PWAA: Defending Champs Prior Lake open season with a win.
Sam Rice scores the game winner
In a game played Wednesday night at Wakota Arena in South St. Paul, the defending Peewee AA State champs, Prior Lake, opened their 2015-2016 season with a 4-2 win over Woodbury Black. The Lakers came from behind to tie the game with two second period goals and to score the clincher with two minutes left in the game. The Lakers Sam Rice got the game winner.
Picture 1: Prior Lake's Sam Rice beats a Woodbury defender to the rebounding puck and sends the puck to the Woodbury net for the winning goal.
Picture 2: Rice's shot has just enough momentum to carry over the leg pad save attempt by Woodbury's goalie Jackson Kohner.
Picture 3: Rice follows the puck into the net for the winning score. The goal put Prior Lake up 3-2 with 2 minutes left to play.
Woodbury goalie Jackson Kohner gets enough of Prior Lake's Bennett Soderberg's shot so that it just misses the right post on the this first period Laker rush.
Last season, the Prior Lake Hockey Association's peewee AA team won the Peewee AA State Tourney championship beating a tough Minneapolis Storm team 3-2. With Minnesota Hockey’s youth teams kicking off their season (the 24 team Big Pumpkin will be played at Moorhead on Halloween weekend), it is fitting to open this year’s peewee AA/A game stories with a peewee AA game between Prior Lake and Woodbury. The game was played Wednesday night at South St. Paul’s Wakota Arena.
Minnesota Hockey’s approach to youth hockey lines up the youth team by ages that best fit the players to migrate to high school hockey as bantams. That allows for older peewees to play more than one year at the same level. Minnesota Hockey does not have peewee minor or major teams. It has peewee AA and A teams that play each other during the season and are only split for the state playoffs at the end of the year. It also allows for peewees to return a second year to that level. This year’s Prior Lake team has five returning players (Aidan Emerson, Will Magnuson, Matt Beaty, Ryan Hadland, and Ben Monson). Woodbury finished sixth in a combined District 2/District 8 peewee AA league last season and were eliminated in the South Regional played in St. Cloud. The Predators have one returning player Dylan Sydor from last year's team.
Period 1: Woodbury wins
The opening period showed some rust as both teams tried to execute but often missed a pass or created an off-sides spoiling a favorable rush on goal. Both teams brought pressure at times, but after an evenly skated opening half of play in the period, Prior Lake drew two successive penalties. The second penalty led to a Woodbury power play goal. The Predators scored a second goal in the final two minutes of the opening period. The first goal came shortly after Prior Lake killed a penalty and went on the attack. Setting up the Predators’ zone, the Lakers moved the puck to the right point. Woodbury’s Drew Fisher knocked the puck through the Laker defender at the blue line off the boards. He picked up the puck in the neutral zone and set sail for the Laker net skating down the left boards. He beat the other Laker defender, cut to the left slot, and put the puck in the right corner of the net for a 1-0 Predator lead. It was an unassisted goal.
Twenty seconds after the Woodbury score, Prior Lake drew a tripping penalty. On the penalty kill, a Prior Lake forward had a breakaway on the Woodbury net. Goalie Jackson Kohner made the stop on the soloing Laker forward with puck bounced into the right slot to Woodbury’s Cooper Smith. Smith picked the loose puck and beat the attacking Lakers through the neutral ice. He soloed into the left slot low for Woodbury’s second score. Jake Sondreal got the assist. Though outshot by the Lakers outshot 7-4 in the period, Woodbury led 2-0 going into the second period.
Period 2: Prior Lake Wins
Prior Lake’s offense brought pressure on the Woodbury goal from the opening seconds of the second period to the final seconds of the period. Woodbury’s offense struggled to beat the pinching down of the Prior Lake defense along the boards on the breakout. When the Predators did connect on a breakout pass, the Prior Lake defense drove the forwards wide to the boards when they crossed into the Prior Lake zone. The Laker defense would then turn the puck and the Laker wings would launch the attack all over again. Most of the second period was played in the Woodbury zone. The Predators could get only one shot on the net.
The Lakers scored twice in the opening two minutes. Prior Lake's Matt Beaty broke left on a crossing play from the top of the slot and fired right to score the Lakers first goal. Aidan Emerson got the assist. A minute later, still controlling the puck in the Woodbury zone, the Lakers got the puck low around the crease and banged two quick shots on Woodbury’s goalie Kohner. The second rebound shot by Bennett Soderberg from the right crease area beat Kohner to tie the game 2-2. The Lakers Will Magnuson and Sam Rice got the assists. Prior Lake outshot the Predators 11-1 in the period.
Period 3: A See-Saw
The third period turned into a see-saw battle. For the first half of the period the two teams each took their turns trying to break the deadlock. Both had their multiple scoring chances. But neither team could score. Halfway through the second period, Prior Lake had switched goalies with Zach Lavigne going into the net. Lavigne faced a number of tough Woodbury shots in the opening minutes of the period. Then the Lakers would strike back, but could not find the open player and the Laker rushes would be turned away by Kohner or blocked by the Woodbury forwards. Halfway through the period, the game tempo changed when Woodbury picked up the first of two penalties. They killed the penalty but failed to regain the momentum. The Lakers kept the puck deep in the Woodbury zone trying to get the puck on the net. The Woodbury forwards were blocking the Laker shots, but the Lakers were recovering the puck in neutral ice and resuming the attack. With four minutes to go, Woodbury drew their second penalty and again killed the penalty, but shortly after gave up the game winning goal. The game winner was scored by the Lakers’ Sam Rice. Rice beat a Woodbury defender by a fraction of a second to a rebounding puck in the lower right slot. Rice’s shot had just enough power to drive the puck through the defender’s stick in a small arc over Kohner’s sliding save attempt. Soderberg and Ben Monson got the assists. With less than 10 seconds left in the game, Prior Lake’s Matt Beaty scored an empty netter with Aidan Emerson getting the assist.
What is Next?
Prior Lakes plays two home games this week. The Lakers host Lakeville South and the Minneapolis Storm Sunday. The Lakers/Storm game will be a repeat of last year’s Peewee AA State Championship game. The Lakers then travel to Moorhead to play in the Big Pumpkin tourney. The Lakers play Stillwater in the first game of the 24 team tourney. Woodbury has three games scheduled in the next week, Mahtomedi, Wayzata, and Hudson WI.
In the picture right, Prior Lake's Will Schumacher shot can be seen headed for Woodbury goalie's glove. The shot was deflected just over the crossbar.
Woodbury goalie Jackson Kohner stops this Prior Lake rush batting the puck to the right end boards
Woodbury's last second scoring attempt is shut down by Prior Lake goalie Trevor Boschee.