Last night, YHH caught a two part scrimmage at Wakota Arena in South St. Paul. District 8 and 6 cut their rosters in two and played two, one hour scrimmages with split squads to take a look at their teams in game action to best cut their roster from 30 players to 20. The scrimmages were less formal and did not have officials, clock or score being kept. All four teams were evenly balanced with high end players on all four rosters. 

Several big name players made their presence felt in front of the District High Performance coaches. Each of the games had about 10 goals scored with neither association mounting a major advantage in either scrimmage. Phase 2 will conclude this weekend and Districts will make their cuts for the festival. 

In Phase 3, Districts will be split into 4, three team slotting pools. The four teams that finish first in the Pool will face each other in the festival, teams that finish second, etc to form competitive games in Plymouth. By our best guess here are the pools that will play down next weekend with who we think will take the top spot:

Metro: D6*, D3, and D2
South: D8*, D9, D4
Northwest: D15*, D12, and D16 
Northcentral: D10*, D5, D11

*Favorite

Ultimately, the favorite does not carry much weight, but history shows the selection committee has chosen more players from the top pool than the bottom two.

After the festival, 102 players are selected to attend Phase 4, which is a camp held in June in St. Cloud. Being a top 100 player by your birth year is a great measuring stick for development, but by no means the final look a player receives by scouts. In 2013, University of Minnesota recruit Casey Mittelstadt was not a member of the District 6 team in the festival and just over a year later committed to the Gophers.