Twelve of the 20 players on the District 3 team are from Wayzata and Osseo/Maple Grove.  Wayzata placed seven players on the team; Dylna Hewitt, TJ Moss, Matt Nelson, Jardin Ness, Luke Paterson, Mark Senden and Hank Sorenson.  This is not a surprise.  Six of the players played on the Wayzata’s Bantam AA team that finished third in the Bantam AA State Tourney in March and were ranked #1 in the state by NOW.  One Wayzata select 15 player, Jardin Ness, played for the Wayzata’s Bantam A that won D3’s regular season title, but lost to Hopkins in the D3 playoff game for a West Regional seed.

Five OMG players made the team; Jack Kelly, Samuel Ross, Jarrett Cammarata, Sam Huff, and Justin Kelly.  All five played on OMG’s Bantam AA team that played in this past March Bantam AA State Tourney.  Jack Kelly, Camarata and Huff are the “young guns” from the Crimson’s 2012 State Peewee A tourney team that won the consolation title in Alexandria in March 2012.  All three were YHH top 50 picks in 2012.

The true strength of the D3 select team this year may lie in three outstanding players, Myles Cunningham who played defense as a ninth grader for Blake’s Varsity team last year and ended the season at the Bears #7 scorer; William (Trey) Rooney III who led Robbinsdale Cooper’s Varsity team in scoring as a ninth grader last winter; and Ben Meyers (another Top 50 pick from last season) who led the Crow River Bantam A team to a third place finish in the Bantam A State Tourney in March.

John Hartfiel (another YHH top 50 pick last season) from the Minneapolis Storm Bantam A team, Chase Mark from the Minnetonka Bantam AA team, and Jerry Calengor  from the Benilde-St. Margaret JV team complete the D3 teams forward selections.  Goalies Erik Peterson (Crow River Bantam A) and Sean Daley (Minneapolis Storm Bantam A) complete the roster.

There is only one place to start with a D2 preview, Joey Anderson.  Anderson made the D2 Select 15 team.  He played for Hill-Murray Varsity last season.  In mid-January of this year, Anderson was an eighth grader playing for the Hill Murray JV when he got called up to the varsity.  In his first game against St. Thomas Academy, he scored a goal and had an assist in Murray’s 3-1 win and ended the season with 21 points in 14 games plus playing in the Class AA State Tourney Championship game.  Anderson played on the 2010-2011 Roseville Peewee A team.

Joining Anderson on the Select 15 team is Casey Staum also from Hill Murray JV.  Casey Staum played with Anderson on the 2010-2011 Roseville Peewee A team.  A third player from that Roseville Peewee A team, David Pauletti, made the D2 Select 15.  Pauletti played for the Roseville JV last season.

Mounds View played four players from their Bantam AA team on the D2 Select 15 team, Cullen McCabe, Spencer Ovshak, Luke Ranallo, and Alex Plasencia.  The Mustangs Bantam AA team finished NOW ranked #5 last season, made it to the East Regional and lost to Edina AA 6-2.  The Mustangs played in the VFW State Tourney as champions of VFW District 4 and lost to host White Bear Lake.

White Bear Lake Bantam AA team placed three players, William Sonntag, Brock Larson, and Alec Will on the D2 Select 15 team.  Brandon Dornfeld, White Bear Lake Bantam B1, also made the team as one of the goalies.

Stillwater place four players, Andrew Hoy, Tyler Benson, Gavin Holland, and Bryce Tanski on the D2 Select 15. All four players played for the Ponies Bantam AA team.  Brian Hurley made the D2 selects.  Hurley played for the St. Thomas JV last winter.  Nick Bonine (Top 50 pick last year) from Mahtomedi made the D2 selects. Bonine played for the Zephyrs Bantam B1 team last season.

Tartan placed two players on the D2 team, Shane Furlong and Derek Sievers.  Both played for the Titans’ Bantam A team last winter.  Austin Butterfield made the D2 team as a goalie.  Butterfield played for the Minneapolis Storm Bantam A team last season.  Butterfield shared the Storm goal tending duties with D3’s select team goalie, Erik Peterson.  They faced each other last night.

The first half was a tightly played game.  The second half was a wide open affair.

D2 scored six minutes into the game when a defender and a D2 wing ended in a pile on in the right corner with puck coming loose to Derek Sievers.  Sievers attacked the goalie and scored from the top of the right crease to put D2 up 1-0.  Nick Bonine and Alex Plasencia got the assists.  With eight minutes left in the period, Joey Anderson scored in a melee in front of the D3 goal to put D2 up 2-0.  Cullen McCabe got the assist.  The first half ended with D2 leading 2-0.

The D2 selects moved the puck well in the opening half especially in the neutral zone.  The D3 defense was tough, but the D2 forwards passing was excellent, often leading the forward or finding the right break.  As a result, they were beating the D3 defense high in D3’s zone.  The D3 forwards were gaining control of the puck in the D2 zone along either board, but continuously were looking to hit a D3 forward in the slot or by rotating to the weak side.  The D2 defense sagged low and frustrated D3 in those attempts.

The second half opened slow and the slower pace favored D3.  They essentially lulled the D2 defense and the defense’s more passive play resulted in three quick goals by D3.  Four minutes into the second half, Ben Meyers swooped the right side of the D3 defense, crossed in front of the goal and beat the goalie through the 5-hole to cut the lead to 2-1.  Mark Senden got the assist.  Thirty seconds later, Matt Nelson picked up a puck that had been poked checked off a D2 defender’s stick.  The puck bounced to Nelson in the slot and he buried the puck into the net.  Luke Paterson got the assist.  The game was tied 2-2.  A minute later, Trey Rooney beat the defense breaking left and buried the puck inside the right pipe to put D3 up 3-2.  Jack Kelly got the assist.

D3 looked on the roll and D2 looked ready for Pool C, but Joey Anderson stopped that.  On the faceoff following the third D3 goal, Anderson muscled his way through three D3 defenders alongside the left boards and skated to the top of the crease beating the goalie with a back hander to tie the game 3-3.  Luke Ranallo got the assist.

That was the turning point in the game.  After that the tempo picked up.  The game became very physical.  Two minutes later, it resulted in a D3 goal when the D2 defense got caught low on the right and Myles Cunningham ended up with the puck in the slot.  Cunningham made a nice move on the goalie putting the puck in the net to put D3 up 4-3.  TJ Moss and Ben Meyers got the assists.

A minute later D2 tied the score.  They turned a 3 on 3 rush into a breakaway when the D3 defender bodied a wing off the puck along the left boards at the blue line.  The D2 wing managed to hit the center forward, Shane Furlong, with a nice leading pass that turned the three player rush into a solo rush on the D3 goal.  Furlong carried the puck to the right crease and beat the goalie low right with a shot just inside the right pipe.  The score was tied 4-4.

The game became transitional for the next 10 minutes, both teams opening up and succeeding on getting shots on the net, but neither scoring.  With 5 minutes to go in the game, the D2 forwards caught the D3 defense in a shift change.  It ended up with D2’s Ranallo scoring from a point blank shot from the left side of the D3 net to put D2 ahead 5-4.  Anderson and Brian Hurley got the assists.

D2 kept the pressure on the D3 net over the next two minutes and scored again.  Garvin Holland got the goal; Will Sonntag and David Pauletti got the assists.  D2 had a two goal lead, 6-4 with two minutes left in the game.

D3 came back to make one last flurry to get back in the game.  Justin Kelly beat the D2 defense along the left boards and hit a breaking John Hartfiel in the left crease.  Hartfiel tipped the puck over a sprawling D2 goalie.  Justin Kelly and Dylan Hewitt got the assist.  That cut the lead to 6-5.  D3 pulled their goalie, but an open net goal by Luke Panallo ended the game and the scoring 7-5.  Panallo made a neat move to beat the D3 attackers from inside the D2 blue line to set up the open net goal.  He earned it.

The scoring last night was distributed among 22 forwards, 11 on each team.  D2’s Joey Anderson lived up to his developing reputation by combining a hard physical game with scoring, ending the night with two goals and an assist.  Alex Plasencia had a nice game setting up three of the seven D2 scores, and Luke Ranallo ended the night with two goals and an assist.  D3’s Myles Cunningham had a solid game and scored a nice goal in the second half.  Ben Meyers ended the game with a goal and an assist and as always played hard the whole game.  Sam Huff had a good game at forward despite not scoring; he used his size well to tie up the D3 defenders.