District 8 Peewee A league opens play this week.  Lakeville North played Apple Valley at Hayes Arena last night.  The game matched a Minnesota Hockey classified AA team (Lakeville North) against a Minnesota Hockey classified A team (Apple Valley).

District 8, unlike District 6 or District 10, have not attempted to change anything during the regular season as a result of Minnesota Hockey’s decision to split the year end tourneys into AA and A at the peewee level.  The District 8 peewee A league this year consists of 12 teams.  Seven D8 associations were classified by Minnesota Hockey as AA and are fielding AA teams (Eagan, Eastview, Farmington, Hastings, Lakeville North, Lakeville South, Rosemount, and Woodbury) whether the associations realize it or not.

Six associations have been classified as A by Minnesota Hockey.  Two associations, Inver Grove Heights and South St. Paul have combined again this year and are fielding one peewee A team under the Inver Grove Heights/South St. Paul banner.  The Como/Johnson association is not fielding an A team this year; Apple Valley, Cottage Grove, and Sibley are.

District 8 has three seeds to the East Regional at the AA and A level.  Both AA and A classified teams will play teams from District 2 (two) and District 6 (three).  The East AA Regional will be played at Cottage Grove.  District 6 curently has classified seven teams as AA and has four A associations playing peewee hockey.  District 2 has five AA teams this year and four A teams.

The three D8 peewee A seeds sent to the East Regional will play at South St. Paul’s Wakota Arena.  They will also join two A teams from District 2 and three A teams from District 6.   With only four D8 teams being eligible for the A playoffs, each D8 regular season game takes on added importance.  D8 has been known to use regular season finish to seed playoffs.  Under their current format, all 12 peewee AA/A teams will play in the D9 playoffs.  The first four games of the playoffs will be determined by the order which the bottom 8 teams finish.  The first round game is usually a single elimination game.

Regular D8 league play was always important, but with the split, all playoff games become more important.  Lakeville North first four games of the season were against D6 teams.  The Panthers beat Burnsville, Chaska, and Jefferson.  They lost to Prior Lake to go 3-1 in their first four games.  Apple Valley lost to Champlin Park (from D10) in one of their pre-season games.  Nobody knew what to expect from the Eagles.

All D8 regular season peewee A games are 12 minute stop time periods.  The first two minutes of the opening period was evenly skated between the two teams; neither team could mount a significant threat.

The Eagles defense turned the puck in their zone, their wings would break out with a nice passing play, but the Eagles could not hold the puck in the Lakeville North zone.  The Panthers would breakout mostly carrying the puck across the Eagles’ blue line by physically staying stronger in their skates and skating through the Eagles checking attempts.

At the 8 minute mark, the Panthers started to pressure and hold the Eagles in the Apple Valley zone.  Two minutes later, the Panthers scored off a melee in front of the Valley net.  The Panthers’ Mark Buckingham scored the goal; YHH top 50 pick from last season, Garrett Daly, got the assist.

A minute later, the Eagles defense broke down in the Apple Valley zone and started to “chase the puck”.  It resulted in a second Panther goal when a Panther forward along the end boards fed a nice pass to Buckingham alone in the slot left who buried the puck in the net with a hard shot.  Blake Brandt got the assist.  Lakeville North led 2-0.

North picked up a cross checking penalty after the goal.  The Panthers killed the penalty, but it allowed the Eagles to re-group.  North pressured the Eagles in the final minutes of the first, especially after the Eagles drew a checking penalty, but could not score.  The first period ended with the Panthers leading 2-0.  The Apple Valley team looked to be in trouble.

The Eagles came out in the second period, killed what remained on the penalty, and started to pressure the Panthers.  The Valley team was fueled by a nice save by goalie Mattew Smith on a hard shot from the slot.  Both teams started to apply pressure, gaining control in their offensive zone, and getting better shots on goal.

At the 7 minute mark, Apple Valley’s Parker Jamison picked up the puck low in Panthers’ zone in the right faceoff and put a rolling shot on the Panther net.  The puck “climbed” the goalie and bounced into the net to cut the Panthers’ lead to 2-1.  The goal was unassisted.

Thirty seconds later, the Eagle drew a penalty killing their momentum.  The Eagles killed the penalty, but were trapped in their zone.  The Panthers applied their best sustained pressure of the game, but could not score.  Their points pinched down on the Apple Valley breakout attempts and repeatly put the puck deep in the Valley zone.  Still the Eagles survived the last few minutes of the second period; the period ended with North up 2-1.

In the opening minutes of the third period, the two teams played the best hockey of the game.  Both teams worked hard and the game went up tempo.  North was pressuring Valley in the Eagles zone at the 6 minute mark, when the Eagles broke out.  This time, the Eagles’ Ethan Michaelson scored on a shot the caromed of the Lakeville goalie into the upper right corner of the net.  The goal was the second unassisted goal of the game for Apple Valley.  The Eagles had tied the Panthers 2-2.

The North defense became more aggressive after that score.  They were pinching lower in the zone and it was paying off.  The Eagles defense was starting to scramble in the Eagles’ zone as the Panthers applied continuous pressure.  With 30 seconds left in the game, the Panthers’ aggressive play paid off with the game winning goal.  A Panther put the puck on the net on the ice.  The goalie dove to cover the puck, rather than make the save.  As he dove, the puck was deflected through him and into the net.  Lakeville North won the game 3-2.

The Lakeville North team played in early season form.  After beating up tougher D6 teams, they were surprised by the Apple Valley team.  The Eagles forwards showed that they could pass.  Often their rushes consisted of three or four passes.  The Eagles timing was off once in the offensive zone.  Still their forwards played a solid game.