Owatonna AA ties Lakeville North AA 1-1

Owatonna opened the game and controlled the play for most of the period; North did not get real pressure on the Owatonna net until the last three minutes of the period.  Then in the last thirty seconds of period, the Huskies scored to take a 1-0 lead.

From the start of the game, Owatonna’s forwards showed they had a good passing game.  They could hit the off-wing on the breakout play from their zone and their defense could move the puck to the open side of the ice in their zone.   That all worked until the Huskies would try that last pass to beat the Panther defense for the scoring opportunity.  It was then that Lakeville North’s defense would step into the passing lane and disrupt the play usually by knocking the Owatonna pass to the boards.

The Panthers could not form a breakout with success in the neutral zone.  Once they gained control, they could not carry the blue line through the Owatonna defense and usually sent the puck deep into the Owatonna zone.  The Panthers’ best play in the first two periods came on the penalty kill where the Panthers would get the puck deep and form a box at Owatonna’s blue line.  North started to solve the Owatonna offense and bottle the Huskies up in the Owatonna zone.  With three minutes to go, the Panthers set up in the Huskies’ zone and pressured the Owatonna goal, but couldn’t score.  With just under a minute left in the period, North drew a penalty.  Their good defensive play had successfully killed the first penalty, but not the second.

The Panthers got the puck deep into the Owatonna zone where Owen Baumgartner picked up the puck and took off skating around the right side of the net, cutting inside North’s wing and took off.  He beat two more Panther defenders beating the last one inside the Panther’s zone and firing on the net from the left faceoff.  Mayer stopped the shot, but the rebound ended up on Aaron Bangs stick on the right side for the goal.  Baumgartner and Dominic Valento got the assists.  Owatonna led 1-0 at the end of the first period.

Eastview AA edges Lakeville South AA 2-1

Eastview took a 2-0 lead early in the game and went on to beat Lakeville South 2-1 in physically played second game of Thursday’s double header.

Both teams tried to find their rhythm in the first period and both teams struggled for most of the period.  An early Lightning goal scored within the first minute of play may have been part of the reason for the early struggle.  Eastview’s Caden EspindaBanick picked off an errant puck in the Cougar’s zone at the blue line, took a couple of strides, and shot.  The quick release caught South’s goalie Cody Ticen still not settled.  He tried to glove the shot across his body, but the puck beat him into the upper right corner.  The goal was unassisted and put Eastview up 1-0.

Eastview had the edge in play in the first period, but South outshot the Lightning 8-7.  For the first half of the opening period, the Lightning were tying up the puck low in South’s zone.  But the Lightning offense could not convert once gaining control.  They could not move the puck from the corners to their advantage.  Still they got a second goal halfway through the period when an Eastview forward beat the Cougar defense on the left and fired a point blank shot on Ticen from the lower edge of the left faceoff circle.  Ticen made the stop, but the puck bounced loose in the top of the crease resulting in a melee of players trying to get to the rebounding puck.  It ended up sliding to Eastview’s Caden Berg trailing the action.  Berg put the puck in the back of the net on a quick backhander.  The goal put the Lightning up 2-0.  It was the game winner.  Joshua Eernisse got the assist.

Two penalties slowed the Lightning after that.  South’s power play could not put the puck in the net, but the penalties resulted in Lakeville starting to control the game as the first period ended.

Lakeville controlled the game for the first half of the second period.  The South kept the pressure on the Eastview defense in the Lightning’s zone.  The two teams started to shake, finding their stride.  Some of the rust was shaken.  A Lightning checking penalty at the 5 minute mark gave the Cougars a chance to score, but the period ended with no change.  The Lightning led 2-0 going into the third period.

Both teams had good scoring opportunities in the third period.  Lakeville finely got on the scoreboard halfway through the third period.  The Cougar’s Cade Ahrenholz picked up the puck along the Lightning blue line at the left boards and with a burst of speed beat the Lightning defense to the left crease jamming the puck past Eastview’s goalie Bennett Weestrand for the only Cougar goal of the game.  The game ended 2-1.

The game struggled at first and despite that was played at an up tempo pace for most of the game.  Both teams seemed have control of the game at times, but it was Eastview using their size and quick shots that won the game.  Overall, a good game considering it was an early season game.  

What is next?

Eastview continues a string of games playing a non-league game against a tough Prior Lake AA team Friday night, playing Sibley AA in a league game Saturday evening, and playing at Stillwater Sunday.  South has a rugged three days ahead.  They have five games scheduled over the weekend (White Bear Lake AA, Duluth East AA, Moorhead AA, Woodbury AA, and Lakeville North AA).