The thirty two teams will play 96 games at the PIC starting at 10:15 AM Friday when Section 3A/AA plays Section 4A/AA  in the opening quarterfinal game of the Girls’ HP-16 Tournament.  There will be four tourneys played simultaneously; besides the Girls’s HP-16 tourney, a Girls’ HP-17, a Boys’ HP-16, and a Boys’ HP-17 tourney will be played.  All four tourney championship games will be played Sunday afternoon starting with the Boys’ HP-17 played at 2:15 PM.  This posts reviews the Girls’ HP-16 Tourney (upper bracket).  The lower bracket will be reviewed in a post later this week.  A review of the Boys HP-16 Tourney post will follow.  All four tournaments are bracket play.  As YHH readers know, hockey never stops in Minnesota.  April is one of YHH’s busiest months.

Last summer, as a result of Minnesota Hockey’s HP-15 Girls Program, 20 Minnesota girls were placed on a National Camp Attendee list and given an opportunity to showcase their skills at a USA Hockey sponsored camp.  They were evaluated for placement on a USA Hockey National teams to compete in international tourneys.  All twenty players are back this year, a year older, and are playing in the 2015 HP-16 Festival.  Most hope to repeat the experience, but typically, as many as half of the previous year’s attendees, fail to make the following year’s list.  The 20 returnees from the HP-15 list are noted in this post.

Girls HP-16 Tourney (Upper Bracket: Section 3A/AA vs 4A/AA and Section 1A/AA vs 6A/AA)

Section 3A/AA: One interesting player on the Section 3A/AA team is Molly Boyum/Windom.  The Section 3 team consists of Boyum, Hailey Newkirk from East Ridge in the Suburban East, 3 players from Hastings in the Metro East Conference, and 14 players who played for high schools in the South Suburban Conference.  Boyum played defense for Windom in the Big South Conference and is the only Section 3A player on the team.  She will be playing forward at the Festival along with four forwards from Eagan (Taylor Anderson, Sophie Bergman, Taylor Luecke, and Joleen Werden); two Hastings players (Grace Eischen and Erica McDonald); two Eastview players (Ellie Murray and Holly Sodomka); and single players from Burnsville (Sloane Taylor), Park/Cottage Grove (Kristina Press), and East Ridge (Hailey Newkirk).  Eagan’s Anderson was the second leading scorer for the Wildcats last season scoring 33 points/17 goals in 25 games.  Bergman and Luecke also skated for the Wildcats who were edged by Eastview in a great Section 3AA Championship game 6-4.  Hastings had a great season posting an 18-5-2 record in regular season.  Eischen and McDonald skated on the varsity team.  

Defensively, the Section 3 team has two Eagan players in their defensive corps, Madeline Mason and Kayla Vrieze; one Burnsville defender Gentry Bakken; one Rosemount defender Hannah Enright, and one Hastings defender Alexa Harrington.   Rosemount’s Enright was a 2014 HP-15 National Camp Selectee.  Mason and Vrieze were part of Eagan’s defense that was stingy in the Section 3AA playoffs giving up 46 shots in the three Section 3AA playoff games. Enright played defense for Rosemount, a team that struggled all last season posting just 18 goals in a 1-24 regular season.  Hannah Enright led the Irish in scoring.        

The goalies are Bryce Boreen/Park-Cottage Grove and Kaitlyn Pellicci/Eastview.  Eastview’s Pellicci was in the nets for the Lightning’s win over the Wildcats and she played all three state tourney games.  Pellicci posted a 9-10-2 record with the Lightning last season giving up 3.3 goals a game while stopping 87% of the shots on goal in almost 1100 minutes on the ice.  Boreen played backup on the Wolfpack varsity posting a 0-3-0 record giving up an average of 4.0 goals a game while stopping 88% of the shots on net.  Boreen was an alternate pick for last summer’s HP-15 National Camp Attendees.  

Section 4A/AA: Section 3 will play Section 4 in the opening quarterfinal game Friday morning at the PIC.  Section 4A/AA player numbers are dominated by 14 players from private schools, AAA Minnesota Revolution (formerly Bauer-Emerson), and Stillwater. Section 4 will have four players from the Bauer-Emerson AAA U16 on the team (forwards Morgan Helgeson and Erin Meyers, goalie Margaret Cory, and defenseman McKenna Wesloh).  Helgeson and Wesloh were 2014 HP-15 National Camp attendees last summer.  Helgeson played for Roseau and Wesloh played for Elk River in the 2013-2014 season.  Stillwater also has four players on the team (defenseman Olivia Konigson who was a 2014 HP-15 National Camp Selectee and forwards Hannah Anderson, Gina Jablonski, and Cleo Nystrom); Cretin-Derham Hall has three players (forwards Jordan Hansen and Anna Klein and defenseman Josephine McMahon); and the 2015 Class AA State Champions Hill-Murray has three players (forwards Lindsey Featherstone, Kennedy Sharp, and Erica Steingauf).  Four players from Section 4A teams made the Section 4A/AA roster (defenseman Hanna Zavoral/St. Paul Blades, forward Laura Friedman/Sibley, forward Joie Phelps/St. Paul United, and goalie Johanna Ficcadenti/Mahtomedi).  Tartan defenseman Cali Pearcy, St. Paul United Joie Phelps, and White Bear Lake defender Morgan Newpower complete the roster.

Hill-Murray’s Featherstone had a good season for the Pioneers posting 23 points/9 goals in regular season.  Featherstone, a HP-15 National Camp Selectee last summer, assisted on the Hill’s game winning goal in the Pioneers 2-1 win over Edina in the state semifinals and assisted on one of the two goals scored in the Hill’s 2-1 championship win over Minnetonka.  Bauer-Emerson is now known as the Minnesota Revolution, and is a AAA organization that skated winter hockey out of North St. Paul last season.  The Minnesota Revolution posted a 26-21-6 record splitting their two regular season games with Shattuck’s U16 team.  The Revolution won in October 1-0 and lost 5-1 in late February in the Minnesota District playoffs.  Shattuck’s U16 team won the U16 USA National AAA title this year beating the Chicago Young Americans 3-1.

St. Paul United’s Joie Phelps also was a 2014 HP-15 National Camp Selectee last summer.  This past year she led the Spartans’ varsity in scoring posting 55 points/27 goals in regular season play (25 games).  Sophomore Phelps playing with United’s freshman Samath Burke teamed up to beat Mahtomedi in the Section 4A semifinals 4-1, but Cretin’s duo of Jordan Hansen (36 points/13 goals) and Anna Klein (18 points/9 goals) should provide the Section 4 with a top offense when Phleps and Featherson are added at forwards.  The question will be how well the Revolution players fit into the offense.  Add in Stillwater’s Gina Jablonski and Hannah Anderson to the four plus the Revolution and Section 4A/AA should have three plus top lines for the Spring Festival.  Sibley’s Laura Friedmann was the Warriors third leading scorer last season; the St. Paul Blades’ Hanna Zavoral led her team in scoring.  

Cali Pearcy played solid defense for the Tartan varsity last season and will be joined by Stillwater defender Olivia Konigson (11 points/3 goals) and White Bear Lake’s Morgan Newpower.   Section 4A/AA goalie Johanna Ficcadenti was in the net for the lost to United.  Ficcadenti posted a 2-4-1 regular season record for the Zephyr varsity last season giving up an average of 3.1 goals a game while stopping 87% of the shots on net.

Section 1A/AA: In the second game on Friday at the PIC, Section 1A/AA plays 6A/AA.  In Section 1A finals last season, Red Wing beat Northfield 4-0 after Northfield upset New Prague in the semifinals.  Eight of the 20 players on the Section 1 roster comes from those three teams.  In the Section 1AA finals, Lakeville South beat Lakeville North 2-1 in overtime after South beat Dodge County in the semifinals.  On Lakeville South state tourney team’s roster, the Cougars had 16 juniors and seniors.  So it is not surprising that South has no players on this year’s Section 1 team.  North and Dodge have ten players.  The only two players on this year’s Section 1A/AA HP-16 Girls team who did not play in the sectional semifinals are forwards Jenna Bogen/Owatonna and Savanna Tucker/Farmington.  Bogen was Owatonna’s #3 scorer last season (16 points/8 goals in 24 games); Tucker skated varsity for the Tigers in Farmington’s first year in the South Suburban.

Lakeville North placed four forwards (Raegan Bissonett, Sydney Brodin, Jayden Neameyer, and Lauren Torgerson on the Section 4A/AA team.  Neameyer and Brodin saw significant action for the varsity.  New Prague placed two forwards on the team, Haley Dietz and Catherine Skaja (a 2014 HP-15 National Camp Selectee).  Both Skaja and Dietz were top scorers for the Trojans last season and both were YHH Top 50 picks as peewees.  Skaja led the Trojans in scoring with 54 points (28 goals) in 21 games; Dietz was the Trojans #3 scorer with 24 points/10 goals.  Red Wing has two forwards on the team; Nicole Oberding and Jenna Gillund.  Dodge County has one forward, Amber Miller and Northfield has one forward Sara Stowe.

Section 1’s defense will be anchored by two Dodge County defensemen Elly Strunk and Barret Boyer.  Both players were part of Wildcat defense that held their opponents (including Hill-Murray, Eden Prairie, Edina, Benilde-St. Margaret’s, and both Lakevilles) to an average of 16 shots on goal per game.  And both can score.  Collectively the two Wildcats posted 25 points/9 goals in 25 regular season games.  The two Wildcat defenders are joined by Lakeville North’s McKenna Butler and Lynne Freese.  Freese had a good season playing defense on the Panther’s varsity.  Northfield’s Marissa Ruppe and Red Wing’s Nadine Marty complete the defensive corps.   

Northfield’s Mallory Tidona was the starting goalie for Northfield last season posting an 11-14-0 record in regular season giving up 3.1 goals a game while stopping 88% of the shots on goal.  Tidona had a terrific Section 1A semifinal game at New Prague leading her team to an upset beating the Trojans 2-0 while stopping all 44 New Prague shots.  Section 1A/AA second goalie, Gabby Suhr, was the starting goalie for Dodge County.  Suhr posted an 18-6-1 record giving up an average of 1.5 goals a game while stopping 91% of the shots on goal for the Wildcats.  Suhr played just under 1300 minutes of game time in the 25 game season.

Section 6A/AA’s roster is dominated by Maple Grove and good players including five National Camp Selectees from last summer.  The Crimson has two defenders (Christina Kampa and Kalli Prekker), four forwards (Kathryn Denecke, Maia Martinez, Julia Pias, and Taylor Wente), and both goalies (Breanna Blesi and Celina Francis) on the 2015 Section 6 roster.  Maple Grove went unbeaten in Northwest Suburban Conference play in 2014-2015 posting a 17-0-0 record and finished fourth in YHH rankings of the top ten girls high school hockey teams in Minnesota.  Taylor Wente led the Crimson in scoring posting 43 points/23 goals in regular season play.  She also was a 2014 HP-15 National Camp Selectee.  Wente’s teammate, Kathryn Denecke, was the Crimson’s #3 scorer posting 34 points/9 goals in regular season play.  Martinez and Pias both skated varsity for the Crimson last season.  Martinez was 10th in scoring and Pias 11th in scoring for the Crimson.  Defender Kampa was the #7 scorer on the Crimson varsity last season posting 19 points/6 goals in 24 games.  Goalies Blesi and Francis split the Crimson’s net time.  Blesi posted a 11-1-1 record giving up an average of 1.1 goals a game while stopping 96% of the shots on net; Francis posted a 12-0-0 record giving up 1.1 goals per game while stopping 93% of the shots on net.

Hopkins has four players on the Section 6A/AA team:  defenseman Kathryn Glover (a 2014 HP-15 National Camp Selectee) and forwards Stella Halverson, Kylie Hanley, and Annika Patterson.  Glover played solid defense and scored 11 points/2 goals last season for the Royals.  Hanley was the Royals’ #2 scorer with 36 points/14 goals.  Wayzata has three players on the team, forwards Natallie Heising and Jackie Russo  and defender Lindsay Czech.  Heising was a HP-15 National Camp Selectee last summer and led the Trojan’s varsity in scoring posting 29 points/9 goals last season.  Czech played solid defense for Wayzata’s varsity last season.

The fourth National Camp Selectee from last summer is defenseman Megan Cornell.  Cornell, a YHH Top 50 pick as a peewee, posted 13 points for Benilde-St. Margaret’s last season.  Alexandria’s defenseman McKenzie Revering (the fifth National Camp Selectee from last summer on the Section 6A/AA team) and forward Kristin Trosvig are the only two players from Section 6A on the team.  Minnetonka has two forwards on the team, Emma Bigham and Taylor Johnson.  Bigham was the Skippers’ #5 scorer posting 25 points/9 goals and an alternate National Camp Selectee last summer.  

Girls HP-16 Upper Bracket Predictions

Section 3A/AA lacks the offensive depth to beat the Section 4A/AA in their quarterfinal game.  Section 3’s top lines should compete with Section 4’s top lines, but third and fourth line play will be facing some tough players with Section 4’s potential mixture of Revolution, Hill-Murray, Stillwater, and Cretin/Derham Hall players.  The goaltending looks even, the game should be decided by the play of Section 3’s third and fourth lines to beat the Section 4 defense.  Section 4 wins. In the second quarterfinal upper bracket game, Section 1’s goaltending and defense should be strong and should contain a high powered Section 6 offense to keep Section 6’s scoring low but Section 6 defense combined with the pressure and depth of their offense will keep Section 1’s scoring lower.  Section 6 wins.  The potential Saturday semifinal matchup between Section 6 and Section 4 has all sorts of interesting bits of drama with each team having five HP-15 National Camp Attendees on the ice that played Minnesota Class A high school hockey, Class AA high school hockey, or AAA hockey in 2014-2015.  The prediction here is that Section 6 beats Section 4 to advance to the championship game.  In the consolation semifinals, Section 1 beats Section 3.