Saturday Morning Select 15 Results
Game 4 Red Pool: District 8 (orange) versus District 2 (black)
The District 8 Select 15 team came into the Festival with a relatively unknown roster consisting of few Lakecville players and relatively unknown players from School District 196 (Eagan, Apple Valley, Eastview, and Rosemount) and two players from Shattuck-St. Mary’s bantam AAA team.
The Orange went up against a Joey Anderson led D2 select team that had beaten D3 and D6 in the preliminary round and looked to be on a roll. Instead the D2 team was flattened in an early morning game against D8, The Orange jumped out to a 5-0 first half lead and won going away 7-0.
The big gun for the Orange was high scoring center Henry Enebak from Lakeville South. Enebak’s play was expected. Against D2, he scored twice and had one assist. Ryan Lindgren, a high scoring defense man from Shattuck, also notched a goal in Saturday morning’s game.
The D2 offense was flat. Joey Anderson/Hill-Murray showed some spark, but D8 forwards put the Black on the defense for a majority of the game.
Game 5 White Pool: Distrct 6 (Red) versus District 9 (navy)
Shattuck-St Mary’s Mason Palmer scored to put D4 up 1-0 seven minutes into the first half. Then D6 went on a tear and scored five straight goals over the next 18 minutes of game time to go up 5-1. They led 3-1 at the half on goals by Kiefer Bellows, Matt Denman and Connor Clemens.
In the first two minutes of the second half, D6′s Max Cavanaugh/Waconia scored and the Red added another score to build a 5-1 lead. D9′s Tucker Chapman/Rochester Lourdes scored to break the string of Red goals. D6 added three more goals (sandwiched around another Chapman goal) to win 8-3.
The Red team played so well at times, that you wonder how they ended playing in the White Pool. District 6 standouts were numerous, but the up tempo play and size of Jake Theis/Chanhassen stood out. Kiefer Bellows made his presence known on the ice for the first time and Connor Clements/Prior Lake had a good game.
Game 6 Blue Pool: District 3 versus District 4
This was the most interesting game of the day, matching a D4 team principly consisting of players from Marshall (not Duluth) and Luverne plus a number of players from four other districts. They were the misfits. Their opponent, D3, was loaded with players from Wayzata, Osseo/Maple Grove and a few private schools that were strong and more organized having played with each other over the past few years.
Still the misfits tied D3 6-6. The Grey did so by playing at the same level as the D3 players. It was a startling thing to see. Somehow, in a few days, the D4 coaches made it work.
District 4 jumped out to a 3-1 lead halfway through the first half on two goals by Garrett Malmquist/Edina and a goal by Ethan Kraus/New Ulm. Sam Huff/OMG scored the first D3 goal. Trailing 3-1 halfway through the opening half, D3 came back to score three times. Ben Meyers/Crow River scored first to cut the D4 lead to 3-2, Jarrett Cammarata scored on a breakaway to tie the game 3-3 and John Hartfiel/Minneapollis Storm scored on a penalty shot with two minutes left in the first half to put D3 up 4-3 at halftime.
D4 players played the opening half surprising well and when Cammarata scored a goal in the opening minutes of the second half to put D3 up 5-3, the fans started to get the feeling that is was game over, but the Grey came back on a goals scored by Kraus and by Chas Smedsrud/Luverne to tie the game 5-5.
With five minutes left in the game, D3 forwards trapped the D4 defense in the Grey’s zone and fired multiple shots on the goalie Sam Kontz/Marshall. He made several saves but the bouncing puck created a melee in front of Kontz and out of nowhere, the puck just slid into the right side of the net to put D3 ahead 6-5. Mark Chase/Minnetonka scored the goal.
Thirty seconds later, D4 tied the game 6-6 when Malmquist made a neat pass out of the left corner to defense man Reese Grailer who had drifted low in the left slot, His shot beat the D3 goalie low right to tie the game 6-6.
It was a surprising game in that D4 played so well. Most would have expected D3 to win big. D3 played very well, so well, that it is hard to pick three players (but YHH did). Give credit to D4 and their coaches, they have the Grey off to a great start at the Festival.
Top players in the game for D3 were Jarrett Cammarata/OMG, Jack Kelly/OMG and John Hartfiel/Minneapolis Storm. For D4 Ethan Kraus/New Ulm, Logan Severson/Lakeville North, and Garrett Malmquist/Edina had good games.
