PWA: JCNSP opens D8 season with wins
Farmington goalie Brody Schendeldecker makes this stop in 9-1 loss
District 8’s youth hockey season opened this past weekend. Both peewee A and peewee AA leagues began play. In the eight team District 8 peewee A league (JCNSP, Lakeville North A, Lakeville South A, South St. Paul, Sibley, Inver Grove Heights, Farmington and Woodbury A); JCNSP (St. Paul Johnson/St. Paul Como/North St. Paul) won their two opening games beating Woodbury A at Polar Arena Saturday and Farmington 9-1 Sunday.
Polar Devils' Blayde Pogreba scores this first period goal against Farmington Sunday to put JCNSP up 2-0. The puck can be seen in the upper part of the net.
East Side hockey is back as JCNSP becomes an early State Tourney favorite
This season will be District 8’s first with separate peewee A and peewee AA leagues since Minnesota Hockey split the peewee level into A and AA for the 2012-2013 season. That means there will be two separate playoffs in February this season based on seeding determined by where a team finishes in regular season play. Since the split, District 8 continued to have a single peewee A/AA league until this season and last season had a single playoff. This year, besides the 8 team peewee A league, District 8 has a 10 team peewee AA league (Apple Valley, Cottage Grove, Eastview, Eagan, Hastings, Lakeville North AA, Lakeville South AA, Owatonna AA, Rosemount, and Woodbury AA). Unlike past years, there will be no AA/A crossover games.
Despite the original intent of Minnesota Hockey to co-mingle peewee A/AA teams during the regular season play and reserve the A/AA designation for the regional and state tourneys only; that has not happened. Most districts have now separated their association’s peewee A and AA teams into two different leagues; most tournaments held this season are for either A or AA teams. Only a few are A/AA. Add to the district re-structuring the fact that most AA teams are reluctant to schedule a scrimmage with an A team for fear that losing to an A team will impact their seeding into the AA regionals, one can now say that peewee AA and peewee A levels are separate. That is especially sad this season. Based on early season play, JCNSP has one of the best peewee teams in the state regardless of “letters”.
JCNSP is a peewee A team fielded by three St. Paul associations (Johnson, Como, and North St. Paul). The Polar Devils are in their second season and will play a 16 game District 8 peewee A regular season schedule. JCNSP's schedule has home and home series with five D8 teams and three games with Lakeville North A and Woodbury A. Farmington has a fifteen game D8 schedule playing three games with Lakeville South. At the end of the season, the eight District 8 peewee A teams will be seeded based on where they finish in regular season play for the D8 playoffs. The top three teams in the D8 playoffs will receive seeds to the East Regional played at Cottage Grove this season. Last season, JCNSP played in District 8’s peewee B1 league and struggled to win two league games. The Polar Devils were eliminated in the first round of the D8 B1 Playoffs to end their season. Farmington last season battled with St. Paul Capitals before losing the District 2/8 Peewee A regular season title. The Tigers were the best District 8 peewee A team in last season's D2/D8 league and won the District 8 playoffs. They beat D8 rival Cottage Grove to take the South Regional’s #2 seed to the peewee A state tourney losing in the state consolation finals to Orono.
In Sunday’s game between JCNSP and Farmington, none of the prior history mattered. The Polar Devils just rolled showing impressive depth at offense and a strong defense. They are clearly one of the peewee teams to beat this season.
What the opponents see when they hit the ice at the Schmitz-Maki Arena in Farmington. Rocky Balboa would be proud. It is really a cool sign.
Period 1: The Tigers feel the pressure
Farmington felt the pressure immediately in Sunday’s game played at the Maki Arena in Farmington. Thirty seconds into the opening period, JCNSP’s line of Blayde Pogreba, Kyle Gilday, and Joey Moeberg went to work. The line of “88’s” (#23, #25, and #40) immediately attacked the Tiger net putting multiple shots on Farmington’s goalie Brody Schindeldecker. Pogreba finally put the rebounding puck in the net from the top of the crease to put the Polar Devils up 1-0. Kyle Gilday got the assist.
JCNSP kept the pressure on the Tigers’ defense. The Devils’ forwards would often beat the defense along the boards forcing the remaining defender to shift over to support. That would open the ice along the opposite side and create a 2-on-1 rush that often resulted in Schindeldecker having to make tough stops off solo rushes by the JCNSP. In the first period, Schindeldecker made a half dozen breakaway stops until halfway through the period. Then “88’s” struck again. This time, the 88’s made a nice two pass play with Pogreba ending up with a solo coming down the slot. Pogreba beat Schindeldecker with a top shelf shot from the lower right crease to put the Polar Devils up 2-0. Gilday and Owen Jablonic got the assists. The Farmington defense rallied in the last half of the opening period. The Tiger defenders skated off two penalties and kept JCNSP off the scoreboard. The period ended with the Polar Devils leading 2-0. The "eye of the tiger" was not shinning on the peewees Sunday.
Period 2: Schindeldecker can't stop all the solos
Farmington opened the second period with a 30 second penalty kill. They stopped the Polar Devils power play, but drew three more minors in the period. The Tigers were on the penalty kill for over half of the second period. JCNSP scored with eight minutes left in the period. It was an even-handed score. The Polar Devils’ Brent Gulenchyn picked up a rebounding puck to the right of the Farmington net. Gulenchyn beat an attempted poke check by a late forechecking Tiger defender getting enough momentum on the puck to slide it into the net. The score put JCNSP up 3-0. Damian Cunningham got the assist.
Farmington's Hayden Sanborn (#11) is about to bat the puck (can be seen by goalies leg pad) out of the crease to save a goal.
JCNSP's Blayde Pogreba misses this weak side set up in the second period.
After the third JCNSP goal, the Tiger penalties started. Farmington killed the first penalty, but just as the penalty was ending, the 88’s struck again with Pogreba scoring to put Johnson up 4-0. Alex Wooley got the assist. A minute later, Farmington drew another penalty and 40 seconds later drew a second minor. The Tigers faced a 5-on-3 penalty kill for over a minute and their defense stiffened. They stopped the Devils on the 5-on-3 but gave up a goal to the 88’s on the 5-on-4. This time Gilday got the goal beating a Tiger defender to a rebounding puck. Pogreba started the scoring play by leading a 3-on-2 rush on the Tiger net and putting a hard shot on Schindeldecker. The puck rebounded low right with Gilday. He manage to beat the Farmington defense to the puck for the put back. JCNSP led 5-0. Pogreba got the assist. With under a minute left in the second period, the Polars’ Cunningham scored on a solo to make it 6-0. Cunningham beat the Tiger defense and simply buried the shot from the slot right giving Schindeldecker no chance to make the save. Sean Smith got the assist.
With 30 seconds left in the second period, Farmington launched their only scoring attack. It resulted in the Tiger’s Ryan Holmstrom picking up a rebounding puck at the top of the crease and scoring unassisted to cut JCNSP’s lead to 6-1.
JCNSP's "88 line" attacks (#25, #23, and #40). This time Kyle Gilday (#40) scores beating the defense to the rebounding puck on the rush.
Farmington goalie makes another stop. Brody Schindeldecker stopped 32 shots in last night's game (YHH count).
Period 3: No fairplay point!
It was a penalty filled third period for the Tigers. In D8 regular season play, points count because they effect the seeding at playoff time. A single point can mean the difference between playing a tough team or a weaker team. That includes the fair play points. A team exceeding 12 minutes in penalty time during a game looses their fair play point. Farmington had accumulated 10 minutes of penalty time at the start of the third period and easily exceeded their allotted 12 minutes in the third period. It also resulted in three more JCNSP goals. With three minutes gone in the period, Gilday scored from the slot on a power play. A minute later, Leo Gruba scored another power play goal for JCNSP from the same spot in the slot to make it an 8-1 game. Gulenchyn scored the final goal.
Gilday and Pogreba each posted four points in the game. The 88’s (Gilday, Pogreba, and Joey Moberg) played well as a line. JCNSP goalie Damian VanDanacker and Farmington goalie Brody Schindeldecker had good games. Schindeldecker faced 41 shots and had 32 saves (YHH count) before leaving the game late in the third period. More than half of Schindeldecker’s saves were made on breakaways or point blank shots. Johnson is the best team this corner of YHH has seen so far this season. They have size and depth and will challenge most teams they will face this year. Farmington, a perennial peewee state tourney team (three times in the past five years), is struggling in the early season. Still the Tigers showed potential. Carter Hendrickson skated a good game for the Tigers.
JCNSP's Brent Gulenchyn (#91) gets enough stick on this rebound to slide the puck in the net for a second period Polar Devils score.
What is Next?
JCNSP have two more District 8 games this week hosting Lakeville South A at Phalen and Lakeville North A at Polar before playing the St. Paul Capitals 6:30 PM at Polar Arena on Black Friday. That will be a good game to watch and a test for Polar Devils. The Capitals won the peewee A state title the last two seasons before moving up to AA this year. Farmington travels to Lakeville South A and Woodbury A for league games this week. The 2-3 Tigers has two games scheduled with District 9 foes Faribault and Red Wing also before breaking for Thanksgiving. Their first tourney will be at Northfield December 11-13.
One last note: One of the most lethal weapons in World War II was the German “88” artillery piece. A big barrel gun, the “88” carried a big punch, was mobile, and was adapted to a number of weapons systems.