District 9 Peewee A Playoffs

The District 9 peewee A playoffs will open this Thursday at Red Wing.  Mankato won the D9 championship.  There were no play-in games this year.  The top 8 places made it to the district playoffs. There were no play-in games this year at the A-level.  St. Peter/LeSeur, Austin, Dodge County, and Winona peewee A teams were eliminated.

Mankato took a critical swing (YHH story) in January and beat their nearest competitors to take the lead in D9.  Since then, the Mavericks have been on a roll.  The Mavericks finished the D9’s regular season with a 21-1 record and in first place.

Owatonna A tied Rochester A 1-1 in a D9 game a week ago.  The tie, combined with the Huskies great 15 game win streak opening the D9 season, was enough to get Owatonna second place.  Rochester ended in third place.

NOW ranked #6 Mankato, as predicted here, won critical games on a mid-January and went on to win their last 10 D9 games and take the D9 Championship and the #1 seed.  They will play the #8 seed Waseca in the first playoff game at Red Wing Thursday night.  The Bluejays had a good D9 season finishing eighth out of 12 teams.  Waseca has lost twice to Mankato, 3-1 and 6-1.  Mankato wins.

Thursday’s second game at Red Wing matches #2 seeded Owatonna and #7 seeded Faribault in an I-35 rivalry.  The two teams are separated by 17 miles of I-35 interstate, but have been longtime rivals.  Owatonna finished second in D9 behind Mankato.  The Huskies won 14 of their first 15 D9 games (they tied Rochester A 2-2 in December); but went 4-2-1 in their last seven games. Owatonna beat the Falcons twice this year 2-1 and 4-0.  Faribault struggled in D9 in December and January winning only twice.  In February, the Falcons won two of three D9 games.  Owatonna wins.

The first peewee A playoff game Friday matches #4 Red Wing and #5 Northfield.  Red Wing beat Northfield twice in their regular D9 season games, winning 5-4 and a week later 8-4.   NOW has the two teams ranked closely, Red Wing #27 and Northfield #31.  In front of home crowd at Prairie Island Arena, it should be a great game to see.  The Wingers prevail.

The second peewee A game Friday matches NOW ranked #19 Rochester A against Albert Lea.  The Black have played tough defense the last month of the season, but their offense has struggled.  Rochester A went 4-0-1 in their last five D9 games.  One of those wins was a 5-2 victory over Albert Lea.  Albert Lea played 9 of their last 10 D9 games at home, winning 6 of those home games.  One was a 3-0 win over Red Wing.  Rochester Black beat Albert Lea twice in D9 this year, 4-2 and 5-2.  Rochester A wins.

In the semifinal games, Mankato beats Red Wing in front of a home crowd in a very tough game and Rochester edges Owatonna.  These potential semifinal match-ups played Saturday, February 17, could be the most entertaining two game set of all the district playoffs.

Sunday, Rochester A beats Mankato to take the #1 seed, Mankato takes the #2 seed.  Owatonna battles back through the loser bracket to take the #3 seed.

District 9 Peewee AA Playoffs

There is only one AA team in D9 this year, Rochester AA.  The Red will get D9’s #1 seed to the South Regional this year and will play D10’s #4 seed (predicted by YHH to be Andover AA) in the opening round of quarterfinal play.