The HP-16 Spring Festival tourney was bracket play.  Each team was organized by Minnesota High Schools based on the Minnesota High School section in which their hockey team participated in.  The Bauer-Emerson players (a AAA organization in the North St. Paul area) were placed in Section 4A/AA, the Spring Festival team representing high schools that included schools from the North St. Paul area. The Final 54 players were announced Monday.   Nineteen of the 20 players chosen last summer for the 2014 HP-15 National Camp attendee list made the 2015 HP-16 Final 54.  All four Bauer-Emerson players (McKenna Wesloh, Morgan Helgeson, Erin Meyers, and goalie Margaret Cory) that participated in the Spring Festival made the Final 54.  Eight of the Final 54 players came from Minnesota Class A High Schools.  Warroad had three players making the Final 54 (Jennifer Phillips, Madison Oelkers, and Mariah Gardner).  Catherine Skaja/New Prague, Hannah Schultz/Spring Lake Park, goalie Emma Polusny/Mound-West Tonka, MeKenzie Ravering/Alexandria, and Mallorie Iozzo/Hibbing play for Class A high schools.

Two players trying out, goalies Emma Barrick/Hutchinson and Lori Husby/Ely, did not make the Final 54.  Both played on boys teams last season.  With both coming from smaller hockey communities, that is not a surprise.  Barrick, after making the adjustment, settled down and played well, but Husby was a dominate goalie on the ice from the start.  She came out stopping the hardest of shots from a tough set of Section 2A/AA forwards easily.  She actually moved faster than the actual flow of the play around her net.  As a result, her play, often with a lack of defensive support, slowed the aggressive play by some of the best forwards in the state.  Most of the goals given up by her were very good goals often scored with some luck on the bounce.  Her not making the Final 54 is a mystery since her presence on the ice at the Final 54 Festival would have forced the overall game speed up.     

Friday’s Games

In upper bracket play, Section 4A/AA beat Section 3A/AA 4-3.  The Red broke open the game by scoring four goals in a five minute burst halfway through the opening half of play (each game consisted of two 24 minute stop time halves).  Joie Phelps scored on a third rebound shot that popped over goalie Bryce Boreen to put the Red up 1-0 with 12 minutes left to play in the half.  The second Red goal came 36 seconds later.  Section 4’s Morgan Helgeson scored a breakaway goal to put Red up 2-0.  Two minutes later, Anna Klein scored an even strength goal to put Red ahead 3-0.  Helgeson got her second goal of the game two minutes later giving the Red a 4-0 lead.  Helegeson’s goal was the game winner.  Section 3A/AA got back in the game in second half led by Green’s line of Sophie Bergman, Taylor Luecke, and Taylor Anderson.  The line had some good shifts in the opening half, but started to dominate play on their second half shifts.  Less than three minutes into the 24 minute half, Taylor Anderson pick up a puck in the right corner of the Red’s zone and stickhandled to the edge of the crease beating goalie Johanna Ficcadenti through the 5-hole to cut Section 4’s lead to 4-1.  Then there was pipe music.  On a rush, one Green shot hit the left pipe rebounded to the right slot to another Green forward who’se shot hit the right pipe and rebounded left.  A minute later, Green defender Alexa Harrington picked off a pass and turned it into a solo on Ficcadenti.  Her shot hit the left pipe, but this time Benilde/St. Margaret’s Grace Peluso put the rebounding puck into the net from the right slot to cut the Red’s lead to 4-2.  Anderson scored on a nice play she started with five minutes left in the game.  Anderson, skating in the left faceoff circle fed Bergman in the slot and kept skating.  She circled the net just as Bergman’s shot rebounded in the right crease and put the puck in the net on a one-timer.  That goal cut the Red lead to 4-3.  Neither team could score in the final five minutes.  The Red won 4-3.

The second game Friday matched Section 6A/AA (Gray) against Section 1A/AA (Royal Blue).  Section 6 won 8-1.  The Section 6 scored twice in the first four minutes of play.  Kathryn Denecke scored 90 seconds into the opening half.  Taylor Wente scored two minutes later to put the Gray up 2-0.  Catherine Skaja scored for the Royal Blue four minutes later to cut Section 6’s lead to 2-1.  With 10 minutes left in the half, Wente came off the bench catching the Section 1A/AA defense forward in the neutral zone.  Wente picked up the puck in full stride and soloed in for the score to put the Gray up 3-1 at the end of the first half.  The Gray team went on to score five goals in the second half.  Wente scored twice more and ended up with four goals in the game.  Taylor Johnson, Kristin Trosvig and Maia Martinez each scored once.  Section 6A/AA outshot Section 1A/AA 53-11 for the game.

In lower bracket play Friday, Section 5A/AA (Sky Blue) beat Section 8A/AA (Orange) 7-0 and Section 2A/AA beat Section 7A/AA 5-3.  Section 5’s victory was the result of accuracy.  Despite losing by seven goals, Section 8 outshot Section 5 24-23 in the game.  The first half was close, ending in a 2-0 Sky Blue lead on goals by Anneke Linser and Gabrielle Hughes.  Linser scored a goal in the second half, Paetyn Levis, Alana Bordeaux, and Grace Zumwinkle also scored.

In the night cap to Friday’s quarterfinal games, Section 2A/AA (White) came out with guns a blazing pounding the Section 7A/AA (Gold) net.  Emily Oden scored in the first 30 seconds to put the White team up 1-0.  Lydia Passolt and Oden scored again three minutes later when Passolt soloed in on Section 7 goalie Lori Husby beating her with a hard shot from the right faceoff circle that caught the upper left corner of the net.  With eight minutes left in the opening half, Naomi Rogge scored when she tipped a shot from the left point at the top of the crease past Husby to put the White up 3-0.  Two minutes later, the Gold’s Megan Dulong scored to cut the White lead to 3-1 at the end of the first half.  The White forwards constantly beat the Gold defense low often forcing Husby to make the point blank saves.  Husby, after giving up the opening goal, played a solid game showing that she could handle the best set of forwards on the ice Friday.  The Gold rallied in the second half to tie the game 3-3 scoring twice in the first four minutes of play.  Annie Dalton scored to cut the White lead to 3-2 and Sopia Zebro scored to tie the game 3-3.  With ten minutes left in the half, Passolt and Oden went to work.  Passolt scored and Oden got the assist.  The goal put the White up 4-3 and proved to be the game winner.  The White team’s Sophia Slattery scored in the last 20 seconds of the game to end the scoring 5-3. 

Saturday’s Games

In the first semifinal Saturday at the PIC, Section 6A/AA (Gray) beat Section 4A/AA (Red) 4-3 in an overtime/shootout.  Section 4 took the early lead scoring twice in the first four minutes of play.  The Red’s Anna Klein and Morgan Helgeson scored.  Section 6 came back to tie the game before the halftime break on goals by Christina Kampa and Mckenzie Revering.  Most of the second half was a scoreless battle as the Gray attacked Red goalie Johanna Ficcadenti.  Ficcadenti stopped 16 of the 17 Gray shots in the second half.  Taylor Wente finally scored to put the Gray up 3-2.  Two minutes later, Joie Phelps scored for the Red to tie the game 3-3 and send it into overtime/shootout.  The Gray’s McKenzie Revering and Natallie Heising scored on the shootout.  Heising score was the tiebreaker.  Helgeson scored a shootout goal for the Red.  The Gray outshot the Red 35-18 in the game.

Section 2A/AA (White) beat Section 5A/AA (Sky Blue) in the second semifinal game 3-2 in overtime.  Section 5 took a 1-0 lead at the end of the first half on a goal scored by Anneke Linser with less than two minutes to play in the half.  Linser’s goal was the only goal scored in a fast paced up and down half that saw 26 shots on goal.  The second half defense for both teams tightened.  Seven minutes into the half, Section 5’s Sarah Jennrich scored to put the Sky Blue team up 2-0.  Three minutes later, Naomi Rogge scored White’s first goal to cut the Sky Blue lead to 2-1.  Olivia Kilberg scored for the Blue four minutes later to tie the game 2-2 and force overtime.  Rogge scored the winning goal for the White team four minutes into the overtime.  Section 2A/AA won and advanced to play Section 6A/AA in the championship game.

In Saturday’s consolation semifinals, Section 1A/AA (Royal Blue) beat Section 3A/AA (Green) 5-4 in an overtime/shootout game.  The Royal Blue’s Catherina Skaja got the game winning shootout goal.  Skaja also scored the game tying goal with less than two minutes left in the game.  Section 3’s Eagan combo of Taylor Luecke, Sopie Bergman, and Taylor Anderson figured in three of the four Section 1A/AA scores.  Molly Boyum/Windom scored the fourth Royal Blue goal.  Section 3A/AA outshot Section 1A/AA 39-17.

Section 7A/AA (Gold) won the second consolation semifinal game 3-2 beating Section 8A/AA (Orange) in the only HP-16 girls game played Saturday that ended in regulation.  The Gold’s Madison Illikainen emerged in Saturday’s game scoring twice and assisting Megan Dulong on her goal.  Fifteen seconds after Dulong scored to put the Gold up 3-0, the Orange’s Mariah Gardner scored to cut the lead to 3-1 with 12 minutes left to play.  Two minutes later, Jennifer Phillips scored a power play goal to cut Section 7’s lead to 3-2 but could not beat the Gold’s defense for another score.  The Section 7A/AA win set up a consolation championship game between Section 4A/AA and the Gold.    

Sunday’s Games

In the Championship Game, Section 6A/AA (Gray) beat Section 2A/AA 3-1.  The game was close, sort of, in the first half of play.  The “sort of” part is that the Gray offense tended to dominate play in the opening period but were outshot 11-9.  Still Section 2 managed a score when a rebound off goalie Emma Barrick’s blocker bounced behind Barrick to Maia Martinez for the score.  Section 2 scored twice halfway through the second period to put the game away.  Natallie Heising got the game winner putting Gray up 2-0 with 13 minutes left to play.  Stella Haberman scored the insurance goal three minutes later giving the Gray team a 3-0 lead.  With under two minutes left in the game, White’s Ellie Mahoney scored to end the scoring 3-1.  But the story in the game was the second half play of goal tender Breanna Blesi.  Blesi stopped 28 of 29 White shots in the final half of play.    

Section 5A/AA (Sky Blue) beat Section 4A/AA (Red) 5-3 to take Third Place in the HP-16 tourney at the festival.  Section 5 scored twice in the first minute of play.  Gabrielle Hughes and Courtney Moser got the scores.  Grace Zumwinkle added a score halfway throught the period to put the Sky Blue team up 3-0.  Eighteen seconds later, the Red’s Morgan Helgeson scored to cut the Section 5 lead to 3-1.  Gina Jablonski scored with just under five minutes left in the period to cut the lead to 3-2, but Gabby Billing scored with just 16 seconds left to play to put the Sky Blue team up 4-2 at the end of the first half.  Billing’s goal was the game winner.  Each team scored once in the second half.  Hanna Zavoral scored for the Red to cut the lead to 4-3 halfway through the period and Sky Blue’s Anneke Linser scored the insurance goal with just under two minutes left to play.  

In the Consolation Championship game Sunday, Section 7A/AA (Gold) took a 6-2 lead at the end of the first half and went on to beat Section 4A/AA (Royal Blue) 9-4 to win the HP-16 girls consolation championship.  Section 7 survived a withering Royal Blue attack in the first ten minutes of play scoring twice to take a 2-0 lead.  Clearly, the Gold’s defense was kicking in and stopping Section 4A/AA offensive while the Gold forwards, buoyed by their defense, aggressively attacked.  Gold’s Annie Dalton scored in the first minute of play and Raelyn Korinek scored three minutes later to put the goal up 2-0.  The Royal Blue team’s Catherine Skaja scored with 10 minutes left in the period when she and a wing beat the Gold defense turning the play into a 2-on-0 rush.  Skaja, carrying the puck right, used the breaking wing left as a foil, and beat Husby with a hard shot to the upper left corner.  That cut Gold’s lead to 2-1.  Two minutes later, the Gold strung together four goals in four minutes.  Korinek scored two of the goals to get a hat trick in the first half.  Megan Dulong and Sophia Zebro each scored once.  Sara Stowe got the second Royal Blue goal with just under two minutes left in the half.  Catherine Skaja scored twice in the second half to get a hat trick.  Gold’s Mallorie Iozzo, Claire Butorac, and Madison Illikainen scored for the Section 7 team.

In the early game for seventh place, Section 8A/AA (Orange) beat Section 3A/AA (Green) 6-4 led by second half goals by Madison Oelkers/Warroad and Madison Schultz/Bemidji.  Each scored twice in the second half to put Orange up 5-4 with just under two minutes left to play.  Schultz got the winning goal on a nice set up by Mariah Gardner.  After Oelkers and Schultz scored the first three goals in the second half to take a 4-2 lead, Section 3 rallied behind goals by Erica McDonald/Hastings and Grace Peluso/Benilde-St. Margaret’s to tie the game with just under five minutes to play.  Section 8 outshot Section 3 in the game 29-23.  

Final 54 Selections with notes

Section 1A/AA’s (Red) defense gave up a 133 shots on goal in the three games played (21 goals were scored).  Their offense managed just 58 shots on net in those three games scoring 9 goals.  New Prague’s Catherine Skaja scored 6 of the 9 goals.  Barret Boyer/Dodge County, Sara Stowe/Northfield, and Savana Tucker/Farmington each scored once.  Goalie’s Gabrielle Suhr and Mallory Tidona played varsity last season and had a good season.  At the festival, both had good games and bad moments.

Section 1A/AA Final 54 Picks: Defenders Barret Boyer/Dodge County, Elly Strunk/Dodge County, and forward Catherine Skaja/New Prague.  The selections from this team are not a surprise.  Boyer and Strunk were mainstays in the Dodge County defense last season.  Skaja was selected as a 2014 HP-15 National Camp Attendee and led New Prague in scoring last season.   

Section 2A/AA’s (White) defense played well giving up just 52 shots on goal and eight goals in their three games played.  The runner-ups put 100 shots on their three opponent’s nets and scored eight goals.  In their opening game, they came out playing a hard offensive game but ran into tough goal tending against Section 7A/AA, were pushed to win in overtime against Section 5’s defense, and lost the championship to a Gray team with a tough second half performance by Gray Goalie Breanna Blesi/Maple Grove (28 stops on 29 shots in the 24 minute period).  Naomi Rogge/Eden Prairie scored three goals in the three tourney games and Lydia Passolt scored two goals.  Four Edina players, Olivia Kilberg, Ellie Mahoney, Emily Oden, and Sophia Slattery each scored one goal.  White defenders Tristen Truax/Shakopee and Crystalyn Hengler played well at defense.

Section 2A/AA Final 54 Picks: Defenders Tristen Truax/Shakopee, and Crystalyn Hengler/Eden Prairie; forwards Rebecca Berg/Eden Prairie, Emily Oden/Edina, Lydia Passolt/Chaska-Chanhassen, Naomi Rogge/Eden Prairie, Sophia Slattery/Edina, and Katie Huntington/Prior Lake; and goalie Elizabeth Kubicek/Eden Prairie.  Hengler, Oden, and Passolt were on the 2014 HP-15 National Camp Attendee list last summer.   

Section 3A/AA’s (Green) defense and offense were fairly balanced in their play.  They lost all three games, but were never blown out.  The defense gave up 88 shots on goal and the offense got 80 shots on goal.   The Green may have lost, but they were outscored by just three goals total in the tourney (14-11).  Section 3 was led offensively by the Eagan line of Taylor Anderson (three goals/one assist), Sophie Bergman (three assists) and Taylor Luecke (two goals/one assist).  Grace Peluso/Benilde-St. Margaret’s posted two goals/one assist in the three games.  With the outcome of the game still in doubt late in the second half of their opening quarterfinal game, the Anderson, Bergman, Luecke line battled Section 4’s Lindsey Featherstone/Morgan Helgeson and got late pressure on the Section 4A net but couldn’t score.

Section 3A/AA Final 54 Picks: Defender Hannah Enright/Rosemount and forward Taylor Anderson/Eagan.  Both players making the Final 54 are no surprise.  Enright was a 2014 HP-15 pick and skated well enough to make the Final 54.  Anderson combined with teammates Sophie Bergman and Tayor Luecke and had a good Spring Festival.  Bergman skated well enough to make the Final 54.

Section 4A/AA (Red) defense and offense were also fairly balanced.  The defense held their three opponents to 83 shots on goal (giving up 9 goals) and their offense put 84 shots on goal (scoring 10)  After beating Section 3A/AA 4-3 in the quarterfinals, the Red lost a shootout to Section 6 and lost the third place game to Section 5, all tough games.  Morgan Helgeson/Bauer-Emerson scored four of the ten Red goals and assisted on one other goal.  Joie Phelps/St. Paul United and Anna Klein/Cretin-Derham Hall each scored two goals.  Gina Jablonski/Stillwater and Hanna Zavoral/St. Paul Blades each score once.  Goaltender, Margaret Cory/Bauer-Emerson had a good tourney giving up three goals in 72 minutes of play while stopping 93% of the shots on goal.  Sibley’s Laura Friedman had a good tourney centering a line with Cleo Nystrom/Stillwater and Kennedy Sharp/Hill-Murray.  Lindsey Featherstone/Hill-Murray did not score picking up one assist, but had a good tourney playing wing with Helgeson.

Section 4A/AA Final 54 Picks: Defenders Olivia Konigson/Stillwater, McKenna Wesloh/Bauer-Emerson, and Cali Pearcy/Tartan; forwards Jordan Hansen/Cretin-Derham Hall, Morgan Helgeson/Bauer-Emerson, Lindsey Featherstone/Hill-Murray, Joie Phelps/St. Paul United, and Erin Meyers/Bauer-Emerson; and goalie Margaret Cory/Bauer-Emerson.  Wesloh, Konigson, Helegson, Featherstone, and Phelps all made the 2014 HP-15 National Attendee list last summer. Wesloh skated for Elk River and Helgeson skated for Roseau then.  Section 4A/AA’s forwards played a great first half in their opening game, but sort disappeared after the opening half of the opening game losing to Section 2A/AA and Section 5A/AA.  Konigson continued to play well in all three games and Tartan’s Pearcy is no surprise.    

Section 5A/AA Final 54 Picks: Defenders Hannah Schultz/Spring Lake Park and Kenzie Wylie/Blaine; forwards Gabby Billing/Breck, Gabrielle Hughes/Centennial, Paetyn Levis/Rogers, Anneke Linser/Centennial, Courtney Moser/Blaine, Grace Zumwinkle/Breck; and goalie Emma Polusny/Mound-Westonka.  Zumwinkle was the dominate forward at last weekend’s Festival.  She and Gabrielle Hughes made the 2014 HP-15 list last summer and are no surprises.  Zumwinkle’s linemate at Breck, Gabby Billings is also no surprise.  One surprise is Anneke Linser, Centennial’s #2 scorer.  She and Hughes led the Cougars on a late season push that came up one game short of making the state tourney.  Zumwinkle, Hughes, and Polusny all were HP-15 2014 camp attendees last summer. 

Section 6A/AA (Gray) won the Spring Festival beating Section 2A/AA (White).  The championship game was a clash between perennial state tourney Class AA champions from Section 6AA and their closest Class AA contender from Section 2AA (Edina/Eden Prairie).  The Festival Champions, Section 6 (Gray) won with a good defense holding their three opponents to 69 shots on net and five goals combined with a high powered offense that put 109 shots on the net, scoring 15.  Most of the shots on net given up by the Gray team came in the last half of the championship game, 29, when their defense collapsed against a Section 2 onslaught.  Offensively, Taylor Wente led the Gray.  Wente scored five goals and had one assist in the three games.  Maia Martinez scored twice.  Goalie Breanna Blesi was in the nets for Gray in the second half of the championship game.  Blesi stopped 28 of the 29 White shots bringing her save total to 41 for the three tourney games. 

Section 6A/AA Final 54 Picks: Defenders Meghan Cornell/Benilde-St. Margaret’s, McKenzie Ravering/Alexandria, Linsay Czech/Wayzata, Kathryn Glover/Hopkins, and Christina Kampa/Maple Grove; forwards Stella Haberman/Hopkins, Kylie Hanley/Hopkins, Emma Bigham/Edina, Taylor Wente/Maple Grove, and Natallie Heising/Wayzata; goalies Breanna Blesi/Maple Grove, and Celina Francis/Maple Grove.

Five of the six defenders on the Gray team made the Final 54.  Except for one half, they dominated play in the Gray zone the whole tourney.  Most of the Gray defense making the Final 54 is no surprise.  Wente and Heising were standouts on the ice at the Festival; the Hopkins duo of Haberman and Hanley had a good Festival.  The only real surprise is that both Section 6A/AA goalies made the Final 54.  Both saw little action most of the time on the ice with Gray’s defense playing well in front of them. Cornell, Ravering, Glover, Wente, and Heising made the 2014 National Camp Attendee list for 15 year old players. 

Section 7A/AA defense struggled against tourney runner-ups, Section 2A/AA in their opening game.  Both goal tenders for Section 7 played well in that game, but goalie Lori Husby took the brunt of the Section 2 offensive in the first half of that game.  Section 7 lost 5-3 in that quarterfinal game.  In their final game of the tourney, the defense was playing better and the offense was opening up.  That happens when forwards have a belief in a strong defense.  They beat Section 4 in the consolation championship 9-4.  Despite being outshot by 12 in the three games, Section 7 outscored their opponents 14-11 and won two of the three games.  The offense was led by three players, Megan Dulong (3 goals/1 assist), Madison Illikainen (3 goals/3 assists), and Rayelyn Korinek (3 goals).  Annie Dalton (2 goals/3 assists), Claire Butorca (1 goal/4 assists), and Sophia Zebro (2 goals) all contributed to a freewheeling aggressive Gold offense that ended up having the best offense play at the end of the Spring Festival.

Section 7A/AA Final 54 Picks: Forwards Claire Butorac/Andover, Madison Illikainen/Grand Rapids-Greenway; and goalie Erin Genereau/Cloquet.  It is not surprising to see no Section 7A/AA defenders chosen.  They did a marginal job protecting the puck in their zone.  It is also not surprising to see five Section 7A/AA forwards selected.  They really played more and more aggressive as the tourney progressed.  What is surprising is that both Section 7 goalies were not picked.

Section 8A/AA was blitzed in their opening game Friday by Section 5A/AA, came back to battle Section 7 before losing in overtime, and beat Section 3A/AA Sunday.  Despite being outscored 14-8 in those three games, the Orange and their opponents each put 73 shots on goal.  Getting blitzed didn’t stop them from competing in the tourney, the Orange came back to essentially tie and win their next two games.  Offensively, Section 8 was led by Madison Oelkers (2 goals/2 assists) and Madison Schultz/Bemidji (2 goals/2 assists).  Mariah Gardner posted a goal and an assist for the Orange; Marissa Herdt/Moorhead and Alyssa Meed/River Lakes each scored a goal.

Section 8A/AA Final 54 Picks: Defenders Megan Mohr/Sartell-Sauk Rapids and Jennifer Phillips/Warroad and forwards Madison Oelkers/Warroad and Mariah Gardner/Warroad.  This says watch out for Warroad next year in Section 8A.