The season ended with the top contending teams for the regular season title playing each other in Eau Claire, WI for the championship.  Team Southeast (TCF Bankers) won the title despite going 3-5-1 in October.  Their upset win, beating Shattuck 5-3, in a midweek game played in Faribault, MN was the key to winning the league title.  That win (a four point swing) kept the Shattuck Preps from winning the title despite playing six games less than the other teams.  Shattuck finished third behind Southeast by 3 points.

The Southeast TCF Bankers help themselves with their only two other October wins by beating Team Wisconsin twice.  That eight point swing dropped the Badgers six points behind the Bankers in the final standings.  The Badgers lost two out of three games on the final weekend to finish fifth in the league.

Team Wisconsin is a “before and after” team.  They, as hosts in April of USA Hockey’s U18 National Tourney (played in Green Bay), will have an “after” season in March and will play in the National Tourney in April.

Team Northeast (sponsored by Mpls-St. Paul Magazine) controlled their own destiny at Eau Claire as the season ended.  A single win over Shattuck or Team Wisconsin would have tied the Mspers for the title with the Bankers.  They lost both games to Shattuck 7-4 and to Team Wisconsin 5-3.

Fourth place finisher Team Northwest, lost their first game on the final weekend to Team North 6-0 in a game played at Moorhead, MN.  The Velocities had a great October going 5-1-3 but had lost too much ground in September to the Bankers.  Even a win over Team North would not have changed their second place finish.

Team North finished their up and down season in sixth place.  After beating the Velocities 6-0 at Moorhead, the North tied Great Plains 4-4 and lost to Team Southwest (sponsored by Starkey) 5-3.

The Starkeys had a miserable October winning only two of their 9 games.  The other win was an impressive 5-3 victory over Shattuck at Faribault.

The Great Plains team (sponsored by Luther’s) played .500 hockey in October going 3-3-3.  That record still was not good enough to lift them out of last place.

Team Southeast took the #1 seed into the Elite playoffs played last weekend at the New Hope Ice Arena.  The Bankers played the #8 seed, a team of D league all-stars.  In a bit of irony, the All-Star team included a number of players that the Banker’s called up to help win their title.  Team Southeast took a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period opened up a 5-1 lead in the first minutes of the second period to win 8-2.

Team Wisconsin and Team North (Muscle Milk) played in the second game of the upper bracket.  The Badgers scored three unanswered second period goals to overcome an early 2-0 North lead to win 6-2.

The Badgers and the Bankers tangled in the upper bracket semifinal game Saturday.  The first period was wide open hockey with a total of 32 shots on the net.  Team Southeast scored the first 3 goals to take a 3-0 lead halfway through the first.  Team Wisconsin struck back to score two goals before the first period ended and added two more in the second.  Halfway through the game, Team Wisconsin lead 4-3 and that was the final score.  The Badgers’ Michael Wilson got the winning goal.

In the lower bracket, the #6 seeded Southwest Starkey team beat Northwest Velocity 6-5 in a wide open game.  Starkey came out strong on two goals by Miquel Fidler to tie the Velocity 2-2 going into the second period.  The game was even at 5-5 halfway through the third period when Starkey’s Jack Murphy scored the winner.

The second lower bracket game matched the #7 seed Great Plains team (sponsored by Luther’s) against Team Northeast.  In another wide open game, the Luther’s took a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period, the MSPers came back to tie the game 3-3 at the end of the second period, and the Luther’s scored two quick goals at the six minute mark to open up a 5-3 lead and cruise to a 6-3 win upsetting the Northeasters.

In the lower bracket semifinal game, the Starkeys jumped to an early first period 2-0 lead, added two goals late in the first period to take a 4-0 lead into the second period.  Starkeys added two more second period goals and scored in the first two minutes of the third period to take a 7-0 lead before the Great Plains team could start rolling.  The Luthers came back to score three times in the third period to end the scoring 7-3.  Johnny Panvica scored the hat trick for Starkeys.  The #6 seed Starkey team advanced to the championship game Sunday against Wisconsin.

After struggling all fall season, Team Southwest blitzed Team Wisconsin 7-2 in the championship game.  The Starkeys took a 3-0 lead at the end the second period and opened up a 5-1 halfway through the third period going on to win 7-2.  The Southwesters had balanced scoring with six players scoring the seven goals.  Panvica was the only Starkey to score twice.

This weekend, the top elite players have been placed on one of two teams, the Minnesota Red or the Minnesota White.  Both teams will play in a eight team tourney at New Hope this weekend.  Quarterfinal games will be played Friday night (starting at 5:15 PM) at the New Hope Ice Arena.

In the upper bracket, the Minnesota Red plays the Edge Boys Prep team out of Calgary, Canada.  The Red are led by Carter Roo, Johnny Panvica, and Spencer Naas.  Five of the Red players (Cooper Watson, Matt Berkovitz, Brett Gruber, Michael Wilson, and Charley Graaskamp) are Wisconsin players and one, Jade Miller, is from North Dakota player.

The Edge Preps come into the tourney with a 14-6 record.  They are led by senior Taro Hirose who has posted 26 points in the Edge’s first 20 games.

In the second game in the upper bracket, Minnesota White plays an All-Star team from Massachusetts.  The White rooster has 17 Minnesota seniors on the team, four juniors, and one freshman, Joey Anderson.  The top scorers in the Elite league were split between the Red and White teams.  The White team ended up with Tommy Novak, Mitchell Slattery, and Joey Lau.

The upper bracket has Shattuck’s Prep team playing Northwood School from Lake Placid, NY.  Shattuck’s Preps are ranked #1 among USA Hockey’s U18 Tier I teams; Northwood School’s team is from a private prep school in New York with a student body of 170  and whose record is private.

The second upper bracket game matches Hill Academy against a team from the Michigan Development Hockey League.  Hill Academy, located in Ontario, has a Varsity program that draws players from minor hockey association teams.  Those players work with Hill Academy staff three times a week on skills while playing for their minor associations.  The Varsity Program then forms a team to play in tourneys as a team to represent the Hill Academy.

At New Hope this weekend will be one of those teams from Hill Academy’s Varsity Program.  They will be playing the a team drawn from the Michigan Development Hockey League.  The MDHL has just completed its fall season.  Six teams competed in the league this year.  Each team played a 16 game schedule with the playoffs completed last weekend.

The way the draw has been set up (with the two Minnesota teams in one bracket), the tourney organizers hoped that one of the two Minnesota teams could make the finals.  The bet here is that Minnesota White will end up playing the Shattuck Preps in the championship game.

The D League is also hosting a tourney with two Minnesota all-star teams from the D League playing six visitors in a bracket format tourney.  Shattuck’s Midget AAA team, a Massachusetts team, a Hill Academy team, a Michigan team, a Manitoba team, and a team from North Dakota will all play in the tourney.  That tourney wil be played mostly at New Hope Ice Arena.