District 6 Peewee A Playoffs
Edina A is unbeaten in the D6 peewee A league with a 16-0 record. The Hornets locked up the title and the #1 seed, but after that there was a scramble to take second place with three teams, Minnetonka A, Chaska Aand Prior Lake A all tied. Sorting out the tie, Minnetonka A ended in second place and got the #2 seed in the D6 playoffs.
The Skippers and the Hornets need to win only once in the playoffs to get a regional seed.
Prior Lake ended up with the third seed and Chaska the fourth seed in the D6 peewee A playoffs scheduled to open play this Saturday at Chaska.
The first playoff game will match #8 seeded Waconia and #9 seeded Kennedy. Both teams have struggled as the regular season has ended. Waconia looked flat when they lost to Minnetonka A 5-0 in a D6 game three weeks ago. Since then they tied Kennedy 5-5 and pushed Shakopee A and Prior Lake A before losing each game by one goal last weekend. Kennedy had a good game in losing to Chaska A 6-5 at the end of January, but has struggled in February losing three D6 games to New Prague 5-1, Shakopee 8-1 and Minnetonka A 7-1. Waconia beats the Eagles to advance. Kennedy’s season ends.
Sunday first game matches Waconia and #5 seeded Shakopee. NOW ranked #11 Shakopee has made a move playing well as the season is ending. The Sabres took third place at St. Cloud’s Center Ice Classic beating Mounds View AA 4-1. They lost to Woodbury AA 5-3 in the semifinals. The Sabres took second place in Faribault’s tourney beating Champions Hockey (Iowa) 8-3 and Burnsville AA 4-3. The Sabres lost to Hopkins 6-4 in the championship game. Shakopee has been on a hot streak in February going 6-0-1. They tied Chaska A 4-4. Shakopee wins.
The second game Sunday matches New Prague A and Eden Prairie A. The Trojans beat the Red twice in D6 play, 6-3 and 3-2 last week. The Trojans beat Eagan 2-0, lost to Shakopee 7-3 and lost to Edina A 6-0. They looked good against Edina but drew too many penalties (the refs did a poor job-but that is a subject for another day). The Red started the season sluggishly, but have improved. They have tied Minnetonka A and Shakopee in the past month. The Trojans win.
Monday’s games should match Chaska A and Shakopee A in the first game and Prior Lake/Savage A and New Prague A in the second game. These two games are the critical ones to win in the D6 peewee A tourney. The losers go home, the winners become one of the four remaining teams chasing three regional seeds.
Chaska beat Shakopee in early December 7-4. The two teams tied 4-4 February 1. Chaska’s defense has struggled as the season ended while Shakopee’s offense has gone into high gear. The Sabres win. Prior Lake A have tied twice in D6, 2-2 in November and 3-3 in the first week of February. New Prague wins in a battle of neighboring rivals.
Edina A, seeded #1 and NOW ranked #1 in the state, plays their first playoff game on Wednesday, February 20. They should play Shakopee. The Hornets beat Shakopee in early November 7-2 and beat them again 5-1 in early December. Edina wins. New Prague beats Minnetonka A in the second semifinal game. The Trojans are playing well as the season ends, Minnetonka A has struggled.
The D6 championship game would then match Edina A and New Prague. The Trojans beat the Hornets at the New Ulm tourney in January, but this time. Edina wins and gets the #1 seed. New Prague gets the #2 seed. Shakopee beats Minnetonka A to take the #3 seed.
District 6 Peewee AA Playoffs
Edina AA takes the #1 seed. The Hornets finished the D6 regular season going 12-0. Eden Pairie AA takes second place and the #2 seed. By winning those seeds, Edina and Eden Prairie are guaranteed a seed to the regional tourney based on D6’s updated peewee AA tournament format.
Prior Lake AA surprised everybody and finished third by going 2-0-2 in their last four games. The Lakers get the #3 seed. Chaska hung on to edge Minnetonka and Jefferson for the #4 seed. Minnetonka has the tie breaker with Jefferson and gets the #5 seed. Jefferson gets the #6 seed and Burnsville the #7 seed.
Jefferson and Burnsville open the D6 playoffs this Saturday at Chaska. The Jags should win, they beat the Blaze last Sunday 7-1. Burnsville goes home. There are now 6 AA teams competing for four regional seeds.
The gauntlet is gone in the peewee AA playoffs this year. The gauntlet has been a D6 playoff feature that would have been out of place in this year’s D6 playoffs. With seven teams and four regional seeds up for grabs, the single elimination game yields a six-team format AA tourney. But it is single elimination and the current format shows no resolution on how the #4 seed is determined.
The assumption here is that the four semifinal teams will all get a regional seed. That makes Jefferson’s next game against #3 seeded Prior Lake a key game. The Jags lost to Prior Lake 5-1 in early November and tied the Lakers 1-1 three weeks ago.
The defending state champions and #13 ranked Lakers have played 17 games since the first of the year. Playing more games at the end of the year has been a Prior Lake trait. They have gone 7-4-6 in that time playing mostly NOW top ranked teams.
Jefferson has 10 games since the first of the year against similar competition and has compiled a 3-4-3 record. In a tough game, the Lakers win.
The #4 seeded Chaska team plays the #5 seeded Minnetonka. Both teams have hit the February “funk”. The Skippers have fallen in the NOW rankings going 7-7-1 since the first of the year. Chaska has gone 8-7-3 since the first of the year. A combination of flu and strep throat has been making the rounds in the past six weeks. Chaska has been playing well the past two weeks beating Orono A 10-5, Eastview AA 4-3, and Lakeville North AA 4-3. The Hawks should be “sans” illnesses when they play the Skippers Sunday. Chaska wins.
In the semifinal games a week from today, unbeaten (in Minnesota) and NOW ranked #1 Edina starts tourney play. Their first game should be against Chaska. The Hornets have returned from a trip East after playing three tough AAA teams going 2-1. They played #2 ranked Lakeville South Tuesday beating the Cougars in an elongated game at Minnesota Made (separate post). The Hornets have beat Chaska 8-1, 11-1, and 9-0 this season. Tuesday they beat #2 ranked Lakeville South 8-3. The Hornets should win again.
The second semifinal game Sunday, matches Eden Prairie and Prior Lake. The second place Eagles have yet to win a game in February. They tied the Lakers 5-5 a week ago and then pushed Edina AA in losing 4-3. The Lakers pull an upset.
In the championship game, Edina beats Prior Lake. In the third place game, the Eagles continue to slide. Chaska wins. Edina AA takes the #1 seed to the East Regional, Prior Lake the #2 seed and Chaska the #3 seed. Eden Prairie gets the #4 seed to the South Regional.