Five of the eight Class AA sectionals will be played Friday, February 13th.  Superstitious coaches in Section 2AA, 4AA, 5AA, 6AA, and 8AA that make the finals will be nervous about black cats and arena ladders this year.  With all the sectional seeding completed in the past 24 hours, Centennial in 5AA, Elk River in 7AA, and Roseau in 8AA appear to have the easiest path to the Xcel.  Sections 3AA (Hastings and Eagan) and 4AA (Hill-Murray and Cretin-Derham Hall) are the strongest two teams in their sectionals and are favored to be in the championship game.  Sections 2AA and 6AA each have two teams that should prevail, but also have teams that are tough to beat.  Eden Prairie and Edina are the favorites to play for the Section 2AA title but Chaska/Chanhassen is tough; Minnetonka and Maple Grove in Section 6AA are the favorites, but can be challenged by Wayzata, Hopkins, and Benilde-St. Margaret’s.  Section 1AA is the toughest path to the Xcel with Lakeville South, Lakeville North, Dodge County, and Rochester John Marshall all capable of winning the ticket to the Xcel.

The Section 6 seeds have been posted.  Hill-Murray (20-5-0) edged Cretin-Derham Hall (19-3-3) for the #1 seed and gets a quarterfinal bye.  The Crusaders will host North St. Paul in their quarterfinal game.  Stillwater with the #4 seed will play #5 seeded White Bear Lake in a quarterfinal game.  The winner will play Hill-Murray in a semifinal game at Aldrich Arena next week.  Roseville Area (#3) hosts Tartan (#6).  The Titans lost their last regular season game Monday to Red Wing 4-1.

Section 5AA seeds have been made.  Maple Grove dominated the Northwest Suburban Conference this past season going unbeaten (17-0-0) in conference play, but the Crimson play in Section 6AA.  Centennial (14-3-1 in conference play), finished second winning their last nine games and took 5AA’s #1 seed.  Centennial will play the winner of the game between #8 seeded Anoka and #9 seeded Rogers in the quarterfinals.  Blaine got the #2 seed and will play #7 Spring Lake Park; #3 Mounds View will play #6 Coon Rapids; and #4 Champlin Park will play #5 seeded Irondale in the other three quarterfinal games.

Section 5AA consists of seven Northwest Suburban teams plus Mounds View and Rogers.  The top three finishers in the conference were seeded high in three different sectionals (Maple Grove #2 in Section 6AA, Elk River #1 in Section 7AA, and Centennial #1 in 5AA).  Blaine, Irondale, and Spring Lake Park finished 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively.  Andover, 7th in conference play was seeded second in Section 7AA.  Eighth, ninth, and tenth place Northwest Suburban finishers Coon Rapids, Anoka, and Champlin Park also play in Section 5AA.  There is a potential for three Northwest Suburban teams (Elk River or Andover from Section 7AA, Maple Grove from Section 6AA, and Centennial or one of the six other Northwest Suburban teams) to end up at the Xcel in two weeks.

Section 8AA announced their seeding.  As expected, Roseau was seeded #1 despite a regular season ending loss to Warroad 4-3 Monday.  The loss cost the Rams the Greater Minnesota Conference title.  Thief River Falls is the 2014-2015 conference winner.  Roseau will play the winner of the #8/#9 seeded game between #9 Brainerd and #8 Bemidji in the quarterfinals.  Buffalo, River Lakes, Sartell/Sauk Rapids, and North Wright County all vied for the next higher seed.  Buffalo had the edge and took the #2 seed.  The Bison will play #7 seeded St. Cloud in their quarterfinal game.  Sartell took the #3 seed and will play Moorhead and River Lakes with the #4 seed plays #5 North Wright County to complete the quarterfinal draw.

Class AA Tuesday February 3 Games

No Class AA games are scheduled.  Blaine will host Minnetonka and St. Cloud will play Brainerd/Little Falls in their final regular season games tonight.  Class AA action opens with a vengeance Wednesday with nine games being played.  Section 1AA and Section 3AA quarterfinal play start with eight games played at eight different sites; and Section 5AA play-in game played at Roseville.