District 16 Peewee A Playoffs

District 16 Peewee A playoffs start and end this Saturday at the Crookston Sports Center.  It is a 4 team double elimination tourney with 3 teams advancing to the North Regional in Two Harbors.  D16 will be the first district to finalize their regional seeds.

East Grand Forks won the regular season title and the #1 seed to the playoffs.  They play the opening game against #4 seeded Thief River Falls.  The Green Wave has struggled all year.  They did not play well in their tourney in November.  At Roseau’s tourney, they were hammered four times losing to Osseo/Maple Grove AA 17-1, Lakville North AA 8-4, Brainerd AA 11-4 and Chaska AA 7-0.  But they played well against D16 teams losing only two D16 games all year, both to Roseau AA 11-3 and 5-2.  EGF beat the Prowlers 4-1 in December and 5-2 last week.

Thief River Falls had a good tourney at St. Cloud.  They pushed Hastings before losing 7-4 and Stevens Point Wisconsin before losing 6-5.  They were beaten by Mounds View 8-2 and pushed Burnsville in the getaway game before losing 4-3.  East Grand Forks wins.

The second D16 peewee A playoff game Saturday matches host Crookston against Warroad.  Crookston took third place at Brainerd’s tourney splitting two pool games, losing to Blaine AA 9-0 and beating Chisago Lakes A 4-1.  They beat a third 10 team, NCBD A 3-1 for the third spot.  At Bemidji, the Pirates lost to Grand Rapids 11-2, tied Rogers 2-2, and lost to the Grand Forks Greyhounds 7-2.  They beat Fort Francis in bracket play 3-1.

Warroad has struggled.  They played in Roseau’s tourney a month ago.  Roseau played in their tourney the next week.  At Roseau, Warroad lost to Minnetonka AA 9-0, Edina AA 12-0 and Hermantown 11-1.  In their own tourney last week, they lost to New Prague A 6-2.  Crookston and Warroad split their two D16 games.  Crookston won 3-2 in late November and lost 4-2 in early January.  The Warriors win.

Saturday evening, East Grand Forks beat Warroad in the D16 playoff championship game to take the #1 seed to the North Regional.  Warroad gets the #2 seed.  Thief River Falls and Crookston play for D16’s third seed.  Crookston has beaten the Warriors twice this season 7-5 and 7-6.  Warroad surprises and beats the Pirates for the #3 seed; Warroad’s defense will not give up another seven goals.

District 16 Peewee AA Playoffs

There are no D16 Peewee AA playoffs this year.  The seeding was determined by regular season league play between the two teams.  Bemidji beat Roseau twice, 5-1 and 4-2, and gets the #1 seed.  Roseau gets the #2 seed.