There were two surprises in the Red Pool.  It was no surprise that last year’s Select 15 Festival Champions, District 8, and the District 10 team won a place in the Red Pool, but District 2 and District 12 ending in the Red Pool are the two surprises.  District 12 was a mild surprise and District 2 was a shock.  District 12 team will be interesting to watch.  It is a team dominated by players from Grand Rapids and Hibbing (14 out of 20 players).  D12 will draw a strong D10 team in the Festival’s opening game and the Red Pool first game Friday.

District 2 shocker is that they had to beat D6 and D3 usually the dominant teams at these Festivals to get into the Red Pool.  And from the way they played in the preliminary games, they along with D10 are likely to be the favorite.  D12 looks overmatched and D8 looks more cobbled together as a team than in past years.  Still D8 has some horse.  The winner of this pool will likely be the winner of the D2 versus D10 game played at 1:00 PM Saturday at Bramaer.

YHH believes that D2’s Joey Anderson (#20) and Luke Ranallo (#37); D8’s Ryan Lindgren (#61) and Sam Rossini (#2); D10’s Austen Long (#28) and Jax Murray (#26); and D12’s Jordan Tilander (#8) and Mitch Mattson (#28) are the players to watch in the Red Pool.  Some combination of play of these players will set the standard for moving on to St. Cloud.

All nine of the Grand Rapids players on the D12 team played Bantam last season.  Seven (Drake Anderson, Jason Koehn, Brendan Mark, Keaghan Graeber, Micah Miller, John Stampohar, and Mitch Mattson) played for the Thunderhawks’ Bantam AA team that made the State Bantam AA tourney that lost to Wayzata in the quarterfinal round.  Two players (Jack Bowman and Connor Stefan) played for the Bantam B team that lost to Bantam B State Tourney Consolation Champs Duluth Denfeld 4-3 in the North Regional in March.

The four of the five Hibbing players played for the Bluejacket’s Bantam AA team (Scott Perunovich, Jacob Bestul, Logan Radovich, and Zach DeBoom).  The fifth, Eric Gotz played for the Hibbing Varsity team.  Two International Falls players made the D12 team, Jordan Tilander played for the Bronco’s Varsity last season and Kyle Sjoblom was on the Bronco Bantam B team that made the State Tourney last March.

Three Greenway Bantam A players made the team, Taylor Lantz, Grant Troumbly, and goalie Austin Anick.  Nick Przybylski, a strong forward from the Eveleth/Mesabi East Bantam A team, completes the D12 roster.
Note: District 2 roster were reviewed two weeks ago and that review can be read as part of the D2/D3 game story linked above.

The D10 Select team easily beat D2 in a scrimmage played at New Hope two weeks ago.  But neither team had finalized their teams prior to that scrimmage; D10 was close to their final 20 and D2 had pared their potential team to 29 players.

One reason the D2 Selects got blitzed by D10 in that game was D2’s best player, Joey Anderson/Hill Murray Varsity, didn’t see much of the ice.  Anderson had led Hill-Murray in March to a 2-1 Class AA State Tourney Semifinal win over Wayzata by setting up both of Hill-Murray’s goals.  D2’s Anderson’s lack of presence became apparent when D2 beat D3 7-5 a week later in a preliminary game.  Anderson’s strong game (two goals and an assist) against a good D3 team was the deciding factor in D2’s 7-5 win and ultimately D2 being placed in the Red Pool.

District 2’s roster was reviewed two weeks ago and that review can be read as part of the D2/D3 game story linked above.

The D8 selects breezed through the preliminary round helped by late spring snowstorms that forced D9 and D4 selects to re-schedule practices.  Sixteen of the 20 players selected played for D8 association teams last year; four players played for teams outside D8.

Only four Lakeville players (from D8 regular season champions, Lakeville South AA, Henry Enebak and Clayton Geary; and from the regular season runner up Lakeville North, Max Johnson and Chaz Dufon) made the D8 Select 15 team this year.  These Lakeville teams dominated at the peewee and bantam A levels in D8the past two years.

Sibley didn’t dominate, but placed three players, Hugo Hartnell, Max Rosenfield and Ryan Jowett on the D8 Select 15 team.  All three played for Sibley Association’s Bantam A team.

South St. Paul’s Varsity team contributed two players, Austin Brandecker and Cameron Buhl.  Four other varsity players made the team, Sam Rossini/Burnsville Varsity, Grady Hauswirth/Farmington Varsity, Justin Jallen/St. Paul Academy Varsity, and goalie Sam Moberg/Johnson Varsity.  Rossini played most of the season for a talent loaded Burnsville team, Hauswirth was a top 10 scorer for the Tigers, Jallen notched 26 points for St.Paul Academy and Moberg played every minute in the nets for the Govs as a 9th grader.

Farmington’s Tyler Jette, a good size defenseman, made the D8 Select 15 team.  He played for the Bantam AA last season.  Eagan placed two players from their bantam AA team on the Selects, Jason Smallidge and Tony Juricko.  Woodbury placed one from their bantam AA, Alec Wonsmos; Rosemount placed one also from their Bantam A team, Charlie Monn.

Two players from Shattuck’s Bantam AAA team made the D8 Select 15 roster, Ryan Lindgren and Ryan Edquist.  Both players are from Lakeville.  Lindgren (#61 on the D8 team) was no surprise making the Select 16 team.  He was Shattuck’s second leading scorer last season scoring 88 points for a team that had a 54-6-1 record and finished second in the USA Nationals losing to Honeybaked 98 AAA team 3-2 in double overtime.  Even more remarkable, Lindgren garnered all those points playing defense.  Edquist played 35 games for the runner up Sabres posting a 1.34 GAA.

When D10 beat D2 in the scrimmage two weeks ago, D10’s Austen Long/Spring Lake Park Varsity played an extraordinary strong game at forward.  He led Spring Lake Park in scoring last season (42 points, 23 goals in 25 games) as a 9th grader and it showed against D2.  Long is the only Panther on the D10 selects; but with five Spring Lake Park players playing on the HP-16 and team leading scorer Long returning,  the Panther Varsity has got be good this coming year.  Watch out Totino-Grace.  The Panthers would have been better if they could have kept some other players in their progame like Chase Ellingson, HP16 Final 54 select this year.  The Spring Lake Park Association has been producing some good hockey players.

Elk River placed four of their Bantam AA players from the D10 Bantam AA champions on the D10 Select 15 team; Matt Kiersted, Jensen Zerban, Jax Murray, and goalie Ben Meyers.  Murray and Meyers were top 50 YHH picks as peewees in 2011-2012 season.

The Elks battle with Centennial each year for the regular season title.  Both teams tied in points (59 each) last season, but the Elks had the tie breaker so it is fitting that the Centennial Bantam AA team also placed four players on the D10 team; Erik Jamison-Ekeling, Matt Jennrich, Cody Mclean, and Graham Brickner.

Blaine placed five players on the D10 Selects, four from their Bantam AA team; Max Bautch, Tanner Vescio, Grant Boege and Patrick Buck.  Riley Turfte, also a Bengal from the Varsity team made the Selects.

Ryan Johnson from the Totino-Grace JV team made the selects and Matt Hellickson from the Rogers Varsity made the team.  Hellickson was in the top 10 in scoring for the Royal’s varsity team last season.  Anoka placed two on the selects off their Bantam AA team, Taylor O’Neill and goalie Spencer Olson.  Jacob Carlson from the Princeton Bantam A team made the D10 selects; and Austin Schlenker from the North Country Blue Devils (Cambridge Area) made the team.

The White and Blue Pools will be review in Part 2 and should be posted by Friday.