Eden Prairie's Thanksgiving Tourney consists of three tourney's, Bantam AA,Bantam B1, and Peewee AA.  This posts previews the 16 team peewee AA tourney.  Edina AA won the tourney last year, but were almost in the last pool game by Osseo/Maple Grove AA.  The Hornets won that game, beat Wayzata AA 9-0 in their Sunday morning semifinal game.  In the championship, Edina had to battle a tough Minnetonka AA team, beating them 4-2 to win the title.

North Pool (Eden Prairie AA, Lakeville North AA, Centennial AA, and Minnetonka AA)

The past few years in their tourney, the Eden Prairie entrant has always been on the edge on not making Sunday’s championship round.  Most of the time, the Eagles always managed to make it into the semifinals, but not last year.  The Eagles have posted an 8-5 record in the early going season, their best win was a 6-3 win over Rosemount at the Big Pumpkin.  This year’s Eagles will be under the pressure to advance from the North Pool.

Lakeville North struggled for most of November, but have gone 3-0 in the past 10 days beating D8 opponents Apple Valley (twice) and Eastview.  Centennial AA has gotten off to a miserable start in D10 going 0-4 losing to Elk River twice 8-0 and 3-1, Andover 2-0, and Rogers 5-0.  The Cougars are perennially in a battle with Elk River for #1 in D10 by the end of the season.  They come into the this tourney looking to turn things around.

Eden Prairie’s has a problem this year is they are to advance.  They will have to avoid a second loss in one week to Minnetonka AA, the fourth team in the North Pool.  The Eagles lost last Sunday 5-3 in a D6 game.  Minnetonka (6-2) already owns an 11-4 win over Lakeville North and has played well in the early season.  With seven players off the peewee A team from last season, the Skippers should win the pool.

Centennial and Eden Prairie should battle for second, the edge going to the host and Lakeville North finishes fourth.

South Pool (Prior Lake/Savage AA, Blaine AA, Rochester AA, and Sibley AA)

This is the toughest pool of any of the four tourneys.  Any of the four teams could emerge as the champions.  Here schedule plays a key role.  The opening pool games Friday matches Blaine AA and Prior Lake AA.  The Bengals are 3-0 in D10 with two wins over Rogers and a 2-0 win over Champlin Park AA.  Overall, Blaine has posted a 7-1-1 record.  Prior Lake AA has posted a 12-3 record overall (3-1 in D6 play losing to Edina AA 3-1 last Saturday).  Skating their first game of the tourney, the Lakers should eke out a win over the Bengals.

The second South Pool game matches Sibley AA and Rochester AA.  Sibley had a good season last year at peewee A and moved up to AA this year.  The Warriors posted an 8-2 record so far this season.  After being upset in their season opener by Andover 3-1 they strung some good wins together before losing to Edina AA 5-3.  Rochester AA has gotten off to a great start going 7-0-1 most notably beating Highland 6-3 last week end.  Sibley will test the Red’s high scoring offense, but fail.  Rochester wins.

Friday night’s last two games match Rochester and Prior Lake; and match Sibley and Blaine.  Rochester has beaten the Lakers earlier this month 4-0 and should beat them again.  Blaine and Sibley battle in the second game.  Sibley overcomes Blaine’s defense and beats the Bengals

In Saturday’s final pool games, Blaine’s defense beats the Rochester offense.  Blaine wins but Rochester takes the pool.  Sibley beats Prior Lake but looses the pool championship to Rochester on a tie breaker (head to head).

East Pool (Edina AA, Champlin Park AA, Wayzata AA, and Elk River AA)

The unbeaten Edina AA team (16-0) should sweep this pool and extend their winning streak to 74 games.  The Hornets have beaten Wayzata AA 8-4 and Elk River AA 11-2 already this season.  They have not played Champlin Park this season.  Edina plays the 6-6-1 Rebels in the first East pool and should win and go on to beat the Trojans and the Elks to sweep the pool and take the #1 seed into the championship semifinal round Sunday morning.

Wayzata is the team most likely to challenge the Hornets.  They have one of the top lines in the state and have talent on their other two lines that appears to be coming along.  Since their early season loss to the Hornets, the Trojans have gone 7-2 (losing to OMG 8-1 and Sibley 4-2) in the past month.

Elk River AA got off to a good start in D10 going 5-0; but last weekend lost to Andover AA 4-1 and barely beat Champlin Park AA 2-1.  The Rebels and the Elks will likely battle for third or fourth in the East Pool.

West Pool (Chaska/Chanhassen AA, Stillwater AA, Sartell A, and Andover AA)

There is one “old guard” team, Stillwater AA, mixed with three “youngsters” in this pool.  Stillwater peewee A teams have done well in this tourney year after year.  Chaska AA has a solid team this year after struggling the past three years; Sartell A has a rising program in District 5; and Andover AA team is building on last year’s season to make a run in D10 this year.

The Ponies are an "enigima" in the early season, beating some good teams and struggling against others.  The question is which team will show up, the one that beat Minnetonka AA 2-1 ten days ago or the one that lost to Roseville AA 5-0 last Sunday.  The Pony fans better hope it is the Minnetonka version because their opening pool game will be against Chaska AA.  The 10-3 Hawks are looking to knock off Edina AA and end the Hornets’ winning streak in this tourney.  They have done well in November winning five games (including wins over Eden Prairie AA and Minnetonka AA) since losing 4-2 to the Hornets.

The Sartell Association had three state tourney entrants last March (peewee B, peewee A, and bantam A).  They remain a peewee A team this year and are 1-1 in D5’s peewee AA/A league; losing 3-1 to Buffalo AA and beating River Lakes A 3-1.  Overall, the Sabres are 7-1 on the season.  Last Sunday, they beat Edina A 4-3.  Andover AA should be one of the teams taken selected by the committee to move on to regional play in March.  They have posted a 7-5-5 record overall.  Most of the 17 game played have resulted in less than 5 goals being scored.  Andover has a tough penalty kill.

The Huskies’ association skated a peewee AA and a peewee A teams last season.  This year’s Andover peewee AA team has benefitted.  Four AA returnees and five peewee A players made the roster.  They played Edina AA tough and tied Wayzata AA 3-3 earlier this year.  

But Chaska AA should take the West Pool.  The Hawks are hungry and will likely consider this pool a warm-up for the championships on Sunday.

Championship Sunday should match Edina AA and Minnetonka AA in one semifinal game; Rochester AA and Chaska AA in the other semifinal game.  Edina and Minnetonka met in last year’s championship with the Hornets winning a tight game 4-2.  This year will be even tighter, but the Hornets eke it out.  The Hawks should roll over the Red in the other semifinal game setting up the fourth meeting this season between the Hawks and the Hornets.

Best Game To Watch

There is one game that is likely to be the top tourney game of the weekend and that is the championship game played on Rink 1 starting at 4:15 PM Sunday.  Edina AA has a favorable draw and will likely play Chaska AA in the championship game.  Edina will be putting a 75 game winning streak on the line in the championship game and the Hawks will be out to end it.  Chaska AA has lost the first three games 5-3, 4-1, and 4-2 they played with the Hornets this season.  In their fourth try, they win.