USA Hockey is organized around 12 districts and each district has affiliates.  For example, there is a Northern Plains District that consists of four affiliates (Montana Amateur Hockey Association, North Dakota Amateur Hockey Association, South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association, and Wyoming Amateur Hockey Association).  When it comes to playoffs for national tourney, each district organizes its affiliates in a playoff for those that want to participate in a USA National Tourney   Each district has its own playoff, but do not always have playoffs at every level.  Some playoffs are held as early as the first week on November.  Each district can send one team to the national tourney but some district teams participating can receive an “at large” bid also.  Travel and cost enters into each district’s association/affiliates decision making.  Most of the district playoffs involve four or less teams.  Minnesota District for years have had only one Tier 1 team entered in the district playoffs, Shattuck.  Hence, Shattuck has always gotten an automatic ticket to the nationals.  This year, their 18U and 16U teams will have to win to go.

Eight 18U teams have won their ticket to this year’s 18U Tier I National Tourney.  One of the eight teams, #4 ranked, Connecticut Wolf Pack won their entry at the end of the “before season” in early November.  The #2 ranked Culver Academy and #5 Springfield Rifles has also won tickets.  Shattuck’s U18 team is ranked #1 nationally.  The Minnesota Blades U18 team is ranked #27 and is the next highest ranked 18U team in the Minnesota playoffs behind Shattuck.

Eight 16U teams have won their ticket to this year’s 16U Tier 1 National Tourney.  The #21 ranked Cape Cod Whalers, a before and after team, won their ticket in early November.  Shattuck’s 16U team is the #1 ranked Tier 1 team in the tourney.  The highest ranked team of the eight entered nationally is #3 Colorado Thunderbirds followed by the #9 ranked Michigan Nationals.  The Minnesota Blades 16U team is ranked #8 nationally and with potential at-large bids available, could end up with a ticket even if they lost to Shattuck.        

Minnesota District 18U Tourney

Shattuck Prep

Shattuck’s Prep team has posted a 33-11-5 record and are the top ranked U18 Tier 1 team in the country.  Offensively, look for 7-10-16 when watching the Sabres.  Those three players normally anchor one of three Sabre lines.  Sophomore Grant Mishmash/Edina MN (#16) typically skates wing with seniors Ryan Norman/Maplewood MN and Jacob Paganelli/Verona NJ.  The three collectively have posted 156 points/70 goals this season, but Mishmash has the knack of scoring the key goal in a game.  Colt Conrad/St. Alphonse MB (#7) is the Sabres leading scoring posting 80 points/29 goals this season.  Conrad and #10 sophomore Scott Reedy/Prior Lake MN typically center the Sabres second and third lines.  Reedy, like Mismash, has shown the knack to score the key goal in a game.  The Sabres’ defensive corps is led by senior Colin Saccoman/Stillwater MN and sophomore Josh Maniscalco/Perkiomenville PA.  Backed by good goaltending (Fredric Foulem and Drew Specman), the Sabres have given up an average slightly above two goals a game.

The Minnesota Blades

When the Blades line-up for their first game Wednesday, they will have half of Edina High School’s defense that just left the ice Saturday at the Xcel.  Ben Foley, Paul Meyer, and Sam Fuss all have skated for the Minnesota Blades over a number of years.  They and the Hornets’ wing Henry Bowlby are seniors this year and have skated their last year for Edina.  The Blades' Colton Berg/Centennial, Will LeNeave/Orono, Dylan Bouten/Elk River, Justin Paulson/Breck, and Jake Moelke/Wayzata complete the defensive corps.  Senior defenseman Berg was the #3 scorer for the Centennial last season posting 25 points/15 goals for the Cougars.  LeNeave, also a senior, was Orono’s second leading scoring posting 29 points/10 goals; senior Bouten was the Elks #6 scorer with 28 points/8 goals; and Paulson skated for Breck in the Class A tourney played at the Xcel last weekend.

Offensively, the Blades have two of the top three scorers from the Wayzata High School team, Max Zimmer (28 points/8 goals) and Nathan Dingman (23 points/9 goals).  Ryan Foley was the third leading scorer for the Rosemount.  Playing a tough South Suburban Conference schedule, Foley posted 29 points/17 goals.  Blaine’s third leading scorer, Easton Brodzinski (44 points/25 goals), is a Blade forward and will be coming off the ice at the Xcel to play for the Blades as will St. Thomas Academy’s Tommy Stang.  St. Cloud Cathedral’s #2 scorer Matt Fritz (22 points/10 goals) is a Blade.

The Blades two goal tenders are Zach Fritz/St. Cloud Cathedral and Charlie Hallett/St. Thomas Academy.  Fritz started for the Crusaders in the 2014-2015 season; Hallett backed up Cadet’s starting goalie Matt Snow at the Xcel.

The Minnesota Magicians

The Minnesota Magicians have a strong defensive corps and solid goaltending.  Their defensemen are led by two players that just got off the ice at the Xcel, Edina’s Luke Perunovich and Lakeville North’s 6’5” Luke Seper.  New Prague’s Casey Busch is also part of Magicians defensive corps.  The Magicians’ goaltenders are Connor Wagner/New Prague and Daniel Swail/Lakeville South.  Wagner and Busch had a great tourney at the Xcel last weekend playing for the Trojans.  Prior Lake’s Lincoln Eiter and Carter Spindler and Minnetonka’s Ty Cousineau complete the Magicians defensive corps.

Offensively, the key for the Magicians could be Owen Larson.  Larson, the #2 scorer for Holy Angels (52 points/37 goals), was playing very well as the regular season ended.  Andre Larenzie had a good year also at Minnehaha Academy posting 30 points/17 goals.  How these two fit with Wayzata’s Jack Fetrow, Burnsville’s Erik Otto, and Edina’s Patrick Haug; and Prior Lake’s Tyler Bump, Derek Daugaard, and Hayden Maxfield will determine the Magicians offensive punch.  But the Magicians defense should do well.

Bauer Emerson/Minnesota Revolution

This team has roots in the Achiever Academy team that played as a high school team in Minnesota last season.  YHH covered their game against Highland Park in January 2013 and posted this: ..the Aces are led by a line that features a YHH top 50 peewee A player from last year, Baron Thompson . . . and plays wing on a line with two 10th graders, Cory Sprague and Ryan Finnegan.  Thompson’s brother, Tyler, also plays for the Aces. . . they are good team that will get better”.  Baron Thompson is gone.  He is playing for Omaha this season and will likely play in the Western Hockey League next year, but Cory Sprague, Victor Morgan, Mark Sanchez, and Tyler Thompson remain.  This season, the BE team has struggled in the North American Prospects Hockey league posting a 3-19-2 record, still they have shown they can compete.

Sanchez and Sprague led the team in scoring in the NAPHL, Tyler Thompson played only half of the BE NAPHL season.  He was transferred from Omaha AAA.  The goaltending duties are split between Dakota Cyhaniuk and Cameron Madrid.  Both played for Achiever Academy in their last high school season (2013-2014).

What is next?

The U16 games start at 5:45 and 6:00 PM tonight (Wednesday) at the Super Rink (rinks 5 and 6).  The 18U games follow.   For those Minnesota hockey enthusiasts, there are a number of story lines at play here as interests collide from all levels of hockey in this state.  There is more to write about then just who won or lost on the ice such as “why is it that the Minnesota Blades and the Minnesota Magicians U18 teams have rosters that are so heavily populated with players who just played in the high school state tourneys?”  That stuff can be talked about later.  The next two days are the players’ time.  Most of the U18 players on the Blades and Magicians are seniors.  This will be one of their few remaining games on the ice at this level of play.