The players on the two Lakeville teams that played last night are the product of one association, Lakeville.  They have played against and with each other from mites to bantams and have occasionaly switched schools.  That makes for rivalry.  But what accentuates that rivalry is that to make the state tourney, one of the two schools has to win the 1AA Sectional to go to state.  For the last four seasons, that has meant beating the other team in the sectionals.  That is the game that counts.  It is not likely to change this season.  Last night was the first "go round".  

Lakeville North and Lakeville South play twice during the regular season as part of the South Suburban Conference schedule.  Those two games are becoming the most contested rivalry games in the state.  Both schools consider other teams on their schedule as warm-ups.  This season the Cougars play #2 ranked Hill-Murray, #5 Eden Prairie, #7 Duluth East, #6 Edina, and #10 Prior Lake and the Panthers have Eden Prairie, Hill-Murray, Duluth East, and #8 St. Thomas Academy on their schedule.

Beating any of these top teams is okay, but the rivalry matters.  Getting to the Class AA State Tourney at the Xcel in March is their goal.  Last night North won the first go round 6-0 and last year South won the first go round 5-1.  North went to state last season.

Last year, both teams had losing season records.  Lakeville North beat South 6-3 in the Section 1AA finals.  The news shocked some hockey fans, that a team with an 8-16-1 in regular season could sweep the Section 1AA tourney and gain the state.  That didn’t shock the Lakeville fans; both teams could go 1-24 (beating each other once) and it would come down to who beats who in the 1AA Sectional finals.

In front of a packed crowd that included a full Panther marching band last night at Ames Arena in Lakeville, the first test of who beats who was played.  Lakeville South is loaded with talent this year with Nick Swaney and Patrick Lauderdale leading the way on offense and Daniel Swail at goal.  North has an offense is led by the Poehling brothers (Jack #1 scorer, Ryan #3 scorer, and Nick #5 scorer) and have a tough defense led by Jack Sadek.

Going into the game, North had the edge over South in defense and would be forcing the South forwards to the outside keeping their shots on goal down.  The Cougars’ defense has been struggling and against a deeper Panther team (at forward), South would be relying more on their goalie Swail.  

Three brothers act as one chess master

The arena was packed by 6:15 PM for a 7:00 game last night.  The parking lot adjacent to the arena was full.  Arriving early meant arriving before 6:00 PM otherwise you parked and walked.  The two teams hit the Olympic size sheet and North got the early pressure in the Cougar’s zone.  It didn’t last long, South trapped the North defense and controlled the puck in the Panther’s zone.  It would be one of the few shifts in the game where that happened.  Four minutes into the game, both teams were playing loose, both were taking the puck into their opposition’s zone; then North started to take over.

They began to dominate play by containing South in the Cougar’s half of the ice.  More importantly, they started to get position low on South’s goalie.  Often two or all three of the Panther forwards would “camp” on the crease edges looking for rebounds.  The Panther defense moved the puck well, setting up the forward’s play.  But it was the Poehling brothers line that cut apart the South defense.  They collectively played chess master.  With Nick at center, Jack and Ryan at wings they found the passing lanes and manipulated the South defense like chess pieces on a board.  Swail, a top high school goalie, was left to stop often point blank shots from the crease edges.  Oddly, after numerous point blank shots, North’s first score came late in the period and was triggered by a shot from the blue line.

With just under 3 minutes left in the first period, Angelo Altavilla’s put a hard shot crossbar high from the left blue line that was tipped downward into the net by Jack Poehling in the left slot.  Poehling got the goal; Altavilla got the assist.  The first period ended with the Panthers up 1-0.  Still, the Cougars were not out of the game.  Despite being outshot 15-4 in the opening period, South would start the second period with most of a two minute power play.

Power Plays Don’t Help

The South power play took control of the puck in the Panther’s zone to open the second period.  They worked the puck well and got some good shots on Will Dupont, North’s goalie.  North killed the penalty and immediately went into the attack mode, driving the puck low in the Cougar’s zone.  They scored in less than a minute once the Panthers returned to full strength.  Jack McNeely got the Panthers' goal on a tip shot from the low left faceoff circle.  Max Johnson got the assist.  Panthers led 2-0.

A minute after taking a 2-0 lead, North drew a elbowing penalty.  On the power play for the second time in the opening minutes of the second period, South still could not beat the North defense at the Panther’s blue line.  The Cougars resorted to dumping the puck deep, but North easily cleared the zone by using a simple breakout play along the boards (defense to forward at the boards mid-zone and a pass to breaking Panther in the center blue line or a clearing pass to the far opposite boards).  Cougars did little on the second power play.

The second period ended with North leading 2-0.  South had narrowed the shots on goal to 24-14 going into the third period, but most of their second period shots came on their two power plays at the start of the period.

Slicing the South Defense

North added four goals in the third period to win the game 6-0.  But the first half of the third period evenly played.  With the score still 2-0, South developed enough pressure to move the puck at North’s blue line.  The Cougars couldn’t sustain pressure in the Panthers' zone, but they did develop some rushes.  Five minutes into the period, the Cougar’s Patrick Lauderdale beat the right side of the North’s defense and soloed to the top of the crease.  North’s goalie Will DuPont smothered the puck keeping the Panther’s two goal lead.  It was a key moment in the game.

That play took the edge off the South attack.  Halfway through the third period, North’s Conner Hyden scored with Roman Rohrbach getting the assist.  Hyden and Rohrbach worked a nice 2-on-1 rush pulling the South defense to one side and opening Hyden up for the good shot.   Three minutes later, North’s Jack Poehling beat the defense on the  left side, drew the remaining defender to him, and hit his brother Ryan with a pass to the weak side circle.  Ryan Poehling picked up the pass going at top speed and one-timed the puck pass Swail’s attempted save crashing into Swail after the score.  North led 4-0.  They went on to add two more goals to win the game 6-0.

The Players

The Lakeville South peewee A team made a run two years ago playing in the 2012 Peewee A State Tourney held in Alexandria.  The bulk of those players play on the Cougars’ bantam teams this year.  Two players from that team play on Shattuck’s bantam team (Erik Dahl and Austin Pratt).  One player, Henry Enebak played for the Lakeville North varsity last night.  One player (Ty Black) has opted for AAA hockey in Iowa.  Rivalries always get fanned when a player switches.

Five of the Cougar players that played last night are from the South’s 2009-2010 peewee A team (Kyle Jamison, Nick Swaney, Nick Oelrich, Tate Newgard, and Clay Geary).  Two 2009-2010 Cougar peewees, Jack McNeely and Angelo Altavilla, opted to switch and played for the rival Panthers last night.

For North, six players played on the Panthers 2009-2010 peewee A team (Jack Sadek, Logan Kappes, Max Johnson, Boyd Draeger, and Jack and Nick Poehling).  The 2009-2010 North and South peewees played each other once in the regular season.  North won 3-2.  The two teams did not meet in the District 8 playoffs and did not advance to a regional tourney.  South ended the 2009-2010 season ranked #10 in the state; North was ranked #11.

What’s Next?

Lakeville North has a Saturday game against Rosemount.  The Irish won their first game of the season last night beating Farmington 8-2.  Farmington has beaten all three Rochester high schools in the early season that are in Section 1AA.  An impressive win over the Irish means the Panthers will be headed for the #1 seed in Section 1AA.  After Rosemount, the Panthers play in a tough holiday tourney at St. Louis Park opening quarterfinal play against top ranked Eden Prairie.

The Cougars take on a good Eastview team Saturday and then play in the Schwan Cup Silver tourney at the Super Rink over the holidays.  They open play against Stillwater.  With Farmington and the Rochester schools struggling in the early season, South could end up with the #2 1AA seed and be playing Lakeville North to go to the Xcel next March for the fifth time in five years.