This week seems like a Woodbury week in youth hockey. The Peewee A team made it to the finals of the St. Cloud Center Ice Classic championship game played Monday morning. Tuesday, the Woodbury Rumble Bantam AA and Bantam A tourney opens with NOW ranked #3 Prior Lake Bantam AA team playing #17 ranked Chaska/Chanhassen AA in the opening game of an 8 team bantam AA tourney. The game will be played at Bielenberg Arena starting at 8:15 PM Tuesday night (tonight).
The Woodbury Association has fielded a bantam AA and a bantam A team this year. Each will host a separate tourney. The Woodbury AA team, in a battle for the top spot in District 8 Bantam A league with Lakeville South AA, Rosemount AA, Farmington AA, and Lakeville North AA, hosts seven teams led by NOW ranked #3 Prior Lake/Savage and the Oklahoma Oil Kings Bantam Gold.
The Woodbury A team, in last place in the same bantam A league as the Woodbury AA team, hosts an eight team field led by two of the NOW ranked top three bantam A teams, #1 ranked Wayzata A and #3 ranked Edina A.
The 9 team Bantam A tourney will be played simultaneously with the 8 team Bantam AA tourney over this coming week. The bantam A tourney has 8 A teams entered; Eastview AA is the ninth team. Games will be played at Bielenberg Arena in Woodbury, Cottage Grove Arena, and Harding Arena in St. Paul.
One of the surprising entries in the Rumble’s Bantam AA tourney is the Oklahoma City Oil Kings Bantam Gold. This is the second Oil King team to play in a Minnesota hockey tourney this winter. The Oil King’s peewee team had a good Edina Peewee A Invitational tourney a month ago. The Oil Kings play in the Dallas Stars Traveling Hockey League.