Five of the nine Lt Blue team’s forwards come from northern Minnesota, three from Hermantown (Brendan Baker, Cole Koepke, and Matt Valure); but the most interesting player to watch should be Bemidji’s Joshua Lusby.  Lusby had a great Festival and plays a solid center/wing using his size well.  If paired with Jake Theis from Chanhassen, those two will be tough to stop.  They will be lining up against against some tough lines Royal lines (if they are used that way); the three Rochester Lourdes forwards (Mason Carsten, Montana Streit, and Tucker Chapman), three tough forwards (Hill-Murray’s State Tourney attraction, Joey Anderson, Wayzata’s Mark Senden, and Crow River’s Ben Meyers), and three forwards (Graham Brickner/Centennial, Lucas Magnusson/Thief River Falls and Brock Larson/White Bear Lake) that had great Festival tourney.  Lusby, Theis, Senden, Meyers, and Anderson are the players to watch in this game.

The Lt.Blue goal tenders (Sam Moberg/St. Paul Johnson and ConnorPoczos/Austin) played well at the Festival and should anchor a good Royal defense led by Shattuck’s Mason Palmer.  The Royal’s net will have solid goal tending in Kyle Nelson/Prior Lake and Thomas Hanson/Minnetonka, but the two Bemidji defensemen (Cole Hartje and Nick Laitner) and Burnsville’s Dalton Weigel are the defensive players to watch.

Players can get into the game spirit and suddenly winning the game matters for the moment.  So for what it is worth, the Lt. Blue’s forwards should dominate in this game.  Lt. Blue wins.

Grey team has a strong team.  Their goal tending will be tough with Brandon Dornfeld/White Bear Lake and Dayton Rasmussen/Holy Family in the nets.  Rasmussen was YHH’s player of the year (peewee) in 2012.  Their defense is led by Ryan Lindgren/Shattuck who had an outstanding Festival six weeks ago.  At forward, the Grey’s have a great line combo in Ashton Altmann and Lukas Dow.  These two players Duluth East players led the Hounds to the State Bantam AA tourney only to lose a tough game to Edina AA.  The two are separating in the fall; Altmann stays with Duluth East and Dow is moving to Duluth Marshall.

A pair of young guns from the Alexandria Peewee A State Tourney in 2012 are on the Grey team, Henry Enebak/Lakeville South and Kevin Fellows/Prior Lake.  They were opponents in the at the Alexandria tourney with both trying to beat Rasmussen (then playing for Eden Prairie) in the nets.

The Grey defense will be led by Ryan Lindgren/Shattuck (Lakeville).  Lindgren has developed into a top defensive man with strength and scoring ability and had a great Festival.  The rumor is that Lindgren already committed to the University of Minnesota.  Dylan Hewitt, another tough Wayzata Bantam AA players last season and Gerald Calengor, Benilde-St. Margarets are also part of the Grey defense.  They, matched with Ben Kidd/Denfeld, Casey Staum/Hill-Murray, and Zach VanSant complete a tough Grey defense.

Casey Staum and the Grey defense will be matched against the Red’s Austin Long/Spring Lake Park.  Long just tore the Festival up and will be  matched with other Red forwards like Curtis Hanson/Prior Lake, Matt Nelson/Wayzata, Mitch Bourgerie/STMA, and Connor Beltz/River Lakes on line combinations.  Long should be in full stride again.  The Red forwards will be tough.

The game will most likely be decided by the play of the Red defense.  Goalies Spence Olson/Anoka and William Woolever/Roseau have played tough, the defense men in front of the two is where the Red team will be tested.  Jack Kelly/OMG and Myles Cunningham/Blake anchor the defense and have proven they can score as well as defend down low.

This should be the best game Saturday and it should have the most offensive play going of all three games.  The edge should go to the Grey, but don’t count Long and company out.

The Gold team will have the advantage of having a St. Cloud net minder, Nick Althaus, a proven goalie that played at the state high school championship level.  Althaus was in the nets for St. Cloud Apollo’s Class A State Tourney entry last March and his play was key in Apollo’s win over Little Falls in the section championship game.  Ryan Edquist/Shattuck, a known and proven defender, is the Gold’s second goalie.

That means the game’s outcome could rely on the play of the Gold’s defensemen which are led by Spencer Ovshak/Mounds View, Sam Rossini/Burnsville, and another Jack Kelly (only this one is from STMA).  The Gold team has a strong set of forwards that are a mix of more experienced players (Augustine Moore/Edina, Connor Clemons/Prior Lake, and William Rooney/Armstrong Cooper) with OMG’s young guns Jarrett Cammarata and Sam Huff and Festival surprises Charlie Moon/Rosemount and Taylor Lantz/Greenway.

The White team’s goal tending is not exactly shabby.  Benjamin Meyers/Elk River plays tough in the nets as he showed at the 2012 Peewee A State Tourney played in Alexandria and Kade Nelson/Thief River Falls who played well at the Festival six weeks ago.  White’s defensive corps is strong, all six played well at the Festival.  It is anchored by two tough Wayzata players (Tristan Moss and Harmon Sorenson) from the Trojan’s Bantam AA State Tourney team and Matt Denman/Prior Lake who is always played a great as an offensive defense man.

The White forwards are led by two Trojan forwards (Luke Paterson and Beau Wilmer), Kieffer Bellows/Edina and Cody Mclean/Centennial.  Mclean had a great festival playing on a District 10 line with Austin Long and should do well with this group of forwards.

This game could be decided by how well the White defense matches against the a strong set of Gold forwards.  It is a tossup, but the edge should go to the Gold team.

The teams will play four more games after Saturday.  YHH will be posting more game stories during the week.  The Minnesota Select 15 team should be announced by Minnesota Hockey by next Friday or Saturday.