Sunday morning, the Jags would have to face consensus Top 10 Wayzata in the semifinals, a team that had beaten Edina 9-3 earlier in the season.  Edina beat Cloquet 8-4 in their semifinal game.  If Jefferson beat Wayzata, they would be facing Edina in a Sunday evening game on Braemar’s big ice.  Against the Trojans, the Jags’ Nathan Johannes and Hunter Jacobs combined to score twice late in the second period and early in the third period to put Jefferson up 4-2.  Jefferson made good use of the shots against Wayzata, scoring on 4 of their 8 shots on net.  Goalie Evan Redepenning stopped 20 of 23 Wayzata shots for Jefferson.

Over the past thirty years, Edina Bantam and PeeWee AA/A Invitational championship games have never seen Jefferson baby blue on the big ice in the big game.  Minnesota Hockey Associations take pride when their teams do well in tournaments, often posting the results on their websites.  Parents and kids see them all the time.  It is the association’s way of showing to the kids, coaches, and parents something well done.  Edina is no different.  The Edina Association takes pride when their teams win tourneys and they win many tourneys.  But Edina has always pointed to their Invitational as the best tourney.

For years, the Bloomington Amateur Hockey Association held the Minnesota Silver Stick tourney and had the edge.  If an Edina PeeWee or Bantam team wanted a shot at the Silver Stick, they had to go to Bloomington.  Bloomington held the Silver Stick over the Christmas Holidays also.  When USA Hockey re-structured itself in the early 1990’s and changed age groups, Minnesota youth teams were no longer eligible to play in the Silver Stick.  The North American hockey tourney played in the suburbs of Detroit has been without a Minnesota youth team since Jefferson won it in the early 1990's.

After losing the Silver Stick, the Bloomington Association still held their PeeWee/Bantam tourney at the same time Edina did every year.  A rivalry continued to develop between the two associations and flourished when Jefferson had the better teams.  But the Bloomington Association’s teams have struggled and this year the association dropped their Bantam AA/A tourney freeing Jefferson’s Bantam AA team to play in Edina.  For the Jags to make it to the Championship game at Edina this Sunday was unexpected.

This year's championship game became almost an historical event in Minnesota hockey and the game really captured the interest of the Jefferson fans.  The Edina Association takes pride in their teams winning the Edina Invitational.  So when all four “A level” teams (Bantam AA, Bantam A, Peewee AA, and Peewee A) made the championship rounds, everybody looked past the Bantam AA championship game.  Rocky Mountain or Wayzata would not be there.  Most of the Edina fans focused on Edina’s peewee teams.  The A’s beat Alaska and the AA’s beat Osseo/Maple Grove.  The PeeWee AA Championship game in the South Arena took the attention of the Edina fans; when they turned to the West, Jefferson was already leading 1-0 in the first period and the Bantam AA Championship game was about to explode.   

For most of the first period of the game, Edina tended to dominate play.  The Hornets could set up but were slowed by the Jefferson defense in the Jag’s corners and bodied off the space around the Jags’ net.  Nine minutes into the period, a slashing penalty followed a minute later by a cross check resulted in a Jags 5-on-3 power play.  Just as Edina killed the penalties, Jack Goedderz scored for Jefferson to put the Jags up 1-0.  Johannes got the assist.  The first period ended Jefferson leading 1-0.

The second period was a wild affair.  It started with Jefferson’s Tristan Larson beating the Edina defense on the right side, putting a shot on Edina’s goalie Joshua Solomon, and following up on the rebounding puck to drive it into the net to put the Jags up 2-0.  It was an unassisted score and the Jag fans erupted just as many Edina fans were settling into their seats after watching the Edina PeeWee AA winning the Invite.  Suddenly, it was not the deep blue Wayzata or the purple of Rocky Mountain on the ice that threatened peace and order at Braemar, it was a familiar Jefferson baby blue.

Matters got worse for the Hornets.  For the next six minutes of the third period, Edina continued to pressure in the Jefferson zone, but they were slowed by the Jags defense and just off enough that they could not connect on their good scoring opportunities.  With eight minutes gone, the Hornets drew another slash followed by a cross check 20 seconds later.  This time it took Jefferson 30 seconds to score on the 5-on-3 power play.  Goedderz ended up with the puck in the left face-off circle and buried the puck, beating Solomon on a shot into the upper right corner.  Hunter Jacobs got the assist.  Jefferson led 3-0.  After losing to Edina for years, the Jags fans exploded again.

With three minutes left in the second period, Jefferson had a chance to ice the game on a penalty shot after a Jag forward was “stung” by an Edina defender on a clear beak away.  Edina goalie Solomon came up with a big save and when Jefferson drew two successive late second period penalties, Edina’s Jack Jensen scored on a pretty tic tac toe power play goal to cut the lead to 3-1.

The third period opened with Jefferson on the penalty kill.  Edina came out of the locker room and pressured the Jags defense in the first two minutes of the period.  The Hornets had some good chances, but Jefferson’s goalie Redepenning playing in some funky breezers came up with some big saves.  A Hornet cross checking penalty two minutes into the period broke the Hornets pressure.  Jefferson’s defense “righted itself” after their power play.  The defense and Redepenning still had to kill off three successive penalties.  The Jags skated shorthanded for most of the next nine minutes.  Everyone was anticipating an Edina score, it never happened.  The Jags kept the Hornets to the outside and it was clear that after five games in the last four days, that Jefferson was the stronger team.  The Jags won and then the arena exploded again.