Thursday night, Edina’s peewee AA team hosted Lakeville South in a game at Minnesota Made Ice Arena in Edina.  Edina came into the game with an unblemished 6-0 record have beaten tough teams by average score of 10-1.  Lakeville South had struggled in the early season, but had managed to stay unbeaten in compiling a 4-0-2 record.  Their two ties were their opening season game with White Bear Lake 1-1.  Two weeks ago, the Cougars tied Osseo/Maple Grove 4-4 and earlier this week edged Sibley 4-2 in their District 8 opening game.  Edina beat the same OMG team 16-4 in their opening game of the season.

The Hornets were favored to beat South easily, but they struggled from the start and hung on at the end to eke out the win.  The Cougars have the talent to skate with the Hornets and they have the size advantage and knew how to use their size to body the smaller Hornets off the puck.

It took a minute of the opening 12 minute period for both teams to get going.  Most of the play was in the neutral ice until the Hornets started to roll and establish possession in the Cougar’s zone.

It led to a Cougar checking penalty.  No team could get a shot on goal until Edina got on the power play.  Edina’s power play is well organized, but South’s defense especially in the corners, constantly pressured the Edina forwards while holding position.  The Hornets managed two shots on net.
The penalty killed, the game returned to neutral ice as the puck bounced between the two teams.

With 4 minutes left in the first period, Edina’s Lewis Crosby ended up with the puck along the right boards in the Cougar’s zone.  Crosby was pushed to the outside by the Cougar’s defense and let a shot go just before the end line.  The puck caught the edge of Lakeville goalie’s right pad and bounced upward into the left corner of the net to put Edina up 1-0.

A minute later, Lakeville South’s forward Aaron Grounds picked up a loose puck at the Lakeville blue line and soloed through the Edina team and scored on backhand to tie the game 1-1.  The goal was unassisted.  A minute later, Lakeville South’s defenseman Jack Olsen did the same thing only to be stopped by the Hornet’s goalie, Joshua Solomon.  It was game on.

The Hornets had the upper edge in the first half of the period; the Cougars had the edge in the second half of the opening period.  It was a clean, fast paced first period of hockey that ended in a 1-1 tie.

The second period opened with a quick Edina goal.  On the opening rush into South’s zone, the Hornets Clayton Phillips scored from the center blue line on a shot that screened Lakeville South’s goalie.  Liam Malmquist got the assist.  Edina led 2-1

For the next 4 minutes, the Hornets pressured South in the Cougar’s zone, but couldn’t score.  The Cougars broke the Hornets’ pressure and established puck control deep in the Hornets zone at the 7 and a half minute mark.  South’s David Byers tried to feed a Lakeville player in the slot and the puck hit the Hornet goalie in the left skate and bounced into the net to tie the score 2-2.  The Cougar’s Luke Williams got the assist.

It took the Hornets 10 seconds to regain the lead and end the scoring.  Off the center ice faceoff, the Hornets took the puck into the Cougar’s zone and scored.  Crosby scored the game winner.  It was his second goal of the game.  Stephen Doll and Richard Holetz got the assists.

At that point, Lakeville South changed goalies.  The Cougars had planned to split the time between their two goalies.  Lexi Baker came in to replace Isaiah Dilaura.  She did an excellent job in the net, shutting down the Hornets for the rest of the game.

Penalties took over the remainder of the second period.  It started with an Edina tripping penalty twenty seconds after the game winner.  Edina had killed most of their tripping penalty when Lakeville drew a hooking penalty creating a 4 on 4.  Edina dominated the 4 on 4 and as it ended, Lakeville drew a second hooking penalty.

The Hornets had a 5 on 3 for 90 seconds and pressured the Lakeville net, but couldn’t score.  Edina drew a tripping penalty as the second period wound down and killed that penalty.

The last seven minutes of the second period had been skated with one or both teams shorthanded.  The game had lost momentum.

The final period went to running time.  Unlike the second period, the third period was played almost penalty free.  Lakeville South had early pressure, the Hornets pressured in the middle period.  As the third period wound down, Lakeville South was positioning for one last push.

With a little more than 2 minutes on the clock, the Cougars finally had their top players on the ice and were pressuring when an Edina forward trapped the puck along the sideboards in neutral ice.  The Edina player had the puck in his skates facing the board and was holding the puck, not attempting to move in either direction.  A Cougar poked at the Hornets skates causing him to stumble slightly.  A ref on the far side called the Cougar for tripping and effectively ended the game.

It was a bad call.  Edina won 3-2.

But looks to be a good season of hockey.