Sibley season is just starting.  The Sibley Association was classified by Minnesota Hockey as an A association.  Nobody noticed.  Their peewee teams always ended in the lower half of the District 8 standings.

The Warriors came into their opening game of the Spring Lake Park tourney having played two games.

They narrowly lost to Lakeville South 4-2 in their opening league game on Monday.  Three days later, South lost a close game to Edina 3-2.  Sibley is likely a top ten or higher peewee A team this year.  The Warriors should have been a AA team.

Wayzata, always a top association with teams that compete in the top 10 annually, went AA and A at the peewee level.  The Wayzata Gold is the peewee A team, meaning their top players are on the other (Wayzata Blue) AA team.   In an ironic twist, the Wayzata Gold were the overwhelming underdogs going into this quarterfinal matchup.

The Wayzata coaches showed up with a strategy for the game or at least it appeared that way.  In the early 1990’s, at the high school level, Jefferson played Blake.  Jefferson was the overwhelming favorite, but lost one of the few games that team would lose in their junior/senior years when Blake packed the space in front of the net, worked the puck to center ice, and dumped it into the Jefferson zone.

The Blake coach would not let his forwards chase the puck into the Jefferson zone.

That is what happened in the first half of this game.  Ironically, against Sibley, Wayzata had no shots on the Sibley net until the 6 minute mark.  Their first shot was a goal.  Blake did the exact samething in their game against Jefferson.

The first period opened as the Trojan coaches must have expected, the Sibley forwards cut through the Trojan defense in neutral ice only to get closed down by the crowd around the net.  The Trojan defense would clear the puck and the Warriors would re-launch.

At the 6 minute mark, the Trojans Luc Monney ended up with the puck deep in the Sibley zone.  His shot from the left side beat the Sibley goalie.  Wayzata’s Ike Taraszewski and Jacob Giesler got the assists.  Wayzata led 1-0.  It was their first shot on net.  It would be their only lead of the game.

By this time, the fans were beginning to notice another tactic being employed by the Trojan staff, changing goalies at almost every stoppage.  The exact intent of the changing of the goalies is a guess, but it eventually cost the Trojans.

Less than a minute after scoring, Wayzata drew a tripping penalty.  Wayzata’s defense stopped the Sibley power play and killed the penalty.  At the 3 minute mark the play was stopped with a left face off in the Trojan’s zone.  The Trojan’s switch goalie’s again.  This time Sibley’s Joseph Gimberlain set up in the slot and tipped a shot from the blue line into the upper right corner to tie the score 1-1.  Chad Crocker and Brendan McFadden got the assists.  It was the Wayzata goalie’s first shot on net.

The first period ended in a 1-1 tie.  The Trojan tactics were working.  They couldn’t stop Sibley in the open ice, but by packing low in their zone, Wayzata could prevent Sibley scoring.  The Trojans were outshot 13-3 in the first period.

The second period opened with Wayzata continuing to play defensive hockey.  They slowed the game down and continuously kept the defense low in their zone.  Wayzata continued to change goalies.  It worked.  At the 10 minute mark of the second period, the game remained tied 1-1.

It was then that Wayzata started to open up their attack.  Sibley forwards were slowing and the Warriors attack was faltering.  The Trojans started to hold the puck in the Sibley zone; their defense men at the points were starting to pinch.  Still, the Trojans were changing goalies at almost every stoppage, but the Trojans were starting to dominate the play.

At the 7 minute mark, Sibley’s Chase Foley turned the left corner on the end line deep in the Trojan’s zone near the left face off circle and fired the puck at the net.  He beat the Wayzata goalie high between the goalie’s glove and the pipe.  The puck hit the net in the right corner behind the goalie and Sibley led 2-1.  It was an unassisted goal.  The goalies had just been switched before that shot.

Wayzata moved out of the defensive mode after that goal and pressured the Sibley net.  The Trojans played their best hockey of the game, but could not score.  Neither team could score.  The second period ended with Sibley leading 2-1, but the Trojans out shot the Warriors 11-8 in the period.

The Trojans’ coaches had a strategy; their team executed the strategy well.  Going into the third period, Wayzata was very much in the game.

The Trojans opened their game and attacked Sibley in the opening minutes of the third period.  It took the Warriors 90 seconds to score.  Sibley’s Grayson Milosch ended up with the puck in the left slot area and skated towards a Wayzata defenseman in the slot.  When he had closed the gap to less than 10 feet, he fired a quick pass through the Wayzata defender to Nick Davidson breaking in the right crease.  Davidson buried the puck to put Sibley up 3-1.  Milosch and McFadden got the assists.

A minute later, Wayzata had a chance on a solo breakaway to cut the lead to a goal.  The Trojans caught the Warriors on a poor shift change, but the Warrior’s goalie, Robbie Wolf, made a big stop.  Unfortunately, a minute later, the Trojans scored.

This time, trailing by two goals and with 7 minutes left on the clock, the Trojans became very aggressive.

They setup in the Sibley zone and crashed one of their defense men.  He skated low and forced the play leaving just one defense man back at the blue line.  It created a melee in front of the Sibley net.  The Trojans’ Nathan Clark scored the goal, Alex Bach and Ryan Hoglund got the assists.  With a half a period to play, the Trojans were trailing by a single goal 3-2 and still in the game and still changing the goalies on stoppages.

The Trojans tried to repeat their scoring play.  They set up in the Sibley zone and again a defense man crashed the net.  This time the Warriors dumped the puck wide at the blue line and the Warriors’ McFadden picked up the puck, beat what remained of the Trojans’ defense, soloed in on the goalie and top shelved the puck to put Sibley up 4-2.  Chase Foley got the assist.

Wayzata tried to open up the game again, but it resulted in another Sibley breakaway.  This time Nicholas Castro scored on a solo rush.  Milosch got the assist.

Sibley led 5-2 with a little over 4 minutes left in the game.

The Trojans had one more card to play.  They established puck control in the Sibley zone off the ensuing center face off and with a little more than 4 minutes left in the game, they pulled their goalie.  For a minute they pressured the Warriors in the Sibley zone until the Trojans drew a checking penalty.  It was only the second penalty of the game.

The Trojans pushed the puck back into the Sibley zone after the faceoff.  They never put the goalie back in the net and played 5 on 5 on the penalty kill, but could not score.  When the penalty ended and with less than a minute left on the clock, Sibley’s McFadden finally scored an empty netter to end the game 6-2.

Peewee players are basically kids growing up.  The Wayzata coaches did everything to keep their team in the game.  They did keep their kids in the game.  Sibley has the better players at this point in the season and it will be very interesting to see these kids playing a good team again.

But for the Wayzata fans, your kids really learned something about hockey as they struggled to avoid a “12-0” blowout.  The Wayzata coaches had to go into overdrive to help the team.  The Wayzata kids should really benefit from this game and learn.  They should be better players in the future.  So we have a AA/A system to avoid “12-0” blowouts?  Is that learning?

As for Sibley, the same AA/A system will cut down the competition they will see this year.  Last year, they would have played Wayzata’s A team in this tourney.

Sibley went on to win the Spring Lake Park tourney.  They beat Forest Lake 4-0 in the semifinals and Mahtomedi 5-0 in the championship game.  Wayzata played in the consolation title game and lost to Spring Lake Park 4-3.  The Trojans beat Osseo/Maple Grove peewee A team 4-0 on Saturday to get there.