The Edina AA team is unbeaten this year with a shiny 23-0 record.  The Hornets beat Eden Prairie 5-0, Prior Lake 4-2, and Grand Rapids 8-2 in their last three games and lead the D6 Peewee AA league with a 7-0 record.  The #1 ranked Hornets open Saturday’s Pool A play with an evening game against #6ranked Elk River at Minnesota Made. The Elks lost to Edina 11-1 in the season opener for both teams and have not played them since that game.  The #8 ranked Elks have improved.  In December, the Elks have won 11 of the 12 games they played.  They have won their last 6 D10 games including a 4-2 win over Centennial.  Still the Elks haven’t improved enough. Edina wins this game, but does not get a 5 goal win (an important factor in determining seeding). The #10 ranked STMA Knights and the #17 ranked Lakeville North clash in the second Saturday evening game at Minnesota Made.  These two teams played each other three weeks ago.  Lakeville North won 3-2.  Since then the Knights, unbeaten in District 5 Peewee A Gold this year, have gone 7-1 in their last 8 games.  Their only lost was to the Edina A team 3-1.  STMA plays a game Wednesday against Mound/Westonka before playing Lakeville North on Saturday. Lakeville North is in third place in District 8 trailing Lakeville South and Eastview (both unbeaten).  The Panthers have won three of their last four games, beating Rosemount 2-1, Eagan 5-3, and Woodbury 5-0.  They lost to Hastings 3-0.  The Panthers also play a game Wednesday against one of the D2 leaders, Highland. Lakeville North has been an up and down type of team this year, playing well and then struggling.  Against STMA, the Panthers struggle.  The Knights win by less than 5 goals. Sunday noon, STMA plays Edina in the second round of Pool A play.  The Knights lost to the Edina A team 3-1 two weeks ago and will give the “AAers’ a battle.  Still the Hornets win, but by less than 5 goals.  The second Sunday Pool A game matches Lakeville North against Elk River.  Elk River wins by more than 5 goals. In Monday morning’s Pool A games, Edina beats Lakeville North by more than 5 goals and Elk River beats STMA by less than 5 goals.  Edina takes first place in Pool A and moves on to the championship semifinals.  Elk River takes #2 in the pool but does not get the “wild card” with a goal differential of 5. 

Lakeville South and Osseo/Maple Grove open Pool B play at Minnesota Made Saturday evening.  These two teams tied 4-4 in an early November game.  The #2 ranked Cougars sit on top of D8 with a perfect 24 points in eight games.  The Cougars have not lost since being upended by Eastview 3-1 in the Burnsville Thanksgiving Day tourney.  They have won 9 games since that loss.  Lakeville South’s only other loss was to host Edina AA 3-2 in late November.

OMG is currently in third place in District 3, but have played three games less than the two D3 teams ahead of them in the standings.  The Crimson looked to be the toughest team in District 3 this year.  Since being upended by Andover AA 2-1 in early December, OMG has gone 9-0-1.   They lost to host Edina AA 16-4 in their first game of the season and lost a tough game to the Hornets 3-2 in the Eden Prairie Thanksgiving Day Tourney. 

OMG upsets Lakeville South in a “squeaker” Saturday.

In the second game of Pool B’s opening round, matches #24 ranked Chaska against #29 ranked Blaine.  These two teams have played tough.  Chaska beat Blaine in an early season game 5-1 and have lost twice to OMG 6-2 and 6-3.  The Hawks have a .500 record in D6 with five league games left. Blaine pushed Centennial two weeks ago before losing 3-2 in a D10 game.  Centennial, Elk River and Blaine are all separating from the other D10 teams in the chase for the D10 title.  The Bengals played a good game against Centennial, beat NCBD 10-0, but then lost to Brainerd 5-3 two weekends ago.  Last weekend, the Bengals played a touring Grand Rapids team; they host Centennial in a key game this Wednesday before playing Chaska. 

This is a tough game to call and will depend on which team is ready to play.  The nod here goes to Blaine.

Chaska and Lakeville South open Sunday’s Pool B games.  Lakeville South beat Chaska 5-2 early in the season; the Cougars win again by more than 5 goals.  The second game matches Blaine and OMG.  This will be the first game of the season between the two teams, OMG wins. OMG beats Chaska in Monday morning Pool B games to win the pool.  Lakeville South beats Blaine by more than 5 goals to take second place and wins the “wild card” by goal differential. 

This is another tough pool.  The teams are evenly matched and most games will be close.   Eden Prairie opens pool play in a game against Stillwater Saturday evening at Braemar.  The #14 ranked Eagles have struggled in their games before Christmas, losing to OMG AA 5-3, host Edina AA 5-0, Duluth East 9-7 and tying Minnetonka 2-2.

Stillwater has struggled all season, but has played well in their last 5 games, beating Eden Prairie A 8-2, North St. Paul A 4-1, losing to #3 ranked Eastview AA 3-2, losing to # 18 ranked Prior Lake AA 2-1, and beating a tough Tartan A team 2-1.  Stillwater is primed to upset someone in this tourney, but the Eagles defense will prove too tough for the Stallions.  Eden Prairie wins a close game.

The second game matches #13 ranked Centennial and #12 ranked Wayzata in a game played at Minnesota Made.  Centennial has had a rough December in compiling a 7-4 record.  They lost to Edina AA 5-1, Hermantown 5-4, Elk River AA 4-2, and Prior Lake AA 3-2. They will play 15 games in December.  In January, they have scheduled 12 games and can add two more if they get to Championship Tuesday.  Their first win in December was a 5-2 win over the Wayzata AA team they play in their first Pool C game. The Wayzata AA team is a team everyone is waiting to see happen.  And everybody knows, you can’t pull on a plant to make it grow, time can only do that.  The Trojans are 5-3-1 in December.  Besides losing to Centennial, the Wayzata AAs have lost to Hermantown 4-2 and White Bear Lake 3-2.  

They have tied Prior Lake 3-3 and beaten STMA 3-0. Centennial beats Wayzata in the two teams Pool C opener.  The second round Pool C games open on Sunday noon with Centennial playing Eden Prairie.  In another close tough game, Centennial wins.

Stillwater beats Wayzata in the second game, the Stallions are getting better. Eden Prairie beats Wayzata in Pool C’s first Monday morning game; Centennial beats Stillwater to win Pool C.  Eden Prairie finishes second but fails to win the “wild card” with only a 5 goal differential.

In the first semifinal game Tuesday morning, Centennial takes the #1 seed and plays the wild card team Lakeville South.  This time, Lakeville South is prepared and beats Centennial easily to advance to the Championship game Tuesday afternoon.  In the other semifinal, Osseo/Maple Grove hands Edina their first loss of the season to advance to the Championship game. 

Last year, Lakeville South lost in the Championship game to Elk River, a game that went into overtime, shootout, and shootout sudden death.  This year, the Cougars win in regulation time. 

In the third place game, Edina beats Centennial.  Fifth place goes to Elk River.  The Elks beat Eden Prairie.