Edina’s Peewee AA Championship semifinals were set after Tuesday morning action at Braemar.  The four semifinalists in the Edina Peewee AA Invitational Tourney were determined after the third round of pool games played Tuesday morning.  One of the four semifinalists, NOW ranked #1 Edina AA had won Pool A after the first two round of games.  The Hornets, sitting at +9 in the tiebreaker that mattered (goal differential), looked to cruise to the #1 seed simply by beating Blaine and finish sweeping the Pool A teams the AM opener.  The Hornets had good reason to believe that, their nearest competitors (Chaska/Chanhassen AA, Sibley, and Osseo/Maple Grove) were all knotted at +6 in the crucial tie breaker.

In Pool B, NOW ranked #5 Chaska/Chanhassen AA and a surprising Wayzata AA team played for the pool championship in another AM game at Braemar.  Chaska took a 4-1 lead against the Trojans early in the third period creating the following situation.  On the three Braemar rinks around 9:00 AM, Edina was on cruise control having built a 3-0 lead in the first half of their game with Blaine and were still leading 3-0 halfway through the third period; Chaska and Wayzata were starting their third period with the Hawks up 4-1; and Sibley was sitting in their locker room enjoying a 5-0 lead over OMG waiting for the third period to start.

Suddenly a Blaine goal would complicate the Hornets’ semifinals.  They would lose the #1 seed.  The Hornets went out of cruise control and scored twice to win in the last 8 minutes to take a 5-0 and eliminate any other team from the #1 seed.  Twenty minutes later, Chaska hung on to beat Wayzata 4-2 and take Pool B championship.  Wayzata’s Rhett Pitlick scored the Trojan’s lone third period goal to keep Wayzata at a +4 for the tourney and for the chase for the wild card seed.  It also left the Wayzata fans looking for the results of the Osseo/Maple Grove-Sibley game.

They must have been relieved.  Sibley had blown open a 0-0 game scoring 5 second period goals on OMG.  The Crimson were on the ice attacking the Sibley defense from the start of the third period.  OMG needed to get an early goal to get out of running time, but couldn’t beat the Sibley defense.  The game ended 5-0 Sibley and the three sixes had become Chaska +8, Sibley +11, and OMG +1.  OMG was eliminated.

Edina Zeros Blaine 5-0

The Hornets played as sharp an offense that a team could play in the first period of their game against Blaine.  They moved the puck quick and once established control in the Bengal's zone, they were deadly on the attack, finishing each with a quick hard shot usually from the edge of the crease.  Blaine’s goalie Joe Daninger played extremely well in the first, forced to make tough stop after tough stop on quick change of direction shots by the Hornets.  Daninger saved 18 of the 20 Hornet shots in the first period.  Liam Malmquist scored the first Hornet goal; Ben Brinkman scored the second.  In scoring the second goal, Brinkman, realizing that Daninger had gone down to make a left skate save on a hard shot near the left post, took advantage of a pass from an Edina forward near the left post.  Brinkman, instead of one timing the pass, slowed to take advantage of the goalie trying to re-gain position.  He buried the puck in the high right side of the net.  There was nothing Daninger could do.  Mike Vorlicky scored the lone second period goal for the Hornets; Jett Jungels and Grant Silianoff scored the two late third period goals to help the Hornets clinch the #1 seed.  Daninger ended up with 41 saves (YHH count).

Chaska Beats the Trojans

The opening period ended in a 0-0 tie.  Neither team could score, but it was Wayzata that had the better scoring opportunities.  The Trojan forwards beat the Chaska defense at the Chaska blue line often.  Sometimes a Trojan forward would swing wide and sometimes the Trojan forwards would break through the center blue line.  But the one scary player for the Hawks defense was the speed and agility of Trojans’ center Rhett Pitlick.  Pitlick would use his speed to burst by the Hawk defenders and cut to the net.  But at the end of the first period, the game was still a tie.

Three minutes into the second period, Chaska’s John Starkey scored to put the Hawks up 1-0.  After that goal, the Chaska offense started to dominate the game play by trapping Wayzata in the Trojan’s zone.  The Trojans’ defense held for the next 10 minutes only to give up a goal on a deflected shot from the left point.  The Hawks Billy Bronson scored the goal.  The Hawks led 2-0 going into the third period and the Trojan were now a +4 in the wild card chase.  The Sibley/OMG score mattered.

The third period opened with Pitlick scoring to cut the lead to 2-1, but three minutes after Pitlick scored, Chaska’s Keith Fletcher barely beat the Wayzata defense rushing down the right side and fired a diving shot at the Wayzata net to beat the Trojan goalie and put the Hawks up 3-1.  Two minutes later, at the 8 minute mark, the Hawks’ Joe Simpson scored to give the Hawks a 4-1 lead.  That goal clinched the Pool B championship for the Hawks and put the Trojans at +3 in the chase for the wild card seed.  Two minutes later, Pitlick stepped on the ice, picked up the puck at the Chaska center blue line, blew by the defense, and soloed in to score.  The Hawks led 4-2 and the Trojans were at +4.

Sibley Smokes OMG 5-0

It is a slang phrase, “to smoke someone”.  It means to move or travel with great speed usually passing someone.  It comes from drag racing, to smoke someone means you leave him at the starting line engulfed in tire smoke from your dragster's tires.  That is what Sibley did in the second period against Osseo/Maple Grove.  It was not so much that the Crimson team slowed in that period; it was more that the Sibley team found that extra gear and just burned the Crimson defense.

OMG played all of the first and most of the second worried about Brendon McFadden (a top 50 YHH peewee A pick in 2012-2013) when he was on the ice.  His size and skill set and unorthodox play are something to worry about.  McFadden plays as team on offense (always has) when on the ice and his teammates play as a team on offense when McFadden is not on the ice.  They hit on all cylinders in the second period scoring five times in six minutes to end OMG’s hopes of advancing.  At the nine minute mark of the second period, both teams were struggling to find the good scoring opportunities.  At the eight minute mark, Sibley led 2-0.  The first goal was scored by the Warriors’ Luke Williams off a melee around the Crimson net.  Williams popped a loose puck in the crease over OMG’s goalie’ glove save attempt.  Thirty seconds later, Grayson Milosch and Williams beat the OMG defense at the blue line.  Milosch, carrying the puck, pulled the OMG goalie right faking a shot and hit Williams for the solo attack.  Williams buried the puck top shelf.

The third goal came two minutes later on a Sibley power play.  The OMG defense on the penalty kill over reacted.  With McFadden controlling the puck along the left boards, the left defense left a gap in the lower crease area and tried to force McFadden to give up the puck.  Instead, McFadden passed to Nick Davidson open in the gap; Davidson pulled the remaining OMG defender to him and hit Hans Heck at the top of the right crease (weak side) for an easy goal.  Two minutes later, Williams would score his third goal of the day for a hat trick and two minutes later, McFadden would score a power play goal.  The Warriors led 5-0 going into the third period and had OMG on running time for the rest of the game.  OMG had their scoring opportunities in the third period but could not beat the Warriors’ goalie.

Wednesday Semifinals

The semifinals will match Edina AA and Wayzata AA in one game; Sibley and Chaska/Chanhassen AA in the second.  Sibley will be playing without McFadden in tomorrow’s games.