Two weeks after all the July 4th parades have ended, the Eagan High School Boys’ Hockey Booster Club hosts their 2014 Summer Meltdown Tournament.  Opening games will be played Friday July 18.  The championship game will be played Sunday at 11:00 AM at the Eagan Civic Arena.  This year, 16 teams from thirteen high schools are entered.  Tartan, Burnsville, and Lakeville North have entered split squads.  The 16 teams are divided into four pools with the pool winners advancing to Sunday morning semifinal games in the m.

Summer tourneys at the high school level have been played for the past years, mostly in July.  Tourneys can’t be played after August 1.  With most school years ending in mid-June, that leaves a scant six weeks to get tourneys played and has resulted in July being packed with high school tourneys for boys and girls hockey.  Eagan’s tourney has grown over the past years.  The Eagan Boosters have drawn a nice mix of teams this year.  Those attending the tourney will get an idea of how strong teams will be when the high school season opens in mid-November.  Both rinks at the Egan Civic Arena will be used.  The first two opening games Friday afternoon match Class AA runner-up (and Section 1AA champions) Lakeville North II against South St. Paul at 3:15 PM.  East Ridge against St. Francis at 3:30 PM.

Pool I: South St. Paul, Tartan I, Lakeville North II, and Farmington

South St. Paul and Tartan both left the Classic Suburban Conference in June and both will open play in the new Metro East Conference in November along with six other Classic Suburban schools including St. Thomas Academy.  The only change between the now defunct Classic Suburban and the Metro East is Hastings replacing Richfield in the Metro East.  One of the principle reasons for creating the Metro East Conference was to eliminate STA.  It didn't work.  The Minnesota State High League added the Cadets back in to the Metro East. 

Both South St. Paul and Tartan played a 15 game Classic Suburban Conference schedule last year.  Tartan had a good finish to the season and posted a 9-6 conference record finishing fourth.  The Packers ended their conference season in sixth with a 6-9 record.

South St. Paul has some returning offensive fire power that should form the core of next fall’s varsity (last season’s scoring leader Dan Pietruszewski, #2 scorer Cameron Buhl, and Brenden Shanley).  All have played in the Minnesota Hockey’s Reebok High Performance program and have done well.  The Packers opened last season on the winning side.  One week into January, South St. Paul had a 6-4-1 record, but ended the season 10-14-1.  Two of those late season losses were to Tartan 5-1 and 7-1.  They will face a a split varsity Tartan II team in Pool I.

Last season, the Tartan’s had three players that scored 65 or more points (Rusty Axtman 71points/25 goals, Brady O’Sullivan 67 points/34 goals, and Zach Ledman 65 points/27 goals).  Unfortunately all three are gone along with seven other seniors including Gabe Splichal, the Titans starting goalie and three defensemen.  Since the Titans have split their squad for this tourney, the two returning goalies Julius Huset and Michael Hughes (both juniors in the fall) have an opportunity to test themselves for the starting spot on the Titans’ roster.  Players to watch on the Tartan rosters are sophomores Derek Sievers (25 games/14 points) and Dan Betz (21 games/13 points).  Both players are the highest scorers returning to the Titan varsity this fall.  Sievers made Minnesota Hockey’s St. Cloud camp as part of the Reebok HP-15 program in 2013.  Another Tartan player to watch is Sam Lindahl.  Lindahl’s Tartan Bantam A team lost to Wayzata 3-2 in the Bantam A State semifinals last season.  He played in the HP-15 festival for the District 2 team two months ago.

The Lakeville North varsity is coming off a great season, finishing second in the Class AA State Tourney in March.  The Panthers have most of their top talent returning at forward and defense.  But the Panthers lost both of their starting goalies (Will DuPont/13-1 regular season and Jake Oettinger/7-2-1).  Dupont graduated in June and Oettinger was selected to join USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program for the 2014-2015 season.  Oettinger will play junior hockey on USA Hockey’s U17 team in 2014-2015 and compete in international tourneys.  That leaves the starting spot wide open for returning senior goalie Pierce Wilson.  Wilson saw some action in 2012-2013 regular season play for the Panthers and played in the 2013 Class AA State Tourney.

Two other Lakeville North players will be missing the teams for this tourney; Ryan Poehling and Tommy Klans.  Both will be representing Minnesota at USA Hockey’s National Boys Select 15 Development Camp in Amherst NY that week.  Ryan Poehling, along with his two brothers Nick and Jack, led the Panthers’ varsity in scoring last season.  Klans played on the Lakeville Association’s North bantam AA team.

The Panthers are loaded with talent this year and this tourney could end up seeing Lakeville North I playing Lakeville North II for the championship Sunday.

Last season, Farmington posted a 21-3-1 record in regular season play winning the last Missota Conference hockey title before losing to Lakeville North in the Class 1AA championship game.  This coming season, Farmington will join Lakeville North in the South Suburban Conference and could win the title.    

Ten players from the Farmington Association’s 2011 Peewee A State Tourney team will be juniors playing on the Farmington Varsity this year; the Tigers lost three peewee A players to other schools.  Jake Oettinger was the Tiger’s 2011 Peewee A goalie, the only goalie on the team.  Oettinger moved to Lakeville North last season before joining USA Hockey’s NTDP program.  Peewee A forward Nate Knoepke moved to Lakeville South and is one of Minnesota Hockey’s 2014 HP-15 select players headed for New York this week.  A third 2011 peewee Tiger, Bennett Norlin, played on Shattuck’s Midget AA team last season as a ninth grader posting 38 points/16 goals in 42 games.

The 2011 Tiger Peewee A team featured a strong defense with Erik Holmstrom, Devin Bernu, and Tyler Jette.  John Siebenaler and Grady Hauswirth provided the scoring punch.  All five players will be on the Farmington varsity this fall.  The Farmington Varsity will lose eight players through graduation, but only two were among the Tigers top ten scorers.  Siebenaler was the second leading scoring last season for the varsity and has proven to be a versatile player.  One thing that favors Farmington in the coming season is the return of senior goalie Gage Overby.  Overby posted a 13-2-1 record last season giving up an average of 2.3 goals a game while stopping 90% of the shots on goal.

Pool I Finish: Farmington, South St. Paul, Lakeville North II, and Tartan I

Farmington should have the guns to win this pool with South St. Paul’s returning seniors matching them on the ice, but not in team depth.  Lakeville North II is a split squad and with a young defense will struggle.  Tartan has lost significant offense through graduation, is rebuilding this year, and has split their squad.

Pool II: Tartan II, Burnsville I, New Prague, and Eastview

Tartan has split their squad into two teams, Tartan I and Tartan II.  The two Titan teams should struggle in each of their pools because of fire power lost through graduation.  A good showing by either team or both teams in this tourney would be a pleasant surprise.

Burnsville’s varsity placed second in the South Suburban behind Lakeville North posting a 18-6-1 regular season record, but graduated ten of their top eighteen players.  Still the Blaze will have strength both offensively and defensively.  With the big guns gone, Eric Otto and Cade Borchardt will be carrying the Blaze offense.  Otto, a 6’2” 190lb wing, and Borchardt will be juniors next fall.  Both played on the varsity last fall and collectively scored 10 goals in the 25 regular season games.  Two Blaze defensemen will just be returning from USA Hockey national camps in New York, Jack Ahcan and Sam Rossini.  Rossini attended the HP-16 camp; Ahcan attended the HP-17 camp.  A third Burnsville Hockey Club developed player, Zach Risteau, who plays for Benilde-St. Margaret’s, was on the 20 player contingent with Rossini that attended the HP-16 camp.

Two pleasant surprises for the Blaze this fall could be defenseman Luke Bjork from the bantam AA team and goalie Joshua Kenney from the junior varsity team.  Both made the trip this summer to St. Cloud as part of the High Performance program (Bjork as a HP-15 and Kenney as a HP-16 Final 54).

New Prague won the Section 1A title and a trip to the Xcel last March, than graduated 11 players including their top scorers.  New Prague supporters got behind the team.  Their support helped the Trojans make the trip to the Xcel.  The Trojans will be joining the Wright County Conference this year with the Missota Conference now defunct.  New Prague wanted to join the Big 9 Conference and play a regular season conference schedule with Section 1A foes, but the Trojans were rejected.

In the Wright County Conference, New Prague will play Section 2A and 3A foes Delano, Orono, Mound-Westonka, Waconia, Hutchinson, and Litchfield.  They will also face one of the emerging top ranked Class AA teams, the Holy Family Fire, in a yearly home and home series.

The Trojans will have two strengths on which to rebuild this season, the Trojans’ outstanding junior forward, Alex Gregor, teamed with seniors Ben Witt and Ryan O’Rourke on the offensive side and returning starting goalie Connor Wagner fronted by defensemen Casey Busch and Jake Klein.  Wagner, Busch and Klein are all seniors.

Eastview surprised people by making the Class AA State Tourney in 2012-2013 posting a 19-11-1 record and then disappointed them as they struggled in the 2013-2014 season posting a 19-7-1 record.  The Lightning returned five of six defensemen and their starting goalie off the state tourney team that held their opponents to 55 goals in 25 regular season games.  Last season, the Lightning bettered their state tourney team’s defensive record by holding opponents to 52 goals.  Offensively, they increased their scoring by 20 goals.  The biggest problem, at the season’s end, that kept the Lightning from a return trip was a Section 3AA semifinal loss to St. Thomas Academy.  STA, in their first Class AA sectional playoff, beat the Lightning 2-1 in overtime before losing the Section 3AA championship to Eagan 4-2.

Four of the six Lightning defensemen graduated last season.  Seniors Keith Muehlbauer and Shane Bernhardson return with senior goalie Zach Driscoll.  Driscoll, a HP-17 selectee returning from USA Hockey’s HP-17 national camp, posted a 35-13-1 record giving up an average of 2 goals a game while stopping 93% of the shots on net over the past two seasons with the Lightning varsity.  Overall, the Lightning defense has held their opponents to two goals or less in 40 of the 58 games played in the last two seasons.  Offensively, the Lightning graduated their top scorers.  Defenseman Muehlbauer (28 points/10 goals last season) maybe their top scorer next season.  Tommy Hutsell (27 points/15 goals in 25 games), Cole Cooper (17 points/9 goals in 25 games), and Cole McDevitt (13 points/5 goals in 25 games) came on strong offensively last season and will be tested in this tourney.

This mid-summer tourney should test Eastview’s offense and defense.

 Pool II Finish: Eastview, Burnsville I, Tartan II, and New Prague

Pool II turns into a battle between two top South Suburban teams Eastview and Burnsville I.  However, the Blaze do not have the horses to split into two teams and have one team beat Eastview’s defense.  The Lightning should win Pool II, but it will not be easy.  Eastview’s offense will struggle to score against a potentially strong Burnsville defense and be tested by Tartan II and New Prague.  Tartan II should edge New Prague, but the Trojans could be a surprise in this pool based on that unknown factor of having a successful trip to the Xcel last March.  High school hockey teams that have a “break though” season like New Prague did last year often have a good next season despite graduation losses.

Part 2 will be posted Friday morning.  For high school hockey fans, check out the Eagan Arena next weekend.  One of the fun things about hockey at this level this time of the year is to watch how the new talent entering the high school varsitys play.  Often a new player will standout and surprise fans.

YHH will post the final game schedule tomorrow for all three days.