The “Crashed Ice” ramps were up, with the starting gate at the top of the hill next to the Cathedral.  The surface is a quarter mile long and Saturday the Red Bull sponsored event in St. Paul will attract thousands of spectators to watch the growing sport of Ice Cross Downhill world championship races.  It is hockey on steroids where skaters stand at the top of an icy downhill sloop and take off like a skier on a giant salon course reaching speeds up to 45 miles an hour along with four other skaters.  The objective is simple, be the first to cross the finish line.

The girl’s Class A and Class AA championships are played at the Xcel on Saturday, a three block walk to Saint Paul’s.  Class A completed it’s opening round Wednesday.  Red Wing, Blake, East Grand Forks, and St. Paul United won.  Class AA completed their quarterfinals Thursday.

Thursday’s Class AA Quarterfinals (Afternoon Session)

Hill-Murray beats Burnsville 4-1

The opening period was critical for both teams in this game.  Both teams struggled in the first minutes of the period.  At the 13 minute mark, there was only one shot on goal by both teams.  A Hill-Murray checking penalty broke the stalemate.  On the power play, Burnsville established control in the Hill’s zone.  The Hill's penalty kill box would collapse to the strong side with three defenders trying to trap the puck in the corner and clear the zone.  They left their weak side exposed.  But the Blaze forwards could not take advantage and rotate the puck to the point and to the weak side, instead tried to force the puck through the net of three defenders toward the slot.

The Blaze’s best scoring attempt came when a blocked pass along the boards by the Hill ended up caroming to the top of the crease to a breaking Blaze forward.  The quick shot resulted in no goal.  Hill-Murray killed the penalty and it took the Hill two more minutes to get their first shot on net and their first pressure.

At the 6 minute mark of the period, the Blaze drew a tripping penalty.  Hill-Murray set up in the Blaze’s zone and the Blaze box on the penalty kill staggered left.  Like the Hill’s penalty killers, the Blaze left the weak side unprotected.  Hill-Murray used their points and caught the Blaze over shifted to the left and succeeded in working the puck quickly to the weak side.  The Hill’s Jess Bonfe one timed the puck into the net for a 1-0 lead.

With the period winding down, a hard shot by Bonfe from the left faceoff circle was blocked right towards a breaking Rebecca Zarembinski.  Zarembinski managed to knock the puck as it came off the blocker glove back into the net.  It was a great individual play and put the Hill up 2-0 at the end of the first period.  After getting the first four shots on goal, the Blaze were outshot 14-5 in the period.

The Hill scored one minute into the second period.  Hill-Murray’s Kenzie Prater backhanded a rebound past Blaze’s goalie Lauren Bench to put the Hill up 3-0.  Burnsville came back to score at the 8 minute mark.  The Blaze forwards caught the Hill-Murray defense playing up creating a 2-on-1 rush.  A forward breaking on the left boards hit Paige Skaja breaking in the right slot for the score to cut the Blaze lead to 3-1.

The Hill’s Brittney Anderson scored twenty seconds later.  It was the “heart breaker”.  Before the Blaze could feel good about scoring their first goal, they were back to trailing by three.  The Hill picked up a slashing penalty thirty seconds after Anderson's goal.  The Blaze power play still could not find the points.  The second period ended with the Hill up 4-1 and outshooting the Blaze 15-5 in the second period.

The third period was scoreless.  The Blaze penalty kill played better, protecting the weak side, in the third period.  They killed three penalties (one 5-on-3 penalty); but the Blaze could not generate offense against a Hill-Murray team content to not force the play in the Burnsville zone.  Playing defensively, the Hill still outshot the Blaze 14-1 in the final period.

Eden Prairie Beats Andover 3-2

She may wear “39” but at Andover she is the “Big 1”.  Junior Maddie Rooney’s goal tending has propelled the Andover Huskies into the Xcel this week.  Rooney posted a 16-10-3 record for the Huskies this season.  She has given up an average of 1.5 goals this season and has stopped 93% of the shots on net.  But the most interesting statistic is that she given up less than two goals a game in 20 or her 29 starts.  She has recorded 6 shutouts and 14 one or two goal games.

Rooney has come a long way since YHH first noticed her outstanding play in the 2009 Burnsville Thanksgiving Tourney.  She went on to lead her peewee A team that year (a team that included Zach Sitarz, Reece Tulbane, and Tyler Vold all top scorers for the Huskies high school this year) to the 2010 peewee A state tourney in Faribault.  Two years later, the Andover Bantam A team was back in the last bantam A state tourney (before the AA/A split) with Rooney in the nets.  The Huskies lost to Edina 3-2 in overtime in the semifinals that year with Rooney in the nets.  Last year as a sophomore Rooney posted an 18-6-1 record for the Huskies.  In regular season play, she gave up 1.5 goals per game while stopping 93% of the shots on net.  Over the past two seasons, Rooney has posted 14 shutouts and 26 one or two goal games in 54 games.  Most of the teams she has faced in her career have ended their game against her with a “big 1” on the scoreboard.

The first period goes as expected

Thursday afternoon, against Eden Prairie, Rooney was in the nets.  For the first eight minutes of play, she saw one shot on the net.  The Huskies’ defense played well in front of her.  They forced a relentless Eagle attack led by Angie Heppelmann and Charly Dahlquist to the outside and denied them any clear shot on goal.  In the ninth minute, Andover picked up their first of three first period penalties.  The Huskies spent most of the last 8 minutes of the period on the penalty kill.  They played with composure and did a good job.  What they couldn’t deny, Rooney cleaned up.  The first period ended in a 0-0 tie.  The Eagles outshot the Huskies 8-4.

The second period is a “see-saw”

Like kids at a playground, in the second period, first one team was up and then the other.  Eden Prairie drew a tripping penalty two minutes into the period.  One minute later Andover’s Sierra Langlie scored a power play goal on a screen from the right center blue line to put the Huskies up 1-0.  Two minutes later, a Huskies’ attack resulted in the puck hitting a pipe and rebounding hard.  Eden Prairie picked up the loose puck and on the ensuing attack drew a holding penalty.

The second period is a “see-saw”

Like kids at a playground, in the second period, first one team was up and then the other.  Eden Prairie drew a tripping penalty two minutes into the period.  One minute later Andover’s Sierra Langlie scored a power play goal on a screen from the right center blue line to put the Huskies up 1-0.  Two minutes later, a Huskies’ attack resulted in the puck hitting a pipe and rebounding hard.  Eden Prairie picked up the loose puck and on the ensuing attack drew a holding penalty.

The Eagles spent most of the power play trying to break the Huskies’s defense and Rooney, but couldn’t.  Luck did.  With two seconds left in the power play, the Eagles’ Jose Olson beat the Huskie defense down low and blasted a shot on Rooney from the edge of the left crease.  The puck took a weird bounce between Rooney and Olson and ended rolling across the crease.  Crystalyn Hengler fighting to hold position on the right side, managed to get her stick on the puck for the score.  Eden Prairie had tied the game with a power play goal 1-1.

Eden Prairie’s attack became relentless with their forwards beating the Huskies defense breaking into the crease or the slot low for hard shots on Rooney.  A second Andover penalty at the 5 minute mark was killed and the Huskies caught the Eagles in transition as the penalty ended.  It resulted in Andover setting up in the Eagles’ zone and catching the late arriving Eagle defense “twisting” or out of position as they moved the puck.  It resulted in an Andover score.  Abbie Turpin got the goal on a hard shot from the right slot.  Andover led 2-1.  The Huskies were up, but it lasted only one minute.

The Eagle forwards continued to beat the Huskies’ defenders down low and take hard shots from the edge of the crease.  One of these shots rebounded to Charly Dahlquist for a quick rebound beating Rooney on the left side.  The Eagles tied the game 2-2.  With the Huskies’ defense tiring, the Eagles outshot Andover 15-3 in the second period.  Most of those 15 shots were from within 10 feet of the Andover crease.

It is over in the first 2 minutes

Two minutes into the final period, the Eagles' Dahlquist broke the 2-2 tie scoring from the left faceoff circle.  The play was started by an Andover defense miscue.  Dahlquist ended up with a quick, hard, one timer from 10 feet left that beat Rooney.  The Eagles led 3-2.  The Huskies’ forward tried to come back, but Eden Prairie played back and turned the Andover attack at their blue or into the boards as they crossed the Huskies’ blue line.  Andover outshot the Eagles in the third period 10-7 but had few good scoring opportunities.  The Eagles Naomi Rogge scored an empty netter with a minute left in the game to make the final score 4-2.

As for Rooney, one could say that she had a down game, giving up three goals and stopping only 89% of the shots.  But most of her 30 shots were tough, often stopping three rebounds along with the original shot.  Those stops were made with one or two Eagles at the top of the crease.  As a senior, Rooney's Andover team may not make the state tourney next year, but she has led three Andover teams to state tourneys, peewee A, bantam A, and high school, in the last 4 years.  That is an achievement worthy of writing about.