District 2 has a single, 9 team, peewee A league this year.  Five teams are classified AA teams (White Bear Lake, Roseville, Stillwater, Mounds View, and Forest Lake).  Four teams are classified A teams (Highland, Mahtomedi, North St. Paul, and Tartan).  District 2 has yet to post their playoff brackets.  Like District 8, teams (including peewee A/AA teams) are allowed to opt out of the districts.  Few do at the peewee A level.

District 2 also has a rule that if a game ends in a tie, the higher ranking team determined by league position advances.  The lower ranked team goes home.  This happened to North St. Paul in a D2 play-in game last year.  The Polars went home after the game ended in a tie.

District 2 Peewee A Playoff format has to produce two seeds from a four team, double elimination tourney.  The most likely format for the peewee A’s is a simple four team bracket with #1 seed playing the #4 seed and the #2 and #3 seeds playing each other.  The winners meet in a D2 championship game and the winner of that game gets D2’s #1 seed.  The losers of the opening games play each other and the loser of that game is eliminated.  The winner plays the loser of the championship game for the #2 seed.

YHH NOW ranked #11 Highland is the highest ranked peewee A team in D2.  Highland is in third place in D2 standings, but in a battle with North St. Paul and Tartan for third.  Highland has had a difficult January going 1-5-1 until this past Thursday.  They beat Forest Lake 3-1 in a D2 game and then went north to play in Eveleth’s Mariucci Tourney.  They beat Duluth East A 6-3 and Proctor 5-4 to make it to the championship game on Sunday.  Earlier in January, the Caps lost to North St. Paul 6-2 and Tartan 5-2.  They beat Mahtomedi 3-1.

North St. Paul is a dangerous team in that they have played well, beating Tartan 5-2 and Mahtomedi 3-0 as well as Highland.  They lost to Roseville 6-1 (yhh article), tied Prior Lake A, and lost to Stillwater 5-1 in their last three games.  The Polars have some solid forwards, but the defense seems to play hit or miss; having a good game and then faltering.

Tartan has played well since the Bloomington Midwest Regional tourney over the Christmas Holidays a month ago.  The Titans took third at Bloomington beating Wayzata A 5-4.  Tartan has won their last 8 games going into Sunday’s game with Mounds View.  This week the Titans travel to Cloquet to play in their 16 team barn burner tourney.  They open bracket play against Greenway and if the Titan’s win, they will play the winner of the Cottage Grove/Calumet Kings game to gain the semifinal round.

The Titans are 19th ranked by YHH.

Mahtomedi is a tough defensive team.  The Zephyrs showed that when the held the #1 ranked Edina A team’s offense off the scoreboard in losing 2-1 to Hopkins in their Thanksgiving Day tourney.  In January, they have held their eight opponents to average of two goals a game.  Tough defensive makes the Zephyrs a tough team going into the playoffs.

Projecting that D2 goes with the playoff format described earlier, then Tartan should end up with D2’s #1 seed to the peewee A district playoffs, Highland takes D2 #2 seed.  North St. Paul takes D2 #3 seed.  Mahtomedi takes the #4 seed and plays Tartan.

Highland and North St. Paul meet in the other game of bracket play.  Tartan beats Mahtomedi; North St. Paul beats Highland.  Tartan beats North St. Paul for the championship and the #1 seed; Mahtomedi eliminates Highland.  In a repeat of last year’s D2 play-in game, Mahtomedi and North St. Paul play for the #2 seed.  This time the Polars win.

But D2 could go with a different playoff format.  If so, the winners could change.

D2′s peewee AA has five teams.  The top team, White Bear Lake is focused this week on their Moose Goheen Peewee A/AA tourney.  The Bears are the #16 ranked peewee AA team in the state have lost only two games in January (Stillwater 2-1 and Wayzata AA 4-2).  At the Goheen Tourney, the Bears are pooled with Champlin Park AA, Woodbury AA, and Prior Lake AA in a balanced pool.  The three pool games will test the Bears.

Stillwater ran into a tough Blaine AA team at Roseau’s Dick Johnson Tourney.  The 5-2 loss to the Bengals ended their hopes of getting to the championship round.  They beat Roseau 11-3 and Chaska 5-5 in their other two games; but Minnetonka AA gave them a bad sendoff beating Stillwater 10-2 on getaway day.

Roseville always gets tough at D2 playoff time.  It happens every year and the Raiders are showing signs of it happening again.  They beat Edina A 5-4, Woodbury AA 3-1, and Highland 5-4 in January but have lost to Sibley A 6-3, Centennial AA 3-2 and Chaska/Chanhassen AA 6-1.  Roseville is a tough team to beat if their forwards are playing “on”.

Mounds View is another tough team.  Two weeks ago, the Mustangs won their pool at the St. Cloud Center Ice Classic beating Stevens Point Wisconsin 3-2, losing to D8 Hastings 4-2 and beating Thief River Falls 8-2.  In the championship semifinals the Mustangs lost big to St. Cloud 11-4 and lost third place to D6 Shakopee 4-1.

Forest Lake AA continues to struggle.  They have not won in January, but their last two D2 losses (Tartan 3-1 and Highland 3-1 shows they have a good defense.  Three of the five AA D2 teams will go to the regionals; the Rangers could be one of them.

D2’s AA peewee playoff format is a guess, but on the AA side the five teams are not matched.  White Bear Lake and Stillwater are in a battle for the regular season title, Roseville has just about locked up the #3 seed to the tourney, Mounds View has the #4 seed and Forest Lake the #5 seed.  That will likely give the winner of the regular season title a bye.  White Bear Lake has the edge and should get the #1 seed.  That sets up a battle between Roseville and Stillwater in one semifinal game.  White Bear Lake would play the winner of Mounds View/Forest Lake.

Without the playoff details, it is hard to judge the winners.  White Bear Lake is likely to play Mounds View in the other semifinal game.  Forest Lake would drop to a loser bracket.  The Bears win and Roseville upsets Stillwater.  White Bear gets the #1 seed by beating Roseville.  The Raiders get #2.  Stillwater battles back to get the #3 seed (D2’s #3 seed goes to the South Regional and is likely to play St Michael/Albertville D5’s #2 seed).

D6 has announced their playoff structure.  They will keep the same general format they have used in the past, but the reward for finishing first or second is higher.  The first and second seeds need to win only their first game to advance as either the #1 or #2 seed.  In other words, it is a single elimination except for the third place game for both AA and A.

And the stakes just went up in the AA regular season standings.  Teams finishing first (Edina AA), second (Minnetonka AA), and third (up in the air) will advance to a regional tourney even if they lose their first playoff game.

This year, D6 has stated that the top three finishers in the playoffs will advance and the highest seeded team will advance as the fourth seed.

For one of the first three teams to be eliminated, two teams finishing fifth, sixth or seventh have to finish in the top three.

That is nearly impossible in the single elimination format.  The sixth and seventh place teams play each other and the loser goes home.  That eliminates one of the three teams finishing fifth, sixth, or seventh.

The winner then plays the D6 #3 seeded team.  If the D6 #3 seeded team loses that game, the D6 #3 goes home and waits for a call.  The semifinals would then consist of Edina playing the D6 #4 or #5 seed and Minnetonka playing the D6 #6 or #7 seed.  If Edina and Minnetonka win, they are in.  The losers play for the #3 seed to the East Regional and the D6 #3 seeded team gets the call that they are in the South Regional as D6’s #4 regional seed.

Basically, the only way that the D6 #3 seed is eliminated is if both top seeds lose their semifinal game.

But D6′s AA playoff this year is tricky for a totally different reason, perception.

It starts with the idea that D6′s #4 seed to the South Regional is the easiest path to get to the state tourney.

If the D6 #3 team wins setting up a semifinal with Edina playing the  D6 #4 or #5 seed, and Minnetonka playing the D6 #3 seed, then Edina could get D6’s #4 seed to the South Regional if they lost the Hornets lost their two playoff games (Regional seeds would be #1 Semifinal winner, #2 Semifinal loser, #3 Third place winner and #4 Edina (as the top seeded team from regular season).

That is not likely to happen.

If it did, the uproar such losses would make would be harmful to Minnesota Hockey because intentions would not matter.  Perception matters.

D6’s playoff situation is especially highlighted because actions taken by D8 to force D8 AA teams to compete for their #4 seed to the South Regional.  Because of the potential premium that seed offers in gaining the state tourney, D8 awards that seed to the winner of the third place game.  The loser of the third place game gets D8′s #3 seed.  Then D8 forces the fifth and sixth place teams in the tournament to play a game for D8’s fifth tourney seed.

In D8, where a team finishes in regular season only counts when the tourney draw is set.  After that, you have to win.

After all is said and done, Edina should take the #1 seed.  Burnsville, Jefferson, and Prior Lake end in the last three places and do not make it to the D6 semifinals.  That leaves Minnetonka, Chaska, and Eden Prairie to fight it out for the #2, #3, and #4 seeds.  Minnetonka takes the #2 seed; Chaska gets the #3 seed.  Eden Prairie gets the #4 seed and draws D5 #3 seed (likely to be MAML) in the South Regional closing game opening day.

On Peewee A side, the same tourney format is being used.  But with 9 teams entered and with a split peewee league (AA and A), the premium for placing in the top two in regular season is over emphasized and does not make sense.  The top two teams have to win one game to get a regional seed.  Teams finishing eighth and ninth have to play four single elimination games to play either #1 or #2 seeds in the semifinals.

Before D6 used single elimination to get to a six team double elimination format and could have done the same for the Peewee A playoffs this year.

Edina A is unbeaten this seaseon.  The Hornets lead in the D6 peewee A league with a 12-0 record.  They are ranked #1 in the state by YHH.  Edina has locked up the title and the #1 seed, but after that there is a jumble of teams.  Minnetonka A is in second place in D6 but have struggled at times this year.  They lost to Edina A 6-1 10 days ago, beat Waconia 5-1 and St. Cloud A 3-1, and tied New Prague 4-4.

New Prague beat Edina A at the New Ulm tourney two weeks ago, then lost to Irondale/St. Francis AA 5-0 in the championship game.  Since then the Trojans have lost to Chaska A 4-1, to Farmington AA 7-1 and to Edina A 4-0.  They have six league games left starting with Waconia Tuesday night.  New Prague should move up in the standings.

Moving up is the game in the next two weeks in the D6 peewee A league.  All the positions from 2 to 7 are open.  Eighth and ninth place will be settled between Kennedy and Waconia.  Neither team can move higher in the standings and will battle in the open game of the playoffs February 16th at Chaska.

The winner of that game will play the #5 seeded team in the next round with that winner playing the #4 seed for the right to play the #1 seed Edina A.  On the other side of the tourney, the #6 and #7 seeds play each other for the right to play the #3 seed with the winner advancing to play the #2 seed.

Minnetonka A will be challenged to hang onto second place and the #2 seed to the D6 playoffs.

Under the playoff format, the #2 finisher is almost guaranteed a seed to the East Regional.  Chaska A is the more likely #2 finisher.  The Hawks’ win over New Prague was critical for them making the move.  But then Chaska lost Sunday 6-3 to Inver Grove Heights/South St. Paul in the Spartans Tourney.

Both Minnetonka and Chaska have four games left in the D6 standings.

Minnetonka plays Eden Prairie A, Shakopee, Prior Lake A, and Kennedy; the Skippers struggled against Waconia and will have a hard time winning all four games.  Chaska plays Kennedy, Shakopee, Waconia, and Eden Prairie A; all teams they should beat and will likely set the mark to beat for second place, 36 points.  If they do, the Skippers will need to win three of their four games.

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.  This weekend, they played in Faribault’s tourney beating Champions Hockey (Iowa) 8-3 and Burnsville AA 4-3.  They lost to Hopkins 6-4 in the championship game Sunday afternoon.

The next two D6 contests will be key for the Sabres.  They play Minnetonka A this Thursday and Chaska on Friday.  Two wins would propel the Sabres into second place with Kennedy, Waconia, and New Prague left to play.  The second place decider could come down to the winner of the Sabres game with New Prague at the end of the season.

Prior Lake will struggle in their remaining four games.  They play Edina on the weekend and have lost to them 4-0.  They follow that playing New Prague in New Prague in a must win game next week.  Four days later, they are at Pagel to play Minnetonka A in a tough game that both teams need to win.  The end their D6 season at home against Waconia.  The Lakers will need 10 of those 12 points to have a chance to hit 35 points.

Eden Prairie A team has been overlooked all year, but they have gone 0-2-4 in their last six games and could be a surprising team if they can climb high enough in the D6 standings.  They have tied North St. Paul 3-3, Minnetonka A 2-2, Little Falls 3-3, and Shakopee 4-4 all regional contenders.  The Eagles have a tough D6 schedule left and will not contend for the #2 spot, but they can move up.

This year up is where you want to be in D6.

Edina A will take the #1 seed in D6 to the East Regional.  YHH looks to teams that are on the upswing to take the remaining two spots.

Kennedy and Waconia should continue to struggle and be eliminated early in the playoffs.  Both teams have played well at times during the season, but look to struggle in February.  Any of the remaining six teams can make a run in the playoffs.  Chaska struggled in the IGH/SSP tourney last weekend.  Shakopee look to be playing better than the rest, but then lost to Hopkins.  Shakopee gets D6’s #2 seed.

Prior Lake had a better tourney at IGH’s VMI Arena, beating Rogers AA for third place 5-2, losing only to St. Vital, Winnipeg 2-1.  In a tough call, the Lakers take D6 #3 seed to the East Regional.

District 8 has 12 teams in their single peewee A league, 4 peewee A teams and 8 peewee AA teams.

Their peewee A playoff is simple, aided by the fact that three of the four peewee A teams will go to the East Regional.

Sibley will be the top seeded team in the D8 playoffs.  They are currently fourth in D8 trailing Lakeville South AA, Lakeville North AA, and Eastview AA.

Apple Valley is last in D8 even though they have been playing well lately.  The Eagles had a good St. Cloud Tourney, beating Sartell twice and they beat Eagan and tied Cottage Grove two weeks ago in D8 action.

But the Eagles will not catch Inver Grove Heights/South St. Paul or Cottage Grove in the D8 standings.

The first round draw for the peewee A side of the tourney is fairly well set.
Sibley plays Apple Valley and IGH/SSP plays Cottage Grove.

Sibley is ranked #2 by YHH behind Edina A.  The Warriors have had a good January and appear 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 A 4-3.  The Warriors beat Apple Valley 4-1 earlier in league play and should beat the Eagles again.

YHH ranked #24 Cottage Grove and #38 ranked IGH/SSP play in the second playoff game.  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 has not won a D8 game in January going 0-4-2.

Except for beating Cottage Grove, neither has IGH/SSP won a D8 game in January.  The Spartans have played well and won the Albert Lea Tourney in mid-December beating Minnetonka A 5-4 in the championship game.  IGH/SSP beat Mankato A 2-1 and the Kansas City Stars 9-0 in that tourney.  They won consolation in their tourney played this past weekend at VMI in Inver Grove Heights.  After losing to Mound/Westonka A 7-1, the Spartans beat Kennedy A 3-2 and Chaska A 6-3.

The Spartans beat the Wolfpack.  They are playing better going into the playoffs then Cottage Grove.

In the second round games, Sibley edges IGH/SSP to take the #1 seed, IGH/SSP gets the #2 seed.  Apple Valley upsets Cottage Grove to take the #3 seed.

On the AA side, D8 regular season has been dominated by three AA teams; Lakeville South, Lakeville North, and Eastview.  Lakeville South ranked #2 and Eastview ranked #3 have been ranked in YHH’s NOW AA rankings top five all year behind Edina; Lakeville North has been improving and is ranked #17 behind #15 ranked Hastings.

There are eight AA teams vying for five AA regional seeds, three to the East Regional, one to the South Regional, and one to the West Regional.  Because the South Regional potentially offers an easier path to the state tourney, the winner of the third place game in the district playoffs get D8 #4 seed to the South Regional, the loser gets the #3 seed to the East Regional.

The D8 playoff format is an 8 team double elimination tourney.  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.

It is a logical, pragmatic approach, to conducting the peewee AA tourney this year and is typical of D8’s approach to youth hockey.

The opening round of the AA playoffs will have a typical draw based on team finishes (upper bracket matches 1 versus 8 and 4 versus 5; lower bracket matches 2 versus 7 and 3 versus 6).

Lakeville South AA, Eastview AA, and Lakeville North AA all have 38 points and appeared to be tied atop D8’s peewee A league.  But Lakeville North AA has completed their season playing 16 games.  Eastview AA has two games left, Hastings AA and Sibley AA.  Lakeville South AA has three games left, Sibley, Eagan AA, and Apple Valley.  Both teams should win out.

After that, watch out for Woodbury.  Woodbury is one of those alligators that are about to rise.  They should win their last 4 games and end Rosemount’s hopes of moving up in the process.  If the Predators do, they will post 33 points for the season.  Eagan with two games left with Woodbury and Lakeville South and would not catch the Predators.  Hastings would need to sweep their remaining three games to tie Woodbury for fourth.  The Raiders play Eastview tonight at Hayes Arena.

The D8 playoff draw is likely to be Lakeville South AA plays Farmington AA in the opening playoff game.  Woodbury plays Hastings in the second game in the upper bracket.  Eastview plays Rosemount in the first game of the lower bracket and Lakeville North plays Eagan in the second game.

Lakeville South is ranked #2 in YHH’s peewee AA rankings in the state.  The Cougars were edged out of the Roseau championship round on a tie breaker when they tied Eden Prairie AA 3-3 in pool play.  The Eagles advanced.  Since then the Cougars have beaten #8 ranked Osseo/Maple Grove 6-1.  They have a compiled a 28-4-4 record.  The Cougars beat Farmington this past Sunday.

Farmington has been an up and down team.  They have played some tough teams well, but inside D8 they have managed only two ties in 14 games.  That is an anomaly.  They are a better team then 0-12-2.  Still, the Tigers will lose to Lakeville South.

Woodbury and Hasting in the second game will be a tough call.  Hasting has played tough and at the St. Cloud Center Ice Classic lost out on the pool championship in a three team tie breaker.  Woodbury AA made the championship game at the Center Ice Classic.  They finished second losing to St. Cloud AA 8-2.  This will be the fourth meeting between the two teams.  Hastings won the first two 4-2 and 2-1.  They lost last week to the Predators 4-1.

Woodbury is one of two D8 teams entered in White Bear Lake’s Moose Goheen Tourney played this weekend.  They draw Champlin Park AA, Prior Lake AA, and White Bear Lake AA in pool play.

Woodbury wins.

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 #3 ranked Eastview team has had a great year compiling a 29-6-2 record.  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 and have won four D8 games including a 3-0 win over Rosemount.

The #37th ranked Irish have struggled at times this year.  They had a good Hopkins 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.  Eastview beats Rosemount.

In the final game of the opening round, Lakeville North would play Eagan.  Both these teams are on an upswing as the season ends.  Lakeville North has played some tough competition in January and gone 7-4-1.  They have tied Lakeville South 2-2 and beaten Eastview 2-1 in January.  At White Bear Lake’s tourney this weekend, the #17th ranked North will #1 ranked Edina AA, #13 ranked Minnetonka AA, and #21 ranked Andover AA in pool play.

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 past weekend beating Winona, Sioux City, and Red Wing in the championship game.  They have played tough in the D8 in January going 4-1-1.  Their single loss was to Apple Valley 3-2.

Lakeville North should beat Eagan.

In the playoff semifinals, Lakeville South beats Woodbury 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 #4 seed to the South Regional.  In the South Regional, the Lightning would be bracketed with D5 #1, D6 #4, and D5 #3.  That bracket would most likely consist of St. Cloud AA (Eastview’s opponent) and Eden Prairie playing MAML.

Woodbury would become the #3 D8 seed to the East Regional.  Hastings should beat Eagan in the game for D8#5 seed to the West Regional.  Hastings would play D10’s #2 team (projected to be Elk River) in the last game of the opening round of the West.

If the peewee A teams win as predicted, then the first round of the East A Regional would look like this:

Tartan (D2 #1) would play Prior Lake (D6 #3) in the first game on Friday, March 1.  Edina A (D6 #1) would play IGH/SSP (D8 #2) in the second game of the upper bracket.  In the lower bracket, Sibley (D8 #1) would play North St. Paul (D2 #2).  Shakopee (D6 #2) would play Apple Valley (D8 #3).

If the peewee AA teams win as predicted, then the first round of the East AA Regional would look like this:

White Bear Lake (D2 #1) would play Chaska (D6 #3) in the first game on Friday, March 1.  Edina (D6 #1) would play Lakeville South (D8 #2) in a #1 ranked versus #2 ranked game in the second East Regional tourney opening round game.  In the lower bracket, Lakeville North (D8 #1) would play Roseville (D2 #2).  In the final game, Minnetonka (D6 #2) would play Woodbury (D8 #3).
If you got this far in the read, congratulations.