Five Class AA sectionals will play semifinal games this week; four are played Tuesday evening and one, Section 6AA is played Wednesday.  In Section 2AA, one question will be settled.  Last November, YHH covered Edina beating Chaska/Chanhassen 5-2 and pointed out that this semifinal game would likely happen and be one to watch.  The Hornets (18-7-1) went on to ring up some impressive wins and climb in the rankings only to lose 7 of 10 games in mid-season.  Edina came back to win their last seven games.  Chaska (18-8-0) losses and Edina losses have been to tough teams (Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Hill-Murray, and Wayzata).  Still, the Storm Hawks have proven to be a hard team to beat.  This game is one to watch this week.  It will be preceded by Holy Family Catholic/Waconia playing Eden Prairie in the first Section 2AA semifinal at Richfield Tuesday night.

A second game to watch will be Wayzata and Maple Grove in a Section 6AA semifinal game played Wednesday evening.  In the battle of the #3 versus #2 seeds, this game could go either way, but as it has been pointed out here this game could prove easier for Maple Grove than #1 seeded Minnetonka’s game with Hopkins.  That drama will be at Parade Ice Gardens Wednesday night.

In Section 4A, Hill-Murray and Cretin-Derham Hall play their semifinal games.  The two teams continue to be favorites to meet in the championship game.  Centennial remains the favorite in Section 5AA playing Champlin Park in their semifinal game.  Moorhead went to Sartell to play the Storm ‘N’ Sabres and won 6-0.  The #6 seeded Spuds play at Buffalo Tuesday in a Section 8AA semifinal game.  Moorhead is the lowest seed in either Class A or Class AA to remain in contention for a trip to the Xcel.  

Section 1AA

Dodge County and Lakeville South were looked in a Section 1AA semifinal game in a 2-2 battle halfway through the game.  South’s Emily Fischler batted a rebound into the net from the top of the crease to put the Cougars up 1-0 five minutes into the opening period.  The Wildcats’ Magdalyn Wick evened the score on a rebound from the slot five minutes later.  With a little over two minutes left in the period, the Cougars Chloe Batta ended up with puck right of Dodge’s net and turned and fired beating Wildcats’ goalie Gabby Suhr to put Lakeville South up 2-1.

Lakeville South opened the game with a counter attack for offense.  Often they get the puck behind the net and all three forwards would play at the slot and faceoff dots allowing Dodge to make the move from behind the net.  Dodge’s defense would counter by pulling the center to a breakout side and rotating the puck hard along the boards to the opposite side to a breaking forward.  The key was a hard ringer around the boards.  If Dodge did that, they had the break.  But at the end of the first period, the Wildcats started to tire.  At the end of the second period with four minutes left and with score tied 2-2, Dodge did tire.  Their defense left open ice for the South forwards and they scored twice.  Senior Morgan Morse beat the defense on the left side along the boards turning the play into a 2-on-1 rush.  Using the right side wing as a foil, Morse beat Suhr on a hard shot to the right side.  It was the game winner.  Lakeville South went on to win 7-2.  Junior Janna Haeg and seniors Morgan Morse and Chloe Batta each scored twice for the Cougars.  Dodge County senior Dana Rasmussen scored for the Wildcats.  She ended the season with 88 points/47 goals.  

In Section 1AA other semifinal game played at Ames Arena, #2 seeded Lakeville North beat the #6 seed Rochester Century.  North’s Maggie Flaherty scored late in the first period to put the Panthers up 1-0 going into the second period.  The Panther’s Riley Tousignant scored in the first minute of play to give North a 2-0 lead.  Century’s top two scorers Jessie Aney (101 points/45 goals in 24 games) and Frankie Mickelson (74 points/42 goals) each scored to tie the game 2-2.  Lakeville North’s Kelli Pritzlaff and Jayden Neameyer scored in the opening minutes of the third period.  Neameyer’s goal was the game winner putting North up 4-2.  Mickelson scored with six minutes to go to cut the Panther’s lead to 4-3.

Section 3AA

After a scoreless first period in which neither team could organize an attack (each team had just 3 shots on goal), the #1 seeded Eagan came out of the locker room and immediately developed pressure on the East Ridge defense.  As a result, the Wildcats scored twice early in the second period.  The Predators called time out, changed goalies, but did not change the game momentum.  Eagan scored three more second period goals and went on to beat East Ridge 6-1.  Five different Wildcats scored in the second period (sophomore Sophia Bergman, junior Brooke Madson, senior Taylor Ramthun, ninth grader Taylor Anderson, and senior Alexia Wilson).  Anderson scored the sixth goal for Eagan in the third period; senior Jessie Andersen scored the lone East Ridge goal.

Hastings had a good first period outshooting Eastview 8-4 in their semifinal game.  But the Raiders could not stop Natalie Snodgrass in the second and third periods.  Snodgrass scored four goals and assisted on two others in the Lightning’s 7-1.  The #4 seeded Lightning upset the #2 seeded Raiders by outshooting the Raiders 16-3 in the second period.  Eastview’s win makes it an all-South Suburban Conference championship in 3AA this year.  

Section 6AA

Section 6AA completed their quarterfinals at Parade Saturday.  There were no surprises.  The #2 seeded Maple Grove beat #7 North Metro 8-1, #3 seeded Wayzata beat #6 Armstrong/Cooper 5-1, and #4 Hopkins beat #5 Benilde-St Margaret’s 2-1.  That sets up one of the most interesting two games when the 6AA semifinals are played Wednesday.  One game matches the Northwestern Suburban champs Maple Grove (24-1-1)against the Lake Conferences’ #3 team Wayzata (14-9-2).  Maple Grove beat Wayzata 3-0 behind sophomore forward Taylor Wente’s hat trick in early January.  The Crimson’s leading scorer, Wente has posted 46 points/23 goals in 26 games this year.  Maple Grove has a balanced attack with, but the Crimson’s strength is in their defense.  Collectively, they have given up an average of 1.1 goals a game while stopping 95% of the shots on goal.  Wayzata has a balanced offense also with sophomore Natalie Heising leading the scoring (29 points/9 goals in 24 games).  The Trojans’ defense has held their opponents to 1.9 goals per game while stopping 90% of the shots on net.  Maple Grove has the edge and is the favorite.    

Minnetonka (19-6-0) is seeded #1 because they had been on fire winning eight of their last 10 games all played against top teams.  They beat Hopkins (12-12-1) twice in those 10 games (5-3 and 4-2); but the last game of the season loss to Section 5AA’s #2 seed Blaine 2-0 is troublesome.  The Skippers have had a good season and have four players (Presley Norby, senior Kelsey Crow, junior Kippin Keller, and junior Katie Mcmillan on their roster committed to play Division 1 hockey.  Hopkins has two Division 1 commits (senior Corbin Boyd and senior Grace Bizal).  Boyd leads the team in scoring with 44 points/11 goals.  Their second leading scorer is Kylie Hanley 36 points/14 goals.  Bizal is third with 31 ponts/22 goals.  This game may be decided by the defense.  With two seniors anchoring the Royals’ defense (Bizal and goaltender Molly Dionne) Hopkins can’t be counted out.