Section 1AA draw is set.  Lakeville North beat Lakeville South 3-0 in their final game of the season.  The Panther’s win was not good enough to give them the #1 seed.  Rochester John Marshall’s last week’s 3-2 win over Austin and 4-4 tie with Red Wing was enough to edge Dodge County who lost 2-1 to #2 ranked Eden Prairie Saturday.  Three teams, Lakeville North (20-4-1), Lakeville South (20-4-1), and Rochester John Marshall (20-2-3) finished with twenty game winning seasons.  In Section 1AA opening games, #1 Lakeville South will host #8 Rochester Mayo in a quarterfinal game played at Lakeville’s Hasse Arena; #2 Lakeville North will host #7 Owatonna; #3 Rochester John Marshall will host #6 Rochester Century; and #4 Dodge County will host #5 Farmington.  All quarterfinal games are played Wednesday February 4th.  All quarterfinal games have 7:00 PM starts.  Lakeville South was the loser in the draw; if South wins their opening game, they will most likely host a tough Dodge Center team in a semifinal game at Hasse.  Lakeville North, if they win, will likely host Rochester John Marshall in the other Section 1AA semifinal at Ames.  The potential game between South and Dodge is the game to see this week.  Both semifinal games are scheduled to be played Saturday, February 7th with the championship game played February 12th in Owatonna.

Section 2AA went as predicted here over a month ago.  Edina ended their season Saturday beating Breck 4-0, but despite winning their last six games including a 3-2 overtime win over #2 ranked Eden Prairie, Edina’s mid-season swoon, losing seven games in ten played, cost them.  Eden Prairie (20-2-3) took the #1 seed and the bye.  The Eagles will meet the winner of the #4/#5 quarterfinal game between Jefferson and Holy Catholic Family/Waconia in the first semifinal game.  Edina hosts #7 Prior Lake in their quarterfinal game and #3 seed Chaska/Chanhassen hosts #6 Shakopee.  All three quarterfinal games are played Friday February 6th at the higher seeds site.  The games all start at 7:00 PM.  Semifinal and final games will be played at Richfield’s Ice Arena (somebody needs to get the sound system going there, it really makes the arena rock).

Section 3AA will open with a single game between the #8 seed Woodbury hosting #9 Rosemount in a Monday, February 2nd game (tonight).  The winner of that game will play the #1 seed Eagan.  Eagan won their last five regular season games and took the #1 seed despite losing to Hastings (4-3) earlier this season.  Hastings got the #2 seed going 6-2 in their last eight games, losing to Hill-Murray 7-0 and Farmington 1-0 in overtime last Friday.  The Farmington loss cost Hastings the #1 seed.  Hastings will play #7 seeded Burnsville in their quarterfinal game.  The #3 seeded Eastview draws #6 seeded Apple Valley in their sectional opener, the Eagles were a surprise moving up to #6 after most thought they would be seeded #8.  East Ridge, the #4 seed, plays #5 Park/Cottage Grove in the fourth quarterfinal game.  All quarterfinal games are played Wednesday, February 4th at the higher seed’s site.  Starting times will vary.

Section 4AA seeds have not been posted as of Monday morning.  Tartan plays Red Wing (already seeded #1 in Section 1A) in their last regular season game Monday at Tartan.  The outcome of that game will likely influence the final seeding.  Section 5AA is in the same position as Section 4AA with Blaine playing Minnetonka Tuesday.  The outcome of that game will likely influence the final seeding.  Section 5AA quarterfinals games are scheduled for Tuesday February 10th.  A playing in game between the #8 and #9 seed will be played Wednesday February 4th at the Roseville Ice Arena (mostly Anoka and Rogers).

At the start of the season, Section 6AA was considered to have the strongest field contending for the ticket to the Xcel.  Minnetonka (ranked #3) and Maple Grove (ranked #4) came through at the end of the season to finished #1 and #2 respectively in the section.  In a complement to the Skippers, they were picked #1 despite having a season ending game with Blaine yet to play.  Section 6AA’s three other tough teams (Wayzata, Hopkins, and Benilde-St. Margaret’s) struggled at the end of the season.  Collectively, the three teams posted a 3-12 record in their last 15 games.  Minnetonka, with the #1 seed will play the winner of the game between the #4/#5 seeds, Hopkins or Benilde/St. Margaret’s.  Maple Grove plays #7 seed North Metro in their quarterfinal game; #3 seeded Wayzata plays #6 seeded Armstrong.  After all is said and done in Section 6AA, Maple Grove may have gotten the better seed, playing Wayzata in a potential semifinal game.  All Section 6AA games will be played at Parade Stadium.  Quarterfinal games are played Saturday, February 7th.  Hopkins/Benilde-St. Magaret’s game opens the tourney playing at 2:15 PM followed by Wayzata/Armstrong and Maple Grove/North Metro.  Semifinal games are played at Parade Wednesday, February 11th and the championship game played Friday the 13th.

Section 7AA had a surprise.  Elk River took the #1 seed, that was no surprise; but Andover took the #2 seed edging #3 seeded Grand Rapids.  With the higher seed hosting quarterfinal and semifinal games; Andover will be playing their quarterfinal and semifinal games at home.  The Elk’s will play #8 Cambridge-Isanti in their opener; Andover draws #7 seeded Cloquet.  Grand Rapids hosts #6 seeded St. Francis and #4 seeded Forest Lake hosts #5 seeded Duluth.  All Section 7AA quarterfinal games are played at the higher seed’s site Thursday, February 5th at 7:00 PM.  Semifinal final games are played at the higher seed’s site Saturday February 7th at 7:00 PM.  The championship game will be played at Fogerty Arena Thursday, February 12th at 7:00 PM.

In Section 8AA, no draw has been posted.  Roseau finishes their regular season playing Warroad at home Monday night.  There are four teams vying for high seeds after Roseau (Buffalo, River Lakes, Sartell/St. Cloud, and North Wright County).  All four have finished the season with win streaks that will make the seeding process tougher.