Ryan Lindgren/Lakeville who played for the Shattuck Prep that won the U18 Tier I title a month ago has committed to the National Development Team Program for the 2014-2015 season and will play for the USA U17 team.  Goalie Jake Oettinger/Lakeville also committed to the NDTP program and the U17 for next season.  Both players participated in the Final 54 games at the PIC last weekend.  Joey Anderson/Hill-Murray who did not participate in Minnesota Hockey's HP-16/17 program this year has also committed to the NDTP and the U17 team.  Anderson has participated in the selection process last summer.

1.Edina police were checking for expired plates again at Braemar.  They have been doing that for 25 years.  The Edina police will run checks as soon as they see a tourney or crowd show up for a hockey event.  At the PIC in Wayzata, the police may have been around, but they were not noticed.

2. Lucas Dow/Duluth Marshall and Ashton Altmann/Duluth East were paired on the same line for the HP-16 Red, the only HP team to go unbeaten last weekend.  Because each of the HP teams had 10 forwards, the third player with the two Duluth natives was rotated.  Riley Tufte/Blaine and Garrett Wait /Edina were the most effective wings when paired with Dow and Altmann. Tufte stands 6’4” and has grown two inches in the past year.  Tufte played 24 games for the Bengals varsity last season and was always a tough forward in the offensive zone corners.  A month ago, the Blaine sophomore, committed to UMD.

As predicted by YHH, the Red offense had the fire power and that led the HP-16 Red team to an unbeaten weekend.  The Red edged the HP-16 White 3-2 in overtime and the HP-16 Blue 5-3 on Saturday.  Sunday, they beat the HP-17 White 7-0.

3. Garrett Wait/Edina led the Red in scoring with 5 points; posting a hat trick in their 5-3 win over the HP-16 Blue.  Wait, Cole Koepke/Hermantown, and Will Garin/Holy Catholic Family all tied for the points on the weekend (5).  Zach Risteau/Benilde-St. Margaret’s had a good weekend.  Risteau was re-united with Cade Borchardt/Burnsville on the HP-16 Reds.  Both played on  the Blazes’ #6 ranked 2010-2011 peewee A team and the Blazes’ #3 ranked 2011-2012 bantam A team.

4. HP-16 Red’s goalie Karl Hayden/St. Michael-Albertville won the top goalie battle posting a .957 save percentage.  Hayden got credit for two wins in posting a 1.3 goals per game average.   But it was close.  Dayton Rasmussen/Holy Catholic Family (.955), Conor Klaers/ (.944), Ryan Edquist/Shattuck (0.941), Joshua Kenney (0.940) and Jacob Berger (0.929) all needed to stop one more goal catch Hayden. 

5. Who is #9 on the HP-17 Blue team?  Matt Freytag/Wayzata showed up 3 inches taller from last summer and physically stronger.  Freytag put only one puck in the net and was teamed with Casey Dornbach/Edina.  The two players tended to dominate play on their shifts but couldn’t beat the HP-17 Red defense.  Red goalies Jacob Berger/Minnetonka and Zachary Driscoll/Eastview shut the Blue down handing them their only defeat 3-0 on the weekend.

6. Wayzata Varsity Class AA 2015 Champs?  It is too soon to call, but Wayzata has to be #1 when the season opens late November.  First, they have six of their top 10 scorers back from last season’s 19-5-1 team; Max Zimmer, Matt Freytag, Mark Senden, Alex Stevens, Luke Patterson, and Billy Duma.  On defense, goalies Alex Schilling and Vaughan Ahrens return as well as Tristian Moss, Carter Spindler, Hank Sorenson, and Stevens.  Sorenson (8 points in 24 games for the Varsity in 2013-2014) had a good weekend at the PIC leading the HP’s in assists (3 in 3 games). 

Finally, seven on of the 20 players on the HP-15 D3 team are Trojans; Tom Leisen, Griffin Ness, Timo Pelto, Grant Anderson, Tyler Dingman, Benjamin Nelson, and goalie Jaxson Stauber.

7. Edina in a “Three-Peat”-The Edina Hornets have won the last two Class AA State Championships beating Hill-Murray 4-2 in 2013 and Lakeville North 8-2 in 2014.  The Hornets lost their top scorer in 2012-2013, Connor Hurley, to the USHL.   Hurley skipped his senior year at Edina and played in the 2013-2014 season for Muskegon and Green Bay posting 50 points/13 goals in 56 games after committing to play for Notre Dame in the 2014-2015 season.  Hurley was drafted last spring by the Buffalo Sabres (#38 overall in the NHL draft).  Hurley played peewee A hockey for the Eagan Association.

Dylan Malmquist, Miquel Fidler, Cullen Munson, and Tyler Nanne stepped in to fill the gap left by Hurley and drive the Hornets to a second title in 2014 coming on strong in the late season.  Malmquist, a senior this fall, can return to the Hornets.  But he has also committed to Notre Dame for the 2015-2016 season.  If Malmquist opts to follow Hurley to the USHL for the 2014-2015 season, the “Three-Peat” falls to Kieffer Bellows, Garrett Wait, Casey Dornbach, and Ryan Zuhlsdorf.  Fidler, Munson, and Nanne are graduating this June.  Bellows, Wait, Dornbach and Zuhlsdorf played in the HP-16/17 Final 54 last weekend.

8. Ryan Zuhlsdorf has committed play hockey for the University of Minnesota.  Cullen Monson has been drafted by the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers; Miquel Fidler and Tyler Nanne have been drafted by the USHL’s Lincoln Stars.  Tyler Nanne has committed to play hockey for Ohio State in the 2015-2016 season.

9. The Sole 17 Winner Sunday-In Sunday’s match-up between the three HP-16 teams and the three HP-17 teams, the HP-17 Blues beat the HP-16 White 3-2 in an overtime shootout game.  The 16 Red beat the 17 White 7-0 and the 16 Blue beat the 17 Red 7-1.  The HP-17 Blue team took a 2-0 lead in the first half on goals by Aaron Leafgren/Simley and Cade Gleekel/Blake and behind the goal tending of Jen Ahrens/Wayzata.  The White tied the game in the second half on goals by Henry Enebak/Lakeville North and Justin Jallen/St. Paul Academy.  The Blues’ Casey Dornbach/Edina and Nick Swaney/Lakeville South scored the winning shootout goals.

10. Edina’s Section 2 rival, Prior Lake, should step up this year.  As peewees and bantams, the Lakers regularly beat the Hornets in District 6 play, won both regular season titles, and won the State Peewee A title in 2012.  The Lakers were upset by St. Michael/Albertville in the state tourney bantam AA quarterfinals in 2013.  Now the cores of those teams will emerge again to play each other at the Lake Conference level.  Both have lost some top players from their peewee and bantam teams, but it will be interesting to watch the two teams playing next season, perhaps for a Section 2 title and a ticket to state.   

11-Power Switches to Northwest Suburban next season?  Blaine won the conference last season posting a 16-1 record.  Elk River, Andover, Maple Grove, and Centennial filled out the top half of the conference.  Blaine loses 15 players from their senior dominated team.  And that opens the door especially for the Elks and Maple Grove.

The Elks have Jake Jaremko and Reggie Lutz returning with Matt Kiersted on defense.  But this fall should see the re-emergence of Jax Murray, Max Michaelis, and Nate Horn line at the high school level.  They were one of the best lines in peewee hockey in the 2011-2012 season.  Murray was in the Final 54 last week at the PIC; Michaelis and Horn played for the District 10 team in the HP-15 Festival at Braemar.  Add to those three, goalie Ben Meyers, and the Elks varsity will have depth.  Matt Kiersted has committed to play hockey for North Dakota.

Maple Grove has a similar situation going.  Sam Huff, Sam Ross, Josh Wente, and Jack Kelly from the 2012-2013 Bantam AA team made the move to varsity last season and there is more in the Crimson pipeline.  Andover also should be stronger this coming year.  Add Andover to the mix and the Class AA high school power may shift this season to the Northwest Suburban.