Wayzata scoring leaders last season were Matt Freytag #1, Jack Sorenson #2, Max Zimmer #3, and Chad Olson #4.  Last year, the four led the Trojans to the Class AA state tourney winning the Section 6AA title and ending Benilde-St. Margarets hopes of repeating as Class AA champs by beating the Red Knights 5-2 in the 6AA championship game at Mariucci.  Last night at the PIC, the Trojans beat the Red Knights 2-1 in a pre-sectional game that keeps the Trojans on the path to the #1 6AA seed.  This year’s Trojans scoring leaders are the same four players; Freytag, Jack Sorenson, Zimmer, and Olson in that order.  That is consistency.

The Wayzata team has this core group of four players surrounded by four seniors Chandler Lindstrand, Alec Hemenway, Chase Heising, and Brian Machut.  They are veterans to the Section 6AA playoffs.  To add some spice to the roster, Billy Duma, Mark Senden, Luke Paterson, and Hank Sorensen (all 15/16 high performance selects last summer) joined the team.  Vaughan Ahrens, another high performance selectee, had the goal tending duties in last night’s game.

Benilde has lost three of its top scorers from last season, Grant Besse, Dan Labosky, and T. J. Moore.  Besse is still wearing the red this season; he plays for the Wisconsin Badgers.  Labosky, the Red Knights  perennial leader in assists, is playing junior hockey for the Tri-City Storm.  He is among the team leaders in assists.  Moore is playing in the USHL for the Chicago Steel this year  and is on injured reserve.

This year’s Red Knight team have only four seniors led by Spencer Naas and Johnny Austin, both transfers from Blake.  Two years ago, Austin was Blake’s #2 scorer and Naas was the Bears’ #3 scorer as sophomores.  Zack Hale, a product of the Minneapolis Storm Association, and Evan Fleming, a high performance select 17 last summer, are BSM’s remaining two seniors.  This year’s Benilde team is anchored by five players that played on the Section 6A-6AA high performance team last summer (Ben Newhouse, Peter Heimbold, Chase Jungels, Mark Kaske, and William Duda).  They were all suited up and on the ice last night.  Unfortunately, seven of their high performance teammates from the summer team (Alex Stevens, Jacob Moelk, Matt Freytag, Max Zimmer, John Fetrow, William Duma, and goalie Vaughan Ahrens) were all suited up and on the ice playing for the Trojans

Helter-Skelter

The opening period last night was a fast pace game where players on both side went all out, but it was not hockey.  It was a helter-skelter brand of the game as the players flew around the ice moving the puck and accomplishing little in team play.  The haphazardly action resulted in few good shots on the net by either team and despite some hits and physical play, the teams had no focus.  Frankly, the peewee teams YHH had watched playing in the Edina Peewee AA/A tourneys the day before had better team passing and positional play then either of these two teams.  Perhaps because Trojans and the Knights knew each other so well from having played with and against each over the past year, they decided to “phone it in”.  The first period ended in a 0-0 tie.  Each team had 7 shots on goal and only Wayzata should some “hockey sense” late in the opening the period.

Game within a Game

The Wayzata Red Mite team challenged the Blue Mites in a game played between the first and second periods last night at the PIC.  The Blue team had the early advantage scoring three goals, but the Red team must have come back.  The announcer officially declared the game a tie.   

The Second Period

The second period opened with a Wayzata slashing penalty.  Benilde’s power play produced some pressure.  They would establish control in the Trojan’s zone and Naas would set up along the left boards trying to look into the slot or go low to the crease area.  But the Trojan defense has size and they bottled the Red Knight attack with one exception and that ended in a “piper” with the puck bouncing into the left corner.

Matthew Freytag scored for the Trojans at the 8 minute mark.  Freytag beat the Red Knight defense off the left boards, cut to the slot, and beat Benilde’s goalie Jalen Long on a hard shot to the upper right corner to put Wayzata up 1-0.  Max Zimmer got the assist.  The game started to get physical after that score and it led to a second Wayzata penalty at the 6 minute mark.  The Trojan’s killed the penalty; their size in the corners dominated the Red Knight’s forwards and Naas had few opportunities to set up his teammates for a power play goal.  The second period ended with Wayzata up 1-0, outshooting Benilde 12-8 in the period.

The Third Period

The first two periods, both teams played at a fast pace and expended a lot of energy in the process.  The third period started slow.  It was not a surprise.

Five minutes into the period, Wayzata took a hard shot from the right blue line area.  The puck ended up flying through a screen in front of Benilde’s goalie, Jalon Long.  It trickled through the 5-hole and slowly slid through the crease and into the net.  Wayzata led 2-0.  The Trojan’s Chandler Lindstrand score the goal, Mark Senden and Alex Hemenway got the assists. A minute later, Benilde’s Mark Kaske beat the Trojan defense at the Wayzata blue line and scored on a breakaway going left to right to cut the lead to 2-1.  Ben Newhouse got the assist.

The game pace slowed in the third and the puck movement improved for both teams.  Still, in front of a packed crowd and playing a tight game, the teams did not spark excitement.  Wayzata won 2-1.  Perhaps it was case of the day after New Year’s blues or a reaction to the coldest night in the last 10 years descending on the Twin Cities.  But it could be it just was not Edina.

Section 6AA

With eight weeks to go in the regular season, of the 8 teams to be seeded into Section 6AA this year, three (Armstrong, Cooper, and Hopkins) are candidates for the lowest seeds; Wayzata has the edge on the #1 seed.  That leaves four teams battling for seeds #2 to #5.  The #4 and #5 seeds are the worst place to be seeded.  Teams ending up with these seeds will have to play each other and then most likely the #1 seed and the winner of the #2 and #3 seeded teams in the championship. 

Last night’s loss to Wayzata hurts the Red Knights in the Section 6AA seeding.  They are now 1-2 against Section 6AA foes (beating Eden Prairie 2-1 and losing to Holy Family 7-3).  They have three more games remaining against Section 6AA teams (two with Eden Prairie and one with Minnetonka).  That gives the Red Knights little opportunity to make a claim for a high seed; they could fall to #4 or #5 and end up playing Wayzata in the 6AA semifinals. 

Last nights’ win over the Knights was Wayzata’s first game this season against a Section 6AA foe.  They have seven more games to play that will affect their seeding.  Six are against Lake Conference foes Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, and Hopkins.  The seventh, Saturday, is against Holy Family at Victoria.  That will not be an easy game for the Trojans.

Holy Family Catholic has two more Section 6AA games left on their schedule.  They lost their first two opening games of the season to Edina 8-0 and Maple Grove 4-3.  Since then they have gone unbeaten, beating Breck, Totino-Grace, and Minnetonka among others.  The Fire are currently 2-0 against Section 6AA teams.  A win over Wayzata Saturday would put the Fire at 3-0 and they would most likely beat Hopkins later this season to go unbeaten in Section 6AA play 4-0.  More importantly, the Fire would be favored to win the rest of their games on their schedule.  Only losses in games against Roseau, St. Thomas Academy, and Moorhead could affect their pursuit of a #1 Section 6AA seed.  Two of those three games are played at the Fire’s home rink in Victoria.

Eden Prairie has eight 6AA foes left on their schedule and Minnetonka has six.  Both teams, along with Wayzata, need for the Trojans to win on Saturday to have a shot at the higher seeds since their 6AA games are played against each other and Benilde.  Attrition has to set in.  A Fire win Saturday and a sweep of their remaining games (all doable) makes it a hard case for the seeding committee to down grade the Fire in late February.

And everybody thinks playoff hockey starts at the end of February.  Victoria is the place to be this Saturday.  Game starts at 3:00 PM.