At Burnsville late Saturday evening, the drama played out as a good Rosemount team struggled to make the Burnsville peewee A championships.  Earlier in the day, at Eden Prairie, Prior Lake AA and Sibley were in a fierce looser go home battle on one rink, next door host Eden Prairie AA and Minnetonka AA were providing the drama.  The Lakers tied Sibley 1-1 to win the South Pool and advance; the Minnetonka AA team beat Eden Prairie 6-4 to advance from the North Pool.  But it was the Minnetonka A’s that had the attention on the day for their play at the Burnsville Tourney.

Burnsville Pool Winners

At Burnsville Saturday morning the final round of pool play started.  Alexandria and Eastview tangled in a winner go home game that the Cardinals quickly settled.  Led by Derek Pesta (two goals) and J. J. Foster (two assists), the Cardinals jumped out to a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period and cruised to a 7-0 lead.  They swept 13 pool points from the Lightning to win Pool 2 and a ticket to Sunday’s Championship finals.

At the same time that Alex was winning, Jefferson and the Minneapolis Storm were battling it out for the Pool 1 championship.  The two teams were locked in a 2-2 tie late in the second period.  The Minneapolis’ Jake Hale and Joe Miller had scored the Storm; Jefferson’s Grayson Hight and Tyler Rollwagon had scored for the Jags in the first period.  The Storm's Hale took over the game late in the second period.  He scored the tie breaker putting the Storm up 3-2 and went on to post another quick second period goal for a hat trick and a 4-2 Storm lead.  Hale would later score his fourth goal to end the scoring 5-2.  The Storm advanced as Pool 1 winners and took the #1 seed into the championship semifinals.  The Storm would play the wildcard team.

Saturday evening, the Pool 3 winner and wildcard teams were decided.  As forecasted here, it was a two-step drama.  First, Lakeville South and Roseville battled for the Pool 3 championship.  Roseville,like the other two pool winners, scored three times in the first period to jump to a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period.  The Cougars came back to win the second period (and 2 critical pool points) and cut the Raiders’ lead to 4-2.  Roseville won the third period and the game and the Pool 3 championship scoring three unanswered goals in the third period.  Roseville’s Nik Norman, like the Storm’s Hale, scored four times in the game posting a hat trick plus one.

Now, Lakeville South had to sit in the stands and await the outcome of the night cap game between Rosemount and Minnetonka A.  The Cougars’ fate was in the hands of the Skippers.

Minnetonka A eliminates Rosemount with 8-5 win.

Rosemount needed more than 10 pool points to advance as the wild card.  The Irish needed to win those points playing a Minnetonka A, a team that had been beaten twice in the pool by Eastview (7-3) and by Alexandria (6-1).  The Irish came out fighting, scoring three times in the first 10 minutes of the game.  Zeph Gorel, Kyle Heffron, and Jackson Sabo scored for the Irish.  Rosemount seemed on their way to championship Sunday.

At the four minute mark, things changed when the Skippers’ Peter Heiam was pulled down on a breakaway and awarded a penalty shot.  Heiam scored to cut the Irish lead to 3-1.  More importantly, the goal changed the game’s momentum.  A minute later, the Skippers James Miller scored on a breakaway to cut the lead to 3-2.  The Irish held on to win the first period, but gone was the point for the shutout.  The Irish needed to win the next two periods and the game to advance.  To their credit, the team and their coaches did everything they could to win the period, except score.

The Skippers’ Jake Pankoff stunned Rosemount and brought cheers from the Lakeville South fans by scoring thirty seconds into the second period.  His score tied the game 3-3 and gave the Skippers a 1-0 second period lead.  Rosemount upped their game and applied tremendous pressure on the Tonka defense after that goal.  But the Skippers kept the Irish out of the center ice in the Tonka zone, forcing shots to the outside for the next 4 minutes.  The Irish begin crashing the net.  At the 9 minute mark, the Skipper’s Teddy Lagerback scored the killer goal to put Tonka up 4-3 in the game and 2-0 in the second period.

Rosemount came back on Jackson Sabo’s second goal to tie the game 4-4 and cut the Skippers’ second period lead to 2-1.  The Irish pulled their goalie with two minutes left in the period and got a power play with 43 seconds left on the clock.  But the Irish just could not beat the Skipper defense and goalie Lukas Haugen around the net.  The period ended in a 4-4 tie and ended Rosemount’s tourney chances.

The Lakeville South fans left after the second period; no doubt to go home and get ready for Sunday morning’s championship semifinal against the Minneapolis Storm.  Minnetonka went on to beat a disappointed Irish team 8-5.  Halfway through the third period, Tonka’s Jake Pankoff was pulled down on a breakaway and awarded a penalty shot.  Pankoff scored on the penalty shot, the second Skipper penalty shot of the game.