The Spring Lake Park Tourney was played last weekend.  On Sunday, Spring Lake Park beat Denfeld 5-0 in the championship game in a tourney that was full of surprises.  This tourney in past years has produced some surprise teams.  Last year, Minnesota peewee A's were split into to AA and A levels  and this tourney this year may have emerged as a premier peewee A tourney.  This year’s Panther Classic tourney may have been a preview of the Peewee A State Tourney to be played in Crookston next March.  At least six of the eight peewee A teams entered (Spring Lake Park, White Bear Lake A, Armstrong, Prior Lake A, Mahtomedi, and Denfeld) should be in contention for the regional seeds to the state.  The remaining two teams entered, Waconia and Kennedy/Richfield played tough against those teams.

Last Year’s Tourney

Last season at the peewee A level, most of the attention went to Sibley, Edina A, Orono, and Minneapolis Storm teams.  In last year's Panther Classic, Sibley won the title beating Mahtomedi 5-0.  Spring Lake Park took the consolation title. 

Riding just under all the notoriety last year, Spring Lake Park’s peewees won D10’s regular season title and swept the D10’s peewee A playoffs to take D10’s #1 seed to the West Regional.  There they ran afoul of the Storm, losing 10-1 to the eventual state champs and getting knocked out of the tourney the next day losing to Detroit Lakes 5-3.  Still, for a team composed mostly of first year players, that was not a bad season.

The Panthers have 8 returnees from last year’s D10 championship team and combined with three players off their B1 team they enter this season with a strong team that should repeat as D10 champions and make a strong run for the state tourney in March.  In a unofficial scrimmage early this month, the Panthers took apart a veteran Mounds View team that also feature returning players.

Panther Classic Begins

The Spring Lake Park Panther Classic opened play last Friday (November 15) night at Fogerty Arena in Blaine, MN with four quarterfinal games.  The Classic consists of an 8-team peewee A tourney and an 8-team peewee B tourney.

This year’s draw has the Panther’s opening quarterfinal games playing White Bear Lake A and Kennedy/Richfield playing Armstrong/Cooper in the upper bracket.  In the lower bracket, Prior Lake/Savage A played Mahtomedi and Duluth Denfeld played Waconia.

Quarterfinal Games

The Panthers beat White Bear Lake A 4-2 in a good opening game Friday.  The two teams battled to a scoreless tie until late in the second period when the puck ended up on the Panther's Benjamin Palmer's stick in the low right face.  His shot hit the back of the net to Spring Lake Park up 1-0.  Jacob Mclellan got the assist.

The Bears opened the third period on the power play and caught the Panther penalty kill over shifted to the right side.  A Bear shot on the net caromed to the weak side left to White Bear Lake's Andrew Foss.  Foss buried the puck in the wide open goal to tie the game 1-1.  Jacob Dawe got the assist.

Thirty seconds later, White Bear Lake’s Casey Cunningham beat the Panther defense on a rush down the slot and put the puck in the net past a diving defense to give the Bears a 2-1 lead.  The Bear's Spencer Millard and Triston Johnston got assists on Cunningham's goal.

It took the Panthers one minute to tie the game.  They came back to score on a deflected shot from the blue line center to make it a 2-2 game.  A Bear penalty 30 seconds after the tying goal resulted in the game winning score.  The Panthers's Palmer scored his second goal of the game.  Palmer got the game winner when he put a loose puck rebounding on the edge of the left side crease into the net.  Creighton McMahon got the assist.  Spring Lake Park’s added an insurance goal late in the third period when Blake Shiro scored unassisted on the power play to end the scoring 4-2.

In the other three quarterfinal games, Armstrong beat Kennedy 5-0; Prior Lake A upset Mahtomedi 2-1, and Denfeld beat Waconia A 4-2.  The Zephyrs losing to the Lakers was the biggest upset at the peewee A level in the early season.

Semifinal Games

Semifinal games matched Spring Lake Park and Armstrong in one game; Prior Lake and Denfeld in the second game.  Both games were settled by a 1-0 score.

The Panthers and the Falcons battled to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation and overtime forcing a shootout.  The Panthers’ Creighton McMahon scored the shootout tie breaker.  McMahon skated down the right slot and got Armstrong's goalie Nikki Harnett to commit early.  With the goalie down, McMahon moved left and slid the puck into the right side of the net.  The Panthers’ Adam Johnson scored later to ice the shootout and give Spring Lake Park a 1-0 semifinal win.

Three times in the game, Armstrong thought they had scored only to have the goal waved off.

In the second semifinal game, Prior Lake A battled Denfeld to a 0-0 tie halfway through their semifinal game before giving up a goal on a partially screened shot from the center blue line.  The 1-0 Hunter lead held up for the rest of the game.  It was a hard fought, evenly played, pair of semifinal games Saturday at Fogerty.

Sunday Games

Spring Lake Park beat Denfeld in the championship game Sunday 5-0 to take the championship this year.  Denfeld played tough but eventually were worn down by the Panthers speed at forward.  Spring Lake Park should repeat as D10 champs and end up in the West Regional played in Anoka next March.  They will be favorites to make it to the state tourney in Crookston but may face D15’s Detroit Lakes again on the way to that state tourney seed.

Denfeld is a strong team with some size at defense and at the forwards.  They should have a good year in D11 and end up in the North Regional played in Virginia.  The Hunters will be contending with host Virginia out of D12 and Mahtomedi and White Bear Lake A from D2 for North’s two seeds to the state tourney.

Armstrong beat Prior Lake A 1-0 in the third place game.  The Falcons’ played extremely tough defense.  Nikki Harnett in the nets did not give up a single goal in regulation or overtime play.  The Falcon’s only loss was the shootout loss to Spring Lake Park in the semifinals.  Armstrong will surprise D3 teams this year, but the Falcons have a tough road to travel in D3.  Last year’s two Peewee A State finalists came from D3 (Minneapolis Storm and Orono).  If Armstrong gets to the South Regional, they will be facing teams that play in D4/D5 (Luverne, River Lakes, Sartell, and Marshall).

Prior Lake also has a tough road in their district.  D6 is a perennially tough league year after year.  The Lakers will be contending with Edina A, Chaska Chanhassen A, Minnetonka, and Waconia (currently in second place in D6).  If the Lakers make it to the East Regional played in Rochester, they will be in a battle with teams from D8 (Farmington, Hastings, or last year’s East Regional champions Park Cottage Grove) and D9 (Rochester Black, Mankato, or Red Wing).

In the consolation title game, Mahotmedi beat a tiring White Bear Lake A team 6-1.  The Zephyrs were the strongest team on Sunday and ended up being in the consolation title after being upset in the quarterfinals by Prior Lake A.  The Zephyrs are favorites to win the D2 title this year, but White Bear Lake A will certainly contend especially by the end of the year for a D2 seed to the North Regional.   

In Sunday’s seventh place game, Waconia beat Kennedy (another D6 team) 4-2.  Both these teams have talent, but are just starting to play together as a team.  February playoffs will be the key for both as they develop over the season.

It would not be surprising to see a number of the Panther Classic teams paired against each other in the peewee A state tourney in March.  If you are looking ahead, next March’s state peewee A (and bantam A) tourney quarterfinal seeds have been posted.  The West seeds play the South seeds and the North seeds play the East seeds.  That means Spring Lake Park and Denfeld could meet in the state championship.