Gold Team

Gold Forwards-Luke Benson/Litchfield-Dassel-Cokato, Jack Burnson/Grand Rapids, Cameron Fagerlee/Totino Grace, Aaron Grounds/White Bear Lake, Tommy Klans/Lakeville North, Cole O’Connell/Moorhead, Ryan Poehling/Lakeville North, Willie Reim/St. Thomas Academy, and Ryan Sandelin/Hermantown.

On the Lakeville North Varsity last season, the numbers that mattered were 3, 4, and 7.  Ryan Poehling was #3 and his two brothers Jack and Nick were #4 and #7.  The three all played on same line for Lakeville North.  There was no doubt that this line brought “game’ to the top rated Minnesota Varsity teams, elevated the play of the Panther’s team, and came close to winning the Class AA title in March.  Collectively, the 3-4-7 line scored 45 goals in 25 games.  The scary part is that all three will return next season.

Ryan Poehling is the youngest of the three and scored 27 points (11 goals) for the Panthers in regular season play.  At 6’1”, Ryan is the tallest of the three.  Ryan Poehling will be joined on the Gold team by Festival scoring leader, Aaron Grounds.  Grounds, a 2013 YHH Top 50 pick playing for Lakeville South, spent last season playing for the Midwest Revolution, a USA 99 Tier 1 organization affiliated with the Des Moines IA Youth Association.  The Revolution posted a 19-27-3 record and ended the season ranked #49 (out of 95 Tier I teams that played USA hockey last year).

Tommy Klans is another Lakeville North player that made it to St. Cloud this year.  Klans played for Lakeville Association’s North Bantam AA team last season that ended up losing to Lakeville Association’s South team 8-1 in the West Regional to end their season.  Klans has been playing summer hockey for Minnesota Made Machine team skating with Grant Mismash, Austin Pratt, and Scott Ready.  With most of the Panther Varsity’s top scorers returning, and with good players like Klans making the move to high school hockey, the Panthers varsity should be strong next year.

A quote from a YHH post August 2013 reads like this “Most of the MN Flames (summer team) are from the St. Cloud area… some of the Flames players will end up playing high school hockey in the 2013-2014 season”.  The post was subject was the MN Flames winning the 1999 American Division Championship last year at the Super Rink.  YHH was there.

Luke Benson was on that Flames team last summer.  Benson went on to play 23 games for the Litchfield-Dassel-Cokato Varsity 2013-2014.  This spring eight MN Flames 1999’s made either the District 5 or District 15 Festival teams and four, including Benson, played high school hockey as ninth graders.  Now Benson is at St. Cloud and in contention to be picked as one of the best Minnesota 15 year old players.  A MN Flames teammate, goalie Jaeger Reed, will be playing for the Red Team.

The two players could go from the MN Flames to a USA Hockey team in one year.  If they don’t make the USA team, they are already on the 1999 MN Flames this summer.  They will play for the Flames if they don’t play for a USA National team.  A great story and it is why Minnesota Hockey is so great.

Jack Burnson/Grand Rapids played the last two seasons for the Grand Rapids Association Bantam AA team.  Both years the bantam team made the state tourney.  Last March they won the title beating Stillwater 3-2.  This fall, there will be a fierce battle developing at forward at the high school level with five forwards graduating; two juniors and five sophomores returning.  Add in the junior varsity players and the Bantam AA State Champ players, it will be a great situation for the Rapids varsity coaches.  A good showing at St. Cloud can only help Burnson.  Based on this past year’s peewee AA team struggles, the Rapid coaches better enjoy this fall.  The hockey power on the range could shift to Hibbing and Virginia in two years.

Something had to happen to Cameron Fagerlee late last season.  The Totino Grace player improved enough after playing mostly junior varsity last season to be added to the Eagles’ post season team.  Freshman Fagerlee was the only underclassman (freshman or sophomore) on the post season team.  Fagerlee ended up playing in the Class A state tourney at the Xcel.  Being selected to go to St. Cloud confirms that the Totino Grace coaches were correct that “something” happened.  Cole O’Connell played for Moorhead Association’s Bantam AA team last season.  The NOW ranked #20 Spuds went 12-4 in their last 16 games of the season, but lost two of those four games in the North Regional to end their season.

Ryan Sandelin played for the Hermantown Bantam AA team that made the state tourney in Grand Rapids in March.  The Hawks lost 4-0 to Elk River in the opener.  Sandelin skated last summer for the Minnesota Icemen along with Gold teammates goalie Bob Parenteau and Ryan Poehling.  Willie Reim ended up playing for St. Thomas Academy after leaving Mounds View Association hockey.  He played in 11 varsity games as a freshman.  Reim was first noticed here at the 2012 St. Cloud Peewee A tourney when he scored 10 points (6 goals) in four games for the Mounds View's peewee A team.  Next fall, St. Thomas Academy’s roster will be dominated by seniors and juniors leaving scant room for any sophomore.  Riem needs a good St. Cloud to change that next fall.

Gold Defense-Luke Bjork/Burnsville, Travis Carroll/St. Francis, Erik Dahl/Shattuck, Colin Hans/Anoka, Ryan Nelson/Cloquet, and Garrett Sandberg/St. Michael-Albertville

Erik Dahl played defense for the Lakeville Association’s South team in the 2012 State Tourney at Alexandria.  The Cougars were upended by Eden Prairie 6-4 but still managed to finish as the #1 ranked peewee A team in the state.  YHH first noticed Dahl in the 2010-2011 season.  He was hard to miss being one of the bigger peewee players on the ice.  He played well at defense, but also played a tough wing and was a playmaker.  At defense in the 2012 state tourney he often set up Austin Pratt and Henry Enebak.  His jump to the Shattuck team and a national U14 title was a surprise but getting 33 assists in a 65 game season was not a surprise.  The Gold Team forwards should welcome Dahl on the team.

Anoka’s Colin Hans is the third Anoka player among the top 102 players. As a peewee A player for the Tornadoes, Hans was a bigger and always had a quick first step.  He played defense as peewee, sometimes moving to forward.  Last season he played 65 games for the Anoka Association’s Bantam AA team at defense, the most games played by any bantam AA team in the state.  Anoka finished the 2013-2014 season with a good record (36-26-3) and strong February.  But with the Anoka Varsity graduating few defensemen, Hans needs a good showing at St. Cloud.  As a side note, Anoka Association’s bantam players paid roughly $2000 for the season resulting in the cost per game of $30 (not counting at least 100 or so hours of practice ice).  Two of the 65 games were big losses (10-1 and 7-0 to Elk River) and two of the games were big wins (9-1 and 8-3 over Champlin Park); the other 60 or so games were competitive.  Not only is that better value, it is better competition than if Hans had played a Tier I season.

Travis Carroll played 24 games for the St. Francis varsity last season posting 12 points (3 goals).  That is not bad for a ninth grade defenseman playing in the Mississippi 8 conference.  He will likely return to the Fighting Saints varsity this fall and continue to improve; but a good St. Cloud could change that.  Carroll could be a top defensive scorer in the state in two years.

St. Michael/Albertville Association teams burst on the youth hockey scene four years ago when their peewee A team upset a tough Prior Lake team 2-1 in Orono’s Best of the West Tourney.  Since then the Knights’ Association has had state tourney entries at the peewee A/AA and bantam AA levels.  Garrett Sandberg, a 2013 YHH Top 50 pick, is the latest of that surge of talent going through the STMA Association and that is about to hit high school.  The first surge hit the varsity last season and started to turn the Knights around.

The Knights posted a better than .500 record after winning 1 out 3 games in the 2012-2013 season.  Instead of losing to Andover 10-1 and Duluth East 15-0 as the Knights did in previous Section 7AA playoffs, they lost 3-2 to Andover, a team whose peewees went to state in 2010.  Twenty of the Knights players that touched the ice in a STMA varsity game last year are returning.  The bulk of the returnees will be juniors who played the best in youth state tourneys the past three years.  Next season, there will be more sophomores than seniors playing.  A prediction here is that in two years, STMA will have the two best defensemen playing high school hockey in the state.  Sandelin should do well at St. Cloud.

Youth hockey, as Minnesota defines it, is different than USA hockey.  Most will say there is an age difference.  That is too simple an answer, but Luke Bjork could be a product of Minnesota or USA hockey.  His youth hockey experience fits with what both organizations intend to happen as kids develop from squirts through bantams.  Simply put, Bjork never made an A level team from squirts to bantams in his first year at each level, but always made the Burnsville Association’s A or AA team the second year.  In USA terms, Bjork always played minor hockey his first year at each level and major hockey his second year at each level.  It is an ideal situation when that happens, but that unfortunately happens rarely.  The Minnesota approach allows for kids to make “mis-steps” from that scenario, USA Hockey does not.

This past season as a Blaze Bantam AA, Bjork made a step up and now he is one of the top 102 players proving that kids sometimes just need to grow and mature.  With the Blaze varsity losing some defense next fall, Bjork has chance to jump to the varsity.  A good showing at St. Cloud helps; but Bjork has a tough road to follow nationally.  In recent years, Burnsville has put more players onto the national teams than any other Minnesota city/association.

Ryan Nelson played defense on the Cloquet association’s Bantam AA team last season.  The Lumberjack varsity has two good years in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.  They sagged in 2013-2014.  But the problem still remains, to get to the Xcel, the Lumberjacks have to go to Elk River in the sectional playoffs and they usually lose 4-3.  This season, they have a good corps of returning defensemen that can score (includes three of the Lumberjacks top seven scorers from last season).  Nelson, one of the Lake Superior Stars summer team this year, will have his work cut out for him at St. Cloud.

Gold Goal Tenders-Bob Parenteau/White Bear Lake and Jack Robbel/Holy Angels

Jack Robbel posted a 3-2 record for the Holy Angeles varsity in the 2013-2014 season.  The ninth grader gave up an average of 4.0 goals a game while stopping 87% of the shots on goal for the Stars.  Holy Angels varsity team struggled last season in the now defunct Missota Conference but still managed a third place finish.  Last fall the MSHSL placed Holy Angeles in the Tri-Metro Conference and a week later six schools (Blake, Breck, Minnehaha Academy, Mounds Park Academy, St. Paul Academy, and Providence Academy left the Tri-Metro to play an independent schedule.  That leaves the Tri-Metro with four potential schools that are likely to play hockey this fall (Minneapolis, St. Paul Como, St. Paul Johnson, and Holy Angeles.  Regardless of where or who the Stars play, Robbel is the favorite to be Holy Angeles starting goalie.

Bob Parenteau spent the last two years playing for the White Bear Lake’s Association Bantam AA team.  The Bear’s Bantam AA’s won the South Region’s #2 seed to the state tourney.  The NOW ranked #8 Bears had battled the #2 ranked District 2 rival Stillwater for D2’s regular season title, losing twice to the Ponies (3-2 and 3-0) on the closing weekend to finish second.  In the D2 playoffs 10 days later the Bears lost twice to Stillwater again (4-1 and 4-0) and ended up being seeded to the South Regional.  As fate would have it, after winning the South's #2 seed to the state tourney, White Bear Lake drew Stillwater in their quarterfinal game and lost again 5-2 ending their hopes for a state title.  Parenteau has to be used to some frustration and with the varsity goalies returning, he needs a good showing at St. Cloud.

What is Next?

The Green Team will be previewed in the next post.