The Red Team

Red Forwards-Nick Anderson/Orono, Zach Bauer/Farmington, Isaac Johnson/Anoka, Max Michaelis/Elk River, Grant Mismash/Shattuck, Alex Pollock/Bemidji, Austin Pratt/Shattuck, Bram Scheerer/Edina, and Kyler Yeo/Hill-Murray

The Red team has the offensive power.  It starts with Grant Mismash and Austin Pratt off the national champion Shattuck Bantam team.  These two combined to score 169 points (91 goals) in 65 games for the Sabres last season.  Mismash and Pratt played on the 2013 Machine Orange last summer.  They will be joined on the Red team by a 2013 Machine Orange teammate, Bram Scheerer.  Add Scheerer to Mishmash and Pratt and you get significant offense.  But the Red offense does not stop with those three. 

Max Michaelis, a nice all-around player from the Elk River Association who can be a playmaker or a goal scorer, made the Red team offense.  Michaelis played for the Elk’s Peewee A state tourney teams in 2011 and 2012.  In 2012, Michaelis, Nat Horn (playing for the Royal Blue team at St. Cloud), and Jax Murray (HP-16 Final 54 this year) were one of the top peewee A lines leading Elk River to the state tourney in 2012.  All three were YHH top fifty peewee A players in 2012 along with Mishmash and Pratt.  Michaelis, Horn, Murray led the Elk’s Bantam AA team to the state tourney played in Grand Rapids last March.  The NOW ranked #3 Elks finished fourth in the tourney losing to Stillwater 3-1 in the semifinals.  The Michaelis, Horn, and Murray line could finally hit the Elk's varsity team next year.

Kyler Yeo played junior varsity for Hill-Murray last season.  Yeo, the son of the Minnesota Wild's coach Mike Yeo, was instrumental in D8’s successful Festival run posting 6 points (5 assists) for the Orange.  He has shown he can score.  It will be interesting to watch how the lanky Yeo fits with the big guns on the Red team.

Nick Anderson has played the last two seasons for the Orono Association’s Bantam A team.  Last season, the Orono Varsity was a great Minnesota Hockey story culminating with an upset win over heavily favored Breck 2-1 in the Section 2A championship and winning a trip to the state tourney.  Two seasons ago, seven first year bantams made the Orono Varsity/Junior Varsity.  Last March all seven were on the ice for the upset win over Breck including goalie Jon Flakne who stopped 46 of 47 Mustang shots.  March 2010 the same seven players (Alex Sellers, Trip Renard, Jared Gherardi, Joey Luedke, Will LeNeave, and Flakne) led Orono Association’s peewee A team to the state tourney in Faribault.  Luedke (and teammate Gavin Payne who was Minnetonka leading scorer last season) were top peewee A picks by YHH in 2010.

Because the seven players moved onto high school, Anderson didn’t get to play with them as a first year bantam in 2012-2013.  That year the bantam team struggled.  This year the Spartan’s bantams didn’t struggle and ended the season NOW ranked #8 in the state posting a 38-16-8 record.  The Spartan’s Bantam A team came within one goal of making the state tourney losing to Delano 4-3.  Anderson’s progress over the past two years is a good thing for the Orono varsity and points to potentially another March battle between the Spartan’s varsity and Breck for a ticket to the Xcel.

One of the enigma’s in this year’s St. Cloud camp is the Anoka players.  Anoka peewees always play well when this corner of YHH sees them playing a game; but the Tornadoes seem to struggle late each year after year.  In the 2010-2011 season, the Anoka peewees were no different.  They had a good Burnsville Thanksgiving tourney and a month later won their own tourney in front of almost full house at the Anoka Ice Arena beating Mahtomedi 4-0.  But they never made it out of the District 10 playoffs.  It is no surprise that Isaac Johnson (or peewee A teammate Carter Perry on the Light Blue team) made the final 102; the surprise here is that Anoka peewees could not make it out of the districts.

Alex Pollock was one of nine Bemidji Bantam AA players to make the District 16 team for the Festival.  The D16 team had a good festival and Pollock (along with Ryan Pogue, Chase Hartje, and Joshua Baker) is one of four Lumberjacks to make top 102 players in the state.  Pollock can score quickly and often in a game and had a number of hat tricks for the Bantam AA team last season.  He should fit in well with the Red team’s offense.

Farmington Association’s 2012-2013 peewee AA team and 2013-2014 bantam A team followed association teams that competed successfully at high levels the previous years.  That group of kids struggled,  Last year the Farmington Association dropped to A status and both the peewee A and bantam A teams made the state tourney.  One reason why is Zach Bauer.  He really made strides in the past year.

Bauer skated for the Farmington Association’s peewee A season in 2012-2013, The team struggled to score.  YHH watched Bauer and Tiger’s peewee AA team that season trying to play solid hockey.  Last season, it was great to see the Bantam A team improve.  Bauer led the Tigers to the Bantam A state tourney before losing to Tartan 6-4 in the quarterfinals.  Bauer will be another interesting player to watch on the Red offense.

Red Defense-Michael Anderson/Hill-Murray, Nate Knoepke/Lakeville South, Jack Mapstone/Stillwater, Connor Mayer/Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Trevor Miklya/Eagan, and Noel Parker/St. Paul Academy

Last season, St. Paul Academy had a clear shot at the Section 4A title and a ticket to state but could not get by Mahtomedi in the semifinals, losing 2-1.  Noel Parker played all 25 games for the Spartans putting 7 points (no goals) on the scoreboard.  In one of the more interesting stats, Parker did not put a shot on the net for the Spartan varsity playing in 25 games; a doubtful statistic.  A defensive oriented defenseman, Parker is a lanky player that will grow.  Playing behind an aggressive Red offense, he will be tested at St. Cloud.

Connor Mayer had a good season playing for the Benilde-St. Margaret’s junior varsity.  He will be also tested at defense behind the Red team’s forwards.  With only two spots opening on the Red Knights’ varsity next fall, a good St. Cloud will help Mayer’s prospects. 

Nate Knoepke played in the 2010-2011 Farmington Peewee A team that lost the state championship game to Edina at the Bloomington Ice Gardens 7-2.  In that game, Knoepke was a smaller forward going up against bigger Hornets like Ryan Zuhlsdorf and Kieffer Bellows.  Teammates from that Farmington team have moved on.  Devin Bernu, Erik Holmstrom, Tyler Jette, John Siebenaler, and Grady Hausworth are all starting to gather attention.  Teammate and goalie Jake Ottinger has jumped to the National team this summer after playing for Lakeville North in the Class AA state tourney.  Meanwhile, Knoepke returned to play the 2011-2012 season on the Tiger’s peewee A team and played the 2013-2014 season for the Lakeville South bantam AA team.  He has grown and changed position.  The 6’2” Knoepke now plays defense and has made the top 36 defensemen in the state.  Now he is bigger and stronger than most players he played against and with just two years ago.  What a difference a year makes when it comes to youth hockey.

Where other players at St. Cloud are looking to improve their high school prospects this fall, Eagan’s Trevor Miklya should be looking more nationally.  Three short months ago, Miklya was one of six defensemen playing on the Wildcats’ varsity team at the Xcel.  The Wildcats took third place losing 3-1 to Edina in the semifinals.  Miklya finished the state tourney with a +1, not bad for a ninth grader.

Stillwater’s Jack Mapstone played for the Ponies Bantam AA team the lost to Grand Rapids 3-2 in the finals of the Bantam AA State Tourney played in Grand Rapids.  The Ponies varsity has five returning defensemen from last March’s state tourney team who will be seniors this fall leaving one opening on a team that is focused on getting back to the Xcel in March.  A good St. Cloud camp will help Mapstone in the fall.

When the dust settled at the end of the 2013-2014 hockey season at Hill-Murray, eighth grade defenseman Michael Anderson, found himself fourteenth on the Hill’s scoring leaderboard with 6 points (1 goal) in 25 games.  With nine of the thirteen players above Anderson graduating or leaving (including scoring leader Joey Anderson departing for the nationals), 5’10” nearly 200lb Anderson has to figure heavily in Hill-Murray’s hockey future.

Red Goal Tenders-Ryan Bischel/Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Noah Harren/Warroad.

Ryan Bischel posted a 3-1-2 record for the Red Knights varsity last season.  The ninth grader gave up an average of 2.9 goals per game while stopping 85% of the shots on net.  Bischel will be in a battle for the BSM’s starting goalie position with returning junior starter Jalen Long.  A good St. Cloud camp will help Bischel this fall.

Warroad considers Roseau their great hockey rival but the past few years the rival is really East Grand Forks.  The Warriors have lost three straight Section 8A games to the Green Wave and each time East Grand Forks has gone to state.  In March 2015, the Green Wave will be at the Thief River Falls arena defending their state title looking to hand Warroad a fourth straight beating.  With Dixon Bowen, Tanner Tweten, Tye Ausmus, Reed Corbid, Grant Loven, and goalies Josh Weber and Garrett Lieberg all returning, they will be tough.

Warroad will have their own senior scorers in Kobe Roth, Jared Bethune, and Luke Jaycox along with senior goal tender Alex Burke.  Noah Harren will likely play behind Burke, but a good camp at St. Cloud could change some minds.  Harren will be needed.

What is Next?

The Gold and Green teams will be reviewed in the next post.