Peewee AA State Tourney Draw matches Sibley versus Prior Lake; Cloquet vs Rochester; Edina vs Minnetonka; and OMG vs Hermantown.  The AA Tourney opens 2:00 Friday, March 14, at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls MN.

Peewee A State Tourney Draw matches Spring Lake Park vs Sartell; Highland vs Edina; Armstrong vs Alexandria; and Farmington vs Mahtomedi.  The A Tourney opens 2:00 Friday, March 14, at the Crookston Sports Center in Crookston MN.

Peewee B State Tourney Draw matches Little Falls vs Minneapolis Purple; White Bear Lake vs Eagan Blue; Wayzata Gold vs Blaine; and Edina White vs Mahtomedi in games played at Lake County Arena in Two Harbors MN.

Peewee AA Seeded Tourney Results: #1 Seeded Edina took the #1 South Regional seed; #2 Seeded Rochester took the #2 East Regional seed; #3 Seeded Minnetonka took the #2 West Seed; #4 Seeded Sibley took the #1 West Seed; #5 Seeded Osseo/Maple Grove took the #1 East Seed; and #6 Seeded Prior Lake took the #2 South seed.  The top six seeded teams are all in the State Tourney at Thief River Falls.  Cloquet and Hermantown, the two North Regional teams in the tourney were not seeded.  The North Regional draw was not set by seeds but pre-determined by where they finished in district play.

Peewee A Tourney Results:  The peewee A regionals were pre-determined via Minnesota Hockey’s handbook four years ago.  Each tourney’s draw reflects the best teams in each area of the state that is determined by each districts’ boundaries.  Using NOW rankings, the eight peewee A teams in the state by ranking are #1 Spring Lake Park, #2 Alexandria, #3 Highland, #5 Mahtomedi, #6 Armstrong, #7 Sartell, #9 Edina, and #11 Farmington.  Chaska/Chanhassen (#4), Hopkins (#8) and Orono (#10) all lost in regional play.  Spring Lake Park dueled in the West and took the top seeds, Highland and Mahtomedi dueled in the North and took the top seeds; Armstrong, Sartell, Hopkins and Orono all battled in the South with Armstrong and Sartell winning; and Edina, Chaska/Chanhassen, and Farmington battled in the East with Edina and Farmington winning.

Peewee A teams that impressed

It was noted here that D4 and D5 peewee A teams would be strong this year in the South Regional going up against three top ranked teams from District 3 (Orono, Hopkins, and Armstrong).  They were.  Armstrong beat the top two D4/5 teams (Luverne 6-2 and Sartell 2-0) in winning the South Championship; but Sartell took care of Hopkins 5-0 in the final elimination game and Luverne beat Orono 8-7 in overtime to eliminate the Spartan.

Go Storm

D5’s Sauk Rapids had everybody watching Friday night at the South Regional as they pushed Orono into overtime before losing 2-1.  The Storm had their chances to score the winning goal.  The Green and Gold beat Hutchinson 4-3 Saturday before losing their second game Saturday to Hopkins 7-1

Battle of Goalies

Hopkins Oliva Bizal and Armstrong’s Nikki Harnett engaged in a battle of goalies for the two D3 rivals.  Bizal posted three 1 goal games (6-1 over NUSE, 7-1 over Sauk Rapids, and 3-1 over Luverne).  Harnett gave up three goals in three games at the South Regional.  When the two rivals met in the semifinals Saturday morning, Armstrong won 5-1.  Both teams fans were “revved up” for that game. 

The Battle of the #1 and 2 teams

Spring Lake Park has a great team concept; they play together well as a team and do well despite lacking size.  Alexandria has size and great individual skills; they have a good team concept that is improving.  When Spring Lake Park beat Alex, the Panthers were trailing at the start of the third period 3-2 and scored two quick goals to take a 4-3 lead.  The Panthers defense, particularly their aggressive play along the boards, kept Alex off the board in the last period.  The winning goal trickled through the Cardinal’s goalie’s leg pads and stopped on the goal in the crease and was cleared by a Cardinal defenseman.  The puck never fully crossed the line, but was called a goal (see picture).

Edina AA Rolls

The Hornets scored 10 goals in the first period of their game against Eastview (winning 15-2), six goals in the second period of their semifinal game against the Minneapolis Storm (winning 10-0) and struggled against Wayzata (the game was tied 1-1 with four minutes left in the second period.  Against Eastview, the Hornets put 35 shots on net in the first two periods, against Minneapolis, Edina put 31 shots on net, and against Wayzata they got 29 shots on net.  Wayzata held the game close because their defense and goal tending worked in concert.

The Best Final Elimination Game

In the South Peewee AA tourney, Prior Lake beat Wayzata 4-3 in triple overtime.  Prior Lake took a 3-1 lead into the third period and the Trojans tied the Lakers with 10 minutes left in the game.  The Lakers’ Owen Neuharth got the winning goal late in the third overtime.  The game took 70 minutes to play. 

By the Districts

Of the 24 teams in the three peewee state tourneys, the districts break down like this: District 2 has four teams (Mahtomedi A, Highland A, White Bear Lake B, and Mahtomedi B), District 3 has four teams (Armstrong A, Osseo/Maple Grove AA, Wayzata Gold B, and Minneapolis Purple B), District 5 has one team (Sartell A), District 6 has 5 teams (Edina A, Edina AA, Prior Lake AA, Minnetonka AA, and Edina White B), District 8 has 3 teams (Farmington A, Sibley AA, and Eagan Blue B), District 9 has one team (Rochester Red AA), District 10 has two teams (Spring Lake Park A and Blaine B), District 11 has two teams (Cloquet AA and Hermantown AA), and District 15 has two teams (Alexandria A and Little Falls B).

The Final “Final Elimination” Game

Rochester Red and Chaska Chanhassen played in a late Final Elimination game Sunday evening.  The Red won 4-1 and moved on; Chaska Chanhassen’s season ended.  But the Hawks had one feat that no other team can claim this year; on December 1, 2013, they ended Edina AA’s two year winning streak beating the Hornets 3-2.