Before Christmas, Lakeville North could not be found ranked in the top twenty teams in the state.  New Year’s Day they were ranked #10.  Over that holiday week, the Panthers had taken third place in the Benilde-St. Magaret’s Tournament beating then ranked #3 Eden Prairie 7-0, losing to #4 ranked Blaine 4-3 in a shootout game, and beating Jefferson 5-1 for third place.  That was enough to move North into the polls while Eden Prairie and Blaine dropped in the polls.  A week later, the Panthers beat two more highly ranked teams; #3 ranked Hill-Murray 3-0 and #14 ranked Eagan 6-3.

Saturday night, the 13-3-1 #5 ranked Panthers played #2 ranked Burnsville at the Burnsville ice arena in a game that had all sorts of implications come state tourney seeding time.  Lakeville North is a strong favorite to win the Section 1AA title and advance to state tourney.  Burnsville and Edina are the favorites to win the Section 2AA title.  Two weeks ago, the Blaze beat Edina at Burnsville’s Ice Arena 4-2.  The “Joint was jumping” in early December when Benilde-St. Margarets beat the Blaze 5-4, last night it was rocking. 

Period One

Lakeville North’s Ames Arena is an Olympic size sheet; Burnsville’s is a smaller standard sheet with less room to maneuver in the corners and behind the net.  The Panthers struggled in the first period and it looked as if they were having trouble adjusting to the smaller sheet as well as adjusting to the Blaze's tactics.  The first period was a line matching period.  The Blaze wanted to match Cole Borchardt’s line with the Poehling brothers line in the first period only to find the Poehling snuck out on the ice early as the Lakeville North coaches shuttled their rotation.

The Borchardt line had success against the Poehlings, slowing their play just enough to disrupt them on the breakout.  In the first period, the other Blaze lines were beating the North’s second and third lines. 

At the 10 minute mark, Burnsville’s Anthony Rikberg put on a great individual show, rushing the puck through North’s defense at the blue line, controlling the puck off his body, and beating North’s goalie Jake Oettinger.  The Blaze’s Petr Havlu got the assist.  Burnsville led 1-0.

Still line matching, Burnsville continued to pressure the Panther’s goal.  At the six minute mark, Lakeville North got called for tripping.  One minute later, the Blaze put the puck on the Panther goal and crashed the net to score again.  The Blaze’s Will Missling scored on the power play.  Jack Ahcan got the assist.  Blaze led 2-0.  The game slowed as the first period ended.  North players look frustrated as they left the ice.  Burnsville outshot the Panthers 13-5.  

Period Two

Whatever happened in the Panther’s locker room, it worked.  The Panthers took the ice and dominated play in the second period.  The Borchardt line was not being matched with the Poehling line.  For the first 5 minutes of the second period, the Panthers had the Blaze backed up in the Burnsville zone, scrambling to knock the puck out to neutral ice.  It took a North penalty at the five minute mark for the Braves to establish control in the Panthers’ zone.  They took the face off and worked the perimeter and drew a second Panther penalty.  Ninety seconds later, Cole Borchardt beat the Lakeville defense to a loose puck that was slowed on its way to the Panthers’ net.  Borchardt got to the puck first in the sweet spot and drilled a shot through Oettinger for a power play goal.  Brock Boeser and Jack Ahcan got the assists.  Blaze led 3-0.

At this point in the game, it looked like the Blaze were going to break the game wide open.  The Blaze still had over a minute left on the power play.  The Panthers killed the penalty and to their credit, went back to attack in Burnsville’s zone.  A minute after Borchardt had scored, Lakeville’s Jack Poehling got the Panthers back in the game with two goals in two minutes.  Jack scored the first goal off the wing.  Jack Sadek and Hared Inserra got the assists.  North had cut the Blaze lead to 3-1.

Jack Poehling’s second goal came on a power play with six minutes left in the period.  This time his brother Nick skipped a pass from the left end line near the corner through the Blaze defense and Jack on the weakside.  Jack put the puck in the net near the right post.  His brother Nick and Jack Sadek got the assists.  Those two goals really got North’s offense fired up.  For the remainder of the second period, the Panther forwards kept the puck in Burnsville’s zone, but couldn’t beat Burnsville’s junior goalie Lubbesmeyer.  The Blaze still led at the end of the second period 3-2

Period Three

Burnsville got no relief in the third period.  The Panther attack was getting more and more relentless.  The Blaze offense disappearing.  A Burnsville tripping penalty at the 8 minute mark set up the tying score.  The Panthers established puck control in the Blaze zone and rotated the puck to Jack Sadek at the blue line right.  Sadek put a hard shot on net, beating the Blaze goalie Lubbesmeyer to tie the game 3-3.  Ryan and Jack Poehling got the assists.

Burnsville had one more shot left in their offense.  They came back a minute later on Jack Ahcan’s determined rush.  Lakeville North’s defensemen got over anxious taking down a Burnsville forward coming down the slot.  Both defense ended on the ice on the left end boards with the puck shoved to Ahcan in the left blue line area.  Ahcan seized the opportunity, took the puck and charged the Panther net firing a hard shot from the left faceoff that beat Oettinger.  Will Missling and Cole Borchardt got the assists.  The Blaze regained the lead 4-3.

With less than two minutes left in the game, Burnsville pulled a tripping penalty.  Thirty seconds later, the Poehling brothers’ line scored a power play goal to tie the game and send it into overtime.  Ryan and Jack Poehling forced the Blaze defense to cough up the puck in the left corner of the Blaze’s zone.  They fed a pass to Jack in the lower left crease and Jack exploded with a quick shot on the Blaze’s net for the score.  The Panthers had tied the game 4-4.

Overtime

Burnsville pulled a tripping penalty as the third period wound down and North scored to tie the game and force overtime.  Forty seconds into overtime, the Blaze pulled another foolish penalty.  A forward came off the bench and tripped a North forward breaking in neutral ice and about to cross the blue line.  He did it right in front of the ref.  The Blaze killed the penalty, but gave up the winning goal transitioning back to 5-on-5 hockey.

Thirty seconds after the penalty ended, the Panthers put a shot on the Blaze goalie.  The puck came lose in his pads and Ian Klotz following the puck in the slot, drove the lose puuck past the goalie for the game winner before the net came loose.  North won 5-4.  And as posted here before, the “No Mas” Panthers are tired of winning Section 1AA and getting the #8 seed in the state tourney.  That has happened the last three years.  With their win over #1 Hill-Murray two weeks ago and Saturday’s wind over #2 ranked Burnsville, the Panthers have driven a huge wedge in the State Tourney seeding process.  The Panthers have a legitimate claim this week to be the #1 team in the state.  It will be interesting to see what the polls say this week.

What’s Next?

The Blaze have three games in five nights next week.  On Thursday, the Blaze are at Rosemount.  Saturday they host Eden Prairie and Tuesday they play at Eastview.  The loss to Lakeville North will impact their chances of a #1 seed.  Some of that was mitigated by Edina losing to Hill-Murray 6-1 and tying Wayzata 3-3 this past week.  Lakeville North plays Eastview Tuesday in what should be the battle of two goalies and play Apple Valley Saturday.  The game to watch for the Panther fans is the February 6 game at Duluth East.