Around the Arenas
Eastview's Cole Anders goes for the intercept
Boys High School Hockey opened with a vengeance the past week. This corner of YHH took a tour yesterday watching four different games cumulating three days (165 games played) of intense high school hockey. At the start of the day, there were a number of key things on this agenda. One was the final game in a sequence that saw two rival hockey programs (Apple Valley and Eastview) that reside in the same community and share the same ice facilities play for early season “king of the hill”; another was to get some idea of what was going on in Section 8A. Defending two-time Class A champions East Grand Forks was in the cities to play St. Paul Academy. The Spartans, the high school with the longest history of playing the sport (in 1913 they played a schedule that included the University of Minnesota), have never made a trip to the Xcel or to a state tourney. Potential EGF Section 8 rival Thief River Falls was in town to play Breck after impressively defeating Roseau, Blake, Totino-Grace, and Tartan in their first four games. Are the Prowlers real? Finally, a nightcap treat at the end of the day, taking time to watch Riley Tufte who opted to return to Blaine for his senior season after initially being rostered on the USHL’s Fargo Force roster. Surprisingly, on a nice Saturday, all four arenas attended were reasonably full.
Blaine's Riley Tufte (#27) goes for the net in Saturday's game against Edina.
Eastview beats Apple Valley 5-1
Apple Valley had Eastview in the penalty box four of the first five minutes of their noon game with the Lightning. It took the Lightning eight minutes to get the first shot on goal. Eastview killed the two penalties and gradually shifted the play to the Eagles side of the ice. Once there, the Eastview pressure resulted in two Apple Valley penalties in the last half of the period. The Eagle defense held led by the play of goalie Ben Savard. In the last nine minutes of the opening period, Savard stopped nine Lightning shots. In a game that matched two teams with two good lines, the Eagles took a 1-0 lead on a Tristen Plagge score two minutes into the second period. Then the Valley defensive corps went into a funk. In the next seven minutes of play, the Eagles gave up four goals and lost the game. Eastview’s Lenny Nunn got the tying goal with three minutes gone in the second period; Cole Anders scored the game winner a minute later; Nate Bordson got the insurance goal four minutes later; and Joe Stillings scored the fourth goal 27 seconds after Bordson scored. When the dust had settled, Apple Valley trailed 4-1. The second period ended with Eastive leading. Alex Cerrato got the fifth goal in the four minutes into the third period for the 5-1 Lightning win. Eastview’s top two lines were aggressive and persistent in their play. Apple Valley top two lines are solid, but need that offensive spark. Both teams should improve as the season progresses.
The puck is on Ben Savard's blocker on this save in Valley's loss to Eastview.
East Grand Forks' Tanner Tweten (in front of the ref) scores to cut the SPA lead to 4-2 in the second period.
SPA goalie Andrew Beran fends off this East Grand Forks deflection
SPA beats defending Class A Champs 7-3
St Paul Academy is Minnesota's high school with the longest tradition in hockey (started in 1913)
The SPA team is loaded with offensive firepower this year and they won big against the defending Class A champs 7-3 Saturday at the Drake Arena behind the hat trick of Jack Johnston. The Green Wave were the stronger team, but could not beat SPA’s goalie Andy Beran. EGF outshot SPA 30-23. Beran and the SPA defensive corps were successful in foiling the Green Wave offensive with the principle EGF scoring coming off power low around the crease. Scoring low forced EGF to tighten up their defense in the Spartan zone to control the puck. That was deadly. The speedy Spartan forwards beat the Green Wave defense through neutral ice on rushes led by Johnston. SPA got off to a quick start scoring twice in the first six minutes of the opening period. Will Kelly and Jack Johnston got the goals. SPA’s Matt Dahseide and EGF’s Davis Beauchamp scored late in the late in the first period to make a 3-1 game going into the second period. The old boards of Drake arena were rattling in the second period as the game got more physical. With five minutes gone in the period, SPA caught the Green Wave defense scrambling for an easy score. The Spartans’ Riley Bowman scored from the left slot. Ninety seconds after Bowman's goal, the Green Wave struck back. Tanner Tweten led a rush that tied up the Spartan defense low and pounded the puck in the net to cut the lead to 4-2. Trying to keep pressure on the Spartans, Johnston caught the Green Wave defense forward and soloed off a long pass to beat the EGF goalie for the fifth SPA score. The second period ended 5-2. A late Spartan penalty set up EGF on the power play to open the third period. Braden Shea got the power play goal to cut the lead to 5-3; but the Spartans rallied again scoring twice with five minutes gone in the period to end the scoring 7-3.
Breck's Machlitt (#15) watches his shot beat the outstretched glove of Thief River Falls goalie Kade Nelson and hit the back of the net.
Breck beats the Prowlers 4-1
Thief River Falls' Ethan Johnson has become one of the dominant players in Northwestern Minnesota. Johnson’s aggressive play led the Luther’s Automotive team in last Fall’s UMHSEL play. Saturday at the Breck School Anderson Ice Arena in Golden Valley, Johnson tangled with the Mustang’s Chase Ellingson again. Ellingson was the UMHSEL’s second leading goal scorer and third leading point scorer. The two put on quite a show. Breck took a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period with Ellingson scoring in the first three minutes of the game. Grant Parrish got the second Breck goal. In the second period, Breck’s Tyler Scott scored halfway through the period. A minute later Johnson beat the Breck defense for a solo breaking left at the top of the crease to top shelf the puck for the goal. The second period ended with the Mustangs leading 3-1. Breck’s Mitch Machlitt scored in the middle of the third period to end the scoring 4-1. The Prowlers’ goalie Kade Nelson stopped 36 of the 40 Breck shots, but the game was less about constant Breck pressure on the Prowler defense. TRF forwards, except for Johnson, just had a hard time beating the Breck defense.
Thief River Falls' Ethan Johnson beats the Breck defense for this score in the second period
Blaine's Luke Notermann (#17) scores to take an early 1-0 lead against Edina Saturday night at Braemar.
Blaine beats Edina 4-3 in overtime
The whole attraction at Braemar Saturday evening was Blaine’s Riley Tufte. The 6’5” 17-year old Tufte won a spot on the USHL’s Fargo Force team this fall, but after scoring a 5 points in a half a dozen games, Tufte came back to play high school hockey and hopefully lead the Bengals back to the Xcel for a Class AA title. Last night at Braemar he was hard to miss. His physical presence dominated the scene. A winger, Tufte started the game with Luke Notermann centering and Alex Penn at the other wing. On a rush in the first period, when an Edina defender used two hands on a hook attempting to stop Tufte chasing down a puck Tufte did not stop. Because he continued on the play the ref made no call. Edina took a first period lead 2-1 on goals by Bram Scheerer and Casey Dornback. Luke Notermann scored for the Bengals with Tufte mixing it up on the score. Ben Tucker scored in the second to put the Hornets up 3-1 going into the third period before Blaine rallied to win in overtime 4-3.
Riley Tufte circles the net looking for the loose puck.
What is Next?
The Eastview-Apple Valley rivalry takes a backseat after this early season dust up. This game kicked off each team’s South Suburban Conference schedule. Eastview (3-0-1) plays Rosemount next Thursday and Saturday plays Lakeville South. Here is the anomaly with early season high school hockey. If the Lightning look at the Irish lost to Prior Lake (9-1) yesterday, they will overlook the Irish pushing St. Thomas Academy before losing. The Cadets scored the winning goal (4-3) against Rosemount with one second left in regulation time. The Lightning tied Rosemount 2-2 last week. Eastview goaltender Zach Haro was in the nets for the game against Apple Valley and had a good game (stopping 20 of 21 shots). Haro’s play along with goalie Andrew Stern solidifies the Lightning in the nets. Apple Valley plays Shakapee next Thursday and follows that with a Saturday game hosting Lakeville North. The Eagles should do well against the Sabres and then be in a battle with the Irish. Goalie Ben Savard has been solid in the nets for the Eagles (1-2-1 record stopping 91% of the shots while giving up 2.5 goals a game). The Eagles made some changes in their offense Saturday that helped against the Lightning and their defensive corps improved; but Apple Valley, like the Lightning, still needs to get a third line. The next marker for Eastview will be their December 19th game against Prior Lake at Dakotah Ice Center. For the Eagles, it will be next Saturday’s against Lakeville North. Apple Valley is in the running this year and can surprise the defending Class AA champs.
They will be back.
East Grand Forks returns to Mariucci Conference play traveling to Crookston this week. The Green Wave lost two tough games (9-1 to Breck before losing to SPA) last weekend. Against Breck, EGF gave up six goals in the first period and the Green Wave was put on running time in the third. A team does not spend five hours on a bus to play running time hockey. East Grand Forks is a better team and has size. But they have to deal with smaller teams with fast forwards. They will get no relief at Crookston playing Doug Larson and Bobby Tiedemann. Larson was part of the “Band-aide” line that had a great season in the UMHSEL playing for Luther’s Automotive. Thief River Falls also returns to Mariucci Conference play this coming week traveling to play defending Section 8AA champs Bemidji led by Jack Johnston. The Prowlers’ Ethan Johnson teamed with the Lumberjacks’ Jack Johnson and Doug Larson on the UMHSEL Luther’s team this past fall to form that “Johnson & Johnson” line. Saturday, TRF contended with the Breck speed and got an acrobatic performance from goalie Kade Nelson but did not get consistent play out of their offensive lines. TRF will host the Lumberjacks this Tuesday in a 7:30 game at Ralph Engelstad Arena and should do well. They then hit the road to play Hermantown. In a potentially “topsy-turvy” Mariucci Conference this season, Thief River Falls and Crookston could finish among the conference leaders with perennial champs Roseau and Moorhead finishing near the bottom. Roseau is 1-3-1 this season already losing to TRF 6-3. Moorhead is 2-1-0 losing to Bemidji 5-0.
In anything happened this weekend, Breck and SPA came out the winners. Breck remains unbeaten at 4-0 and has established the Mustangs as Hermantown’s principle nemesis if the Hawks are to win state. Hermantown has that nice early season win over Wayzata 5-3, but ran afoul Saturday at Hopkins with a 3-3 tie. Hermantown is facing two big challenges to get that Class A championship banner hung, Scott Perunovich at Hibbing and now Breck led by Chase Ellingson. Breck plays three games this week, Totino-Grace, Wayzata, and St. Paul Academy (at Blake Arena in Hopkins). The attention will be on the Wayzata game as Ellingson, Will Blake, Tyler Scott, and company take on the Trojans’ Billy Duma, Mark Senden, and Luke Paterson. But the real battle for the Mustangs will be Saturday’s game with St. Paul Academy. The Spartans should beat Simley and Kennedy before playing Breck. SPA has a tough offensive core that has been augmented by the emergence of junior Jack Johnston. Ellingson and company will be playing a tough SPA team led by Johnston, Will Kelly, Justin Jallen, the Dahseides and the McCabes.
Edina has now lost to Blaine and Wayzata. The Hornets are 5-2. In their new Section 6AA “digs”, Edina faces challenges from Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Wayzata. With 8 teams in Section 6AA this season, seeding is important. The Hornet season success to get to the Xcel is to avoid the fourth or fifth seed and avoid playing a combination of Holy Angels, Benilde, and Wayzata in the playoffs. The Hornets are off for the next two weeks and will not play again until the Edina Invitational at Braemar. Then, Edina plays Grand Rapids, Elk River, and Eden Prairie in the round robin four team tourney on three successive nights. That will set a marker down for Edina. The Hornets are young this season. Eight of the Hornets top 15 players at the Xcel last March graduated. This season, the Hornets' roster has six sophomores and one ninth grader. Last night, they brought up defenseman Calvin Pugh for the game with Blaine. Edina will have a tough road to make to the Xcel this year. The one player lost, but not to graduation, that hurts Edina is the loss of Garrett Wait. Wait scored 65 points/22 goals in 24 games for the Hornets last regular season and would have been a senior this season. Where Tufte came back to play for Blaine this year and take his chances in the 2016 NHL draft next June, Wait is playing for the Waterloo Black Hawks in the USHL. Both Wait and Tufte are on the NHL top 200 prospects list for North American forwards.
Blaine won’t have the tough road that Edina faces. Their toughest competition in Section 5AA is likely to be Centennial. They play the Cougars next Thursday at Centennial. Centennial has already lost to Edina 4-1. With Tufte back, last Falls’ UMSHEL leading goal scorer, Luke Notermann should go wild this season having Tufte on his wing. In his first four games, Notermann has already posted 15 points/6 goals. The Notermann-Tufte-Penn line collectively have scored 14 goals in 4 games (that averages to 3.5 goals a game). But here is a tip for all hockey fans, set aside any loyalties and go and watch Blaine play just to see Tufte and his line at work. Things like that are rare.