Eastview’s Varsity tourney this year featured four teams (defending Class AA champions Lakeville North, Lakeville South, host Eastview, and Prior Lake) from the always tough South Suburban Conference.  All four teams should contend next season for the South Suburban title.  The four were up against the top three teams from the Wright County Conference (Holy Family Catholic, Orono, and defending champions Delano), Jefferson from the Metro West Conference, and St. Paul Academy from the IMAC.  There was one independent team entered, Class AA runner-up Duluth East.  East lost 4-1 to Lakeville North four months ago in the Class AA finals.  All the teams were the best in their conference had to offer last year.  This year is another matter.

Varsity Tourney Format

The tourney format was simple; three rounds of five pool games would be play.  The top four teams would be seeded in the championship finals Sunday; the remaining six would be eliminated.  After the second round of games Saturday morning, Duluth East and Lakeville North had locks on the #1 and #2 seeds.  Six teams (Eastview, Jefferson, Prior Lake, Holy Family, Orono, and Lakeville South) each had won one game and had shots at gaining the championship semifinals Sunday.  Only two teams, St. Paul Academy and Delano, were out of the running having each lost their first two games.  As a result all five of Saturday’s third round games would figure in determining Sunday’s semifinal field.

Friday’s Games

Eastview opened the tourney Friday playing Class AA defending champions, Lakeville North, on the West Rink.  North took a 1-0 lead when the puck took a weird bounce and ended up in the Eastview net six minutes into the opening period.  The first 25 minute half ended with the Panthers leading 1-0.  North scored early in the second half to take a 2-0 lead and added a third goal before Eastview scored on a solo.  North won 3-1 in an evenly played game.  Eastview skated four plus lines against North’s three lines.  It was a game that matched the two of the top lines in the tourney, Eastview’s Anders,  and North’s line led by Henry Enebak.

On the East Rink Friday, St. Paul Academy and Jefferson were in a battle.  SPA took a 3-1 with five minutes left in the first half only to give up two power play goals in the last minutes of play.  The game was tied 3-3 at the end of the first half.  The battled continued in the second half with Jefferson finally 5-4.  The second round of games Friday, Holy Family beat Prior Lake 4-1 and Duluth East beat Orono 4-0.  The Fire opened the scoring on a hard shot from right lower faceoff circle to take a 1-0 lead four minutes into the game.  The Fire added two more goals in the opening half; the second goal caught the Lakers on a late line change.  Prior Lake’s defense improved in the second period led by the Laker’s goaltender.  Lakeville South beat Delano 11-1 in the nightcap.

Saturday’s Games

In Saturday morning’s round of five games, both Duluth East and Lakeville North won.  The Hounds beat Lakeville South 5-1 and North beat Holy Family Catholic 2-1.  The two winners went on to win their Saturday afternoon games to finish pool play with unbeaten 3-0 records.  East beat Prior Lake 5-2 and North beat Delano 6-2.  Holy Family Catholic rebounded from the loss to North to beat Eastview 4-1 and capture one of the two remaining slots in the semifinal games.  The final slot hung on the winner of the Jefferson/Lakeville South game.  South broke a 0-0 deadlock with the Jags scoring with two minutes left in the period to take a 1-0 lead at the half and went on to win 3-1.  When everything had settled Saturday evening, Duluth East would play Lakeville South in one Sunday semifinal game and Lakeville North would play Holy Family Catholic in the second.  A repeat of the last March’s Class AA championship game was in the offing Sunday morning.

Sunday’s Games

Duluth East was stunned early in their game against Lakeville South.  They had beaten the Cougars soundly 5-1, 24 hours earlier.  Lakeville South struck two minutes into the first half on a neat combination play by the line of Bradley Golant, Adam Hazlett, and Jake Oelrich.  That line lead the Cougars’ offense constantly beating the Duluth East defense on their breakouts from inside the Cougar’s defensive zone.  It moved the Hound defenders off the blue line and prevented the Hounds from maintaining pressure on the Cougar’s defense.  The first period ended with Lakeville South leading 1-0.  Seven minutes into the second half Lakeville South’s defense were caught out of position allowing the Hounds to set up in a triangle in the slot at the top of the Cougar’s crease.  They kept the puck moving on multiple shots finally beating Lakeville’s goalie to tie the game 1-1.  After that score, the game turned physical with both teams playing the body hard.  With 12 minutes to go, East’s Nathaniel Benson scored on a shot from the right slot that hit the upper left corner to put Duluth East up 2-1.  A minute later the Cougars tied the game 2-2 on a 2-on-1 rush.  With ninety seconds left in the game, East defenseman Alex Spencer swung low and jammed a loose puck off a Hound shot through Lakeville’s goalie left pad inside the left post to tie the game 3-3.  Regulation time ended with the two teams tied 3-3.  Two scoreless overtimes later, the game was in a sudden death shootout when a Lakeville forward clanked a puck off the left post, it flew across the crease to the right post and clanked outside of the goal.  East’s Garret Worth scored the game winner beating the goalie high left to win the game 4-3.

Lakeville North scored twice in the first half, gave up a goal to Holy Family Catholic and took a 2-1 lead into the second half of play.  The Panthers could not hold their one goal lead and eventually lost 5-3.  No repeat of the Class AA championship this year at the Varsity Tourney.

In the championship game, the Hounds’ Worth kept scoring.  He scored twice in the opening minutes of the championship as East went on to win 3-1 including the winning goal as East went on to win the championship 3-1.  Worth’s game winner may have come early, but Holy Family Catholic played the Hounds tough for the rest of the game.  It was a good game, second best this corner of YHH saw in the last two weekends of play (#1 was East’s semifinal win over Lakeville South).  The second half turned into a wide open game with dueling goaltenders.  Both goalies stopped over 25 shots in the 25 minute second half.  East’s goaltender made a mistake on clearing a puck on a power play and the Fire promptly banged the puck into the net to cut the score 2-1 with four minutes to go in the game.  The Fire opened their defense after that trying to press to get the tying goal.  It resulted in a Hounds goal two minutes later on a solo to end the scoring 3-1.   

Notes:

1. Shocked?  Lakeville South sort of came out of nowhere in this tourney.  That happens as pundits overlook the simple fact that players develop in different ways.  The prevailing thought before the tourney is where Nick Swaney (committed to UMD) and Nate Knoepke (committed to Minnesota) at and who will replace Daniel Swail in the nets?  Swaney may have been on the ice, but Cougar line of Bradley Golant, Adam Hazlett, and Jake Oelrich just gave every Cougar opponent fits with their speed and their passing.  Add to that defensemen Jack Olsen, Josh Ess, and Nate Knoepke who led an outstanding defensive corps that included Sam Malinski, Nolan Sullivan, and Jared Saufferer combined with solid goaltending and one has a team that is an early favorite in the South Suburban and Section 1AA.

2. Jags Offense-The skill and power of the Jefferson’s offense was there for all to see last weekend.  The two big Jag forwards are still a little rusty but it is summer hockey.  Jefferson may have escaped the South Suburban for the Metro West (they will contend for the Metro West title this year), but they will be back playing South Suburban teams and St. Thomas Academy for the Section 3AA ticket to the Xcel.

3. Dow, Altmann, and Peterson-This Hounds line had a good tourney and shows that Duluth East should be back at the Xcel if they can get by the young guns at Elk River in Section 7AA.  Dow and Altmann (combined with Shay Donovan) were the top Bantam AA line in the 2013 State Tourney.  Donovan skated defense for the Hounds last season.  The Elks have the makings for three good offensive lines with Reggie Lutz, Jax Murray, and Jensen Zerban returning.  They had one of the top peewee AA/A lines in the state in 2011-2012 in Murray, Nate Horn, and Max Michaelis).  Murray, Horn, and Michaelis will be juniors with 2011-2012 peewee AA/A goalie junior Ben Meyers.  Add senior defenseman Matt Kiersted and forwards Alex Schwab and Nick Perbix, and the Elks will be tough if they mature as a team by the end of the season.  Both the Elks and the Hounds caught a break when St. Micheal/Albertville was realigned from Section 7AA to Section 8AA this past March by the MSHSL.  The Knights are a Roseau, Bemidji, Moorhead problem this year.        

4. Up and Down

Up sort of-Duluth East had a good weekend.  Last season’s Class AA runner-up are on a path to be one of the top five teams in the state, but Lakeville South’s speed exposed a weakness that the Hounds defense has holding the puck in the offensive zone.  After beating South 5-1 on Saturday, Duluth East caught a couple of breaks in their semifinal game to make the finals.  The Hounds are on upward path.

Up-Holy Family Catholic also had a good weekend.  The Fire are also looking upward.  That means bad news for their new Section 2AA foes including Prior Lake.  Holy Family Catholic’s forwards really moved the puck while playing a tough physical game.  Their defense should improve and at this point, the Fire should be in the running for the Section 2AA title next March.

Way up-Lakeville South blitzed Delano 11-1 in their opening game, lost to Duluth East, and beat Jefferson 3-1.  They joined Lakeville North in the semifinals and almost upended Duluth East in their semifinal game losing in a shootout.  They should depth and speed at forwards and a strong defense.  The Cougars are definitely on the upswing.

Down-Lakeville North missed the championship game last weekend at the Eagan Meltdown and lost to Holy Family 5-3 in the semifinals Sunday.  They skated a shortened bench in this tourney and looked strong in pool play winning all three games (beating Eastview 3-1, Holy Family Catholic 2-1, and Delano 6-2).  They lost to a tough Holy Family Catholic team in the semifinals giving up five goals.  The defending Class AA champions can only defend their championship.  At the top, they can only go down.  At this mid-summer time, the Panthers are pointed down in the coming season.

Up on good trajectory-St. Paul Academy was one of three Class A teams in the tourney and looked good.  Their top line (McCabe and Dahlseide) skated well, but they got offensive depth in the play of Justin Jallen and Riley Bowman.  This team has the talent to win Section 4A this year and SPA into the Class A state tourney.   They played two tough Class AA opponents losing to Jefferson 5-4 and to Eastview 6-4.  They beat Orono 6-2, another Class A team.  As good as their offense is, their defense struggled.  Still SPA is looking up from their 21-4 record last season.

Even-Eastview had a full bench for this tourney and often went four plus lines deep in their games.  As a result, the Lightning had a scrappy team with one of the top lines in tourney on the ice last weekend.  Their defense played well and their goaltending has talent.  The Lightning should improve over last year, looks positive, but can struggle.

Down-Prior Lake “struggled” and had problems losing to Holy Family Catholic 4-1 and Duluth East 5-2.  It is a mid-summer tourney, but considering the potential talent, the Laker team play was not in sync.  Their passes missed at critical times and their defense had some bad miscues.  The Lakers should be one of the top teams in the South Suburban Conference and a favorite to beat Holy Family or Eden Prairie in Section 2AA to go the Xcel.  Based on last weekend’s play, they have a long way to go before they can even look up.