1.  But the constant attack of the Bulldogs was too much, first  Luca Del-Bel-Belluz (yes, that’s his name) and then Owain Johnston (I swear every Canadian team has a Johnston on their team) to give the Dogs a 3-2 lead.  The Bulldogs added an insurance goal on the Power Play to give them a 4-2 lead that they would not relinquish.  TM did put up a great fight, they had three power plays in the third period including a 4 minute double minor.

Game 6: This game was a trap game for Team Minnesota. They played new Brick entrant Team Pennsylvania.  Team Penn had lost all five games heading into this contest.  But any good hockey mind knows a trap game from a mile away. Team Minnesota needing a win to clinch bracket play versus Team Penn who lost in a shootout to the Jr. Pats and lost to the Toronto Bulldogs by a goal. It was an exciting game, Roseau’s Damon Furuseth got TM on the board with a nice goal to give TM the lead after 1, 1-0. The second period had six goals, three for each team (Cruz Lucius with two and Furuseth with his second). Down one heading into the third, Team Penn got a goal from Oscar Plandowski early in the third to tie it at 4. The third period was back and forth with both teams with great chances. Kudos to both goalies Anton Castro and Michael Brown for big saves down the stretch. In the overtime, Brown came up big twice on breakaways stopping shot attempts by MN shooters.  Not until Cruz Lucius made one of the sweetest toe drags you will ever see on Brown to give TM the win 5-4. 

Quarterfinal: Team Minnesota faced Toronto Pro Hockey (my guess is some call them the “other” team from Ontario)…finishing second in your pool at the Brick isn’t exactly chopped liver. TM got on the board with you guessed it a goal by Evan Pahos…later in the first Chaz Lucius scored to give TM a commanding 2-0 lead after 1. Early in the third Francesco Pinello (remember that name) scored, but a minute or so later Cruz Lucius made it 3-1 and then later in the third Pahos scored his second to make it 4-1.  With less than a minute in the second Dylan Duke scored for Toronto to make it 4-2. TM looked to be holding off Toronto for much of the third period.  Castro with a few nice saves, but for the most part they looked to be in control.  Until Pinelli put on a toe drag clinic from the corner and scored to narrow the lead to 4-3.  And then with 12 seconds left Pinelli got a puck in the slot and shelfed it past a defenseless Castro to tie the score and send it into OT. What excitement for Pinelli, scoring a hat trick to tie the game for your team. The OT was all Minnesota.  It was as if the Minnesota coaches got them relaxed and focused and the Toronto kids had run out of gas coming back.  The OT looked like a shooting gallery with Toronto Goalie  Roy Pejcinovski the last line of defense.  Finally Max Burkholder from Chanhassen got a puck in the slot and fired the puck on net through a bunch of traffic.  The puck found it’s way into the net for a Minnesota win.

Final Four: Just like so many games, Minnesota pounced early, Damon Furuseth doing his best Neal Broten scored 29 seconds in to give the Good Guys a 1-0 lead. The Bulldogs attacked the entire period and finally got a pretty breakaway goal by Francesco Arcuri (what is it with the name Francesco???) to tie it 1-1 after 1.  The second period was like a boxing match.  First the Bulldogs landed two body blows, goals by Arcuri and Ottman to give the Dogs a 3-1 lead, both goals 20 seconds apart.  Then it was Minnesota’s turn to answer with a couple scoring jabs. Jackson Blake knocked in two goals a minute apart to make it 3-3.  But from that point on it was all Bulldogs.  They scored three goals in 22 seconds to put most of Minnesota’s hopes to rest. Finally finishing off TM 7-3.

Anton Castro and Chaz Lucius were named to the all tournament team (rightfully so).  The list of players is not published by the Brick. But here are my thoughts on a few kids I saw:

Vancouver: yler Schweitzer, Trevor Wong and Caeden Bankier were all stars.

California: Jack O’Brien and Parker Murray were outstanding

Toronto Pro: Francesco Pinelli and Dylan Duke stood out, but Wyatt Johnston is the kid who does the dirty work.

Toronto Bulldogs: They reminded me of those 00 Machine teams and Edina Squirt and PeeWee teams…they just come in waves.  Arcuri, Giroux, Hunt, Ertel, Johnston, and Harrison are all fun kids to watch.  And those uniforms…ooh la la, very cool yellow breezers.

As for Team Minnesota, so many kids stood out:

Chaz Lucius was terrific.  His brother Cruz wasn’t too far behind.  Those two had enough points to pay for their flight to and from Edmonton.

Jackson Blake had a great tournament.  His speed and balance were the key to his success.

Damon Furuseth and Evan Pahos were less flashy, but they tallied a lot of points and made plays all over the rink.

Defensively, Luke Mittelstadt was robbed from the All Tourney team.  He controlled play when he was on the rink.  Whether it be keeping the puck in the opponents zone when necessary, saving goals in front of his net, or just breaking the puck out with ease.  He was tremendous last week.

Anton Castro played his best hockey.  The Canadian announcers loved him.  He had some highlight reel saves, but most important he made saves that kept his team in games that were getting away from his team (a stat they can’t measure).

YHH covered much of the tourney on Twitter.  Go to our feed @youthhockeyhub to see some great pics and commentary on each game.