Friday night, Rochester opened their Invitational Peewee A Hockey Tournament played at Graham Arena.  Twelve peewee AA and A teams played an opening round of games that divides the 12 teams into two divisions; Gold and Silver.  The opening round winners go to the Gold division, the losers to the Silver.  Friday night, Eastview AA, Stillwater A, Mankato A, Rochester Red AA, Luverne A, and Jefferson AA advanced to the Gold division and played two games Saturday.  Rochester Black A, New Prague A, Kennedy/Richfield A, Albert Lea A, Centennial A, and Owatonna AA were seeded to the Silver Division and also played two games Saturday.  Championship games are scheduled for Sunday.  Each team will play four games on the weekend. 

Eastview AA beats Rochester Black A 3-0

Eastview and Rochester Black are in the middle of their league standings.  Eastview has an opportunity to make a run and improve on their position; the Black have few games left and will find it hard to finish any higher then third place.  Both teams played well last night.  Eastview was aggressive in the opening period and had the advantage, pressuring Black in the Rochester zone.  They outshot the Black 8-2.

In the second period, the Lightning defense became tentative at the Black blue line and more cautious in the Lightning zone.  Black started to pressure the Lightning net and had two good passing sequences that forced Eastview’s goalie Jonathan Singer to make some big saves.  Eastview weathered the attack and scored twice in the second period to take a 2-0 lead into the third.  The Lightning’s Timmy Kapala got the first goal; Zach Anderson scored the second.  Eastview’s Zach Anderson scored in the third goal five minutes into the third period to end the scoring 3-0.

Eastview will struggle to take the #1 seed in the upcoming D8 playoffs; but the Lightning have posted a 14-13-2 record and have a YHH rating of 0.70.  They and Jefferson are virtually tied in the AA seeding process and are likely to advance to a regional somewhere.  A good showing in this tourney would break that tie and improve on Eastview’s prospects in the regionals.  Like Jefferson, with a lower seed, there is no guarantee that the Lightning will end up with a East AA Regional seed to Lakeville.  They could end up playing in the South AA tourney in St. Cloud or the West AA tourney in Anoka.

Rochester Black has a good shot at a District 9 seed and headed for a third or fourth place finish in D9.  Their key battle will be in district play against Faribault.  The Black lost to Mankato 7-0 before Christmas and tied Mankato 1-1 after Christmas.  They can be a threat.

Eastview plays in the Gold Red Bracket as a result of their win.  They will play Stillwater A and Mankato Saturday with the winner advancing to the championship game Sunday against the winner of the Gold Black Bracket (Rochester Red, Luverne, or Jefferson).  Rochester Black plays in the Silver Red Bracket as a result of their loss to Eastview.  They will play New Prague and Kennedy/Richfield with the winner advancing to the Silver Championship game against the winner of the Silver Black Bracket (Albert Lea, Centennial A, or Owatonna).

Stillwater A beats New Prague A 5-4

These two teams locked up in a good game that had to go to a shootout to determine the winner.  Stillwater A is at the bottom of District 2’s 10 team peewee A/AA league with a 1-7 record.  But they played better than a last place team Friday and held on to beat a tough, gritty, New Prague team 5-4.  The game was tied 2-2 after the first period, Stillwater took a 3-2 lead at the end of two periods; New Prague rallied in the last three minutes of the third period from a 4-2 deficit to tie the game and force overtime.  After a scoreless overtime period, the Ponies won a three player shootout to move to the Gold Red Bracket.

Stillwater’s Mason Michalski scored the opening goal less than 10 seconds into the first period beating the New Prague goalie Collin Dorzinski to a rebounding puck after a close-in shot.  New Prague answered with two goals, the first scored by Drew Picka, the second scored by Alex Munson.  Stillwater’s Spencer Scott scored to tie the game late in the first period.  Adam Eisele scored the lone goal in the second period to give the Ponies a 3-2 lead going into the third period and then scored again in the opening minutes of the third to put Stillwater up 4-2.

New Prague scored two minutes after Eisele scored his second goal to cut the Ponies lead to 4-3.  Bryce Simons got the Trojans third goal.  New Prague’s Jon Vonbank scored the tying goal with just under two minutes left in regulation.  Overtime failed to settle the game.  All three Pony shooters scored to win the shootout.

Stillwater A has a tough road to get to the regionals this year.  Anything is possible, but District 2 has some of the top peewee A teams (Mahtomedi, Highland, White Bear Lake A, and Tartan) in the state this year.  New Prague has no small task in District 6 to advance to the regionals.  Part of the problem is that only two D6 teams get to advance.  With Edina A, Chaska A, and Prior Lake A all having good years; the 9 team D6 peewee A playoffs will be a battle.

Stillwater plays Eastview AA and Mankato A in the Gold Red Bracket Saturday and should do well; New Prague plays Rochester Black and Kennedy/Richfield in the Silver Red Bracket.  The Trojans should have a good Saturday.

Mankato A beats Kennedy/Richfield A 7-0

Mankato trails Red Wing in District 9 league play but have a shot of overtaking the Wingers in their last four games if they can beat Red Wing next Sunday at Red Wing.  Against Kenney last night, the Mavericks were stymied by Eagles’ defense in the opening minutes of the first period, scored three goals in the middle of the period to take a 3-0 lead into the second period.  Kennedy/Richfield is struggling in District 6.  The Eagles did tie Eden Prairie A 3-3 and Prior Lake A 2-2 the week before Christmas, but then lost big to Edina A 12-1.  

Nate Phinney score the first Maverick goal, Jackson Keller scored the second, and Brody Lucas scored the third goal.  Phinney scored twice in the second period to put Mankato up 5-0 and to get the hat trick.  All three Phinney goals were unassisted.  Gavin Gunderson and Lucas scored in the third period to end the scoring 7-0.  Kennedy was outshot 33-8.

Mankato joins Stillwater A and Eastview AA in the Gold Red Bracket.  They will play those two teams Saturday and should do well.  Kennedy plays in the Silver Red Bracket with New Prague and Rochester Black.  Their offense should have some chances Saturday to get “untracked”.

Rochester Red beats Albert Lea 10-0

The NOW ranked #2 Rochester Red AA plays an independent schedule.  They are having a good season posting a 24-2-1 record including last night’s win over Albert Lea.  They are a District 9 team that plays no regular D9 schedule opting to play most of their games on the weekend against tougher competition.  The Red is the odds on favorite to take the D9 #1 AA seed to the regionals and are likely to be seeded #1 in the East AA Regional played in Lakeville in March.

Albert Lea plays a regular District 9 peewee A schedule.  This season the Tigers are in the middle of the pack in the eight team D9 league.  Red Wing and Mankato are the top two teams with league play almost over.  The Tigers will be hosting the D9 playoffs this year (Feb 13-16) and with three regional seeds at stake, have a shot at an East A Regional seed.  This year’s East A Regional will be played at the Graham in Rochester.

The Red scored three opening period goals.  Luca Martini, Dustin Sorenson, and Luke Newman scored for the Red in the opening period.  Albert Lea had their chances in the first period, putting 7 shots on the Red’s goal, but couldn’t score.  Rochester added five goals in the second and won 10-0.  Dylan Schneider scored four goals for the Red and posted five assists for a nine point game.  The Red outshot the Tigers 32-15.

Rochester Red is in the Gold Black Bracket with Luverne and Jefferson.  The results of the Luverne game, played Saturday morning, will be the interesting one to see.  Albert Lea plays in the Silver Black Bracket.  The Tigers play Centennial A in a game Saturday morning that matches two teams (Albert Lea from D9 and Centennial A from D10) that are in the middle of their peewee A district leagues.  The third team in the Silver Black Bracket is Owatonna.

Luverne beat Centennial A 7-2

The 10 man Luverne team is at it again.  They opened their game against Centennial A with a great passing attack and puck movement.  Four of the players from last March’s Peewee A state tourney team returned this year (Ben Serie, Declan Beers, Mark Sterrett, and Gaige Nath).  Serie was a YHH top 50 pick for the 2012-2013 season.  Serie, Beers, Sterrett, and Nath have all improved; Beers has become a dominant player on the ice.

Luverne outshot Centennial A 33-4 for the game; but it wasn’t a game where the Cardinals set up camp in the Centennial zone.  The Cougars played more evenly and had a strong defense backed by goalie Hunter Hayden who had a good game in the nets.  Luverne took a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period on goals by Serie and Colby Crabtree.  Centennial’s William Fabozzi scored in the opening minutes of the second period to cut the Cardinal lead to 2-1.  Luverne came back to score twice to build a 4-1  lead on goals by Crabtree and Beers.  Centennial got a late second period goal by Cole Jackson to cut the Cardinal lead to 4-2 going into the third period.  Centennial drew six penalties in the third period to make it an easy third period for the Cardinals.  Beers scored twice to get the hat trick and Gaige Nath scored once to end the game 7-2.

No doubt, that Luverne should be in the South A Regional this March and most likely will have to beat a D3 foe (Armstrong, Hopkins, Delano Area, or Orono) to advance to state.  Centennial A is a tough team and played well as long as they keep out of the penalty box.  They have a tougher road to get to a regional tourney, currently ninth in an eleven team D10 Peewee A league.  But they have posted a 5-6 league record and should move into the top eight and make the District 10 playoffs.  But the playoffs will be tough with NOW ranked #1 Spring Lake Park, #11 ranked St. Francis, Elk River A, and Anoka all having good seasons.  Three D10 teams will advance to the West Regional A Tourney played in Anoka this year. 

Jefferson AA beat Owatonna AA 10-1

Owatonna opted to play in the AA state tourney this season and joined District 6’s peewee AA league.  Friday’s opening game at Rochester matched the Huskies against Jefferson, now a D6 rival.  Owatonna had posted a 0-12 record going into last night’s game and needs some quality wins to move up in the seeding for the East, West, or South regional tourneys.  Based on NOW rankings, the Huskies need to get their rating above 0.55 to have a chance to qualify (their current rating is less than 0.30.  A good outing against Jefferson last night would have helped.  They had a good start playing the Jags evenly and developing some offense early in the game.  At one point, halfway through the first, the score was tied 1-1.  Their other regional hope is to beat Rochester Red (also in this tourney) in the District 9 playoffs at the end of February.

Jefferson has played .500 hockey this season.  Including last night’s win over Owatonna, the Jags have posted a 13-13-1 record with a 0.70 rating and should be on track for a regional birth.  They had beaten the Huskies in December 9-1.

The Jags’ Tyler Rollwagen scored the opening goal to put Jefferson up 1-0; Owatonna’s Zach Wiese scored unassisted to tie the game 1-1.  The two teams battled evenly until the Owatonna defense started to give the Jags room to maneuver late in the first period.  That led to a barrage of four Jefferson goals to open up a 5-1 lead.  Owatonna gave up three more goals in the second period and two in the third to end the scoring 10-1.  Jefferson outshot Owatonna 21-8.  Rollwagen added two more goals to his opening goal to get the hat trick.  Paul Cavanah scored twice for the Jags, Ryan Maney and Garvin Wendorf each had a goal and an assist.

Owatonna, as result of the loss, ended up in the Silver Black Bracket with Albert Lea and Centennial A.  They will have their shot at winning some games and improving before the weekend is over.  Jefferson ended up in the Gold Black Bracket with Luverne and Rochester Red.  The Jags will struggle to win in this pool.