UMHSEL Weekend 5: USA U17’s Struggle to win twice
Muscle Milk was fired up for Saturday's game with the USA U17s
The Upper Midwest High School Elite League is the best fall league in the USA and last weekend, the fifth of nine weekends of top flight hockey, demonstrated that. The USA U17 team visited the league beating the two top teams; UMHSEL league leading team, Muscle Milk 5-1 and second place TCF Bank 5-2. The U17’s had beaten the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks 6-3 prior to their trip to New Hope Arena. The U17’s struggled in winning their two games and spent extra time in their locker room before rallying to win. The U17's were aided in their win over Muscle Milk by penalties that put the U17s on the power play for most of the last half of the second period. U17’s finally scored the game winner late in the second period and added another power play goal on a fifth penalty to insure the win. Against TCF Bank, the U17 scored the game winner on a power play late in the second period. The U17’s team roster is the result of a two year selection process and is the product of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program; Muscle Milk and TCF Bank rosters were filled by Minnesota high school players after a week of league tryouts at the end of July In the two weekend games, hockey fans at the New Hope Arena were applauding the play of the three teams, U17s, M&Mers and the Bankers. But clearly they were most proud of both USHSEL team’s play.
USA U17 Evan Barratt (#53) screens Muscle Milk goalie Zach Stejskal/Grand Rapids MN on this Josh Norris shot to put the U17s up 3-1 late in the second period.
Luther's Automotive Jack Johnson scores in the last minute of Sunday's game against Mpls/St. Paul Magazine to complete a late third period comeback to tie the game 4-4.
The U17’s turned out not to be the only act in the UMHSEL show in Weekend 5. The UMHSEL was not only a clash of the league's top hockey teams with the U17s. In the UMHSEL are also the two top nationally ranked Tier 1 U18 teams, #1 Shattuck/St. Mary’s and #2 Team Wisconsin. Both those teams were having a tough weekend. Luther’s Automotive (a team comprised of high school players from mostly small Class A high schools along Minnesota’s border with South and North Dakota) traveled to Shattuck/St. Mary’s and beat the #1 Sabres 7-5 Saturday. In another show of league strength, the #2 ranked Team Wisconsin continued to struggle in the league going 1-1-1 on the weekend beating Starkey/Sionon 5-4 and tying MAP 3-3 Saturday. The single Badger loss came Sunday when the two top ranked teams played each other at Shattuck. The Sabres won 5-1. The Sabre victory tied Shattuck with Team Wisconsin for sixth place in the league going into Weekend 6 ahead of last place Starkey/Sionon (one should note that the Sabre’s play six less league games each year then the other seven teams).
Finally, the depth of hockey talent in the state became apparent this weekend when Team CCM comprised of players from the MEPDL split their two weekend games with UMHSEL teams. The CCMers lost 6-2 to Mpls/St. Paul Magazine Saturday and beat third place MAP 6-4 Sunday. St. Paul Academy’s junior Matt Dahseide, sophomore Devin McCabe, and senior Cullen McCabe along with Lakeville North senior Taylor Schneider all figured in Team CCM's scoring. Schneider had a hat trick in Sunday’s win over MAP.
A second after scoring, Jack Johnson and his teammates celebrate coming from behind to tie the Magaziners.
Featured game: USA U17 beats Muscle Milk 5-1
The better two teams are on the ice, the faster the puck moves. It is a simple thing but to hockey fans it becomes mesmerizing. For most of the two opening periods, the fans were mesmerized by the continuous fast pace of change on the ice. Both teams continuously had players smoothly flowing on and off to provide that continuity. Both teams had the quick reactions to puck movement especially changes in direction and both teams had the ability to execute plays under the extreme high pace the game set. It was the refs who had problems.
Saturday’s game with Muscle Milk was extremely high paced. Both teams were into the game emotionally playing hard. The U17 wanted the win as a matter. Their roster is filled with players that were handpicked over the last two years after many tryouts and represents the best of USA hockey talent at their age group. The Muscle Men had their agenda. It was not only about beating the best but proving that hockey in their part of the state was as strong as many thought it used to be.
In the UMHSEL, the teams are filled with rosters of players that basically practice a few times, go home, and play weekend games (where the USA U17 team combines hockey and high school with the emphasis on developing hockey talent over a two year period). In three weeks, the Muscle Milk team will be history, their season as a team gone. In two years, the U17 team after migrating to U18 will be anxiously awaiting to see how many on their roster will be picked in the NHL’s 2017 entry draft.
Three Minnesota players are on the current U17 team of 20 players picked from the best USA has at their age level. That is a matter of pride for most Minnesota hockey fans. The UMHSEL league fills six rosters of 20 or so Minnesota high school players to form the basis of the league each fall. Often a number of the top players are lost to the league when they decide to play elsewhere (usually the USHL). The league picks the best 120 or so players and assigns 20 players to each of six team’s roster. In doing so, the league tries to place the players locally on a team.
The Muscle Milk team is comprised of high school players principally from Section 7A/AA high schools who draw their players from Minnesota Hockey Associations in Districts 11 and 12. The league also tries to balance the talent on each team which is why a Casey Mittlestadt from Eden Prairie in Southwest Twin Cities ends up on the TCF Bankers a team principally from Southest Twin Cities.
The contrasts between the manner in which the USA U17’s are chosen and the way the UMHSEL teams are formed could not be greater. The U17 roster is driven by desire to develop talent over time drawn from a broad area. It is focused narrowly to develop talent to compete internationally. The UMSHEL teams that the U17 team played this weekend are formed with the goal of improving high school hockey in the state. The league is widely focused to bring talented players back to their high school which in turn improves the play of their high school team over the coming season. But on the ice each year the USA U17 games have become a David and Goliath thing with normally the U17 teams winning easily. But not this year.
USA U17 Grant Mishmash/Edina MN moves to screen the goalie on this incoming shot.
The U17s started the game beating the Muscle Milk defense wide and trying to hit the breaking forward. It worked for the first five minutes until the M&Mers adjusted to the outside speed.
Period 1: Minnesota Pride
Last season’s U17’s team appearance in the UMHSEL resulted in two easy USA wins. Those two games left Minnesota hockey fans a feeling similar to those who attended NBA games in the 1950's featuring NBA Champions Minneapolis Laker (now the Los Angeles Lakers) playing an exhibition against a team of College All-Stars. After watching the Lakers beat the All Stars 60-42, the fans had that feeling of "so what did that accomplish?"
Not so in Saturday’s and Sunday's game. The Muscle Men from Northern Minnesota gave the USA U17 fits in the first period constantly beating them on the forecheck and turning aside the USA attack in their zone. The M&Mers played an outstanding game for 50 of the 60 minutes keeping the high flying U17 forwards in check and keeping most of the play on the USA half of the ice. Before the start of the second period with the game tied 1-1, the U17’s were late coming out of their locker room, usually a sign of unhappy coaches. The U17s still struggled for the first half of the second period until the Muscle Men lost their focus, drawing five successive penalties and playing shorthanded for most of the last half of the second period.
A team that was cobbled together in late July drawn from a pool of 120 high school players that represented eight different northern high schools (Denfeld, Hermantown, Duluth East, Hibbing, Brainerd, Grand Rapids, Duluth Marshall, and East Grand Forks), the M&Mers left most hockey fans at the New Hope Arena Saturday applauding and feeling proud about the state of hockey.
Muscle Milk Riley Glauque/Fargo South-Shanley HS can't beat USA's Dylan St. Cyr/Northville MI on this penalty shot. He had the top shelf right (right left in these posts are goalie right left) open but could not get the puck over the St. Cyr's leg pad.
The game opened with both coaches bent on each getting all four lines on the ice as quick as possible. The first two minutes had multiple line changes, but one could see that the Muscle Milk team was already into the game. Still it took a great stop by the M&Mers’s goalie River Alander/Denfeld HS to keep the game a scoreless tie. In the opening minutes of the first period, once settled, the U17 team was simple trying to blow past the Muscle Milk defense along the boards and cut to the net looking for a forward on a delayed rush coming down the slot. The U17s succeeded once in the early going with Grant Mishmash/Edina MN getting off a one timer that goalie Alander had to stop moving to his left to make the save on a hard shot that skimmed the ice. Six minutes into the period Hermantown defenseman Wyatt Aamodt made an outstanding defensive play when he just turned a U17 center and wing around in the left corner and easily cleared the puck on a breakout that almost ended up in Muscle Milk score. That play slowed the all-out U17 attack and started to shift play to the USA half of the ice.
The Muscle Men defense started to handle the rush and turn the puck hitting the long pass board to board in neutral ice. It forced the USA defense off the M&M blue line. With nine minutes to go in the opening period, the M&Mer’s offense caught the U17 in a defensive lull. Playing even, they started to move the puck around the periphery of the U17 zone until it got to Scott Perunovich/Hibbing MN on the right point. Perunovich moved into the right faceoff circle and sensing he had time sighted in the goal like deer hunter on a stand and snapped the puck into the back of the net giving the M&Mers their only lead of the game 1-0. Ryan Sandelin/Hermantown got the assist. Four minutes later, the U17’s tied the game 1-1.
The scoring play was triggered by a bad call. U17 goalie Dylan St. Cyr/Northville MI went behind the net to clear a puck but was slow allowing Ash Altmann/Duluth East time to attempt to check the puck using his body against the end boards. There was brief contact between St. Cyr and Altmann (contact that is allowed when the goalie leaves the crease area to play the puck). The ref saw it differently and called a two minute minor on Altmann. On the power play, U17’s Evan Barratt/Bristol PA scored a weak side goal catching the Muscle Milk defense out of position to tie the game 1-1. Defenseman Phil Kemp/Greenwich CN got the assist. The first period ended in a 1-1 tie. Barratt's goal would be the first of three straight U17 power play goals.
USA U17's Michael Pastujov is about the hammer the puck through Muscle Milk goalie Zach Stejskal's pads. Stejskal makes the stop but Pastujov ends up with the puck in the right slot for the game winning power play goal.
Period 2: Too Many Penalties
The U17 team was late on the ice for the opening of the second period. They came out pressuring the Muscle Milk in the M&Mers’ zone. Their defense men started to step up and it led an M&M penalty three minutes into the period. The M&Mers killed the first of five successive penalties. USA drew a penalty a minute after on a slash and the U17's killed that penalty. Thirty seconds later, the M&Mers drew their second penalty of the period. Muscle Milk easily killed their second penalty of the period only to draw a third penalty for hooking a minute later.
At this point, Muscle Milk switched goalies bringing in Grand Rapids sophomore Zach Stejskal. Stejskal was a star on the Grand Rapids Bantam AA team last season. Muscle Milk easily killed the third penalty.
With six minutes left in the period and ten seconds after killing the third penalty, Muscle Milk drew a fourth penalty. This time the U17 scored on the power play what proved to be the winning goal. With 18 seconds left on the power play, Michael Pastujov/Bradenton FL, got the puck low on Stejskal and tried to bang it through the 5-hole. Stejskal made the stop, but the puck rebounded into the slot left where Pastujov got his stick on the puck again and beat Stejskal on a hard shot to the left side. The second power play goal was unassisted. Thirty seconds after Pastujov's goal, the M&Mers drew a fifth penalty. Twenty seconds into the power play, Josh Norris/Oxford MI cut to the top left faceoff circle and fired a hard shot past a partially screened Stejskal to put the U17’s up 3-1. It was USA's third power play goal. Barratt got the assist.
The next two and a half minutes were played penalty free. With a minute left in the period, Pastujov beat the Muscle Men defense left, cut to the high slot right and scored unassisted to end the second period scoring with the U17 leading 4-1. Each team drew one more penalty in the last 50 seconds of play. For eight minutes of play in the second period, Muscle Milk played shorthanded and gave up only five shots on net. The M&Mers lost their cool and the U17 team "schooled" the refs.
USA U17 Josh Norris (out of picture) scored on this hard shot to put USA up 3-1 late in the second period. It was their third power play goal.
Period 3: Can’t “Catch-Up”
Just three minutes into the third period, the U17’s Josh Norris scored his second goal of the game with Randy Hernandez/Miami FL getting the assist. That goal put USA up 5-1 and ended the scoring. Nine minor penalties were called in the four minutes after Norris' goal. The penalties took away from what had been a good game. A team can’t “catch-up” when the players are in the penalty box.
This was a game that in the end the refs lost control by calling penalties on one team to the point where it made no sense, no logic and it took away from the spirit of the game. That set up a messy third period. The Muscle Milk team played to win and they were successful against a team that had to be stronger, but ultimately fell to gamesmanship not hockey. Perhaps that is what influenced the calls.
The next day, the U17's beat TCF Bank 5-2. In Sunday’s game against the TCF Bankers, the pace was slower and the penalties were even. The refs seemed less respectful of marginal U17 play. The Bankers held their own through the second period, trailed 3-2 with 10 minutes left, and lost 5-2. In both games, the two high school based teams gave the U17 team fits and with a few bounces their way could have won.
What is next?
With two weekends (six regular season games) left to play, Muscle Milk leads second place TCF Bank by five points. The M&Mers draw Team Wisconsin and TCF Bank Saturday. They play Starkey/Sonion Sunday. The key game in Weekend 6 will be Muscle Milk’s game against the Bankers Saturday evening. A Muscle Milk victory in that game will lock up the regular season title by putting the Bankers in the difficult situation of having to make up seven points in their other five games.
A Banker win over Muscle Milk changes things. It puts TCF Bank in the position of having to make up three points in the other five games. A loss to the Bankers will pressure Muscle Milk especially in the final weekend games played at Mars Lakeview Arena in Duluth when the M&Mers play Shattuck-St. Mary’s and Luther’s. Luther’s is Muscle Milk’s final regular season game. The Great Plainers’ defense has improved since the start of the season and could be a surprise in the upcoming UMHSEL playoffs.
Third place MAP’s loss to Team CCM really hurt their title chances. They trail Muscle Milk by seven points and TCF Bank by two points. They can sweep next weekend’s game starting with a Tuesday win over Mpls/St. Paul Magazine, but the Mappers need the Muscle Men to lose twice next weekend (to TCF Bank and to Team Wisconsin or Starkey/Sonion) to have a shot at the title going into the final weekend of play. The Magaziners are in fourth place trailing the Muscle Milk by 10 points. If the UMHSEL world fell apart, they could sneak into the title chase, but that is not likely. Three of the remaining four teams (Luther’s, Team Wisconsin, and Starkey/Sonion) are playing for seeds in the UMHSEL playoffs In Weekend 8 at New Hope.
The playoff format is normally an eight team bracket. Shattuck-St. Mary’s skips the playoff and plays in the CCM International Invitational Tourney played at New Hope in Weekend 9. Team CCM will take their spot and be seeded eighth drawing the first place team (most likely Muscle Milk). Teams finishing fourth and fifth (currently Mpls/St. Paul Magazine and Luther’s Automotive) play each other and are in the same upper bracket. Second and third place teams (TCF Bank and MAP) are in the lower bracket. The Bankers would draw the eighth place team (currently Starkey/Sonion) and MAP would draw the seventh place team (currently Team Wisconsin). Only three points separate the last three teams (Luther’s 12 points, Team Wisconsin 11 points, and Starkey/Sonion 9 points) so things are likely to change.
Notes
1. What if? Last weekends games with the U17 team left some fans wondering what would the result have been if U17 players Grant Mishmash/Edina MN, Scott Reedy/Prior Lake MN, and Nate Knoepke/Lakeville MN had been on the UMHSEL teams. All three are from Minnesota and could have skated in the UMHSEL if they had not been selected to join the USA team.
2. Luther’s Band Aid line: This season, the Great Plainers’ Johnson& Johnson line is on a roll and the roll is not found in a medical chest. They were tough last weekend on UMHSEL opponents and would have held their own against any of the U17 lines. Ethan Johnson/Thief River Falls MN and Jack Johnson/Bemidji MN combined with Doug Larson/Crookston MN Saturday to score four of the seven goals in Luther’s Automotive 7-5 win over Shattuck-St. Mary’s. In Sunday’s 4-4 tie with Mpls/St. Paul Magazine, the Luther’s coaches made good use of their timeout at the end of the game. They called time out with three minutes left in the game and it allowed the coaches to get the Band Aid line on the ice for the last minute play resulting in Jack Johnson getting the tying goal. Larson and Tanner Breidenbach/St. Cloud Apollo HS got the assists. Grant Johnson/Grand Forks Central HS got three assists in the win over Shattuck and scored in the Great Plainers’ 4-2 loss to Muscle Milk. Jack Johnson leads Luther’s in scoring (12 points/4 goals); Ethan Johnson is tied for second with Ryan Peterson/Duluth East, Grant Johnson is fourth and Doug Larson is fifth in Luther’s scoring. The Band Aid line has scored 15 goals in 15 games this season.
3. Sabres can score: The Sabres’ duo of Connor Ford/Pittsburgh PA and Emil Ohrvall/Vaxjo SWE scored four of the five Shattuck goals. The pair, combined with Niko Karamanis/Courtenay BC, has scored 17 goals in their nine UMHSEL league games. Ohrvall (9 goals) and Vincent de Mey/Los Angeles CA (8 goals) have a chance to catch league leading goal scorers Luke Noterman/Blaine (14 goals), Chase Ellingson/Breck (13 goals) and Casey Mittelstadt/Eden Prairie (13 goals) to claim the UMHSEL goal scoring title this fall. Playing six games less than the other players, that would be quite a feat for the Sabres leading scorers.
4. Minnesota District Playoffs-Shattuck’s Prep and U16 teams advanced by winning the Minnesota District playoffs last March. This year, Minnesota’s district playoffs will be held November 4th at the Super Rink in Blaine. The winner of the Minnesota District Playoffs will advance to the USA Tier 1 U18 and U16 tournaments played in San Jose CA March 31-April 4.
5. Not just offensive muscle: The Muscle Milk team’s goalies (River Alander and Zach Stejskal/Grand Rapids MN) have played well. Alander has really improved over the past year and is now leading the league giving up 2.9 goals a game while stopping 91% of the shots on net. Alex Schilling/Wayzata is also having a good fall league almost matching Alander’s numbers (3.1 goals with 91% stops on shots). Over the past three years, Chase Perry/Andover MN, Jake Oettinger/Farmington (Lakeville North), Dayton Rasmussen/Holy Family Catholic HS, and Anthony Brodeur/Shattuck-St. Mary’s were among the UMHSEL team leaders. Perry and Brodeur have been drafted by the NHL, Perry by Detroit in 2014 and Brodeur by New Jersey in 2013. Oettinger and Rasmussen are among the top five goalie to be picked in the upcoming 2016 draft going into this season.
6. Still Ranked #1 and #2: After a tough Weekend 5 in the UMHSEL, Shattuck-St. Mary’s and Team Wisconsin are still #1 and #2 nationally. Madison WI U18 team has risen to the third. The unbeaten Capitals (10-0) beat the Minnesota Blades 3-1 and 7-2 two weeks ago. The Blades and the Minnesota Magicians play each other at Parade Wednesday, October 14th.