Thursday game started slow for both teams. The Elks started to mount some pressure on the Hornets in the opening minutes and it led to an Edina slashing penalty. It also led to two Edina shorthanded goals.
The first Hornet goal was a classic Edina peewee A team score. Two Edina forwards started a 2-on-2 rush. Halfway into the Elks’ zone, the Hornets’ Jett Jungels came off the left boards into the teeth of the Elks’ defense and drew the right side defender towards him. Jungels fired a pass through the out of position defenders to Ben Dexheimer on the weak side. Dexheimer blasted the puck by the Elk’s goalie, Megan Jung, to put the Hornets up 1-0.
Ten seconds later Edina’s Nico Vega scored the second shorthanded goal by simply beating the Elk defense. Vega took face off in neutral ice and skating straight down the slot beat the Elks’ goalie Jung off a backhand shot from the top of the crease. Edina led 2-0. The second shorthanded goal set the Elks back. They played more tentative in the minutes after the two scores. Against a good team, that is a sure way to lose.
For the next five minutes of the opening period, Edina applied pressure holding the Elks in the Elks’ zone. The Hornets’ defense men were standing their ground at the blue line and driving the puck into the Elks’ corners. If the Elks could gain the side board for a clearing pass to neutral, they were pinched between the center and wing and forced to throw the puck in the neutral zone. The Hornets’ defense would quickly dump the puck back into the Elks zone.
At the 5 minute mark, Edina’s Aaron Frenkel picked up a loose puck in the Elks’ zone and walked in on Jung. He top shelved the puck to put the Hornets up 3-0. Jungels scored a minute later and Liam Malmquist beat the Elks’ defense to walk in on Jung for the fifth Edina goal.
The Hornets led 5-0 after the first period.
The play slowed in the opening minutes of the second period and it led to an unassisted Elk River goal by Zach Buchert to cut Edina’s lead to 6-1. The Elks got one more, but Edina score four more times in the second to take a 9-2 lead into the third period. The final score was 11-2.
This year, the Hornet roster is populated with more second year players then the previous two years and looks ready to “run the table” again meaning they could go 110-0. The Edina forwards are quick and beat the smaller Elk defense. Still it is “early innings”.
Elk River battled with Centennial and Andover and won the D10 regular season title last season. Then the Elks were upended by Rogers and Andover in the D10 playoffs. The Elks backed into a North Regional birth only to be bounced by Duluth East and Bemidji.
This year being first in the D10 Peewee AA playoff means a birth in a South, East, or West regional tourney. The Elks should contend in D10 this year, they have the “makings” for one of the top lines in the state.
Pool play at the Big Pumpkin in Bloomington continues with seven pool games scheduled Friday (non-stop action from 3:15 PM to 9:30 PM at BIG). Edina plays Lakeville South in a Friday game at 4:30 on the Olympic sized rink, BIG 3. Elk River has Friday off and plays two pool games on Saturday, Lakeville South and White Bear Lake.