The Festival served multiple purposes.  First the Festival was held in conjunction with the Ted Brill Great 8 tourney.  Both were played at a single arena, Wakota, last weekend.  It was attended, parking was up the hill.  The HP-18 Festival is geared to give the 1997 born players who are high school juniors the opportunity to demonstrate their skills along with high school seniors playing in the Great 8 in front of scouts.  That is important for the 1997 born juniors.  Players born in 1997 before September 15 are eligible for the 2015 NHL entry draft in June and this HP-18 program is a vehicle for 1997 born juniors to play against top competition in front scouts.  NAHL, USHL, and WHL entry drafts are also coming up (May and June).  Scouts from teams in those leagues were at Wakota last weekend.

From a Minnesota Hockey perspective, it allowed their evaluators to pick an all-star HP-18 team to be entered in the CCM NIT tourney to be played April 23-26 at the Plymouth Ice Arena (the PIC).  The CCM NIT Tourney will have high school senior and HP-18 teams entered from Michigan (two teams), Massachusetts, Wisconsin (two teams), and North Dakota.  Minnesota will enter two teams, the HP-18 team and a team of seniors from the Great 8 Tourney.  The CCM NIT Tourney is played in conjunction with Minnesota Hockey’s HP-16 and HP-17 program’s Final 54 Festival giving scouts another opportunity to watch Minnesota Hockey players 16-19 years old play competitively.

From a YHH perspective, the HP-18 tourney is an indicator of where the high school hockey powers will be next year.  Junior players on the ice last week at Wakota will likely drive their high school teams and is an early indicator of what high schools will be hockey powers next season.  This post reviews all three HP-18 days of action at Wakota.  At the end of the post, the all-star team selected by Minnesota Hockey is listed.  As always, the YHH review was written before the HP-18 all-star team was announced.

Friday’s Games

In Friday’s opening game, Green (Sections 4/7) beat Blue (Sections 1/3) 5-1.  The game was evenly played through the first two periods.  Blue took a 1-0 lead late in the first period on a hard shot from the center blue line by Connor Pint/New Prague.  Pint was assisted by New Prague teammate Alex Gregor and Jared Markeson.  The Green team tied the game on a late second period goal by Adam Shykes/Denfeld.  Shykes one timed the goal from the top of the right crease on a nice pass out of the left corner for the score.  Michael Busch/Simley and Dylan Gast/White Bear Lake got the assists.  The third period was all Green.  A neat two pass weak side play set the play for the Green.  Jack Kuhlman/Cloquet beat the Blue defense on the right side and hit Busch with a neat pass on the weak side left.  Busch, instead of shooting fed Kuhlman on the right for an easy goal.  It was the game winner putting Green up 2-1.  Busch and John Reim/Mounds View got the assists.  The two defensemen, Kuhlman and Busch had set the pattern of play for the Green team for the rest of the game.  Two minutes later, Jesse Solheid/Johnson scored from the weak side on a nice pass from Dan Betz/Tartan.  Betz and Kuhlman got the assists.  Green led 3-1.  Gast scored another weak sider with three minutes left in the game assisted by Koby Bender/Cloquet and Jonah Bischoff/Grand Rapids.  Tucker Bjorlin/St. Michael-Albertville scored an empty netter with under a minute left in the game.  Peter Lenz and Wyatt Newpower/White Bear Lake got the assists.  Green won 5-1 outshooting the Blue 34-11.  With lines being constantly juggled, it became better to think in pairs (pairing of two forwards seemed to be a common practice at the festival) when watching the game.  For the Green team, the line of Alex Adams/Grand Rapids, Bishoff, and Jack Becker/Mahtomedi had a good game; but the Green line of Bender, Alex Schwab, and Tucker Bjorlin also skated well.  The Blues duo of Markeson and Sasha Choporov played well.  Green goalie Parker Balfany/Woodbury was the only goalie (the goalies split the game) that shutout the opponents.  Balfany stopped all 10 Blue shots.

In the second game Friday, White (Sections 2/6) edged Purple (Section 5/8) 5-4 in a well skated game.  The Purple took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period on two Jon Richards/Detroit Lakes scores.  Boone Almquist/Osseo assisted Richards on his first goal; Erik Fitzgerald/Bemidji assisted Richards on his second goal.  White’s Will Garin/Holy Family Catholic scored a first period goal assisted by Jefferson’s A.J. Robbel.  Each team scored in the second period.  Max Zimmer/Wayzata scored with Garin and Billy Duma/Wayzata getting the assists.  Tyler Nyman/Centennial scored a Purple power play goal.  Nyman was assisted by Anoka’s Blake Newman and Michael Talbot.  Purple still led 3-2 with 12 minutes to go in the game when White scored three successive goals to put the game away.  The last goal was an empty netter.  Purple scored after giving up the empty netter make the final score 5-4.

White’s Logan Neu/St. Cloud Cathedral scored the first White goal of the period to tie the game 3-3.  St. Cloud Apollo’s Brandon Bissett and Tanner Breidenbach) got the assists.  Defenseman A.J. Robbel got the second White score of the period assisted by Mitchell Terrell/Minnetonka and Garin.  With less than a minute left in the period, Zimmer assisted by Garin and Duma scored an empty netter to put White up 5-3.  That empty net goal turned out to be the game winner when 10 seconds later, Purple’s Doug Larson/Crookston hustled skating down the right boards, beat the White defense cutting across the top of the crease, and scored to cut the White lead to 5-4.  Wayzata’s Max Zimmer and Holy Family Catholic’s Will Garin set a tempo when playing together on the ice that others struggled to match.  The duo proved to be high scorers and playmakers in the festival.  Both have gotten stronger in their play over the past few months.  Garin has gotten taller.  For the Purple, Jon Richards, Doug Larson, and Tanner Tweten played well.  The White goal tenders, Alex Schilling and Will Swanson had good games.

Saturday’s Games

White beats Blue 9-2 as Zimmer and Garin rolled.  Zimmer posted a hat trick in the third period and ended the game scoring four goals and assisting on two others.  Garin scored twice and had three assists.  White’s Will Blake/Breck had a good game assisting on two goals.  Nick Austin/Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Logan Neu, and Brandon Bissett scored for the White.  The Blue’s Derek Hammer/East Ridge and Cole Anders/Eastview scored second period goals to cut the White lead to 6-2 going into the third period.  The Blue looked to make it a tighter game in the final period before Zimmer went wild scoring a hat trick in the first 10 minutes of the 18 minute period.  White outshot the Blue 29-18 for the game.  The Blue’s defense could not stop the Zimmer/Garin duo teamed again with Wayzata’s Billy Duma for the second straight game.

Purple beat Green 6-3 in the second Saturday game.  It was a surprise win.  Based on Purple’s struggle against White Friday and Green’s good win over Blue, the odds were on a Green team winning.  Because of their play Friday, the Purple’s duo of Jon Richards/Tanner Tweten attracted a lot of attention from the Green player.  As a result, the Purple’s line of Doug Larson, Ethan Johnson/Thief River Falls, and Vinny Billing/Rogers went wild in the first half of the game dominating play on their shifts and scoring three times.  Larson got the first goal with Johnson getting the assist; Billing scored the second goal with Larson and Johnson getting assists; and Johnson got the third goal with Billing and Boone Almquist getting assists.  It was halfway through the game before the Green started to roll on two successive scores.  The Green team line of Koby Bender, Jonah Bischoff, Jack Becker line scored first with Bischoff getting the goal and the other two getting assists.  Alex Schwab assisted by linemate Alex Adams got the second score.  Trailing 3-2, Green got a break with a power play with less than two minutes left in the second period, but Purple’s Luke Notermann/Blaine split the Green defense on rush to score shorthanded putting Purple up 4-2 going into the third period.  Griffin Fussy/Blaine and Zach Benson/Spring Lake Park got the assists on Notermann’s score.  Jack Becker scored halfway through the third period to cut the Purple lead to 4-3 with Bischoff getting the assist.  Four minutes later, Purple’s Michael Talbot scored the insurance goal with Tyler Nyman and Trevor Selk/East Grand Forks getting the assists.  Grant Loven/East Grand Forks got the sixth score for Purple in the last minute of play.

Beside’s the emergence of the Larson/Billing/Johnson line, the duo of Richards and Tweten was very effective in pressuring the Green defense.  On the Green side, Alex Adams had a second good game skating with Bender and Gast.  Purple goalie, Brady Goodman/Maple Grove, played a great second half of the game and kept the Green offense at bay by making a number of tough stops low after Green had beat the Purple defensemen.  Goodman has the physical skills to become a very good goalie.

Sunday’s Games

White beat the Green 4-3 in Sunday’s first game behind the play of Will Garin and Billy Duma.  Zimmer did not play.  Logan Neu scored first, an unassisted goal for the White, in the opening period; Jonah Bischoff assisted by Jack Becker scored for the Green.  White broke the 1-1 tie game with two second period goals, the first scored by Billy Duma (a nice breakaway goal) on an neat pass from Garin.  Zach Tarczon/Fergus Falls scored the second White goal, Neu got the assist.  Garin scored the game winner 22 seconds into the third period putting White up 4-1.  Robbel got the assist.  Five minutes later, Green started a comeback.  Green’s Dylan Gast scored a power play goal with Dylan Holt/Andover and Wyatt Aamodt/Hermantown getting assists to cut White’s lead to 4-2.  Then Holt scored a second power play goal with four minutes left in the game to cut White’s lead to 4-3.  Becker and Koby Bender got the assists.

In the second game Sunday, Blue upset Purple.  After their offense struggled in the first two games, the Blues scored three goals in three minutes in the first period to take a three goal lead.  After that the Blue team never relinquished the lead winning 6-3.  Alex Gregor/New Prague led the Blue offense early scoring twice in the first period and the Blue’s Dylan McDonald/St. Thomas Academy assisted by Cole Anders score twice in the last two minutes to ice the game.  Gregor was assisted by New Prague teammate Zach Davis on the first goal and by Charlie Weiand/Rosemount on the second goal.  Sean Ryan/Hill Murray scored the third Blue first period goal with Richard Volkmer/Waseca getting the assist.  The Blue scored once in the second period to take a 4-0 lead into the third period.  Brady Dahl/Rochester John Marshall got the Blue goal with Marshall Tschida/Woodbury getting the assist.  Dahl’s goal was the game winner.  In the third period, the Purple team stormed back scoring three times in two minutes halfway through the period to cut the Blue lead to 4-3.  Tyler Nyman got the first Purple score with Travis Hudek/Anoka and Trevor Selk getting the assists; Vinny Billing assisted by Doug Larson got the second goal; and Grant Loven scored the third goal on a power play with Jon Richards getting the assist.  Then the Blue team’s McDonald went to work, scoring twice assisted by Anders to seal the game 6-3.

Outside of the emergence of the Blue’s offense with Alex Gregor and Dylan McDonald, Sunday’s games showed little beyond what had been seen in Friday’s and Saturday’s games.

What is next?

Minnesota Hockey announced the HP-18 team for the CCM NIT tourney earlier this week.  There were a few surprises.  The majority of the players that made the team were those who had good Festival performances.   Some who had made prior Minnesota Hockey HP teams like the HP-18 skated well, but did not make the team and some players who were new to the process and skated well, still did not make the team, but likely got noticed.

Setting aside who is on the list and who is not, this corner of YHH thinks three interesting players to watch next fall that emerged at the Festival, one at each position; forward Jack Becker/Mahtomedi, defenseman Michael Busch/Simley, and goalie Brady Goodman.  Becker continues to impress and improve playing a solid wing that supports, draws fire from the defense, and scores.  He made the HP-18 all-stars so there will be a chance to see him play again at the PIC.  Busch and Goodman did not make the all-star team.  Busch is a good defenseman that plays to fit in or to fill in on the ice.  Goodman demonstrated he can play goalie and will be tough in the nets for Maple Grove next fall.

2015 HP-18 All Stars

Forwards: Will Garin/Holy Family Catholic, Jon Richards/Detroit Lakes, Luke Notermann/Blaine, Chase Ellingson/Breck, Max Zimmer/Wayzata, Alex Adams/Grand Rapids, Tanner Tweten/East Grand Forks, Jack Becker/Mahtomedi, Billy Duma/Wayzata, Ethan Johnson/Thief River Falls, Alex Gregor/New Prague, and Grant Loven/East Grand Forks.

The Purple’s (Section 5/8) Richards, Notermann, Tweten, Johnson, and Loven all made the all-star team.  The five Purple forwards were the most selected from any one on the teams.  Garin, Zimmer, Duma, and Ellingson all skated for the White team.  The Whites placed four players on the team.  Zimmer and Garin with Duma on the line played a step faster than other forwards at the Festival.  Alex Adams and Jack Becker skated for the Green team and Alex Gregor skated for the Blue team.  Notables at forward who did not make the team were Koby Bender/Cloquet, Jonah Bischoff/Grand Rapids, and Doug Larson/Crookston.  Players can have conflicts and sometimes cannot commit to play later.  Others like Logan Neu/St. Cloud Cathedral, Alex Schwab/Elk River, Dylan Gast/White Bear Lake, and Jesse Solheid/Johnson will probably have better name recognition among hockey people in the future.   

Defensemen: Wyatt Aamodt/Hermantown, Wyatt Newpower/White Bear Lake, Wyatt Ortloff/Thief River Falls, A.J. Robbel/Bloomington Jefferson, Nolan Sawchuk/Burnsville, and Trevor Selk/East Grand Forks.

Three of the Festival teams contributed two players to the HP-18 defensive corps.  Aamodt and Newpower played for the Green team (Sections 4/7); Ortloff and Selk played for the Purple (Sections 5/8) and Robbel and Sawchuk  played for the White (Sections 2/6).  Ortloff skated wing in the 2013 HP-16 Festival, put on some weight, and made the HP-18 team as a defenseman.  Sawchuk has grown and put on at least 40 pounds in the past two seasons and had a good Festival.  Robbel continues to play well and has skated as a high performer for the past three summers.

Goalies: Mike Hughes/Tartan and Will Swanson/Mahtomedi will be in the nets for the CCM NIT team.  Swanson has been a steadily improving goaltender for Mahtomedi high school.  He was an outstanding goalie for the Mahtomedi Youth Hockey Association teams at peewee and bantam.  YHH still recalls the great performance he gave at Burnsville in the Blaze’s Thanksgiving Day Bantam A championship round.  No notes are needed to recall his play in that game.  At the Festival, Swanson saved 93% of the shots fired at him giving up 3 goals in 80 minutes of ice time.  Hughes was a surprise.  He played well for the Blue team giving up just 5 goals in 90 minutes of play while stopping 89% of the shots on goal.  Hughes most likely edged Alex Schilling (6 goals in 81 minutes saving 87% of the shots on net).  No other goaltender outside of Swanson made more than 90% saves.     

One Final Note

Most of the HP-18 players will return to play high school next season.  One player to watch when he returns is Brady Goodman.  Goodman returns to Maple Grove, a team that posted a 12-13 regular season record last season.  He split the time in the crease last season for the Crimson and posted a 6-7-0 record giving up an average of 2.9 goals a game while stopping 90% of the shots on goal.  He is a goalie that is fast and quick and has the physical assets and skills to do well in the future.  But here is the twist. 

Next season, Goodman will have in front of him at least seven players from Osseo/Maple Grove’s peewee A team that had a terrific 2011-2012 season and made it to the 2012 state tourney.  Three of the peewee A players (Sam Huff, Jack Kelly, and Jarrett Cammarata) were sophomores on the varsity last season and were among the top six scorers.  All three were YHH 2012 Top 50 picks.

The Crimson's varsity main rival is Elk River.  Elk River’s high school team plays in the same conference as Maple Grove.  In 2012, the Elk River Association had their peewee A team in the same state tourney as the OMG peewees.  Next fall, the Elk’s varsity will have at least seven players from their 2012 state tourney peewee A team.  Jax Murray, Max Michaelis, and goalie Ben Meyers all played varsity last season as sophomores.  All three were YHH 2012 picks.

That makes the Maple Grove/Elk River games next season games to see and the two teams, teams to watch as they make a run for the Class AA State Tourney.  Oddly the two teams as peewees played each other only once, Osseo/Maple Grove winning 4-2.  At the end of the 2012 season, the Elk River peewees were ranked #3 and OMG peewees were ranked #4 in the state.  Lakeville South was ranked #1 and Prior Lake was ranked #2 at the end of 2012.  Edina was ranked #5.