Edina Green beat Edina White in the Squirt A championship game 3-0; the Edina White team beat Edina Green 3-2 in the peewee B1 championship game; the Edina peewee A team beat the Alaska Grizzlies 4-3 in the peewee A championship; the Edina peewee AA team beat Osseo/Maple Grove 4-2 for the peewee AA championship; Thunder Bay ON South End Rangers beat Minnetonka 5-2 for the banam B1 title; Colorado Thunderbirds (2001 AAA) beat Apple Valley 6-2 in the bantam A championship, and Jefferson beat Edina 3-1 in the bantam AA championship games.  Congratulations to all 66 teams that played in the tourney and to each of the champions.  More than one stranger commented on how great the games were; the high level of play was not expected considering that it was youth hockey.

The Edina Association had their top teams at squirt, peewee, and bantam in the three tourney championship games.  Saturday the squirts won the Squirt A tourney.  Sunday evening, three Edina teams were in the championship finals, BAA, PWAA, and PWA.  The Bantam AA game story was posted earlier.  Jefferson edged Wayzata 4-3 in their semifinal game Sunday morning.  Edina beat Cloquet 8-4 in the other semifinal setting up an unexpected championship game between top ranked (NOW #2) Edina and #12 Jefferson.  Jefferson won 3-1

PWAA: Edina beats Osseo/Maple Grove 4-2

Minneapolis and OMG played a tough semifinal game Sunday morning.  OMG won 4-2.  OMG packed their defense in against the Storm and play “rope-a-dope” hockey letting the Storm pound away at their net for the first period.  The Crimson then caught a break and scored on one of their few rushes to take a 1-0 lead in the last minute of the opening period.  OMG opened their game up at the start of the second period and scored a quick goal to go up 2-0, but when the Storm scored five minutes later to cut the lead 2-1; OMG started to pack their defense again.  Kyle Kukkonen scored the game winner a minute into the third period and the Crimson went on to win 4-2.  Minneapolis outshot OMG 38-14 in the game.  Defenseman Will Svenddal scored twice for the Storm.  Svenddal (10 points/7 goals) was the top defenseman in scoring for the tourney (includes all bantam, peewee, and squirt teams).

In the other Sunday morning semifinal game, Edina beat Blaine 6-3.  The Hornets Cole Cavanagh got the hat trick.  Emmett Wurst (12 points/9 goals), Mark Overman (9 points/7 assists) and Cavanagh (7 points/7 goals) led the Hornets’ offense.  Goalie Thomas Webert stopped 16 of 19 Blaine shots.  The Hornets outshot the Bengals 27-19.

In the championship game Sunday, Osseo/Maple Grove changed their tactics; they spread their wings in their defensive zone and cranked up the offense using their speed to beat the Hornet’s defense.  It worked when three minutes into the opening period, the Crimson’s Justin Janicke scored to put OMG up 1-0.  Then late in the first period, Edina’s Theo Crosby’s shot hit OMG goalie Ethan Haider in the right shoulder and rolled over him and into the net.  Crosby’s goal tied the game 1-1 at the end of the first period.  Edina’s teams always have a feel for changing play when the nets are switched in the second period putting their bench in their opponent’s zone.  They try to “pin” their opponent in the opponent’s zone and change lines.  OMG countered this play well, clearing and changing to counter the Hornets.  In the second period, the Crimson went the Hornets one better, catching them trying to change capturing the puck in neutral ice and turning it into a 2-on-1 rush.  Ben Leafbald got the goal with six minutes left in the period.  Still spreading their wings and pressuring the Hornets defense, Edina’s Cavanagh beat the Crimson defense off the left side boards and buried a shot to tie the game 2-2 with three minutes left in the second period.  A pattern emerged in the third period.  OMG started to dump the puck low and pressure three players around the net.  Often their defense would cheat up a couple steps inside the blue line.  Edina responded by trying to hit a breaking forward at the red line with a pass from inside their zone.  For the first eight minutes the two teams could not score.  Then the Hornets Borst Jackson hit Emmett Wurst in stride in neutral ice.  Wurst beat the defense and scored the game winner.  Jackson got the assist.  Two minutes later Wurst would score the insurance goal.  Edina won 4-2. 

BA: Colorado T-Birds beats Apple Valley 5-2

When the dust had cleared and the results of pool play were in, Edina and Wayzata were looking at the opportunity to play the #13 ranked (nationally) Colorado Thunderbirds, an 01 AAA team.  Wayzata would be the first to take on the T-Birds in their semifinal game.  Edina would play Apple Valley.  Both Apple Valley and Colorado won their games by the same score.  Apple Valley beat Edina on a third period goal by Ryan Gale.  The Eagles scoring in the tourney has been led by Will Wright (7 points/6 assists), Gale (4 goals/1 assist), and Parker Jamison (4 points/2 goals).  Mathew Smith and Lucky Bolden split the four tourney games each winning their two starts.  Smith posted two shutouts.  Colorado beat Wayzata 3-2 in overtime.  Dominic Sandoval got the winning goal for Colorado.  Colorado’s top scorers in this tourney have been Killian Kiecker-Olson (8 points/5 goals) and Alex Harlan (7 points/4 goals).   Goalies Brock Gould and AJ DiChiara started games in the nets for Colorado.  The championship game was close for two periods.  The score was tied 2-2 going into the third period.  Colorado scored twice in the first period.  Brady Berlin and Kiecker-Olson scored for the T-Birds.  Steven Budka and Parker Jamison scored for Valley.  Both teams tired in the third period.  Fatigue had gotten to the legs of the players.  The game slowed.

The game winner came when the T-Birds’ Dominic Sandoval took off with the puck deep in the T-Birds zone and skated through the Apple Valley defense the length of the ice along the right boards cut to the net and shot.  Lucas Sandoval skating down the right slot put the rebounding puck in the net.  A minute later, Apple Valley picked up a penalty; the T-Birds' Kiecker-Olson scored the power play goal to put Colorado up 4-2.  The T-Birds Dominic Sandoval scored a minute later to make a 5-3 game with 10 minutes to go.  Apple Valley tried to rally, but the game was over.   The Thunderbirds outshot Valley 29-16.

PA: Edina beats Alaska 4-3

Both Edina and the Alaska Grizzles won their semifinal games via a shutout.  Edina beat Andover 4-0 and Alaska beat Stillwater 6-0.  Those wins set up a championship game between the Grizzles and the Hornets, but win or lose the team from North Alaska already won the respect of the Minnesota hockey community.  The “Ironmen” Grizzles would be playing their twelfth game in the past 8 days against Minnesota peewee AA/A teams including their fifth tourney game.  Overall they finished with a 6-4-2 record on their visit.  They had beaten Edina early in their visit 5-1; but not on Sunday.

Edina scored in the first two minutes of the opening period.  Charlie Lindberg got the goal, but Alaska struck a minute late to tie the game 1-1.  Ryler Schelle scored on a breakaway.  Two minutes later, Alex Illies scored a power play goal on a backhand shot on the weak side right to put the Hornets up 2-1.  Five minutes later, Alaska tied the score on a Alex Kulmanovsky backhand shot from the weak side right.  The first period of hectic end-to-end hockey ended in a 2-2 tie.

The second period was scoreless.  The game remained a tie until a Hornet pass found Edina’s Marc Lund at the top of the Grizzles crease.  Lund deked the goalie going left and went right top shelf the puck into the net in the upper right corner.  Edina led 3-2.  Two minutes later, the Grizzles came roaring back.  They pressured the Hornets low in the Edina net.  Alaska’s Vincent Annunziato came up with a loose puck behind the Edina goal and beat the goalie on a wraparound shot to tie the game 3-3.  With less than four minutes to go in the tie game, Alaska got called for a tripping penalty.  On the power play, the Hornets Lily Delianedis drove the net cutting across the top of the crease from left to right.  She top shelf the puck left to score the game winner.  Edina won 4-3.  

Notes:

Edina Association’s Squirt A and Peewee AA, A, and B1 teams all won tourney championships.  The Bantam level Championships were won by the Thunder Bay Rangers South End, Colorado Thunderbirds, and Jefferson Jaguars. 

Minntonka B1 player, Cole Schmidt, tied with Cloquet Bantam A player Langdon Langenbrunner for points leader in the tourney.  Schmidt posted 13 points/6 goals; Langenbrunner posted 13 points/9 goals.  Coon Rapids peewee A player Tommy Carls was third overall with 12 points/10 goals in four games.  Carls had a 5 goal game in the Rapids 7-3 win over Moorhead.

Emmett Wurst, Edina PWAA led the AA’s in scoring with 12 points/9 goals.  The Colorado T-Birds Killian Kiecker-Olson led the bantam A’s in scoring posting 12 points/7 goals.  Kiecker-Olson was involved in 4 of the 5 goals the T-Birds scored in their 5-2 championship win over Apple Valley.

After finishing second at Edina in the Bantam A tourney, Apple Valley is NOW ranked #3 in the state.

Rochester Red Tyler Haskins led the Squirt A tourney in scoring.  Haskins posted 8 points/4 goals in 4 games including a hat trick in the Red’s 8-0 win over Coon Rapids.

Edina Green Squirt A goalie Bryce Hess had two shutouts in the two games he started stopping all 41 shots on net.  Hess was the only goalie to have a perfect 100% save percentage in the tourney.  Edina peewee A goalie Tommy Hardie started five games and had a 95% save percentage going 4-0-1.  Hardie had three shutouts in the tourney.

Jefferson BAA goalie Evan Redepenning was in the nets for all five tourney games for the Jags posting a 5-0-0 record giving up 1.4 goals a game while stopping 94% of the shots on goal.  Coon Rapids peewee B1 goalie Caden Cary posted a 1-2-1 record despite seeing a 165 shots in his four games for an average of 41 shots a game.

Ten Edina teams were entered in the seven tourneys.  Eight teams won their pools by an average goal differential of +18.  The two Bantam B1 teams did not win their pools.      

Congratulations to the Edina Association for putting on a great tourney.  The games that are the most fun to write about are played mostly in small cities and towns in Minnesota.  That description does not fit Edina.  The games in smaller venues, especially the high school games, still have cheerleaders and bands that participate.  The fans are there to cheer their team on to a win usually because their team is playing a neighboring town rival.  It is that rivalry that helps to drive interest in hockey in the town.  That is why the Edina Association and the Edina High School hockey teams are important to the sport in this state.

In baseball, an often spoken thought is that a fan hates the Yankees, but where would the fan be without the Yankees-watching basketball?  In hockey that goes to Edina.  Rivals are important, but rivalries inside the Twin Cities 494/694 beltline are hard to find.  The people living there have become more monolithic.  There are few bands and cheerleaders at any of the games, but there is one big thing that monolithic all agree on; beat Edina.  Any Edina team is a rival to every team the Hornets play at every level.  Some will call that “hate”, but not here.  Here it is about competition not hate.  The Edina rivals want to beat the Hornets and that competitive desire to win helps drive hockey in our state.  When each team tries harder to beat a Hornet team; it raises their competitive desire and their game.

It is amazing at some tourneys that when an Edina team wins or gets beaten, later in the day at some social event, kids from both teams are having fun together.  That’s competition.  It is tough for a kid to learn to compete and leave that competitive spirit on the ice.  Oddly with most hockey players, the competition is left on the ice.  More than one parent has commented about that, how their child is learning a lesson, to learn how to compete.  Most parents recognize that in life it is important to be able to compete and that has to be taught.  That lesson, once learned, means more to their son or daughter’s upbringing than most lessons they could have been taught.  Congratulations again to Edina and the people who put the Edina Tourney together.  See you next year.