Section 1A Summary

The Section 1A championship is set and there will be no #1 Red Wing versus #2 New Prague will be making the trip Thursday to Owatonna to play in the Section 1A championship.  Northfield junior Mikayla Yetzer scored twice, once in the first period and once in the second period, to lead the Raiders to a 2-0 win.  Northfield’s freshman goalie Mallory Tidona stopped all 44 New Prague shots to earn the shutout win.  The Raiders instead will play in the 5:00 PM championship game.  This will be the fifth straight year that Red Wing has played for the Section 1A championship.  The Wingers have won the last four championship games and will be playing for their fifth straight trip to the Xcel.  In the Wingers semifinal win over Faribault, Red Wing’s offense just accelerated as the game was played.  They worked hard to get a single score in the first period (junior Maddy Hardyman scored), kept the pressure on in the second period (senior Katelyn Hadler and ninth grader Taylor Heise scored) with 15 shots on goal, and put the game away with two more goals scored by Heise and Hardyman.  The Wingers offense put 21 shots on goal in the third period.  Ninth grader Payton Putrah scored Faribault’s two goals.

Both Red Wing (22-2-3) and Northfield (13-14-0) played in the Big Nine Conference this past season.  Red Wing finished second (to Rochester John Marshall) and Northfield finished seventh.  Red Wing has beaten Northfield twice in regular season games (3-1 and 8-1).  Red Wing outshot Northfield 87-31 in those two games.  Northfield beat New Prague when Mallory Tidona stopped all 44 New Prague shots to earn the shutout win.  Tidona was in the net for the two games with Red Wing stopping 42 of 45 shots in the 3-1 loss.  Northfield has balanced scoring with nine players in double digits.  Senior defenseman Laine Fischer (27 points/16 goals), sophomore defenseman Brynn Puppe (18 points/10 goals), and junior Nicloe Laue (18 points/13 goals) lead the Raiders in scoring.   

The Wingers have the offensive punch with Reagan Haley (87 points/42 goals), Taylor Heise (63 points/26 goals) and Maddy Hardyman (40 points/28 goals).  In last year’s 1A championship won by Red Wing 6-3, penalties prove to be killers for both Red Wing and New Prague.  Four of the Wingers goals came on power plays including the game winning goal; two of the Trojans’ goals were scored on power plays.  Northfield’s success is in the hands of their defensive corps and penalty avoidance.

Red Wing seniors Katelyn Hadler, Kayla Oberding, Reagan Haley, and goalie Ashley Corcoran; juniors Caitie Turcotte, and Carley Marty; and sophomore goalie Anna Vagasky have been on the winning side in the last three Wingers 1A championship wins.  The Wingers will be playing for their fifth straight ticket to the Xcel.  This is Northfield’s first trip to the Class 1A championship since the 2010-2011 season.  The Raiders lost the 2011 championship to Red Wing 4-1.  Raider senior Ally Olson played in that game.   

Section 3A Championship

New Ulm had a big game against Fairmont beating the Cardinals 10-1.  Fairmont junior Jordyn Junkermeier scored four minutes into the first period to put the Cardinals up 1-0.  Then New Ulm started to roll.  Thirty seconds later, Eagles senior Erika Ries scored to tie the game 1-1.  New Ulm junior Brook Schugel scored two minutes later.  Ninth grader Ali Beltz scored as the first period was ending.  Junior Brittany Denn scored twice and ninth grader Lauren Klein added a goal in the second period.  New Ulm led 6-1 going into the second period.  Erika Ries scored twice more in the third period for the hat trick.  Karlie Ries stopped 16 of 17 Cardinal shots for the win.

The #3 seeded Marshall pulled a mild upset at Luverne’s Blue Mound Arena Friday beating the Cardinals 5-4 in overtime.  Two weeks earlier, Luverne had beaten Marshall 5-4 at the Blue Mound.  The loss was just the second loss this season for Luverne on their home ice.  Marshall senior and leading scorer Teegan Wyffels scored the winning goal four minutes into the overtime period.  Junior goal tender Morgan Morrill stopped 29 of 33 shots to earn the win.  Luverne rallied to erase a 4-2 Tiger lead with a late second period goal by Maddie Dinger and an early third period goal by Makayla Sterrett to tie the game and send it into overtime.

Two Big South Conference teams will play for the Section 3A title when Marshall and New Ulm meet in the Section 3A title Tuesday, February 10th at the Redwood Falls Community Center.  New Ulm (18-8-0) won the Big South Conference this year and has beaten Marshall (14-11-0) twice this season 7-0 and 6-0.  Marshall finished third, but the Tigers are coming off a win over Luverne at Luverne, a team New Ulm lost to a week ago.  This game is very unpredictable.  New Ulm is the heavy favorite, but Marshall has proven they can upset teams.         

Section 4A

In Section 4A semifinal games played Saturday, South St. Paul beat Sibley 3-2 and Simley beat Minnehaha United 3-2.  Both action packed games drew large crowds of St. Paul fans, St. Thomas Arena sits in the middle of South and West St. Paul.  Section 4A’s #2 seeded Packers will host Simley Tuesday at St. Thomas Arena at 8:00 PM in what should be a great semifinal game.

South St. Paul was in trouble as the third period opened Saturday.  Sibley senior Demi Cooper and sophomore Kayla Lucken had scored in the first and second periods to put the Warriors up 2-1.  Sophomore Makena Burke scored a first period goal for the Packers.  Trailing 2-1 at the start of the third period, South St. Paul found Sibley’s defense had become stubborn.  The Packers’ forwards were being denied the good shot and Sibley’s defense was blocking the weaker shots on goal.  Four minutes into the period, Sibley drew a penalty that set off a sequence of penalties that resulted in South tying the game.  In the middle of the Packer power play pressuring Sibley in the Warriors’ zone, South St.  Paul drew a 5-minute major.  In created a 4-on-4.  A minute into skating 4-on-4, the Sibley defense relaxed and failed to clear a rebound in the slot.  It resulted in Packers’ Anna Barlow picking up the loose puck and one-timing it into the upper right side of the net.  Barlow’s goal tied the game 2-2.

A minute later, another South St. Paul penalty gave Sibley a 5-on-3 advantage.  At a key moment in the game, Sibley could not score with the two player advantage or with the one player advantage.  With less than three minutes to go, Sibley drew a checking penalty.  The Warriors had almost killed the penalty when the Packers launched the game winning attack.  It started with a Packer shot from the blue line that was saved by Warrior goalie junior Julia Wetzel-Edstrom.  The puck could not be cleared from the front of the Sibley net forcing Wetzel-Edstrom to make two more tough stops to her right with the last save ending with the puck trapped Wetzel-Edstrom’s left skate.  The Packers AJ Deering attacked pulled the puck loose to score the winning goal.  It was a good game.

Five minutes into  the Simley/Minnehaha United game, the Saints sophomore defenseman Elsa Deinema hit Minnehaha forward Ellen Seibel with a nice pass from the Saints lower left faceoff circle.  Sophomore Seibel took the pass at the Simley blue line for a solo rush on the Spartan’s net for a score.  Simley, which had been pressuring Minnehaha the first five minutes of the game trailed 1-0.  In an early January game, Simley took a 2-0 lead in the first period.  Then Saints senior goalie Julie Carle came off the bench and shut Simely’s offense down stopping 31 shots.  Simely won 2-0 outshooting Minnehaha United 38-10.  Carle was in the nets Saturday and she again shut the Spartan’s offense down stopping 27 shots in the first two periods Saturday.

Minnehaha led 2-1 going into the third period, but Simley’s offense rolled in the third period outshooting the Saints 15-3.  Halfway through the period, Spartan sophomore Reegan Patnode score 2-2 and forced the overtime.  The overtime was a defensive battle with few shots on goal.  Four minutes into overtime, Simley senior Laken Muller scored the game winner.  Simley won 3-2; Carle stopped 40 of 43 Simley shots.

Mahtomedi beat Chisago Lakes 7-1 in Saturday’s night cap at St. Thomas.  The #4 seeded Zephyrs took a 4-1 lead in the first period.  Zephyr junior Kaliey Heini scored all four first period Mahtomedi goals in the space of four minutes in the first half of the opening period to give the Zephyrs a four goal lead.  Chisago Lakes senior Amy Budde scored a first period goal to cut the lead 4-1 going into the second period.  Mahtomedi added two goals in the second period.  Heini got her fifth goal of the game.  Senior Madison Bergren scored the second goal of the period.  Heini’s five goals were all even strength and scored despite Mahtomedi being outshot in the second period 9-5 and outshot for the game 28-19.  Bergren scored again in the third period to end the scoring.  Mahtomedi plays St. Paul United in the early semifinal game Tuesday at St. Thomas.  The #1 seeded United beat the St. Paul Blades in their quarterfinal game earlier in the week.