Minnetonka was the pre-season number one team in Minnesota....they returned several key players from last year's state championship team. They added a first year player Bobby Brink to their arsenal from Chaska Chanhassen - who at the time, seemed like a nice piece to their already well defined puzzle. At the end of the Blue Ox, Brink was voted MVP...he finished the Ox with a tournament leading 10 points including Sunday's game winning goal. The Skippers beat Cloquet 3-0 in a hard fought battle between likely the best two teams in Minnesota...today. 

After a scoreless first period, Brink snared a loose puck in the slot. As he controlled the puck, he swiftly shifted his body to the backhand and whistled a shot past a screened Owen Carlson to give Tonka a 1-0 lead. 

The two teams would battle for 25 minutes until the all important next goal was scored. Luke Loheit made a fantastic toe drag move on Carlson and slid it under his pad as a fell to give the Skippers the insurance they needed. 

There were several great games this past weekend at the Battle for the Blue Ox...Eden Prairie played in a pair of them. The latter played Sunday in front of a packed crowd in Maple Grove. Eden Prairie scored first when Canyon Pergande left Prior Lake star Goalie Cade Kujawski all shook up for only a minute. After that, he stopped everything he saw for 43 minutes turning in one of his best performances in his short career. 

The Lakers got outshot 11-1 in the first period, but only trailed 1-0 and seemed to settle down in the second. They were able to keep EP on the perimeter and figured out ways to counter punch the more physically mature Eagles. Almost as if it were scripted by Prior Lake Head Coach Tony Bianchi, the Lakers got a greasy goal past EP netminder Axel Rosenlund to even the score at 1-1 after two periods. Despite being tied 1-1, Eden Prairie walked dejected to the locker room as if to say, "these Pirahnnas won't go away."

In the third, things really evened out. Neither team getting great chances to take the lead. As the game neared the end, it seemed that whoever scored in regulation next would win. With less than three minutes to go, an Eden Prairie defender was called for covering the puck in the crease forcing a Penalty Shot for the Lakers. Prior Lake first year Bantam, Owen Neuharth beat Rosenlund with a nifty backhander to give the Lakers the lead, but not the win. 

But 30 seconds later a Max Argetsinger shot hit traffic in front that beat Kujawski to tie the score for the Eagles. After an overtime and nine unsuccessful shooters in the shoot out, Johnny Mittelstadt was able to beat Kujwaski on his glove side to lift the Eagles to Silver Bracket title. 

Hats off to both teams.

Pre-Season Bantam rankings are nearly impossible to project. From year to year, so many players defect to high school hockey, move associations and probably the most important...players improve so much with maturity. 

Several of the current Spring Lake Park skaters skated in the state tournament the last two years...in 2014 as PeeWees and 2015 as Bantams. By watching this team, you can see this isn't their first rodeo. They have a handful of top end players, great work ethic and a never-say-die attitude. 

Spotting Alexandria a two goal cushion in the first period, the Panthers didn't seem rattled at all by the Cardinals pressure, much less their lead. After defeating Alex on Friday, 5-2...they were confident that they could come back. 

After Jacob McLellan had cut the lead to 2-1 for the Panthers after two, Zach Zemlicka (the tourney MVP) Zach  and Sam Fritz had wicked shots that beat Bailey Rosch for the Cards to give them the win.