Saturday evening, NOW ranked #8 St. Michael/Albertville, hosted the #16 ranked Cloquet Lumberjacks in a game played at the STMA Ice Arena.  Both teams are preparing to make their final season end run to their district playoffs.  STMA plays in District 5; Cloquet plays in District 11. 

Cloquet is assured of a North Regional Peewee AA seed.  District 11, with three seeds available to the North Peewee AA Regional tourney, has only three AA teams this year.  The D11 playoffs could only decide which seed (#1, #2, or #3) goes to which team.

STMA has to win one of the three D5 seeds to the South Regional.  The Knights along with St. Cloud AA are the favorites, but will be challenged in the D5 playoffs by MAML AA, River Lakes AA, and Buffalo AA.

Cloquet showed up for the game missing four players because of snow and had to adjust as the game opened.  The Lumberjacks did well and played an improving STMA evenly for much of the game; but the odd breakdowns and the failure of the defense to cover up on rebounds led to STMA scores.

STMA opened the first period by spending most of the opening minutes in the penalty box.  STMA drew a hooking penalty 30 seconds into the game.

Cloquet never got organized on the power play.  STMA killed the penalty.  Trying to hold the puck in the STMA zone after the power play had ended, a Cloquet defender drew a tripping penalty.  He tried to slow a Knight on a potential breakaway.

STMA got pressure on the Cloquet net during the power play, but could not score.  A minute after Cloquet killed the penalty, STMA drew a tripping penalty.  Again, on the power play, the Lumberjacks could not get organized. The Knights killed the penalty.

The two teams had played most of the first period with one team or the other being shorthanded.

With both teams at full strength, STMA went on a roll.  They bottled the Lumberjacks in the Jack’s half of the ice, playing the center high and cutting off the breakout or catching the breakout in the neutral zone and dumping the puck back into a Lumberjack corner. 

With two minutes left in the first, Cloquet did break the STMA defense.  It led to a wild melee in front of the STMA net and a puck clanking off the pipes, but no goal.

The first period ended in a scoreless tie.

The second period opened with up and down skating for the first two minutes.  Both teams moved the puck, but neither team could get shot on the net.

At the 13 minute mark, STMA established puck control inside the Lumberjack’s zone.  They moved the puck around the perimeter to the right point and shot.  The puck rebounded off the goalie into the top crease area where Blake Spetz put the puck in net on a high shot left center.  Jordan Drobinski and Brady Berning got the assists.  STMA led 1-0.

The game pace picked up.  It took STMA three minutes to add the second goal.  This time Garrett Sandberg got the goal; Spetz and Jordan Drobinski got the assists.  The Knights led 2-0.

Cloquet came storming back after STMA’s second goal and pressured the Knights in the Knights’ zone.  A Cloquet shot from the blue line rebounded into the slot area in front of the Knights’ net to the Jack’s Brendan Durand.  He put the puck into the net to cut STMA’s lead to 2-1.  Trevor Inman and Dane Stoyanoff got the assists.

With a minute left in the third period, STMA struck again.  STMA’s Drobinski carried the puck out of the corner into the top of the crease beating the Cloquet defense.  He lost enough control of the puck that it slowed, forcing Drobinski to do a 180 degree turn.  He did and shot scoring to put STMA up 3-1.  Zach Sjelin got the assist.  The second period ended with no change in the score.

The third period opened with a STMA bang.  On the attack, an STMA shot rebounded off the goalie going vertical about 10 feet in the air over the goalie’s head and dropped at the top of the crease.  STMA’s Sjelin timed a rush going through players in the slot to take the puck and score going right past the diving goalie.  Sandberg got the assist.  The Knights led 4-1.

That goal broke the game open.  Cloquet slowed after that.  At the 8 minute mark, STMA scored on another short shot off a rebound to go up 5-1.  Drobrinski got the goal, Caden Sigerud and Sandberg got the assists.

Cloquet came back to score immediately.  The Lumberjacks took the puck into the STMA zone, flooding the left side of the Knights’ zone with Lumberjacks.  It worked.  Cloquet’s Inman scored unassisted to cut STMA’s lead to 5-2.

With the third period winding down, Cloquet was tiring.  The Lumberjacks were under fire in their zone, when the Cloquet goalie drew a penalty.  It took STMA’s Jake Benson 30 seconds to score the power play goal and end the scoring for the night.  Sigerud and Tyler Malerich got the assists.  The Knights won 6-2.

It was disappointing that the Lumberjacks were missing kids.  They adjusted well for the game and played competitively; but they had trouble with organizing their power play and trouble clearing the rebounds.  Some of that could be attributed to kids playing out of position to fill in the gaps caused by missing players.

STMA has improved significantly since Edina tourney six weeks ago.  Their defense is strong and well balanced, their forward lines are tough.  At this point in the season, they belong in the top category of teams in the state (Edina AA, Lakeville South AA, Elk River AA, and St. Cloud AA).

If the D5 teams continue to improve, the District 5 Peewee AA district playoffs this year will be the toughest in the state.