BHS: Prior Lake beats Burnsville 4-1
Burnsville's Donovan Johnson (#13) battles Prior Lake defense
Prior Lake beat Burnsville 4-1 in a game played last night at the Burnsville Ice Arena. The Lakers and Blaze battled evenly through the first period before the Lakers built a 3-0 lead after the end of two periods. Burnsville came back in the third period to score their only goal, but had good scoring chances before a Prior Lake empty netter iced the game 4-1. The two teams had similar records coming into Thursday’s South Suburban Conference game. The Lakers opened their season with a loss to Eden Prairie 6-3 but have won since. Burnsville lost their first three games to Hill-Murray and Edina by the same 4-3 score and to Benilde-St. Margaret’s 7-0. The two teams look very similar in the early going. Last night, Prior Lake looked better. The Lakers win keeps them unbeaten in South Suburban play and tied with Farmington (unbeaten and one tie) at the top of the standings. The win also keeps the Lakers on the same pace as Eden Prairie in Section 2AA rankings. In the eight team Section 2AA playoffs, the #1 ranking has little meaning for the Lakers unless Minnetonka, Holy Family Catholic, or Chanhassen catch fire. They will have to beat Eden Prairie to get to state. For Burnsville, most of their Section 3AA competition plays in the South Suburban except for Farmington (Section 1AA) and Prior Lake. With St. Thomas Academy off to a slow start (4-2-1), the door is open for the Blaze to get a shot at state this season.
Donovan Johnson (#13) celebrates by himself scoring the only Burnsville goal. His solitude did not last long. Seconds later he was piled on by teammates.
Both the Burnsville Hockey Club and the Prior Lake/Savage Hockey associations are members of Minnesota Hockey’s District 6. When the players on both teams took the ice last night, the seniors and juniors on each team were playing each other again as they had from peewees through bantams through junior varsity. All but two of the Prior Lake players (Jackson Jutting and goalie Drew Scites) that dressed for the game last night had skated on Prior Lake’s Association peewee A teams in 2010, 2011, and 2012. All but one of the players on the Burnsville team (goalie Brody AufDerHeide) played for the Burnsville Hockey Club’s peewee A teams in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Both peewee teams in 2010 and 2011 played in Minnesota Hockey’s District 6 and often they played each other with Prior Lake winning most of the games. As peewees, Prior Lake was the better team and dominated Burnsville in some of their games. That gap existed as bantams, but the Burnsville Hockey Club designated the bantam team that year as bantam A while Prior Lake designated their team bantam AA. The two teams still played each other twice, but not all that were on the ice last night played the bantam games. So does the gap close from peewees to varsity?
Burnsville goalie Brody AufDerHeide looks at the puck bouncing off the net on this shot that caromed off the end boards. Talk about temporary heart failure.
Last night on the ice, the Blaze varsity had narrowed the gap between the two teams since their peewee years. The Blaze forwards outshot the Lakers in the opening period 9-7. One of the Laker’s shots found the back of the net. Tanner Burggraaff scored a power play goal with five minutes left in the period to put Prior Lake up 1-0 going into the second period. The Lakers came out of the locker room revved up for a good second period. They played some of the best hockey seen this season in the second period. Period 2 opened with two great stops. Prior Lake goalie Drew Scites made a great stop moving left to right on a Blaze point blank shot from the edge of the right crease. Seconds after Scites’s save, the Lakers drew a cross checking penalty. As the penalty was ending, Prior Lake forwards got a rush on the Blaze net rolling. The first shot from the left side was stopped with the puck rebounding to the right slot to a Blaze player coming down the slot. Brody AufDerheide somehow managed to save the one-timer.
Burnsville’s power play had generated some shots on the Prior Lake goal, but nothing like the show put on by the Lakers’ power play. A minute after failing to score on the power play, the Blaze drew an elbowing penalty. For the next two plus minutes, Prior Lake’s power play dominated the Blaze penalty kill. They controlled the puck inside the Blaze zone and got tremendous pressure on the Burnsville net. AufDerheide somehow scrambled to make the stops until fifteen seconds after the power play ended. Still trapped in their zone, a Blaze defender delivered a hard check on Prior Lake defenseman Matt Denman. Denman, along the left boards, slid a pass to ninth grader Jackson Jutting. The check took the Blaze player out of the play, not the puck. Jutting (the only underclassman on the team), was in the left lower left face off circle. He dropped low toward the end boards but never moved the puck low. This resulted in the Blaze goalie opening his stance. Jutting put a quick shot through the five hole to put Prior Lake up 2-0. Denman got the assist.
With ten minutes to go in the second period, the Blaze bench went into high gear, using their first line players as a pair (Eric Otto and Roman Ahcan), the coaches tried to spot them to get offensive pressure and a score. But their problem was the Prior Lake bench countered. When Otto and Ahcan’s line came on the ice for face offs to start a shift, Prior Lake countered with their third line centered by Jutting with seniors Ryan Murray and Jack Schulze at wings. Jutting’s line play neutralized Otto’s line. That meant when Otto and Ahcan where spotted, they were dropped in against the Lakers #1 or #2 line. The pairing of Otto and Ahcan also created a Blaze line centered by Cade Borchardt with Donovan Johnson and Tyler Smith at wings. That line would eventually have some success, but Otto and Ahcan started to struggle as the second period ended from being contained by Jutting’s line and pressed by one of the Laker’s top two lines.
With five minutes left in the second period, the Laker’s trapped the Blaze defenders again in the Burnsville zone and peppered AufDerHeide in the nets. Another hard check by the Blaze resulted in a Burnsville rush into the Lakers' zone, the Prior Lake player skating slowly to the Laker bench. Connor Clemons, the Lakers leading scorer hit the ice coming off the bench at the Burnsville blue line just as the Prior Lake defense turned the Blaze rush. The Lakers’ defenders hit Clemons with a pass from inside the Laker zone for a solo rush on AufDerHeide for the third goal. Prior Lake led 3-0. Kevin Fellows and Jake Cohn got the assists. With 15 seconds left in the second period, Prior Lake picked up a slashing penalty trying to stop a Blaze solo rush on the Laker’s net. The period ended 3-0 with Prior Lake leading and out shooting Burnsville 13-10. The Blaze were tired and beaten at the end of the period.
Jackson Jutting's stick can be seen as he drives the puck through the 5-hole.
Prior Lake's Jackson Jutting (#19) celebrates scoring the winning goal putting Prior Lake up 2-1 in the second period.
The Blaze were tired and beaten at the end of the second period, but re-grouped and came back in the third period to cut the Laker lead to 3-1. They had Prior Lake struggling at the end of the third period. The Blaze two minute power play to open the period didn’t seem to exist. Burnsville did not get a shot on net as the Lakers easily cleared the puck. After the power play ended, the game was an up-and-down game with both teams going end-to-end and few shots on net. Burnsville did get the majority of the shots (outshooting the Lakers 8-2 in the period). The Lakers were content to dump the puck and that let Burnsville to move the majority of the playing time into the Lakers’ half of the ice. It also led to a Blaze goal. With nine minutes left to play, the Blaze’s Donovan Johnson came up with the puck on the low right end line in the Laker zone and fired a shot that went between the Laker goalie Scites and the right post catching the far left post for the score. The Lakers lead was cut to 3-1. Cade Borchardt got the assist. Burnsville had several good shots at the Prior Lake net in the last minutes of the game, but could not score. Prior Lake’s Tanner Burggraaff got an empty netter with 20 seconds left in the game. The Lakers won 4-1.
Connor Clemons scores the insurance goal putting Prior Lake up 3-0 at the end of the second period.
Notes
1. Third Period Blues: Prior Lake has added a third line with strength this season and should be ready to make a run to state. But they need to get by Eden Prairie and still suffer the “third period” blues. It is going to be tough to get to state, just ask Edina. Still the Lakers have a good shot this year with Minnetonka and Holy Family Catholic off to slow starts.
2.From peewees to varsity: As peewee A’s in 2012, Burnsville lost to Prior Lake’s peewee A team 11-1 and 4-0. The Blaze did not make the double elimination D6 playoffs that year. Prior Lake won everything that year, D6 regular season and playoff titles (beating Minnetonka), South Regional title (eliminating Edina), and state championship (beating Hermantown). As bantams two years later, Prior Lake’s Association put their top bantam players in D6 Bantam AA league; Burnsville put their top bantam players in D6 Bantam A league. The Burnsville Hockey Club’s bantam A team beat Prior Lake’s Bantam A team twice that year and lost to Prior Lake’s Bantam AA team twice.
3. Burnsville closes the gap: Last night on the ice, the Blaze varsity showed they had narrowed the gap between the two teams that existed as peewees and bantams but still lost. Closing the gap is a maturing thing. With peewees, players that have a natural talent for the game will prevail. At the varsity level in Minnesota, speed, strength, and game knowledge become more important. Most games are played with decisions made by players in split seconds that often mean the difference between winning and losing. The Blaze peewees of 2010, 2011, and 2012 showed they had closed the gap on the Prior Lake peewees in last night’s game. Both teams showcased talent, Prior Lake won because of they had a great second period of play. Burnsville lost because they could not get the right combinations going on the ice.
4. Gone Burnsville Peewee A Players: Two former Blaze peewees that left to play for other high school teams of note are Zach Risteau (first line at Benilde-St. Margaret’s) and Dalton Weigel (first line defense at Breck).
5. Gone Prior Lake Peewee A Players: Former Laker peewee Scott Reedy is playing for the USA U-17 team. Reedy leads the USA U17 team in scoring with 26 points/10 goals in 25 games playing mostly in the USHL. The U17 team beat Russia today 5-4 in overtime. Reedy had an assist; Grant Mishmash/Edina had a goal and an assist in that game.
6. Defense leads in scoring: Blaze defense man Nolan Sawchuk leads Burnsville in scoring after seven games. The high school season is entering its second quarter of games to be played this weekend.
7. Explosive speed: Prior Lake’s forwards are fast and so it was surprising to see the Blaze’s junior Roman Ahcan put on a burst of speed that caught a speedy Laker wing with a 10 foot lead along the right boards before Prior Lake could breakout on their zone. His brother, Jack Ahcan, graduated last year from Burnsville and is skating for the Cedar Rapids Roughriders in the USHL this season before joining St. Cloud State next season. Jack, a defenseman, is among the Roughrider scoring leaders this season. Another brother, Grant Ahcan, is skating for the Burnsville Hockey Club’s Bantam A team this season.
8. Idaho: Blaze goalie Brody AufDerHeide played youth hockey for the Boise (Idaho) Youth Amateur Hockey Association.
Second period attack
Third period attack
Third period attack
What is Next?
Prior Lake plays Eastview in a South Suburban game Saturday and Chanhassen next Tuesday. Both games are at the Dakotah Ice Center. Both are interesting. The Lightning has two speedy lines so it will be interesting to see how they match-up against Prior Lake. Eastview can be a contender for the South Suburban title this year and for the Section 3AA ticket to the Xcel. They tied St. Thomas Academy earlier this season 2-2. The Chanhassen game will be a key Section 2AA match-up that will impact Section 2AA rankings in February. The Lakers play only three Section 2AA teams this year (Eden Prairie, Chanhassen, and Shakopee). The Lakers one loss was to Eden Prairie and they are likely to beat Shakopee twice. A loss to Chanhassen can be a big hurt in next February rankings. The Lakers play in the Sports Authority Tournament held by Benilde-St. Margaret’s over the holidays. They play Elk River, Moorhead and Holy Family Catholic in that tourney.
Burnsville gets two trips to Apple Valley Sports Arena playing Apple Valley Saturday and Eastview Wednesday. Both games are against South Suburban and Section 3AA foes and will count twice. The Blaze will play in the Schwan Cup tourney over the holidays at Ridder Arena on the University of Minnesota campus. The Blaze have no easy tournament path to the championship game. They play Eden Prairie in the quarterfinals. The other quarterfinal bracket game matches Hill-Murray and Wayzata.