Sibley Escapes the Lightning

The top four teams in District 8’s peewee A league are AA teams (Lakeville North, Rosemount, Sibley, and Eagan).  All four teams are positioning themselves for the D8 playoffs and every game counts.  Last night, Sibley AA beat a scrappy Eastview AA team 4-2.  The win keeps Sibley in the hunt for the #1 seed to the D8 playoffs and an easier path to the playoff championship, the loss drops Eastview into a battle at district playoff time for the #1 seed to the regionals.

This is the first year where AA teams will be seeded by committee (except for the four northern districts that are part of the North Regional).  Districts 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 will each send their champions to a South, East or West Regional.  The remaining AA teams become at-large teams and they have to be seeded among the top 17 remaining teams to gain a regional.  If the Lightning can’t win the #1 seed, they need wins to prove that they better than a Lakeville South or Woodbury after the D8 playoffs are over to gain a regional berth.

Last nights’ game was tough on both teams.  Both teams were short players and struggled at times.  Sibley had a great Edina Invitational Tourney just two weeks ago.  Since, the Warriors have won five of the six games played.  But the lone loss was to Rosemount AA 2-0 in a key D8 game.  Last night they struggled at times against scrappy Eastview team.

The Eastview has struggled most of the season posting a .500 record.  Last Sunday, they lost to NOW ranked #2 Rochester Red in Rochester’s peewee A tournament championship game 7-2.  The game  Wednesday was against NOW ranked #3 Sibley and they showed improvement.  The Lightning hung on in the first period behind some tough saves made by goalie Jonathan Singer, lost ground in the second period to trail 3-0 going into the third period.  In the third, the Lightning came alive scoring twice.  They had some good chances to tie the game.  The whole team was into the game and out to win until Sibley’s Riley O’Brien delivered the heartbreaker with two minutes to go.  Eastview’s team is getting tougher.

Period One

Sibley started the game putting pressure on the Lightning defense. It took 10 seconds for the Warriors to get off a good shot and force Singer to make a good stop.  For the next six minutes, Sibley controlled the puck in the Lightning zone.  They moved the puck well, but too well.  More than one Sibley forward passed up a good shot to pass to a teammate who had a poorer shot.  Still it took six minutes before Eastview’s offense could get going.  The Lightning were outshot 10-2 in the period.

With 5 minutes left in the opening period, Sibley’s Grayson Milosch scored to put the Warriors up 1-0.   Sibley put a hard shot on Singer from the slot that bounced off Singer’s chest into the lower right crease area.  Milosch broke to the net and was there to rap the puck in the net before the Lightning defense could recover.  Connor O’Brien got the assist.  Sibley led at the first period ended 1-0, but as time ran out in the period, Sibley was becoming more tentative with the puck and Eastview more aggressive.

Period Two

The play was more balanced in the second period with both teams occupying chunks of game time in their opponents’ zone.  Sibley’s defense kept the Eastview attack out of position refusing to give them the “good shot”.  Only four Lightning shots reached the net.  Sibley played their best offensive in the second period, constantly beating the Eastview defense at the blue line and pressuring the area in front of the Lightning net and getting good shots on goal.   

At the 7 minute mark, Sibley's Luke Williams took a pass low near the end boards on the right side, found a gap in the Eastview defense, and skated into the right crease area.  He beat Singer by stretching towards the left side and shooting the puck low into the left corner.  Sibley led 2-0.  Milosch and Nick Davidson got the assists.

Thirty seconds later, Sibley put a shot on Eastview’s goalie from the center blue line that skipped on the ice just as it got to Singer.  Singer blocked the puck and tried to cover, but Sibley’s Riley O’Brien knocked the puck loose in the left crease area.  Brendan McFadden, following the shot, rapped the puck past Singer into the net to put Sibley up 3-0.  Connor O’Brien and Hans Heck got the assists.

The two Sibley goals changed the momentum.  For the last six minutes of the period, Sibley pushed their attack in the Eastview zone.  As the second period ended, Sibley was still maintaining a strong attack and looked very much in control of the game.  The Warriors put another 10 shots on the Eastview goal in the period.

Period Three

In peewee hockey, things change fast.  Ninety seconds after the horn rang to end the second period, Eastview scored.  Thirty seconds into the final period, the Lightning’s Zach Anderson scored unassisted breaking down the right side.  It was unexpected and Anderson’s goal changed the dynamics of the game.  Eastview came alive and sustained pressure on the Warriors in the Sibley zone for the next three minutes.  For Sibley’s goalie, Robbie Wolfe, it was a goalie’s nightmare, cruising along to an easy win, facing little action, and now pummeled by the other team.

When Eastview’s Anderson scored his second goal halfway through the third period, the Eastview team went ballistic.  The goal cut the Sibley lead to 3-2.  Adam Kratz got the assist.  For the next five minutes, the Lightning forwards could do no wrong, they hit their passes, beat the defense, and put tough shots on Wolfe.  Wolfe hung in and kept the Lightning off the board until the 2 minute mark.

With two minutes left in the game, Sibley’s Riley O’Brien scored the heartbreaker.  The play started with a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle that Singer stopped and tried to cover.  He missed with the glove and the puck rolled to Sibley’s Luke Herzog.  Herzog tried to bang the puck past Singer but was checked off the puck.  The rebounding puck went to the top of the crease on the right to a breaking Riley O’Brien.  O'Brien rapped the puck into the Eastview net to end the scoring 4-2.  The insurance goal took the steam out of a hard charging Lightning team.

District 8 Peewee AA Playoffs

With regular season play ending in the next three weeks, each game and its two points (plus the fair play point) becomes critical.  D8 uses the position in the league at the end of regular season play to determine playoffs.  One of the seven AA teams will win D8’s #1 seed and a guaranteed trip to the South, East, or West AA Regionals.  The other six have to wait until after the districts are over to learn their fate.  The #1 seed is most likely to play the #8 seed in a regional’s opening round of double elimination play.  It is a coveted seed.

The easiest path to win the #1 D8 playoff seed is to be the #1 seed going into the playoffs.  The team with that seed will only need to beat the winner of the #4/#5 game to advance to the championship.  The other six teams will have to play two games.  The seven D8 peewee AA teams, at this point in the season, are fairly even.  Any one of the seven teams are capable of beating another on any given day.

D8 awards the #1 playoff seed to the team that finishes first in regular season play.  Heading into the last three weeks of the season, District 8’s Peewee A league has turned into a three team battle for first.  Sibley, Rosemount, and Eagan are separated by four points in the standings.  Sibley and Lakeville North are currently tied with 32 points on top of the standings, but Lakeville North has only one game remaining; the Panthers will be overtaken by the end of league play by all four teams.  Rosemount has 5 games remaining to play; Sibley and Eagan have 4 games left to play.

Rosemount will be tested at Woodbury this Saturday, but should win.  The Irish then play Eastview at home in a rivalry game (Eastview and Rosemount often field combined teams at different levels called the REV).  Both the Irish and the Lightning will be out to win that game.  Rosemount finishes the season with two games with Hastings and a single game with Eagan.  The Eagan game will be the decider.  The Wildcats have been improving and have not lost a D8 game this year.  Eagan’s other three remaining D8 games are Woodbury, Eastview, and Apple Valley.  The Wildcats have the toughest remaining schedule of all three teams.

Sibley plays Lakeville South, Apple Valley, Farmington, and Park/Cottage Grove at home in their final four games and should be favored in all those games.  The playoff math goes like this.  If all three teams win their games and the Eagan/Rosemount game is left out, the teams finish the season with Sibley having 44 points, Rosemount 43 points, and Eagan 36 points.  If Rosemount beats Eagan, the Irish win the title with 46 points, if the Irish lose to the Wildcats and win their fair play point, Sibley and Rosemount tie at 44, Eagan finishes third with 39 points.

All three teams have a narrow margin between #1 and #3.  It is not a perfect world, Lakeville South and Eastview have stakes in the game and both teams can pull an upset.  Farmington A can be dangerous.  That should make it fun for the players and parents.  Coaches are another matter.