It is always amazing that when winter hits and the temperature goes below zero in January people outside Minnesota panic over our state's weather.  January is the time of the year when a hockey fan goes to the ice arena to get warm.  Don't people in California or New York know that?

At this point in the season, seven girls high school teams appear to have locks on their Section’s #1 seeds; 3A-New Ulm, 4A-St. Paul United, 7A-Proctor/Hermantown, 8A-Thief River Falls, 2AA-Eden Prairie, 4AA-Hill/Murray, and 8AA-Roseau.  Something dramatically would have to happen in the remainder of the season for these teams to be not be seeded #1.  Most of the seven teams will be strong candidates to play at the Xcel in a month.

1. Eden Prairie (overall 14-0-3; Section 2AA 4-0-0)-With nearly seven minutes gone in the overtime period of the Mid-Winter Meltdown Tourney played last week, Lauren Boyle scored to give the Eagles the championship title beating Lake Conference Rival Minnetonka 2-1.  The win gave the Eagles only a brief sigh of relief.  Last night the unbeaten Eagles played Edina at Braemar and beat the Hornets 3-1.  Eden Prairie’s Crystalyn Hengler got the winning goal on a power play five minutes into the second period.  Brief is still the operative word for the unbeaten Eagles as they continue to play a tough January schedule after playing a rugged non-conference schedule most of November and December.  Five of their remaining seven games in regular season games are against Lake Conference foes (Edina, Minnetonka-2 games, Hopkins, and Wayzata).  Dodge County and Jefferson complete their regular season schedule.  The Tuesday night battle with Edina was the opening salvo in the battle for the all-important #1 seed in Section 6AA and it may have been the closing salvo.  Edina has been losing other games.  With the win over the Hornets, the Eagles are on track to go 6-0-0 against Section 6AA foes and take the #1 seed.  They still have to play Edina again and Jefferson.  If Eden Prairie holds on to the #1 seed, they will likely play winner of Jefferson/Shakopee in a Section 6AA semifinal game at Richfield Arena a month from now.

2. Blake (Overall 14-1-0; Section 5A 2-0-0)-Blake won South St. Paul’s Kaposia Tourney last weekend beating Roseville 6-1, Hill-Murray 4-3 in overtime, and Mounds View 5-1.  The three wins stretch the Bears winning streak to ten games since losing to Eden Prairie.  Carly Bullock had a strong tourney at South St. Paul and either scored or assisted on 8 of the 14 Bear goals scored.  Sarah Chute, a YHH Top 50 pick as a peewee A for Wayzata, scored the winning overtime goal against Hill-Murray.  The Bears host St. Paul United, play at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, and play at Orono this week and are favored to win all three games.  They have a big week of play in two weeks when they play at Breck and host Lakeville South.  If they beat Lakeville South, Blake may not have to beat Breck to get Section 5A's #1 seed.    

3. Maple Grove (overall 15-0-1, Section 6AA 2-0-1)-The Crimson turned the hard corner at Edina over the holidays beating Edina 2-1, Stillwater 6-4, and Breck 2-0 to win Edina’s Walser Tournament.  Sophomore goalie Breanna Blesi was in the nets for the Crimson wins over Edina and Breck stopping 72 of 73 shots on goal.  Maple Grove stepped back into conference play last Saturday beating Armstrong 5-0.  The Crimson are now the favorite to win the 13 team Northwest Suburban Conference title.  They are 12-0-0 with four games left against teams currently in the lower half of the conference standings.  But they do not have an easy non-conference schedule in January playing three Section 6AA foes (Wayzata, Minnetonka, and Hopkins) and Hill Murray.  The question is can they take the #1 seed in Section 6AA.  They have six games to play against Section 6AA opponents, three games are against non-conference teams (Wayzata, Minnetonka, and Hopkins).  The first one of the Section 6AA games will be at home against Wayzata Thursday, January 8th. 

4. Thief River Falls (overall 14-1-3; Section 8A  5-0-0)-As predicted, the Prowlers beat Fergus Falls 7-0 and Bemidjie 5-0 before traveling to Blaine’s Fogerty Arena for the Mid-Winter Border Battle Tourney.  Thief River Falls won the tourney beating Hayward Co-op, a highly ranked Wisconsin team, 6-0; Forest Lake 4-0, and Blaine 2-1.  Tuesday, the Falls traveled to Roseau to play a key Greater Minnesota Conference game and tied the Rams 1-1.  The game was a tight defensive battle that saw both teams being held to under twenty shots on goal.  As a result of the tie, the Greater Minnesota Conference title will likely be shared by the Rams and the Prowlers.  This was the second tie game between the two teams and they will not play each other again.

A definite pattern has emerged in the Prowlers play, their defense.  In the eighteen games the Prowlers have played, Thief River Falls’ defense has held their opponents to 13 goals and 350 shots on goal (an average of just under 20 shots per game).  Goalie Frances Marshall has posted a 14-1-3 record giving up 0. 75 goals a game while stopping 96% of the shots on net.  In winning the border battle title at Blaine, Marshall stopped 30 of Blaine’s 31 shots on goal.  The Falls face two more tough Greater Minnesota Conference foes playing East Grand Forks (10-4-0) at home and Warroad at Warroad this week. If the Prowlers beat the Green Wave and the Warriors, they will be favored to win their four five remaining games and end the season with a 23-1-2 on the season, tied for the Greater Minnesota Conference title, take the #1 Section 8A seed, and win the trip to the Xcel.  Even if they have a few bumps along the way, their fans can start booking hotel rooms in St. Paul.

5. Minnetonka (Overall 13-4-0; Section 6AA 2-1-0)-The Skippers had a good holiday beating Eagan 6-0 and Wayzata 3-2 before losing to Eden Prairie in the championship game of the Eagles tourney.  Tuesday they beat a tough Hopkins team 5-3.  They travel to Prior Lake Thursday to play the Lakers before traveling to Eden Prairie to play the Eagles in a game that is much like the championship game they lost a week ago.  With Wayzata (2-3-0 in Lake Conference play) and Edina (0-4-0), Minnetonka finds themselves in first place in the Lake with a 3-1-0 conference record.  Eden Prairie (2-0-1) and Hopkins (2-1-1) are their nearest threat.  The Skippers needs to win at Eden Prairie.  A lost to the Eagles will hurt the Skippers in their chase for the Lake Conference title.  There is another tough game emerging for Minnetonka as regular season play winds down.  Thursday, January 15th at home the Skippers play Maple Grove.  The winner of that game will likely have dibs on Section 6AA’s #1 seed.  The problem the Skippers face is that after playing the Eagles Saturday, they play Edina Tuesday, and then play Maple Grove.

6. Roseau (Overall 14-2-2; Section 8AA 5-0-0)-Roseau was upset by a tough Chaska/Chanhassen team 5-4 in their opening game of the Eden Prairie Tournament over the holidays.   The Rams came back to beat Benilde-St. Margaret’s 6-3 and Eagan 5-4 to win the consolation title and then return to tie #4 Thief River Falls 1-1 in a key Greater Minnesota Conference game.  Roseau will be the favorites in their last seven regular season games.  They should finish tied for the Greater Minnesota Conference title and go unbeaten in their four remaining Section 8AA games to take the #1 seed.  The Rams are on track to return to the Xcel. 

7. Hill-Murray (Overall 10-4-0)-The Pioneers got a slow start on the season in two ways, they played fewer games than most teams in November and in early December; and the Hill lost three of their first five games.  Since early December, Hill-Murray has won eight of the last nine games losing to #2 Blake 4-3 at South St. Paul’s tourney over the holidays.  They did beat Jefferson 7-4 and International Falls 6-0 at South St. Paul’s tourney and then beat the Packers in a Metro East Conference game 8-0.  The Hill’s January schedule is jammed with games.  They have eleven more games to play in January including a game Thursday, January 8th at Hastings (the Raiders have won their last five games giving up only one goal).  Hill-Murray looks ready to make a January run to the Metro East title and the Section 4AA #1 seed.

8. Breck (Overall 11-5-1, Section 5A 1-1-0)-Breck got off to a great start in their holiday tourney at Edina beating Hopkins 6-0 and Lakeville South 3-2.  The win over the Cougars was the Mustangs second over the holidays.  They beat Lakeville South at Hasse Arena 5-3 a week earlier.  Breck then lost to Maple Grove 2-0 in the championship game and were upset by an improving St. Paul United team 2-1 Tuesday.  The loss to United really hurt Breck in their battle with Blake for Section 5A’s #1 seed.  Breck was playing well over the holidays until that loss.  Breck still has opportunities to overtake Blake for Section 5A's  #1 seed; they play Blake at home, play Dodge County at Kasson’s Arena, and Edina at home.  Those three wins coming at the end of the season could give the Mustangs the #1 seed in February’s Section 5A tourney.  This week, Breck hosts Minnehaha United and are favored to win the game.   

9.  Dodge County (Overall 12-3-0; Section 1AA 1-1-0)-After going unbeaten in the early season, the Wildcats have lost three games (Edina, Hill-Murray, and Lakeville North).  Dodge County played in the Warroad Tourney over the holidays beating Warroad 5-2 and Eastview 5-4 and losing to Lakeville North 1-0.  The North loss hurt Dodge.  Lakeville North is Section 1AA foe that is contending with Dodge and Lakeville South for Section 1AA’s #1 seed.  Dodge has only two more games against Section 1AA foes (Rochester John Marshall and Owatonna).  The Wildcats will be favored to win both games, but those two wins will not be enough to get the #1 seed.  The two Lakevilles play each other at the end of January in a game that could decide the final seeding.  Dodge County has two key games at the end of the season that could trump the Lakeville South/North game winner.  They still play Breck and Eden Prairie.  A win over either could alter the final seeding.  The team with the #1 seed in Section 1AA will likely play the winner of the #2/#3 seeded teams’ semifinal game for the Section 1AA title.  Dodge is favored to win their three games this week (Rochester Mayo, Jefferson, and St. Peter/LeSeuer/Henderson/Tri-City). 

10-Edina (Overall 11-6-1; Section 2AA 1-1-0)-The Hornets had a miserable holiday on the ice at Braemar losing four late December home games to Minnetonka, Wayzata, Maple Grove, and Eden Prairie.  They lost a fifth game at Hopkins earlier and have won only three games in the past three weeks.  The Hornets are last in the Lake Conference and are out of the title chase.  Worse, they lost to Eden Prairie in a key Section 2AA game and even if they can beat the Eagles two weeks from now, they are unlikely to get the coveted #1 seed.  With seven games to play, the Hornets need to win some games and get ready to play Prior Lake at Braemar in the Section 2AA quarterfinals and most likely Chaska/Chanhassen at Richfield in the semifinals in February.  

Teams to Watch: Lakeville South (Overall 11-4-0), Red Wing (14-4-0), Lakeville North (10-4-1), St. Paul United (13-4-1), Chaska/Chanhassen (10-5-1), Hastings (12-3-1), Cretin-Derham Hall (12-3-3), Mounds View (8-4-1), Proctor/Hermantown (17-2-0), Wayzata (11-3-3), and Elk River (13-3-1).

Notes: Proctor/Hermantown (17-2-0) is a strong candidate to climb back into the Top Ten next week.  They won at Burnsville over the holidays beating Tartan 4-1, Burnsville 3-1, and Minneapolis 8-0).  The Mirage host New Prague and Grand Rapids this week and should win both games.  Hastings won their holiday tourney.  With goalie Brooke Weber in the nets for most of their last five games, the Raiders have beaten East Ridge 1-0, Rochester Mayo 8-0, Henry Sibley 6-0, River Lakes 2-0, and Stillwater 2-1 in their last five games.  Hastings hosts Hill-Murray in this Thursday.  If the Hastings’ hometown fans turnout, that will be a game to watch with the Metro East Conference title potentially going to the winner.  Lakeville South falls out of the Top Ten, reluctantly.  The Cougars played well over the holidays.  They lost to Breck twice (the second an overtime loss in the Edina tourney is reported by some sites as a tie), but the loss that hurt was the 5-3 beat by Stillwater.  South is likely to win the South Suburban (they are unbeaten in conference play) and have a shot at Blake in two weeks.  Hastings and Lakeville South could also be in the Top Ten next week with some solid wins.