Section 1A Quarterfinal results

Red Wing cruised to a 6-0 quarterfinal win Wednesday night over Albert Lea.  The Wingers pounded the Tigers’ goal with 57 shots in the game.  Junior Maddy Hardyman scored twice in the opening period for Red Wing.  Red Wing scored twice in the second period and twice in the third period.  Katelyn Halder and Kayla Oberding scored in the second period; Oberding and Taylor Heise scored the Wingers third period goals.  Albert Lea’s Senior goalie Katie Schwarz stopped 51 of the 57 shots on goal.  Faribault and Austin were locked up in a scoreless tie in their quarterfinal game at Faribault.

After a scoreless first period, the two teams each scored twice in the second period.  Faribault junior Megan Johnstad scored 30 seconds into the second period to put the Falcons up 1-0.  Austin junior Chloe Summerfield scored 30 seconds later to tie the game 1-1.  Falcon senior Lexus Tatge scored to break the tie with four minutes left in the second period only to have Summerfield score again 90 seconds later to tie the game 2-2 going into the second period.  Austin’s forwards spent the first half of the third period attacking the Falcons’ net but did not have the quickness to make the final move to score.  Often, the Falcons’ defense would step up and block the shot or take away the shooter’s last option to close down the Austin defense.

Halfway through the third period, Faribault’s Tatge came up with the loose puck out a melee in front the Packer’s net and scored.  Forty seconds later, the Falcons’ Alexis Ferris scored.  Faribault led 4-2 with 8 minutes left in the game.  Faribault’s defense held Austin in check until Austin pulled their goalie in the last two minutes of play.  The Packers’ Brandi Myers scored to cut the lead to 4-3 with thirty seconds left on the clock.  Austin could not get the tying goal in the last seconds of the game.  Faribault advances to the semifinals to play #1 seeded Red Wing.

Northfield ran into a tough goalie in their quarterfinal game.  Winona’s Jillian Hultgren came prepared to play and played hard stopping 38 of the Raiders 41 shots on net.  Northfield dominated play in the first two periods.  Their defense was consistently able to turn the puck in the neutral zone, often at the Winhawks’ blue line, to keep pressure on Winona.  Northfields’ Kate Boland, an eighth grader, scored early in the first period and ninth grader Madi Goldsworthy and junior Nicole Laue added second period goals to give Northfield the 3-0 win.  Ninth grade goalie Mallory Tidona got the shutout.  Tidona has started all 26 games for the Raiders this season.

New Prague blitzed Waseca 15-0.  The Bluejays could not stop New Prague’s top line (Catie Skaja, Jordan Anderson, and Haley Dietz).  That line figured in 10 of the 15 Trojan scores.  Skaja had 5 goals and 6 assists.  Waseca ninth grader Danni Dahms stopped 70 of the 85 Trojans’ shots on goal.  

Section 4A Quarterfinal Game

In a Wednesday quarterfinal game played at St. Thomas Arena, St. Paul United beat the St. Paul Blades 11-0.  United got balanced scoring in the game.  Five of St. Paul United goals came on power plays.  Nine players scored.  Sophomore Lauren Boettcher and junior Bridget Hoffman each scored twice; Bridget Dobie, Ellie Vanasek, Ella Hommeyer, Maggie Connors, Samantha Burke, Jenna Hoops, and Hailey Sabin each scored once.  The #1 seeded United moves on to play a semifinal game.  United goalies Catherine Johnson and Mari Knudson split the goal tending duties for the game.   

Section 5AA Play-in

St. Louis Park’s leading scorer, Elena Basill, turned playmaker in Wednesday’s Section 5A play-in game.  She assisted on 3 of the 4 Oriole scores to lead Park to a 4-3 over Minneapolis.  It was Park’s first victory after losing six tough games to Metro West Conference and Class AA foes Chaska/Chanhassen, Benilde-St. Margaret’s, and Jefferson.  Minneapolis tried to score the tying goal in the last ten minutes of the third period, but the young Novas could not get the goal despite out shooting Park 10-7.  Park advances to play #1 seeded Blake.  Two quarterfinal games will be played in Section 5A Thursday.   

Section 6A Seeding

Wednesday, Section 6A seeding was posted.  Alexandria got the #1 seed and Northern Lakes got the #4 seed.  The final regular season game between the two teams to be played Tuesday, Feb 3rd was canceled.  The Cardinals will play the winner of the quarterfinal game between Northern Lakes and Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Wadena-Deer Creek.  Fergus Falls and Morris/Benson meet in the second quarterfinal game with the winner playing #2 seeded Detroit Lakes.  Alexandria finished the season with a 14-9-1 record and Detroit Lakes posted a 16-8-1 record.  Alexandria beat the Lakers twice in regular season play 4-3 and 4-2.    

Thursday’s Class A game schedule

Section 2A plays its quarterfinal round Thursday when St. Peter/LeSueur-Henderson/Tri-City United play at Willmar and Mankato West goes east to play Mankato East.  St. Peter has struggled in January posting a 3-5-0 record finishing fifth in the Big South.  St. Peter’s offense is led by juniors Maddie Kleschult and Holly Gibbs.  Ninth grader Jordan Keeley has been the Bulldogs starter all year saving 89% of the shots on goal.  In the 24 games that Keeley has started, she has seen over a 1,000 shots on net.  St. Peter’s opponent, Willmar, has struggled also in January winning just one game.  Willmar has the offensive punch this year with forwards sophomore Riley Schneider, senior Anne Johnston, senior Shelby Schneider, and junior Jordan Sankey all posting 20 or more points this season.  This game may simple “boil down” to desire-who wants to win the most.

Mankato West has struggled all season.  Their offense is led by ninth grader Courtney Bloemke.  Junior goalie Maggie Cusey has been solid in the nets stopping 90% of the shots on goal.  Unfortunately, the West defense has given up over 1100 shots in the 25 games Cusey has played.  West will face a Mankato East team that has offensive firepower in Rebekah Kolstad (50 points/37 goals) and in Kyle Paulson (27 points/15 goals).  Add to that a West team defense that has limited their opponents to 30 or less shots on goal and Mankato East is in for a tough night unless their defense can play “with cool” and cut down the shots on goal.    

Section 7A Quarterfinals

Thursday, Eveleth-Gilbert travels to Moose Lake in one 7A quarterfinal game and North Shore travels to International Falls to play the second quarterfinal game.  It may surprise some readers that Eveleth has the easier journey (80 miles of freeway) while the North Shore team leaving from Two Harbors will have a 200 mile journey mostly on two lane roads.  Unfortunately for both, Moose Lake and the Falls are both tough teams this year.  All four teams play as independents this past season.  The Golden Bears broke a ten game losing streak with a nice 2-1 win over Northern Lakes two weeks ago.  But the Bears have been mauled by the Rebels twice this past season (9-0 and 8-1) and need to improve their defense.  Moose Lake has the scoring punch led by Jessica Bird (75 points/34 goals) and play reasonable defense.

North Shore has one win this season, they beat Eveleth-Gilbert 1-0 and have lost twice to the Falls 7-3 and 8-2.  International Falls has won four of the last five regular season games.  The one game the Bronco’s lost was 3-2 to Hibbing-Chisholm their semifinal opponent if they beat North Shore.   

Section 8A Quarterfinal

The northwestern Minnesota section, Section 8A has one quarterfinal game.  Park Rapids will travel to Crookston to play the Pirates.  Park Rapids has struggled the last two months of the season winning only two games.  Offensively they are led by ninth grader Lexi Hinkley Smith and defensively by sophomore Julia Smith.  The Rapids have lost twice to Crookston 2-0 and 4-0.  They will need more offense to advance.  Crookston struggled in the Greater Minnesota Conference that had two top teams, YHH #1 ranked team in the state Thief River Falls and YHH #10 ranked team Roseau.  Add to that two very respectable teams in East Grand Forks and Warroad and what does a team get?  Eight losses.  The Pirates also lost to Bemidji and Moorhead and added three more losses to the eight.  Outside of conference play, Crookston played .500 hockey.  They should be Park Rapids, but then they have to play a semifinal game against #1 Thief River Falls.  At least the game will be on home ice.