Tuesday night at Bielenberg Arena, Prior Lake Bantam AA and Chaska AA tied 3-3 in the opening of pool play in Woodbury’s Rumble tourney.  The YHH ranked #3 Lakers were the favorites going into the game.  The District 6 Bantam AA league leaders were tied by District 6 rivals, the #17 ranked Hawks, on a Chaska goal scored with 3 minutes left in the game.

It was a good, fast skated, hockey game.  The first period opened with a bang.  Chaska’s Patrick Reddan scored unassisted on a breakaway 3 minutes into the period.  It was the Hawks first attack of the game.  Prior Lake had tied Chaska up in their zone for the first three minutes.

Prior Lake picked up the pressure after the Chaska goal, but it resulted in a the Lakers drawing a high stick penalty 30 seconds later.  The Hawks could not get their power play organized and the Lakers easily killed the penalty and returned to the attack.

Prior Lake kept pressure on the Hawks defense in the Chaska zone for the next seven minutes of the first period.  At one point, Chaska had not carried the puck beyond the center line for 3 minutes of play.  But the Lakers could not score.  A combination of the Chaska defense and outstanding play of Chaska goalie Jayson Efnor held the Lakers off the scoreboard.

Prior Lake outshot Chaska 12 to 7 in the first period (27 to 12 in the game, 9 to 2 in the third period).

At the two minute market, Prior Lake finally scored.  The goal came on the fifth shot in a sustained Laker attack on the right side of the Chaska net.  The first four were stopped by Efnor, the fourth rebound went left to Tanner Burggraaff’s stick.  Burggraaff rapped the puck in the net to tie the game 1-1.  Chase Grackle and Curtis Hanson got the assists.

Each team drew a penalty in the last minute of the first period.  The Hawks penalty came with 5 seconds left on the clock and resulted in a faceoff to the right of Efnor.  The Lakers’ Hanson got the puck off the faceoff and drove to the net, scoring unassisted to give the Lakers a 2-1 lead with a second left on the clock.

The second period would open with 4-on-4 hockey and Prior Lake leading 2-1.

The ice was cleaned between the first and second periods and both teams came out of the locker rooms flat.  A Chaska breakaway in the first minute of the 4-on-4 resulted in a Prior Lake hooking penalty and a 4-on-3 power play for the Hawks.  Prior Lake easily killed the penalty.

With 12 minutes left in the second period, Chaska finally started to generate some pressure on the Lakers in the Prior Lake zone.  At the 6 minute mark, with Chaska tying up the Lakers in the Prior Lake zone, a shot from the left side ended up rebounding right to the Hawks’ Malcom Neitz.  Neitz rapped the puck into the net to tie the game 2-2.  Ridge Shelby and Sampson got the assists.

It was becoming a good game.

Prior Lake scored on a weird play with two minutes left in the period.  A hard shot from the right took a long bounce off the upper left corner the Chaska goal resulting in the puck ending up at left blue line.  The Lakers Matt Denman fired a quick shot on the net beating Efnor to give the Lakers a 3-2 lead.  The goal was unassisted.  The second period ended with Prior Lake leading 3-2.

The third period started with Chaska getting modest pressure on the Lakers in the Prior Lake zone.  The Hawks held the zone, but failed to generate a good scoring chance.  The Lakers broke the Hawks pressure and the game sort of drifted along.

Chaska was trying to hit the center on the breakout play from their zone and couldn’t connect.  The Prior Lake defense was taking the puck away in the neutral zone and dumping it into the Hawk corners.  But the Lakers were not attacking, content to play high in the Chaska zone.

With eight minutes left in the game, the pace picked up and for the next two minutes, the teams hammered on each other resulting the puck being treated like a pinball, bouncing from stick to stick as each team foiled the other’s attack.

It was some great hockey, unfortunately it didn’t last.

At the six minute mark, the pace slowed again.  A Chaska hooking penalty put Prior Lake on the power play, but the Lakers did nothing.

Shortly after the power play was over, the Hawks tied the game.  With three minutes to go, the Hawks launched a 3 man rush resulting in the puck bouncing in the slot in front of the Laker net.  Chaska’s Sampson one timed the bouncing puck and popped the puck in a small arc over the sprawled Laker goalie to tie the game 3-3.

The Lakers came alive after the goal and attacked the Chaska net relentlessly in the last two minutes.  The crowd went quiet when Prior Lake clanked the puck off the net in the last 15 seconds.  It was a no goal and the game ended in a 3-3 tie.

Prior Lake scored off of flurries of shots around the Chaska net last night.  Part of that was due to Efnor’s play in the Chaska net, shutting down the Lakers’ solo attempts off of breakaways.  Part of that was also due to Chaska sporadically having one man tail the Laker’s outstanding center Kevin Fellow around the ice.  Chaska did not have many quality scoring chances (only 12 SOG), but came up big on the opportunities they had.

With the tie in the Royal Pool, both teams will be looking to beat Brainerd and the Oklahoma City Oil Kings big to gain the advantage in goal differential and win the pool.  But Brainerd and Oklahoma City might have a different view.  Those two teams play in the second pool game Friday noon at Bielenberg.