Edina’s win eliminated Wayzata, the Section 6AA favorite, from the #1 claim should both teams make it to the Xcel in March.  The victory also sews up the Lake Conference Title for the Hornets.  Edina has a 4-0-1 record with three conference games left.  The Hornets will be favored in all three games.  Wayzata falls to 4-1-1 and to second place.  Edina would have to lose two of their last three games to lose the title.

Pre-Game

Wayzata hockey fans are working hard to eliminate any green color in their home arena, the PIC.  Edina’s Braemar Arena is loaded with green and Hornet trappings.  Wayzata blue is not easy to find at Braemar.  That is how deep the rivalry goes between these two hockey powers.  Both teams had identical 16-4-1 records before the game last night at Braemar.

Edina has six seniors on their roster this year.  Their team had nine juniors and four sophomores on the ice last night.  Eight played on the Edina Association’s 2009-2010 team that won the state peewee A title in Faribault in 2010 (Paul Meyer, Ryan Zuhlsdorf, Kieffer Bellows, Casey Dornbach, Matt Masterman, Dylan Malmquist, Henry Bowlby, and Sam Fuss).  Malmquist and Masterman were part of last year’s Edina Class AA Championship team.  Overall, eight Hornets returned from last year’s champions.

Edina offense is deep, three of their top four scorers (Miquel Fidler 37 points/15 goals, Cullen Munson 31 points/15 goals, and Tyler Nanne 25 points/6 goals) are seniors.  Four other Hornets (Malmquist, Masterman, Bellows, and sophomore Garrett Wait) are all 20 or more point getters this season.  The Hornets are averaging 4 goals per game.  It is their defense, especially around the Hornet’s net, that is tough.  Edina has held their opponents to an average of under two goals a game.  Thirteen of their 22 opponents have been held to 1 goal or less.  Each of their last five opponents has been held to a single goal.  Senior goalie Andrew Rohkohl has led the defense posting a 15-4-1 record giving up an average of 2 goals a game while stopping 92% of the shots on goal.  Rohkohl started last night’s game.

Wayzata also had six seniors on the ice last night.  Like the Hornets, the Trojans had 13 juniors and sophomores (7 juniors and 6 sophomores) skating Thursday night.  Fourteen players skated on the Trojans Class AA state tourney team at the Xcel last March that lost to Duluth East in the third place game.  Offensively, the Trojans lack the depth that Edina has with only three players scoring 20 or more points (sophomore Max Zimmer 25 points/9 goals, junior Matt Freytag 21 points/9 goals, and senior Jack Sorensen 20 points/13 goals).  Offensively the Trojans have been averaging three goals a game.

The Wayzata defense also had a very good year, giving up an average of nearly one goal a game.  The Trojans have not given up more three goals in a game this season.  They gave up three goals in each of the three games played with the Hornets this season; they gave up three goals in their two games with Maple Grove; and they gave up three goals in games with Duluth East and Hill-Murray.  No team has scored four goals on the Wayzata defense.  Their defense men play tough in front of the net and usually junior goalie Vaughan Ahrens is in the net.  Ahrens has posted a 12-5-1 record this season, giving up an average of 1.5 goals a game while stopping 94% of the shots on goal.  Ahrens was in the net Thursday for the Trojans.

The Wayzata Association’s 2009-2010 peewee A team also made the trip to play in the state tourney at Faribault in 2010.  Ten Trojans on the ice Thursday (Arhens, Carter Spindler, Zimmer, Alex Stevens, Nathan Dingmann, Freytag, Billy Duma, Luke Paterson, Hank Sorensen, and Jack Moelk) played on that peewee A team that lost to the Hornet’s peewee A’s 3-2 in the semifinals.  In 2010, Edina peewee’s ended the season ranked #1 in the state; Wayzata was ranked #2.

Period One: Defense

After watching the first half of the opening period, it became apparent why each team’s defense was successful.  Both offenses sent only one forward deep to check the puck at the end boards.  The wings would hang back to see if that forward was successful and based on success would become the second forward in to tie up the play low.  If not, they would hang back and slow the Trojan breakout as it entered neutral ice and try to turn the puck back.  The two teams played as if they feared the other team’s speed at forward.

Edina killed a penalty they drew in the opening minute of play and two minutes later the Hornet’s sophomore Garrett Wait scored on a rush to put the Hornets up 1-0.  Wait picked up a rebound in the right slot and beat Ahrens through the 5-hole.  Malmquist and sophomore Casey Dornbach got the assists.

The defensive style game took over after that score.  Both teams offense came off of rushes.  Wayzata’s defense tried to beat the neutral zone traps by attacking a point and either using a chip up the boards to a breaking wing with a quick relay pass to another forward breaking right or left in the neutral zone.  Edina tend to use a breakout that attacked the Trojan defense either center right or left of the Edina blue line and feed a wing breaking down the boards.  Both teams tried the long pass right to left or left to right through the neutral zone with marginal success.

The first period ended with the Hornets up 1-0.  Wayzata looked stronger at the end of the first period.

Period 2 Wayzata loses their “cool”

Edina opened the second period with a strong attack, forcing the puck low into the Trojan zone and controlling the play in the opening minutes.  Wayzata started to counter attack and four minutes into the period, the Hornets drew a cross checking penalty.  Edina’s penalty killers contained the Wayzata power play at first, but Wayzata broke the penalty kill by establishing control in the Hornets net and getting their defensive box out of sync with the puck.  A series of shots rebounded around the Hornet net and ended up on freshman Hank Sorensen’s stick at the top of the slot.  He buried the puck; all Edina’s goalie could do is watch the puck fly by him into the net.  The game was tied 1-1.  Sophomore Mark Senden and senior Chad Olson got the assists.

The physical play went up after that goal.  Edina tended to check early and hold their checks.  Around their own net, they would take any Trojan out with the body.  The refs left some of that go, especially ignoring a clear boarding call.  But it was getting to the Trojans.  It broke open with just under two minutes left in the second period and was triggered by an Edina forward intercepting a Trojan pass in neutral ice and soloing to the top of the crease.  Ahrens stopped the shot, but the two teams started to mingle.  The refs settled the discussion by giving one player from each team a penalty.

It should have been over, but it wasn’t.  Twenty seconds later, Wayzata drew a high stick and ended the period on the penalty kill with the mingling renewed but no further penalties called.  The Trojans had lost their cool.  They should let the coaches do the harping on the refs for missed calls.

Period Three: All Edina

Edina started on the power play.  Seventeen seconds later, another Trojan penalty put the Hornets on a 5-on-3 for 26 seconds and a 5-on-4 for 94 seconds.  The Trojans killed the penalties.  Edina kept the pressure on the Trojans until the 10 minute mark.  Both teams slowed, but the Trojans were slower in trying to engage the Hornets.  The slower play resulted in another Trojan penalty with eight and a half minutes to play in the period.

Edina set up in the power play and went in for the score.  They had the Trojan defense scrambling as the Hornets moved the puck and shot.  Wayzata’s goalie Ahrens hung in; knocking the puck away from the net, but the Trojan defense could not clear the zone.  With 38 seconds left in the penalty, Edina’s Tyler Nanne fired the puck from the center blue line area and appeared to beat Ahrens high left.  The YHH pictures (1, 2, and 3) show that Ahrens was set to stop Nanne’s shot when an Edina forward stepped in and bounced the puck off his hip driving the center right shot at a sharp angle past a surprised Ahrens into the net for the winning goal.  Ryan Zuhlsdorf and Kieffer Bellows got assists on the play.

Wayzata tried to mount an attack in the waning minutes of the game, but could not sustain any threat.  Edina drew a trip with less than two minutes on the clock.  Wayzata pulled their goalie and the Hornets’ Garrett Wait scored an empty netter with 10 seconds left in the game.  Edina won 3-1.

What is Next?

Sectionals start in two weeks.  Edina will likely get a first round bye since Section 2AA has only seven teams this year.  The semifinal games this year are played at Braemar and BIG arenas.  The Hornets first semifinal game could be at BIG against Jefferson.  They have three games left (Hopkins, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie) and will be favored in all three.  Eden Prairie at Eden Prairie could be a problem, but a loss there may not impact the sectional seeding.

Wayzata finishes their season playing Minnetonka, Totino-Grace and Hopkins and is favored to win all three games.  With Eden Prairie, Benilde-St. Margaret’s, and Holy Family Catholic fading at the end of the season, the Trojans will most likely get the Section 6AA  #1 seed and host Cooper in their opening game.  They would then travel potentially to Braemar to play a semifinal game against either Minnetonka or Holy Family Catholic in the midst of all that Edina Green.  Such is hockey in Minnesota.