The CCM International Invitational Tourney marks the conclusion of the Upper Midwest High School Elite League.  UMHSEL’s regular season champions (TCF Bank) and playoff champions (Mpls/St. Paul Magazine) have been crowned the past two weeks.  The top 40 players (plus 6 alternates) were chosen the past week and placed on two teams entered in the CCM Invitational (Minnesota Red and Minnesota Whiter).  The eight team tourney field includes Shattuck/St. Mary’s Prep team, an Austrian team the EC Red Bull Salzburg, the Czech Republic U17 team, Northwood (NY) Prep team, Team Massachusetts, and an all-star team from Michigan’s Development Hockey League.  The tourney is truly unique combining high school, prep and midget hockey teams in a single tournament.  There will not be another tourney like this until next fall.  

Period One: Flakne makes a statement

The first two minutes of the opening period was a feeling out process.  Both teams slowed their game trying to get an understanding of their opponent.  Then both teams took off.  It became one of those games that every inch of effort mattered.  Slowing down the slightest would result in the puck tipped or the pass missed or the defense turning the play.  The Red had the first strong attack, but White goalie Jon Flakne/Orono, made a great save when Red tried to reverse the flow and hit the weak side player coming of the boards.  Flakne had to have eyes in back of his head to make the stop; it was that good.

After that stop, the game turned into White attacks on the Red goal and Flakne making big stops on the Red counterattack.  At the eight minute mark of the opening period, Red got White into a defensive shell and pounded the White defense for the next three minutes, but couldn’t score.

With two minutes left, White scored the only goal of the first period.  With the puck in the low left corner of the Red’s zone, a White forward slowed the puck as the Red defense tried to breakout moving through the left faceoff circle.  A second Red defender tried to continue the breakout play only to be slowed by a second White forward.  The puck ended up sliding free in the upper part of the faceoff circle where Dylan Malmquist/Edina picked up the puck breaking into the slot on his power side.  Malmquist buried the puck in the upper left corner beating Red’s goalie Dyllan Lubbesmeyer.  White led 1-0.  Seamus Donohue/St. Thomas Academy and Mike Anderson/Hill-Murray got the assists.  The period ended with no further scoring.  Shots on goal were even; White held a 14-12 advantage.

Period Two: Here’s Jonnie!

The White defense slowed just a step in the second period.  It allowed the Red offense room to maneuver and they did pounding the White net for 18 shots in the second period.  White’s goalie Flakne shut them down.  The White offense was working on offense, finding the opening player or ice.  They ended up with two goals out of 14 shots on net.  Three minutes into the second period, the White offense found an opening that led to the second goal.  It started with a pass from the inside the White blue line along the left by a White forward across ice to the Red’s blue line left to Malmquist.  Malmquist picked up the pass bouncing off the side board and fired a hard shot from just inside the blue line.  He beat Lubbesmeyer high right to put the White up 2-0.  Matt Masterman/Edina and John Peterson/Holy Family Catholic got the assists.

White gained some momentum after the score and started to pressure the Red in the Red’s zone.  It led to the first penalty of the game a Red elbow.  It started with the Red clearing the puck sending it sliding down the center of the ice to Flakne in the White’s crease with a Red forward chasing the puck.  Flakne hesitated on sending the puck to the boards letting the Red player skate himself out of position and then fired a pass to the open defense man along the left boards.  He passed to an open wing and White had a 5-on-3 rush crossing the Red blue line.  Nick Altmann ended up carrying the puck across the top of the crease and backhanding the puck past Lubbesmeyer for the score.  The power play goal put White up 3-0 with eight minutes left in the second period; Mitchell Mattson/Grand Rapids and Mike Anderson got the assists.  It was Mike Anderson’s second assist of the game.  Flakne ended the period making three more tough stops including one where he managed to get a leg pad on a hard shot after the puck had been tipped past him.  Flakne had Red’s number in the second period.  He was the one casting the spells.

Period Three: The Red offense finds the antidote

For the first two minutes of the third period, the White defense closed down the Red offense.  The Red got no shots on goal, they didn’t touch Flakne.  

But the Red scored in the third minute of the opening period and suddenly, it was a game.  Reggie Lutz/Elk River broke Jon Flakne’s spell over the Red.  Lutz dueled with Flakne on a rebound at the top of the crease finally batting the puck through a prone Flakne into the back of the net to break the goose egg and cut White’s lead to 3-1.  Chase Ellingson/Breck and Jacob Jaremko/Elk River got the assists.

But a White goal by John Peterson a minute later re-cast the spell putting the White up 4-1 and the game seemingly out of reach again.  Peterson took a pass from the end boards in the right crease area and blasted the puck past Lubbesmeyer for the score.  Malmquist and Mastermann got the assists.  White had regained their three goal lead 4-1.

Three minutes later, the Red’s Jack McNeely/Lakeville North soloed in from the White blue line and fired at the White net.  The puck found an opening to the right of Flakne’s blocker for the score.  Jaremko and Ellingson got the assists.  The Red trailed 4-2 and the Flakne’s spell over the Red had been broken.

For the next 5 minutes, the two teams spared with each other, neither scoring.  The Red attack was slowed by a slashing penalty.  With just under 10 minutes left in the game, Colin Peters/Sheboygan North WI scored.  Peters drifted into the weak side right of the White crease unnoticed by the White defense.  A shot rebounded into the right slot and Peters beat Flakne to the puck for the score.  Lutz and Jack Sadek/Lakeville North got the assists.  Peters’ goal made it a one goal game 4-3.

Less than a minute later, the Red’s Adam Parsells/Wausau West WI knotted the game 4-4.  Parsells scored on a shot from the high left slot beating Flakne to the high right side.  Jacob Olson/Hill-Murray and Lutz got the assists.

The White team drew a holding penalty with just over two minutes left in the game.  On the power play, Casey Mittelstadt ended up in with the puck in the lower right corner with no one to pass to, but with no pressure.  Mittelstadt broke to the net splitting the White defense and scored. His shot found a small opening under Flakne’s right are.  Mittelstadt had scored the heart breaker.  Jack McNeely/Lakeville North and Michael Graham/Eden Prairie got the assists.

Shattuck/St. Mary’s beats Czech U17 5-1

Based on the Sabres play in the UMHSEL regular season, the .500 Sabres entered this game underdog to the younger U17’s.  Both teams had won their quarterfinal games easily.  Shattuck beat Northwood Prep 5-1 and the Czech U17 team demolished Team Mass 11-0.  Shattuck simply came to play.  Both teams came to play; but the Sabres played their best hockey of the season.

Watching a good hockey game is like hearing a master violinist play in person.  In a good hockey game, the puck and direction of travel changes often, at high frequency and good teams, like the master violinist controlling his instrument, can control and respond to these high frequency changes with subtle adjustments to their skating or positioning.  But to have the energy level needed to sustain the speed needed to respond to the fast changes on ice takes an exceptional team.  That is what happened in Saturday’s second semifinal.  In the third period, the Sabres were skating with the same intensity they had in the first period.  The Czech kept the game close, but lost being outshot 52-15.

The Sabres took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period on goals by Vincent de Mey and Grant Mismash.  The Czech’s Kristian Reichel scored the lone U17 team’s goal.  The Sabres’ Liam Schioler scored the only second period goal.  Shattuck added two more third period scores on goals by Collin Saccoman and Colt Conrad.

Sunday's Championship Game

Minnesota Red scored late in the first period to take a 1-0 lead.  Reggie Lutz got the even strength goal with just under four minutes left in the period.  Chase Ellingson and Jacob Jaremko got the assists.  Ellingson scored the Red’s second goal halfway through the second period to put the Red up 2-0.  Lutz and Jack McNeely got the assists.  Shattuck got on the scoreboard with less than 30 seconds left in the game.  Vincent de Mey scored; Scott Reedy and Liam Schioler got the assists.  In an even game through the first two periods, the Sabres had outshot the Red 30-28.

The championship came down to the third period and which team would maintain the pace.  Reggie Lutz and Jacob Jaremko have been having a great summer.  The Elk River duo was behind the Mpls/St. Paul Magazines upset win in the playoffs over the TCF Bankers.  Since teaming with Ellingson, they formed a line that had come through in game critical situations.  Six minutes into the third period they did it again; this time Lutz got the third goal and Jaremko and Ellingson  got the assists.  Shattuck’s back were now against the wall.

A Minnesota Red penalty with just over three minutes left in the game gave the Sabres an opening, but Shattuck drew a penalty 30 seconds later to lose their power play.  With a little under two minutes left in the period, the Red scored to take a 4-1 lead.  NcNeely scored the goal and, in rare play, Red’s goalie Lubbesmeyer got the assist.  Shattuck’s Ryan Norman came back to score to cut the lead to 4-2 with thirty seconds left in the game.  The Red’s Michael Graham scored the fifth goal to end the scoring 5-2.  The Minnesota Red are the 2014 CII champs.

What is next?

This ends the 2014 UMHSEL season.  The Minnesota Blades U16 and the Minnesota Magician U16 team are playing in a world class tourney of their own in Chicago.  The “before” part of the “before and after” team’s season is ending.  Shattuck Preps and U16 teams continue to play a national schedule through the winter months (YHH will be posting some of the games).  The last two months have been great for hockey with more fan interest in the “before” part of the season than in prior years.  Interest in the “after” part of the before and after season is still an unknown as Minnesota Hockey ventures into the national arena with their first district tourney in sometime this coming mid-March.  YHH will be there to cover the district tourney.

The Minnesota Magicians are making a strong push to win the Midwest Division of the North American Hockey League.  The Magicians currently in second place three points behind the Fairbanks AK Ice Dogs.  The Magicmen will be playing three games this week; a Wednesday game against arch rival, the Minnesota Wilderness, in Cloquet and two games against Minot SD at the Richfield Arena this coming Friday and Saturday. 

The Minnesota Winter Hockey season starts to kick off at the high school level mid-November with Girls High School hockey followed a week or two later with the Boys High School hockey.  The Big Pumpkin being played at Moorhead this year kicks of the youth hockey scene in Minnesota.  The arenas are rolling full time again and the 2014-2015 season is shaping up to be a great one for the Minnesota teams.  See you at the rink.