It was a nice day at Hasse Friday.  The opening crowd for the first game between Alexandria and South St. Paul was good sized, but paled for the Farmington/Warroad game.  Tiger fans filled over half of the Hasse Arena and with a vocal group of Warrior fans, the game was easily the most entertaining of the the day; but on the ice, the best game was Orono/St. Paul.

Alexandria-5 South St. Paul-0

The Cardinals took a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period and added single goals in the second and 6third periods to win the game 5-0.  The YHH ranked #3 team beat the YHH ranked #5 team.  Alexanderia’s defense shut down the Packers’ offense with the Cardinal forwards outshooting South St. Paul 34-6.  One sequence at the end of the first period set the stage for the rest of the game.  Alexandria’s offense established puck control in the Packers’ zone, moved the puck and developed three separate scoring opportunities and stopped by the South St. Paul defense with the puck ending up in the right corner.  A Cardinal forward beat the Packer defenders to the puck and fed a pass to a breaking forward in the high slot for a quick one-timer and the third goal of the game.    

St. Paul-6 Orono-5

The second game of the day at Hasse matched YHH ranked #1 Orono Spartans against #9 St. Paul Capitals.  The Capitals (formerly Highland Central) are the defending peewee A state champions beating Mahtomedi for the title last season.  St. Paul returned this year led by Matthew Gleason, a YHH Top 50 pick from last season.  The top ranked Orono had not lost in their last 32 games and had tied the Caps 6-6 in their only meeting this season.  Friday’s game at Hasse was a repeat of that 6-6 game.  The game started tightly contested with Orono taking a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period on a goal by Patrick Burns.  The score remained 1-0 until late in the second period when St. Paul scored three to take a 3-2 lead into the third period.  Gleason scored the third goal picking up the puck after it rang off a pipe and charging into the slot to bury the puck in the net with one second left in the period.

For the first two periods, the St. Paul was relying heavily on defenseman Gleason.  He was at the point for most of the first two periods.  Gleason had to be tiring as third period started.  Three minutes into the third period, Gleason drew a penalty.  A minute later, Orono defenseman Lucas Jorgenson scored a power play goal to tie the game 3-3 four minutes.  It took the Caps ninety seconds to re-gain the lead.  Gleason led a 3-on-1 rush on the Spartan net, setting up the Caps Mike Walsh for a weakside goal.  Walsh one-timed the puck past the Orono goalie to put St. Paul up 4-3.

Shortly after the St. Paul score, Orono drew a 5 minute major.  With eight minutes left in the game and playing shorthanded for most of those minutes, Orono had dug themselves a hole.  But instead of packing their defense in and fending off an expected Gleason led attack, the Spartans became opportunists.  They attacked on the breakout and twice caught the St. Paul defense low inside the Spartan’s zone turning the breakout into 2-on-1 rushes and scores.  The two shorthanded goals put the Spartan’s on the lead 5-4.

After taking the lead, the Spartans still had three minutes left in the major.  St. Paul came back to tie the score on a power play 5-5.  With two minutes left in the major, the Caps Tommy Brandt ended up with the puck in the right faceoff circle and beat the goalie to tie the game.  With 6.7 seconds left in the game, the Orono defense was caught high defending a Gleason attack from the blue line leaving the Caps’ Brandt alone in front of the Spartan net.  Gleason took two strides and fed the puck low to Brandt.  Brandt with his back to the Orono goalie did a 180 degree turn and fired the puck beating the goalie through the 5-hole for the game winner.  The third period was wild with more ups and downs than a Coney Island ride, but it was a great game to watch between two good teams.  

One final note, Orono’s goalie Carson Limesand had a good game in the nets for the Spartans.  Limesand stopped 32 of St. Paul’s 38 shots on goal, most from close-in and more than once, turned aside a booming shot from Gleason in the slot.

Warroad-4 Farmington-2

Warroad’s 10 players are deceiving in that they look very beatable until the game starts.  Then it dawns on the fans that they show hockey is a team sport.  The Warriors have two lines and for most teams, that makes them very beatable.  Only their top line is not the top line and the second line out dominates play while the first line struggles at times.  Forget the basketball Timberwolves, these Warriors play the game like a pack of T-wolves.  Against Farmington, the Warriors got on the scoreboard early with a power play goal less than three minutes into the game.  Owen Meeker got the power play goal, Grant Slukynsky got the assist.  The Warriors dominated play in the first period, outshot the Tigers 16-5, and kept a large Farmington crowd little to cheer about.  The second period opened with a strange goal.  With a Warroad player attacking low and the Farmington goalie positioned to make the stop, the puck hopped in a slow arc over the goalie and into the net.  Warroad led 2-0 with the play evening out.  Both teams scored twice in the third period.  The two Farmington goals came from shots below the end line with the puck bouncing off skates in the front of the Warroad net for the scores.

Edina-5 Tartan-1

Tartan played in the One Hockey tournament in January at the Super Rink.  They quickly learned that if they tried to skate with a smaller, quicker, team they would lose.  They stopped that and let the smaller team attack while they would counterattack.  It worked and the Titans came close to making it to the championship round.  Against Edina, they came out an attacked and for the first few minutes and controlled the play in the Hornets zone.  After those opening minutes, the Hornets buzzed low around the Titans net scoring three goals in the first period, adding two more in the second and cruised to a 5-1 win.  In a game where the shots on goal were even (each had 24), the Spartans lost by four.