While the Spuds were finishing their regular season play in the cities, River Lakes was finishing Becker/Big Lake’s Section 8AA play.  The Stars beat the Eagles 9-3 in the opening round Saturday.  Tuesday the #8 seeded Stars travel to Roseau to play the #1 seeded Rams.  Roseau beat International Falls 7-1 and Crookston 10-3 last week, but did not play on the weekend.  The Rams finished their season mid-week leaving Moorhead to be the one scratching their collective heads.

Why schedule two key games whose outcomes could have altered the seeding?  Why take a 500 mile round trip to play two tough games including one against the #3 ranked team in the state if there was no opportunity to improve on a team’s sectional seed?  If the Spuds had upended Hill-Murray (they were trailing 4-3 with seven minutes left in the game), wouldn’t the seeds look premature and wrong?

Moorhead’s Blue Weekend, 4-0 loss to the Fire, 6-3 loss to the Hill

Three weeks ago, Roseau played the Fire at the Fire’s home arena beating them 3-0.  They “schooled” the Fire (sans two of their top players) on how to play the game.  Friday, Moorhead played the Fire and they were torched by a Holy Family Catholic team with a full roster and ready to play.  What was the difference?  Moorhead was slow in the first and second periods.  They never got untracked, appeared down, and the Fire’s forwards used their speed to build a 4-0 lead aided by three goals and four Spud penalties in the second period.  

The game started physical with a big hit on a Fire puck carrier in the neutral zone that should have jump started Moorhead after the long bus ride.  It didn’t.  The first period became physical, but both teams lacked follow-up on the hits.  The Fire took three penalties and played shorthanded for half of the opening period.  With six minutes left in the first period, the Fire’s Matt Runyon scored a shorthanded goal to put Holy Family Catholic up 1-0.  After that goal, the Spuds picked up the pace but were still having trouble matching the Fire’s speed at forward.

Moorhead tried to up the pressure in the opening minutes of the second period, but the Fire’s Joey Marooney’s shot from the blue line beat Dittmer on the right side to put the Fire up 2-0.  Moorhead called time to re-group after that score but picked up a penalty four minutes later.  The Fire’s Marooney worked low without the puck, picked up the rebounding puck in the crease by manipulating his skates and punched the puck into the open net before the Spud’s goalie Dittmer could react.  The Fire led 3-0.  With time running out in the second period, the Fire executed a neat three pass rush that ended with Will Garin scoring from the slot.  That goal ended the scoring 4-0.  The third period went scoreless.

Sixteen hours after losing to the Fire, the Spuds lost to Hill-Murray in a game played at Aldrich Arena 6-3.  The Spuds took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period, lost the lead when the Hill scored two second period goals, and came back to close Hill-Murray’s lead to 4-3 with 10 minutes left on the clock.  Dittmer was in the nets again, stopping 36 of the Hill’s 42 shots on net.  The Spuds defense gave up 75 shots on goal in the two week end games.  

What’s at Stake?

Hockey teams from the North always bear down at tourney time.  That happens from peewees through high school.  Four Section 8AA teams are northern teams (Roseau, Brainerd, Moorhead, and Bemidji).  Every year, the #2 seeds draws the #3 seed. This year, Roseau and Moorhead’s were candidates for the #1 and #2 seeds.  This year, the #3 seed would be Brainerd (15-7-2).  The Warriors have given both Roseau (losing 6-2 and 3-2 in early January) and Moorhead (losing 4-2 in early January and winning 5-3 in late January at Moorhead) fits.  The Warriors are a veteran, dangerous, team bent on revenging last year’s loss to the Spuds in the 8AA championship.  As a result of the seeding, Brainerd will have their chance.  Moorhead will likely beat the #7 seed St. Cloud Tech and have a home return match Saturday against Brainerd (who should beat Monticello/Annandale/Maple Lake) this week.

Brainerd returns a senior corps of 12 players who were seeded #2 in Section 8AA last season and were on the ice for the Section 8AA 2013 playoffs.  In the 2013 sectional, Brainerd beat Roseau 4-3 and lost to Moorhead 2-0 in the championship game.  Moorhead won that game on two goals scored by Tony Uglem and Aaron Herdt in the third period.  Herdt is back this year, but Uglem is gone; he is a top scorer for the Minnesota Magicians in the North American Hockey League this season.  Jacob Dittmer, an Elite League goalie last season for the Great Plains team, got the 2-0 shutout.  Dittmer will likely be in the nets for the semifinal game.

Moorhead has four seniors in their top 10 scorers.  Only Aaron Herdt (40 points/22 goals) has managed to crack the 20 point mark this season.  Offensively, the Spuds struggled against the Fire, did better against Hill-Murray.  Defensive has to be their strong point this year.  They have outscored their opponents by a single goal (72-71) in 25 games this season.  The Spuds goalie Dittmer posted a 10-11-1 record giving up an average of 2.7 goals a game while stopping 91% of the shots on net.

The #1 seeded Roseau should beat River Lakes (who beat Becker/Big Lake last Saturday).  The Rams should beat either Bemidji or Buffalo at home this Saturday.  The Section 8AA championship game will be played Wednesday, February 26 at Thief River Falls.

The Prediction

The Spuds had a blue weekend last week losing twice after finding out they took the #2 seed.  Things look tougher and bluer for the Spuds at home against Brainerd on Saturday.  The Warriors should win setting up a tough Section 8AA championship game between Brainerd and Roseau.  But the tone for the Spuds players was set last weekend when the 8AA seedings were announced.  In this corner of YHH, the Spuds team and coaches should have been allowed to finish their season, be seeded, and then start sectional play.  Section 8AA seeding problems (an YHH guess) could have been caused by postponing high school games in January due to the cold and that altered normal.  Since when is it not cold in January, the ice does not get any bluer.  Ask the Spuds.