This week marks the halfway point in the 2014-2015 season.  By next Tuesday, most high school teams have played half of their 25 game regular season schedule.  Over the next six weeks, they will play their second half of the season and sectional seeds and conference championships will be settled.  Then eight Class AA sectional tourneys will be played.  All eight sectional winners will head to the Xcel for the Class AA state tourney, but before that happens, the top five sectional winners will be seeded into the tourney.  Four of the top five seeds are likely to come from Sections 1AA, 2AA, 3AA, 4AA, and 7AA.  These five Sections have had the top performing teams in the first half of the season, but will the mid-season favorites win their sectionals six weeks from now?  This time of the year, the development pace of high school players accelerates and a team’s true measure starts to show.  It reflects itself in the Sectional seedings for rarely have the coaches been wrong in seeding their sectional tourney.  It is likely to be the same this year.

How Lakeville North Beat Prior Lake

Thursday night, Lakeville North beat Prior Lake 7-4.  The Panther's win (#1 ranked with 13-0-0 record) was not unexpected.  What was unexpected is that the Panthers took three goal leads twice in the game and lost them and had to survive a 5-on-3 and a major penalty in the last five minutes of the game to win.  They survived more because the Prior Lake’s young guns tired.  With the Panthers on the ropes in the waning minutes of the game, Prior Lake’s power play evaporated.

Lakeville North jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the first period.  The Panthers took advantage of the big ice at Ames using the extra width of the rink to attack with wide rushes.  They caught the Prior Lake goalie not adjusting his angles.  It resulted in three first period goals, two in the first two minutes of play.  Two of the goals were scored on longer shots that found the openings in the net.  Prior Lake came back in the second period and cut the Panther lead to 3-2.  Lakeville North responded with two quick goals again from wide right and from the right slot to re-take the lead 5-2.  The fifth goal was scored with no Laker defensive pressure on the shooter sitting in the right slot.

The Panthers added another score at the end of the second period to take a 6-2 lead into the third.  As they did in the opening minutes of the second period, North let Prior Lake back in the game with two third period goals to close the lead to 6-4.  With four minutes left, North drew two penalties in succession.  The second penalty was a major and that set up a Laker 5-on-3 power play.  With a good opportunity to get back into the game, Prior Lake’s power play went silent.  They failed to get sustain control of the puck in the Panther's zone during the 5-on-3 and then drew a penalty at the two minute mark negating the Panther major penalty.  North scored an empty netter to win the game 7-4.  The shots on goal were even (North outshot the Lakers 39-35), but the first period (13-5 North advantage) cost the Lakers the game.

The Game’s Impact on Sections 1AA and 2AA

The North/Prior Lake game combined with Farmington’s 5-1 win over Eastview Thursday sets the stage for a key Section 1AA match-up between Lakeville North and Farmington and also sets the stage for Section 2AA, Prior Lake’s section.  Farmington and Lakeville North are the favorites to make the Section 1AA finals.  The two Section 1AA teams will likely to battle for the trip to the Xcel.  North beat the Tigers 6-5 in overtime in the season’s opener and will host Farmington Saturday January 17th in a preview of the potential championship.  Which team wins on the 17th looks immaterial at this point.  It is not likely to effect section seedings.  Both rivals are likely to end up in the Section 1AA championship game for a second successive year.  Last year, North beat Farmington to win in the championship game and went to the Xcel.

The second thing that emerged from last night’s game was the “sputtering” of Prior Lake’s offense and defense.  The Lakers seemed to fly at times and dominate their opponent.  Then, like last night, the Lakers start to struggle.  But Edina fans be wary.  Thinking Lakeville North is their major obstacle to a third title is correct, but Edina best not overlook Prior Lake.  The Hornets will likely have to beat the Lakers to get to the Xcel.

The Lakers started this season as “young guns” but they should be hitting that acceleration in next month.  If that happens, the Prior Lake team that emerges to play Section 2AA games in six weeks should be improved over the one that lost to Lakeville North Thursday.

Fans can look ahead to the Section 2AA’s tourney next month with some certainty.  Edina is likely to play the winner of Jefferson/Holy Angels in a semifinal game at the Bloomington Ice Gardens; Prior Lake is likely to play Burnsville at Edina in the other semifinal game.  Both teams should win and set up an Edina/Prior Lake game at Mariucci.  It will be the first time the two teams have met this season.

Who ever wins, the winners of Section 1AA and Section 2AA will likely be seeded in the top five in the Class AA tourney.

Sections 3AA, 4AA, and 7AA

Only one team has emerged in Section 3AA as a strong candidate, St. Thomas Academy.  The Cadets are unbeaten 12-0-0 and their nearest Section 3AA challenger is Cretin-Derham Hall.  However, Section 4AA is an entirely different matter.  Perennial Section 4AA champion, Hill-Murray, has been struggling.  They lost their grip on the 4AA championship to Stillwater last year.  This year they are getting some pressure from Section 4AA rival White Bear Lake and Stillwater remains a threat.  The problem the Hill has is that in the new Metro East Conference this year, they play St. Thomas Academy twice.  Both those games with the Cadets are played in the coming month along with Edina this Saturday.  This can cause the Hill to focus their attention beating STA and Edina looking ahead to the Class AA tourney seeding.  If they ignore White Bear Lake (they play the Bears at the end of the month), White Bear Lake could take the #1 Section 4AA seed.  Hill-Murray could end up playing Stillwater in the Section 4AA semifinals and then playing White Bear Lake in the finals.  Winning both games will be tough.  The Bears are a dangerous team.

The one advantage the Pioneers will have is that with the Coliseum gone all Section 4AA games will be played at Aldrich including all four quarterfinal games (played February 21st).

The final sectional that figures in the seeding is Section 7AA.  Section 7AA was discussed in a post prior to the holidays and not much has to be noted since that post.  Elk River continues to roll along.  The Elks are favored to win their remaining games and end the season with a 22-3-0 record and the #1 seed.  St. Michael/Albertville remains in the best candidate for the #2 seed and should finish the season with a 20+ game winning season.  Duluth East and Grand Rapids are in the chase for #3, but Grand Rapids can’t catch STMA (9 losses on the season).  The Rapids just beat Duluth East Thursday 5-1 after losing to Hermantown Tuesday 10-2.  Andover has faded, but has enough games left and the talent to get back into contention for a #3 or #4 seed that would put them at home for the quarterfinals and avoid a trip to Grand Rapids.  The Huskies odds go up if they can beat Elk River Thursday January 22 at Elk River

The Past

Prior Lake won the Minnesota Hockey’s 2012 peewee A state title three years ago played in Alexandria.  Edina lost in the regionals that year and did not make the trip to the Runestone Arena.  Prior Lake beat Elk River in the semifinals and Hermantown in the championship game.  STMA lost in the quarterfinals when they lost their starting goalie before the tourney started.  Edina won the 2011 peewee A state tourney beating Farmington in the championship game played at Bloomington, but core of the Hornets current varsity team played in the 2010 tourney at Faribault.  Andover and White Bear Lake peewee A's played at Faribault. 

The high schools that are linked to these association’s peewee A teams are populated with players from the 2010, 2011 and 2012 state tourney peewee A teams.  Approximately 60-70% of the varsity players played in those tourneys.  Earlier the question was “can they do it?”  Perhaps the question is can they do it again?  Can they make the state tourney this year?  

Lakeville North/Prior Lake Game Notes

The Minnesota Magicians’ Red Black league impacted both teams Thursday night. Twelve Prior Lake players on the ice played in the Red Black league last fall including the Lakers’ leading scorer Connor Clemons.  Six Lakeville North also skated in the league including Panther defenseman 6’5” Luke Seper.  The Red Black league has added a Red Black Spring league this year.  Tryouts are being held March 9th at Richfield.  Games will be played in April and May.  

The Minnesota Elite Prep Development League (part of the UMHSEL program) opted to have a U16 team in the fall league.  The U16 is the MEPDL entry in the upcoming (March) Minnesota District U16 Tier I tourney.  The fall season in the league was the U16 team's "before" part of the before and after team.  In the Minnesota District’s U16 Tourney, the Elite 16’s will join Shattuck's U16, Minnesota Magicians, Minnesota Blades, Northern Wings, and the Minnesota Revolution in a battle to represent Minnesota in USA’s national tourney to be played in New York at the end of March.  One Lakeville North player, Tommy Klans, is on the Elite U16 team.  Prior Lake’s Ryan Murray, Jake Cohn, Chase Gackle, Connor Clemons, Drew Scites, and Curt Hansen are on the Minnesota Magicians entry.

The Lakers’ Jack Harris and North’s Taylor Schneider play for the Blades U16 team.  Harris did not suit for last night's game.

Lakeville North’s Poehling line played for the TCF Bank team (Team Southwest) in the Upper Midwest High School Elite League last fall.  All three brother (Nick, Jack, and Ryan) played but did not skate as a line.  Ryan would often center a line with brother Nick at one wing and a “variable” at the other wing.  North’s Max Johnson often skated there, but East Ridges’ top scorer Derek Hammer was the most effective "variable".  North’s defense men Jack Sadek and Jack McNeely combined with goalie Edquist to form the core of the TCF Bank defense; the Bankers won the regular season title, but finished second in the playoffs.

For Prior Lake, defense men Lincoln Eiter, Noah Beer, Andrew Moran, and Matt Denman returned from the 2013-2014 varsity team.  Defense men Jack Harris, Jake Cohn, Andrew Krugger, and Jake Shopbell are new to the Lakers varsity.  Last summer, Jack Harris made Minnesota Hockey’s select 15 team.  Matt Denman played in the UMHSEL last fall for Starkey (Team Southwest) along with Lakers Will Reedy and Kevin Fellows.

The Minnesota Magicians’ Red Black league impacted both teams last night. Twelve Prior Lake players on the ice played in the league last fall including the Lakers’ leading scorer Connor Clemons.  Six Lakeville North also skated in the league including Panther defenseman 6’5” Luke Seper.    

Prior Lake’s Kevin Fellows was the only sophomore on the Starkey team.  Will Reedy, who is out this season because of an injury, centered Starkey’s second line out with wings Matt Mastermann/Edina and Marshall Barnes/Holy Angels.  Fellows centered Starkey’s third line out with Gavin Payne/Minnetonka and Alex Gregor/New Prague.

Prior Lake goalie Drew Scites played last season in the High Performance League for Compuware’s U16 team and made the trip last summer to USA’s camp as part of USA's National Team Development Program (NTDP Select 16).

Lakeville North goalie Ryan Edquist played last season for Shattuck’s U16 team and made the trip last summer to USA’s NTDP camp as a Minnesota Select 16.

Lakeville North’s Poehlings and the Panthers two defensemen, Sadek and McNeeley, played on the for the Minnesota Red in the fall ending CCM IIT tourney.  The Red won the tourney beating Shattuck U18 5-2 in the championship game.  Shattuck is the perennial U18 Tier I national champs.