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District 8 Peewee AA/A Playoffs

By frederick61, 02/14/13, 2:30AM CST

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Lakeville South’s goal sends the Edina goalie’s water bottle flying in Tuesday 8-3 loss to the AA Hornets.

District 8 Peewee A Playoffs

District 8 has 4 peewee A teams this season.  Their peewee A playoff is simple, aided by the fact that three of the four peewee A teams will go to the East Regional.

The D8 peewee A playoffs open this Saturday at Wakota Arena in South St. Paul.  Sibley, seeded #1, plays #4 seed Inver Grove Heights/South St. Paul in the first semifinal game.  The NOW #3 ranked Warriors were 7-2-2 in January.  Their two losses were to STMA AA 6-2 and Lakeville South AA 4-1, two of the top teams in the state.  February, they have struggled going 1-2-2.  Their one win was over IGH/SSP 3-1.  This will be a dangerous game for Sibley.  They will be playing an arch rival (South St. Paul) in their arena and could be surprised. Sibley wins.

Apple Valley A surprised some people by going 3-2-2 in their last seven D8 games.  It was enough to get the Eagles the #2 seed to the D8 playoffs.  Cottage Grove A is the #3 seed.  The two teams tied 2-2 in early January and the Eagles beat the Wolfpack 4-2 last week.  Apple Valley wins.

Sibley had a good January and appeared to be ready to make a run.  They beat Rosemount 4-2 last week and tied Edina A 3-3 earlier in January and beat #8 ranked Mound/Westonka 4-3.  Then they slowed in February.  The Warriors beat Apple Valley 4-1 earlier in league play and should beat the Eagles again.

Sibley gets D8’s #1 seed to the East Regional; Apple Valley gets the #2 seed.

Cottage Grove and IGH/SSP play Sunday for D8’s #3 seed to the East Regional.  These two teams have met twice this season.  They tied 1-1 (game story on YHH site) in early December; and IGH/SSP won the second D8 game played two weeks ago.  Cottage Grove did not win a D8 game in January and February.  They lose again.  IGH/SSP gets the #3 seed to the East Regional.

The East Regional will be hosted by South St. Paul this year.  The games will be played at Wakota.

District 8 Peewee AA Playoffs

The D8 playoff format is an 8 team double elimination tourney.  The eight teams will be competing for 5 regional seeds this year, three to the East Regional, one to the South Regional, and one to the West Regional.

There are three games that will eliminate a team (games 6 and 8 played between the losers of the first round games and game 11 played between the losers of the single elimination second round).  The format is modified to give teams playing in game 11 a third chance to advance.

The Peewee AA Tourney will be played February 17-24 at Wakota Arena.

Lakeville South AA won the championship by winning key games early in January.  The Cougars ended their D8 season with a 15-0-1 record.  Their single blemish was a 2-2 tie with Lakeville North.  Rivalries always matter, more so at the youth level.  The #1 seeded Cougars open play against Farmington.  The two teams played once in D8 regular season action, South won 4-0.

Lakeville South is ranked #2 in the NOW peewee AA ranking of Minnesota peewee AA teams.  Last Tuesday, the Cougars gave up 5 quick goals to #1 ranked Edina AA and lost 8-3.  Lakeville South displayed an ability to skate with the Hornets, their defense was flat in the first period and allowed the Hornets room to attack the net.  Against #8 seed Farmington, South will not have that problem; the Cougars win.

The second quarterfinal game matches #4 seed Hastings and #5 seed Eagan.  Hasting has played tough and at the St. Cloud Center Ice Classic lost out on the pool championship in a three team tie breaker.  Hastings lost twice to the Wildcats in district play, 2-1 and 4-2.

Eagan had a good tourney at Bemidji losing to the Grand Forks Greyhounds 3-1 in the Lumberjack championship game.  The Wildcats blew out the competition at Red Wing’s tourney this three weeks ago beating Winona A, Sioux City, and Red Wing A in the championship game.  They have played tough in the D8 in January going 5-1-2.  Their single loss was to Apple Valley 3-2.  In a close call, Eagan beats Hastings.

In the opening game of the lower bracket, Eastview plays Rosemount.  It will be a tough rivalry game (if you see a Dakota Rev team, the Rev stands for Rosemount Eastview).  The #6 ranked Eastview team’s offense has struggled in the last month of regular season.  In 21 games since the end of December, they have given up just 28 goals.  Their defense has been strong until their last four games giving up 12 of those 28 goals.  After losing three early January games playing with a short bench, the Lightning have won the Rochester Tourney, beating Jefferson AA 4-2 in the championship game.  They took third at New Hope’s tourney the first weekend of February, losing to Lakeville South 4-2 in the championship game.  The Lightning have beaten Rosemount twice in league play 3-0 and 3-0.

The #36th ranked Irish have struggled at times this year.  They had a good Hopkins Thanksgiving  tourney finishing second losing to Edina A in the championship game 3-1.  At Rochester, they struggled losing to Jefferson 2-1, Highland Illinois 5-2 and Rochester AA 5-0.  However, the Irish can still swing the shillelagh.  They tied Woodbury AA 1-1 in their last D8 game.  Eastview wins.

In the final game of the opening round, Lakeville North plays Woodbury.  Lakeville North has played some tough competition in January and gone 7-7-2.  They played an excellent game against Edina AA losing 5-2 at the end of January (YHH game story).  They tied Lakeville South 2-2 and beat Eastview 2-1 in January.  Woodbury AA made the championship game at the Center Ice Classic.  They finished second losing to St. Cloud AA 8-2.  The Predators played a tough twelve day schedule in February, playing 10 games and going 2-7-1.  They will need their carbs to beat Lakeville North on Sunday.  The Panthers win.
In the playoff semifinals, Lakeville South beats Eagan and Lakeville North upends Eastview.  The two Lakevilles play for the #1 and #2 seeds to the East Regionals.  On the single elimination side of the playoffs, Hastings beats Farmington to eliminate the Tigers and end their season.  Eagan beats Rosemount to end the Irish’s season.

Lakeville North upsets South in the championship game to get the #1 seed to the East Regional, the Cougars get the #2 seed.  Eastview beats Hastings to advance to the third place game.  Woodbury beats Eagan to advance to the third place game.  Eastview beats Woodbury to take third place and D8’s #3 seed to the East Regional.  Woodbury gets D8’s #4 seed to the South Regional; the Predators would be bracketed with D5 #1, D6 #4, and D5 #3.  That bracket would most likely consist of St. Cloud AA (Woodbury’s opponent) and Eden Prairie playing MAML.

In the game for D8 #5 seed to the West Regional, Eagan beats Hastings.  Eagan’s opponent will be D10 #2 seed.

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