One pool, Pool III, may seem familiar to fans with Jefferson being in the pool along with Prior Lake.  The Jags are no longer South Suburban, they will play the 2014-2015 season in the Metro West.  Jefferson fans will no longer have to worry about crossing a Minnesota River bridge in traffic to make an early evening game this winter; they will now have choice of surface streets to drive to a Metro West foe’s ice.  Shakopee takes Jefferson’s spot in the South Suburban.  Pool III still has two South Suburban teams; just different teams.

Jefferson ends up playing two Section 2AA foes Prior Lake and Shakopee.  It turns Pool III into an early preview of next March’s Section 2AA playoffs sans Edina.

Lakeville North won Eagan’s Summer Meltdown Tourney last weekend and will be back on the same ice this week.  North looked impressive splitting their team last weekend and winning the tourney.  They will be the odds on favorites to win again this weekend. 

Pool I: Lakeville North, Rosemount, Blaine, and SPA

Lakeville North’s offensive depth was impressive last weekend, but it was their aggressive defensemen’s play that won them their championship.  That play combined with their overall goaltending led by former Shattuck U16 goalie Ryan Edquist was a winner last weekend.  Edquist made the final list of Minnesota HP-16 players this summer.  The Panthers’ forwards played a rugged style in beating Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Farmington in key games.  They played hard in all three 15 minute periods and won.  Other teams slowed in the latter parts of games.

Blaine won the Northwest Suburban Conference last March, beating Elk River.  The Elks finished second.  Blaine has one of the best forwards in the state in Riley Tufte (35 points/17 goals in 25 games), but Tufte is playing for the USA U17 Select Team in the Five Nations Tourney in Germany in mid-August and may not show.  If he does, a fan will not need a program to find him on the ice.  Just look for the big wing in the left corner dominating play.  Tufte has committed to UMD for the 2016-2017 season.  The Bengals were hit hard by graduation, but have talent that should surface in this tourney in Grant Boege and goalie Ridge Gerads.  Both Boege and Gerads made the HP-16 Final 54 along with Tufte.  Another pleasant surprise for the Bengals in the emergence of goalie Bryce Crowley; Crowley made the HP-15 Minnesota selects as an alternate this summer.

Rosemount had a talented peewee A in 2010-2011 and made the state tourney semifinals in March 2011 at Bloomington’s Ice Gardens.  Eight of the thirteen peewee A players made the varsity roster last season and should be ready to add to the depth that the Irish need at forward.  Their two top scorers return in Lukas Gillett and Ryan Foley; but look for the emergence of Charlie Monn to power an Irish line; Monn had a great HP-15 summer in 2013 and should get help from lanky Peyton Norder and Jake Simonet.  Unfortunately for the Irish varsity, three top players from that peewee A team (Dylan McDonald, Sam Rossini, and Jared Mickelson) moved on to play elsewhere.

SPA’s Dev Mccabe, an eighth grader last season, was the Spartans’ #3 scorer (32 points/8 goals in 25 games).  With the top two scorers graduating, he will be leading the Spartan’s offense next fall.  Matt Dahlseide, a ninth grader last season was the #4 scorer (22 points/14 goals in 25 games); Justin Jallen, the Spartan’s #6 scorer (20 points/7 goals in 25 games) was a sophomore last season.  SPA definitely has a pony line that will be fun to watch.  In this pool, they will be the underdogs in all three games; but if their defense can hold and they show offensive depth, they could surprise.

Pool I Finish: Lakeville North, Blaine, SPA, and Rosemount

The Panthers should beat all three teams in this pool based on the depth they have at all three positions (forwards, defense, and goaltending).  Blaine is re-building and should have enough at this time to edge SPA’s ponies.  Rosemount will struggle as they start to add depth at forward and defense, but what catches the eye with the Irish was how close they came to beating Cretin (losing 5-3) in last season’s Section 3AA quarterfinals.

Pool II: Eastview, Farmington, Duluth East, and Delano

Eastview and Farmington battled in Sunday in Eagan’s Summer Meltdown with the Tigers winning 5-4.  The game was not close from most of the three periods played.  Eastview scored twice late in the game to narrow the score to 5-4 and then applied pressure in the final minutes of play.  Farmington skated three solid lines and got their most productive scoring out of their third line out on the ice.  The Farmington defense continued their aggressive play.  Eastview’s offense continued to struggle; their defense kept the games close.

There are two wild cards in this pool, Duluth East and Delano.  Both teams can be dangerous, but the Hounds coaches are trapped in sort of a good way, but also a tough way.  Last season, five players off the Duluth East’s association 2012-2013 bantam AA team that was state runner-up made the varsity.  Last year, only four seniors graduated (three at defense) leaving little room on the varsity roster for eleven kids coming off that good bantam team.  The 2014-2015 Hounds varsity team is potentially an updated version of the 2011-2012 Bantam A team that struggled and ended the season with a record just over .500 and losing to Lakeville North 3-1.

Delano's (Crow River now Delano Area Association) scoring leader last season was a talented ninth grader Ben Meyers (35 points/18 goals in 25 games).  Meyers is an all-around player for the Tigers and made Minnesota Hockey’s HP-16’s this summer and a trip to a national USA Hockey camp.  Just a great player to watch, Meyers led the Crow River bantam A team to the 2013 state tourney losing to eventual state champs, Mahtomedi 4-2.  The 2012-2013 Bantam team turned their season around after getting bounced in a Hastings tourney the first week in January 2013.  They went on to lose only three regular season games after that on their way to state.  With the varsity losing 9 players through graduation, this tourney will be a good chance to see that bantam team re-constituted as varsity.   

Pool II Finish: Farmington, Eastview, Duluth East, and Delano.

Farmington had a great tourney a week ago and were shocked by the play of Lakeville North’s goalie, Edquist.  They handled Eastview in the semifinals and should do so again.  Eastview and Duluth East should put on quite a defensive show and will be a game worth seeing. The Lightning defense should prevail.  Delano will be testing themselves; but their real objective is to beat Breck, Blake and Orono to get to state next March as Section 2A champs.

Pool III: Prior Lake, Stillwater, Shakopee, and Jefferson

Stillwater upended White Bear Lake 2-1 and Hill-Murray 2-1 on their way to a Section 2AA title and a ticket to the Xcel last March.  The Ponies also played the last high school hockey game in the defunct State Fair Coliseum Arena, another victim of fed regulations.  Stillwater made the state tourney with only seven seniors, but four of the graduates were the Ponies top four scorers.  That puts the Ponies’ offense on Devin and Jackson Cates (#5 and #6 scorers combined 32 points/12 goals in 25 games), Simon Sagissor (13 points/6 goals in 25 games), and Tyler Benson (5 points/3 goals in 25 games).  Defensively, the Ponies junior-to-be goalie Josh Benson (8-8-1 giving up 2.8 goals a game while stopping 89% shots on goal) returns.  Benson had a tough state tourney quarterfinal game losing to Edina 6-1.  The Hornets benefited from three freaky bounces of the puck that resulted in first period scores. Benson was also in the nets when the Ponies lost the consolation round overtime game 2-1 to Duluth East.

Prior Lake won the 2012 State Peewee A championship and had a good peewee A team the previous year (2010-2011).  Players from those two teams played together on the Prior Lake Association’s Bantam AA team in 2012-2013 winning District 6 regular season and playoff titles, went to the state tourney, and took consolation after being upset by St. Michael/Albertville.  That team will be upper classmen this fall and should be loaded for “Hornets” especially with the potential additions of forward Chase Gackle and defenseman Jack Harris from this year's bantam team.  Fellows, Denman, and Gackle made it to the final 54 as part of Minnesota Hockey’s HP-16 program; Harris was selected as part of the HP-15 contingent sent to New York last week.  The Lakers weakness going into the fall will be their goaltending; both goalies graduated last year.

Jefferson will be playing in the Metro West conference this year along with Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Kennedy, Chanhassen, Chaska, Richfield, Cooper, and St. Louis Park.  The Jags should contend for the first Metro West hockey title.  They lose their top three scorers, but Ryan Graff (19 points/9 goals in 25 games), defenseman Charles Straus (17 points/7 goals in 25 games), and Kyle Wendorf (11 points/3 goals in 23 games) all return.  The three were the Jags #4, #5, and #6 scorers last season.

The Jags defense should be strong with Straus, A J Robbel, Charlie Sweeny and Drake Hill returning to front senior-to-be goalie Josh Waldron.  Playing in the Metro West instead of the South Suburban, one could theorize that it would be good for the Jags.  It would allow them to develop their team skills.  One could also argue the opposite.  But that discussion will be settled next March in the Section 2AA playoffs.  Playing in the South Suburban, over the past five years the Jags have gotten either Section 2AA’s #3 seed or the #4 seed; three of those five years they lost to Edina (5-4, 7-4, and 4-1).

The Shakopee Association has developed some great talent over the past years, but they always go elsewhere.  Holy Family’s Matt Anderson is a recent example.  Anderson jumped from the 2011-2012 Shakopee peewee A team to Holy Family’s 2012-2013 varsity team.  Shakopee’s peewee A’s finished that season just behind Edina in the standings (Edina finished behind Prior Lake, Waconia, and Eden Prairie) and ahead of Jefferson.  With three of the now varsity versions of those D6 peewee A teams playing in Pool III, will the order change?

Shakopee finished fifth in the Missota Conference last March; Farmington won the conference going undefeated.  The Sabres will be facing tougher foes this season with the overall talent in the conference up.  Last season, their defense held their opponents to under 3 goals a game.  Most of that defense has graduated.  The Sabres will also lose both varsity goalies through graduation.  On the good news side, Shakopee’s three top scorers (Sam Scott 26 points/7 goals, Preston Husom 26 points/17 goals, and Bubba Kubes 23 points/9 goals) return.

Pool III Finish: Prior Lake, Stillwater, Jefferson, and Shakopee

The Lakers should have the talent to hold off the Ponies in their Saturday evening game with the pool championship on the line.  Jefferson edges Shakopee to take third.      

Pool IV: Elk River, Cretin, Holy Family, and Holy Angels

Elk River finds itself the “stalking horse” for three private schools proud of their hockey teams in Pool IV play.  The Elks will face an established program (Cretin), and “up and coming” program (Holy Family) and one on the rebound (Holy Angels).  The Elks have ten players from last year’s Section 7AA second place finishers, but the real question is will defenseman Matt Kierstad return?  Kierstad, an HP-16 player this summer, is targeted to play on USA Hockey’s U17 team in 2014-2015.  The Elk’s forward Jensen Zerban made the Minnesota Hockey’s HP-15 Final 54 this summer.  Zerban, a ninth grader last season, was drafted by the USHL’s Cedar Rapids Roughriders this year.

The Elks have offensive talent with leading scorer Jake Jaremko (51 points/19 goals in 23 games), #3 scorer Reggie Lutz (27 points/9 goals in 18 games), and Peter Jones (17 points/6 goals in 24 games) returning.  Ben Johnson and Alex Schwab form the core of a second line.  Johnson has always played solid hockey and Zerban will definitely fit in and add depth.  Jax Murray, Nate Horn, and Max Michaelis (all returning from a good HP summer season) should add to that depth.  At defense, besides Kierstad, Nick Perbix, Noah Hallbeck, Dylan Bouten, and Austin Heuer return.  Two senior-to-be goaltenders return, Chase Gauthier and Joey Grillo; but they should be challenged by Ben Meyers.  Meyers made the HP-15 selects as an alternate in 2013 and made the HP-16 Section 7AA team this year.

Cretin returns their top two scorers for the 2014-2015 season, Nick Reis (45 points/24 goals in 25 games) and Bret Huebner (36 points/9 goals in 25 games) from a team that went perfect during the season posting a 10-0 record against Section 3AA foes only to lose to Eagan 2-1 in OT in the Section 3AA semifinals.  Cretin graduated eight players last season.  Offensively, the Raiders should be strong with Joe Dekker, Ryan Smith, and Cole Gnetz returning.  The Raider forwards have size.

Defensively, four seniors-to-be return, three defensemen (Max Jackson, Aitor Flood, and Sam Wackman) plus goaltender Trent Jancze (9-4-3 record giving up 2.4 goals while stopping 91% of the shots on net).  Cretin has averaged 17 wins in the past two seasons; they should do that again in 2014-2015.

Holy Family are tough this season.  They have two of their top four scorers returning (John Peterson 62 points/29 goals in 25 games and Will Garin 36 points/16 goals in 18 games) plus point getters Matt Runyan, Tyler Rock and Patrick Reddan (a ninth grader for the Fire last season).  Defensively, the Fire are strong with five of their six defensemen returning (seniors-to-be Dylan Woolf, Hunter Ruschmeyer, Devon Olson, and Bennett Hanson and sophomore-to-be Matt Anderson).  Anderson has committed to UMD.  The defense corps will be backed by sophomore-to-be Dayton Rasmussen.  Rasmussen, YHH’s top peewee A player for the 2011-2012 season, will be playing his third year for the Fire varsity.  Rasmussen was on the Minnesota HP select teams the past two summers and declined to participate in USA Hockey’s NTDP this past summer.

Holy Angels will be playing in a new conference for the 2014-2015 season now that the Missota Conference is defunct.  They will join the Tri-Metro Conference playing Class A private schools (Breck, Blake, SPA, Minnehaha Academy, and Providence Academy).  Two of the three Twin Cities schools in the Tri-Metro last season will play an independent schedule (St. Paul Johnson and St. Paul Como).  Offensively, the Stars return with five senior-to-be players that will form the nucleus of their team including their #3 and #4 scorers (Owen Larson 22 points/7 goals in 25 games and Marshall Barnes 21 points/3 goals).  Holy Angels should be strong offensively, but defensively they maybe a year away.  They return two senior-to-be defensemen, Cooper Sande and Peter Gazich and junior-to-be Matt Reser.  The three will likely front sophomore-to-be goalie Jack Robbel.  Robbel had good HP-15 summer making the trip to St. Cloud.

Pool IV Finish: Holy Family, Elk River, Cretin, and Holy Angels

Three tough teams in Pool IV make it a difficult prediction, but the edge here goes to Holy Family.  They will have a strong defense and good offensive scoring talent that should make the difference in a summer tourney like this.  Elk River and Cretin will certainly challenge, but are left to battle for runner-up.  The Elks have the edge.  Holy Angels will be testing themselves in this tourney.

Championship Sunday

If the predictions hold, Prior Lake will met Holy Family in one semifinal game; Lakeville North will play Farmington in a re-match of last Sunday’s Meltdown Tourney championship game.  Holy Family edges Prior Lake in what should be an outstanding, wide open, game featuring a lot of rushes pressuring the goaltenders to make some tough stops.  In the second semifinal, Lakeville North and Farmington should duke it out for the second weekend in a row.  The Tigers have to be strong in the second half to win.  The prediction here is the Tigers can’t overcome a tough Panther defense.  Farmington loses in a squeaker.  The Championship game would match North against Holy Family, the nod goes here to Holy Family-their offensive skills beat the Panthers defense.