The Spring Lake Park swept the opposition at the Edina Peewee A Invitational Tourney played over the New Year’s weekend beating Colorado Arapahoe AA 7-1, Mounds View 11-1, and tying Edina A 2-2 in pool play to with their pool and advance to the championship semifinal round played Tuesday evening.  The Panthers beat Chaska/Chanhassen A 3-1 in the semifinals setting up a championship game with host Edina A.  The Hornets beat Minnetonka A 7-0 in their semifinal game.

The two teams had battled to a 2-2 tie in pool play 24 hours before they met in the championship game.  Playing their third game in 24 hours had to tire both teams, especially Spring Lake Park.  The Panthers were skating only 11 forwards.  The game started slow, as expected.  The first half of the opening period was controlled by the defensive play of both the teams.  Edina had some early pressure, but couldn’t beat the Panther defense.

Period Two

The first period flew by with few stoppages in play.  The second period slowed with three penalties being called.  Two minutes into the period, the Panthers drew a cross checking penalty.  They killed the penalty, but the Hornets were starting to get significant pressure on the Panther’s defense.  Their forwards were beating the Panther defensemen inside the Spring Lake Park zone and were getting good scoring opportunities.  The Panthers’ goalie Blake Holm was beginning to make his presence felt, coming up some nice saves.

The Panthers had to kill another penalty at the 4 minute mark and faced more pressure on the Edina power play.  Clearly, the Panthers were hanging on and Edina was getting stronger.  Fortunately an Edina penalty near the end of the second period eased the pressure (Edina still attacked on the penalty kill).  The second period ended with the Panthers up 1-0.

Period Three

The third period opened with Spring Lake Park on the power play.  Edina killed the penalty and then two minutes later drew another penalty.  The Panthers attacked.  Though they couldn’t score on the second power play, the Panther offense seemed to have gotten a second wind, they continued to attack the Hornets in the Edina zone for the next five minutes protecting their 1-0 lead.  At the six minute mark, the Hornets’ Brett Chorske beat the left side of the Panther defense breaking along the boards, cut into the face off circle and beat Spring Lake Park’s goalie with a hard shot into the right corner of the net.  The game was tied 1-1.

Suddenly, Edina came alive.  The Hornet attack fired on all cylinders forcing the Spring Lake Park defense to work hard to keep position.  Edina moved the puck well in the Panthers’ zone, but Spring Lake Park kept their position and succeeded in blocking the Hornet passing lanes.  The Hornets had their scoring chances with the clock winding down.  With under two minutes left, one Edina pass ended up being knocked into neutral ice by the Panther defense  It was picked up by the Spring Lake Park forwards and skated low into the Hornets' zone.  The Panther forwards generated just enough pressure and scored the game winner from the weak side.  Zach Zemlicka put the rebound into get the winning goal unassisted.  Spring Lake Park won 2-1.