TCF Bank clinched the regular season title this year with a win and a tie last weekend.  Going into the last weekend of play, the Bankers can have their own holiday.  Starkey and Team Wisconsin entered Weekend Six play needing wins to keep the Bankers in their sights; they did not get them.  Team Wisconsin was missing players at forward for their game against Shattuck Saturday morning, juggled their lines, and never was in the game.  Shattuck, skating with vengeance after a poor opening in their first two weekends of UMHSEL play, buried the Badgers 9-0.  Still missing players, Team Wisconsin got buried again by Mpls/St. Paul Magazine 7-2 in Saturday’s evening game.  They salvaged a 3-1 win over Muscle Milk on Sunday, but it was not enough to contend with the Bankers next weekend.  The Bankers ended the weekend with a 7 point lead over the Badgers with three games left to play.

The other second place team, Starkey lost to Shattuck 5-2 in an early Weekend Six game and came back Saturday to edge Muscle Milk 4-3 behind the goaltending of Jacob Berger/Minnetonka.  Starkey needed two third period goals by John Peterson (to tie the game) and Josh Laven/Hopkins to win beat Muscle Milk.  But Starkey faced a tough U17 team Sunday at New Hope needing a win to remain in the title chase.  They did not get it.  They, like Team Wisconsin, trail the Bankers by seven points.

USA Hockey’s U17 team played two games this weekend as part of UMHSEL’s regular season schedule.  The U17’s beat the top two UMHSEL teams this season.  They beat league leader TCF Bank 8-2 on Saturday and second place Starkey 11-1 Sunday.  The two wins on the weekend were the first two wins of the 2014-2015 season for the U17 team.

USA U17’s beat Starkey 11-1

One thing about hockey is that teams remember from year to year.  USA Hockey’s U17 team has all the advantages when playing a UMHSEL team.  The U17’s players are picked from the top players in the nation (from all 50 states) including Minnesota.  This year’s U17’s have four Minnesota players on the roster.  The players picked attend a two year National Team Development Program in Michigan where playing hockey and going to school is what they do from September to April.  The UMHSEL picks six teams to form the league with players from Minnesota (and parts of North Dakota).  The Minnesota talent is split among those six teams.  TCF Bank and Starkey are two of the teams.  The teams practice little and mostly play games on the weekend.  The league has been a success.  To have the UMHSEL on a player's resume is considered a positive.

With all their advantages, the U17’s found themselves in trouble last Octorber against the 2013 TCF Bank team.  They were hanging on a to 6-5 lead late in the game.  An insurance goal with less than three minutes to go gave them a 7-5 win.  The next day against the Mpls/St. Paul Magaziners, USA needed two late third period goals to win the game 6-3.

The U17’s team remembered 2013 and came to play a smart game this weekend using their size and overall team play to compensate for the expected “buzzsaw” play of the UMHSEL teams especially in the opening period.  The U17’s focused on playing hockey this time and the two UMHSEL teams focused on trying to out skate the USA team.  The result, USA Hockey built early leads in both games and won going away.  In the game with Starkey, they managed to reach a point where they got into cruise mode and completely dominate play.

USA's U17 team established themselves early in the game against Starkey Sunday. An opening rush by Starkey ended with a USA defenseman and a Starkey defenseman tangled along the boards behind the USA net as the play went on in front of the net.  Both players mixed it up, a helmet went flying, but no penalties were called.  A minute later, the same Starkey defenseman took a shot from the blue line at the USA goal and was leveled by another USA player.  That set the tone.  The U17’s were making a statement. 

In the first seven minutes of the opening period, Starkey had their opportunities using their quickness to beat the U17’s in the corners and getting the puck to the blue lines.  But it was there where the Starkey forwards had their troubles, they were just slow enough to their decision making to allow the USA forwards to recover.  As a result, that last pass to the Starkey player breaking out seemed to always be off.  Still Starkey managed some tough quick shots on USA’s goalie, Jake Oettinger/Lakeville North, in the opening minutes of play and forced Oettinger to come up with more than one tough stop.

Seven minutes into the game things changed.  USA’s Nick Patujov controlled the puck off a faceoff left in the lower left faceoff circle.  With a Starkey player trying to tie Patujov up, Patujov outmuscled the player and beat goalie Jon Flakne on a high hard shot left to put the U17’s on the scoreboard.  Four minutes later, the Starkey defense let USA’s Max Jones circle their zone, set up a screen, and bury the puck from the right faceoff circle.  Jones’ goal put USA up 2-0.  With just under two minutes left in the opening period, a U17 shot bounced weakside to USA’s James Sanchez at the right crease.  Sanchez’s quick backhander gave the U17’s a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period.

Starkey’s settled down in the second period.  They stopped trying to out skate the USA players.  Starkey pressed less and started to play positions.  USA still scored three minutes into the period, but it took a good play.  A USA pass threaded the Starkey defense to Pastujov in the high slot.  Pastujov one timed the puck beating Flakne on the glove side in the upper left corner to put USA up 4-0.  The two teams skated even for the next eight minutes and game looked to be settling when Starkey’s switched goalies.  Jacob Berger came in for Flakne.

It was like throwing blood in the water of a shark-infested pool.  Berger was coming in cold and facing a hot team ready to roll.  The faceoff was to Berger's left and Berger was barely set in the net.  The puck went immediately to the blue line for a high screen shot.  Keeghan Howdeshell got the score powering the puck through a double screen past Berger into the net.  Thirty seconds later, USA scored on another screen shot from the blue line.  This time Trent Frederic got the score.  Starkey now trailed 6-0.  Four minutes later, Sanchez scored on the power play banging the puck through Berger from the right edge of the crease.  The second period ended with Starkey down 7-0.  Starkey went on to lose 11-1; Gavin Payne/Minnetonka got the lone Starkey goal on a late third period power play.

This year’s U17 team is stronger and smarter than last year’s edition.  For an October game, the U17’s showed some great puck movement and took advantage of their size to establish a physical presence early in the game.  The U17’s are in great physical condition.  One could see that from the boards.  They had to have been working out hard.  And it showed.  As the game wore on, the U17’s often controlled the puck and play at the point of the attack leaving the Starkey goalies vulnerable.  And it showed.  USA scored 11 goals on 36 shots on net.

What’s is next?

For the USA team, they return home to play two USHL teams over the next two weekends (the Des Moines Buccaneers and the Tri-City Storm) on their home ice, the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.  The first of November, they will see their first international action of the 2014-2015 season playing teams from Canada, Sweden, and Slovakia.

The UMHSEL’s regular season ends this weekend, Weekend Seven.  Play shifts to Duluth’s MARS Lakeview Arena and to Eau Claire’s Hobbs Arena.  The Bankers will travel north along with Luther’s, Muscle Milk, and Mpls/St. Paul Magazine.  The Bankers have first place locked up but will play Mpls/St. Paul Magazine in a game critical to the Magaziners.  The Magaziners need wins to take either second or third in the league and should get them at MARS.

If MSP/St. Paul Magazine wins, Starkey will be in trouble. They head back to Shattuck for another tough game with the Sabres Wednesday.  Starkey played well in losing to Shattuck a week ago and win over Shattuck will be key to Starkey holding on to second or third place.  Shattuck has evened their record in the UMHSEL  at 5-5-2 and will want to beat Starkey’s before heading to Eau Claire.  A single Sabre win in Wisconsin this weekend would put the Sabre’s above .500 in league play.

 At Hobbs Arena in Eau Claire, Starkey will play MAP and Team Wisconsin.  If Shattuck beats Starkey this Wednesday, Starkey will need to beat MAP and Team Wisconsin to hang onto second or third.  MAP rebounded with two wins this past weekend (beating Muscle Milk 7-1 and the MEPDL Stars 5-1).  They are three points behind and wins over Starkey, Team Wisconsin, and Shattuck could put MAP into second or third.

Team Wisconsin needs to beat MAP and Starkey to take second or third.  A win over Shattuck, though it would be nice, is not necessary.  But they also need more manpower to show up at Eau Claire.

The playoff picture for Weekend Eight is shaping up.  TCF Bank will play MEPDL Stars in the opening game of the quarterfinal round.  That is no guess.  But the guess here is that Mpls/St. Paul Magazine takes second or third and Starkey’s hangs on to a second or third finish.  That means MAP will play Team Wisconsin in the second quarterfinal game as the #4 and #5 seeds.  In the third quarterfinal game, Starkey should play Muscle Milk and in the final quarterfinal game, the Magaziners should play Luther’s.