BAA: Wayzata Wins!

Wayzata goalie Danny Fraga celebrates after championship saves like these against Edina and White Bear Lake Sunday.

The Edina Invitational kicked off a 68 team, seven tourneys, last Wednesday with games played at three different area arenas, Braemar and Minnesota Made Arenas in Edina and Bloomington Ice Gardens in Bloomington. The seven tourneys played went from squirt A to bantam AA covering players from 9-14 years old. The games were spread over five days and ended Sunday with a round championship games including the bantam AA championship game traditionally the last game played Sunday night. Last night that game was played in front of an uncharacteristically sparse crowd. It was a good game on the ice and a good end to typical well run Edina tourney. This post covers the Bantam AA tourney from pool play to championship. Congratulations to Wayzata, the winner and White Bear Lake, the runner-up. This year the Bantam AA tourney consisted of 12 teams placed in three different pools (green, white, and gold). The three pool champions and a wild card team (with the best record) are then seeded #1 to #4. Sunday morning the four seeded teams play a semifinal game with the winners playing in the evening championship game and the losers playing earlier for third place.

Gold Pool Finish: #1 Edina, #2 Sibley, #3 St. Paul Capitals, and #4 St. Cloud

Edina and Sibley won their first two games. The Hornets beat St. Cloud 9-0 and St. Paul Capitals 7-5. Sibley had a tougher time beating St. Paul Caps 4-2 and St. Cloud 2-1. Against the Caps, Luke Williams and Nick Davison scored late in the second period to break open a 1-1 tie game and go on to win. Davison got the game winner putting Sibley up 3-1 going into the third period. Will Herzog got the first period goal for the Warriors and Riley O’Brien scored an insurance goal early in the third period. Jack Nei and Rob Klein scored for the Caps. Warrior goalie Robbie Wolfe got the win. Against St. Cloud, Sibley’s Connor O’Brien scored the game winner in the first 30 seconds of the third period putting the Warriors up 2-1. St. Cloud’s Logan Lommel scored five minutes into the opening period to put the Granite City team up 1-0. Sibley’s Will Herzog scored in the opening minute of the second period to tie the game. Warrior goalie Muzzy Donohue got the win stopping 25 of 26 St. Cloud shots on net.

Edina beat St. Cloud 9-0 and beat St. Paul 7-5 to set up a Saturday noon battle between the NOW ranked #2 and #3 teams. The #2 Hornets outshot St. Cloud 30-10 in the game despite having a player in the penalty box for almost one third of the game. Mason Nevers and Cole Cavanagh each scored twice and had one assist in the game. Beau Luther had a goal and an assist; Jack Sabre, Aaron Frenkel, Ben Dexheimer, and Peter Colby each had a goal; and Drew Bishop had three assists. Edina goalie Jack Wolfe got the shutout win. The Hornets had a tougher time against the Caps but the 7-5 win meant the Hornets had the key tie breaker (goal differential +7 for the wildcard before playing #3 Sibley) and would advance to Sunday’s Championship round win or lose against the Warriors Saturday. St. Paul took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period against Edina. Truman Stewart and Jack Nei scored the first period goals; Frenkel scored the lone Hornet goal. Two quick goals by Frenkel and Bishop put Edina up 3-2 five minutes into the second period. Dexheimer and the Caps’ Tommy Brandt traded goals with three minutes to play in the second and the Hornets’ Colby scored with ninety seconds left to play. The second period ended with the Hornets leading 5-3. Frenkel got his third score in the first minute of the third period for a hat trick to put Edina up 6-3. The Caps’ Stewart scored with ten minutes to play to cut the lead to 6-4. Edina’s Colby came back with a goal to ice the game 7-4 with five minutes to play. Matthew Gleason scored the final Caps goal to end the scoring 7-5. The Hornets outshot the Caps 43-20 in the game. Edina goalie Ramsey Bell got the win.

Edina bench in the closing minutes of Sunday mornings semifinal game against Wayzata.

Green Pool Finish: #1 Jefferson, #2 Minneapolis Storm, #3 Roseville, and #4 Chaska/Chanhassen

BAA Green Pool Finish: #1 Jefferson, #2 Minneapolis Storm, #3 Roseville, and #4 Chaska/Chanhassen

Jefferson beat Roseville 3-2 and beat Minneapolis 2-1 in their first two games. When Minneapolis and Chaska/Chanhassen tied in their pool game and Roseville beat the Storm Hawks Friday, the lowly NOW ranked #36 Jags had won the Green Pool before beating Chaska/Chanhassen 1-0 in their third pool game. Winning the Green Pool sets up a potential repeat of last year’s Edina Invitational Bantam AA championship game. Jefferson upset Edina 3-1 in that game. In edging Roseville, the Jags took a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period on a goal by Gavin Wendorf and added two more scores by Carson Jacobs and Keegan Goodin in the second period to take a 3-1 lead into the third period. Two minutes into the final period, Ryan O’Neill scored his second goal of the game for Roseville cutting Jefferson’s lead to 3-2 and created a chaotic finish that saw two Jefferson players and one Roseville player sitting the last half of the third period. The Jags’ goalie Basil Kamseh shut down the Raiders in the final minutes to earn the win. Then Kamseth stayed in the nets for Saturday’s 1-0 win stopping 14 Chaska shots to earn the shutout. Jefferson’s Justin Johnson scored the winner against the Storm Hawks halfway through the third period. Jefferson scored one goal late in the second period and the game winner with a minute left to play in their 2-1 win over Minneapolis. The Storm’s Henry Bitter put Minneapolis up 1-0 scoring in the first period. Carter Eha’s second period goal tied the game 1-1 and the Jags’ Cole Jungwirth got the third period game winner. Goalie Max Ritchie stopped 31 of 32 shots to earn the win. Ritchie and Kamseh were the top goalie team in the tourney stopping 65 of 68 shots in pool play (96%).

Jefferson's Justin Johnson watches his shot bouncing in the Chaska net in the Jags 1-0 win in pool play.

Jefferson celebrates making Championship Sunday. A "Cinderella Team" again, the Jags three wins at Edina were a big surprise.

BAA Gold Pool Finish: #1 White Bear Lake, #2 Blaine, #3 Wayzata, and #4 Rocky Mountain Rough Riders 14U Tier 1 (01 or 2001 born) AAA

White Bear Lake swept all three of their pool games beating Wayzata 3-2, Blaine 4-2, and the Rockey Mountain Rough Riders 7-0. In the Bears win over Wayzata, they built a 3-0 lead in the first half of the game behind goals by Sam Newpower, Chase Bill, and Spencer Millard. Wayzata’s Joel Matthews scored twice in the second period cutting the Bears lead to 3-2 going into the third period. Vint Wyatt got the win for the Bears stopping 24 of 26 Trojan shots. Against Blaine, the Bears again built an early 2-1 lead at the end of the first and added another two goals in the second to lead 4-2 going into the third period. Millard and Bill scored the first period Bear goals. Blaine’s William Hillman scored. Bill scored again in the second period. The Bears Brady O’Brien got the second goal. Carsen Richels scored for the Bengals. The third period was again scoreless. White Bear Lake’s goaltender Wyatt got the shutout in the Bears 7-0 win over the Colorado Rough Riders. The Bears’ Cameron Berg scored twice and got one assist to lead White Bear in scoring against the RR’s. Owen Gallatin, Henry Fusco, Tate Stanfield, Blake Meister, and Grant Hofeld each scored a goal. The Rough Rider goalie Luther Banks stopped 25 of 32 White Bear Lake shots.

Blaine misses this shot in their 3-0 loss to Wayzata. The Trojans advanced to the championship round via the wildcard by beating Blaine.

After losing to White Bear, Wayzata beat the Rough Riders 6-2 Friday. The eventual Bantam AA champion Trojans were tied by Rocky Mountain 1-1 at the end of the first period. Reid Sanders scored the Trojan goal; Peyton Anderson scored unassisted for the RRs. Wayzata’s Nick Gardner and Matthews scored in the second period to put Wayzata up 3-1 going into the third. Luke Goetz scored twice and Tommy Bergsland scored once to ice the game for Wayzata in the third period. Dylan Ridley scored the second Rocky Mountain goal. The winner of Saturday’s game with Blaine had a shot at the wild card. The Trojan’s beat the Bengals behind the goaltending of Trevor Wong. Wong stopped all 16 Bengal shots for the win. Wayzata scored three times in the first period to take a 3-0 lead that they never surrendered. Mulrenin scored twice and Goetz once in the opening period. The win gave Wayzata the wild card edging Roseville in the goal differential tie breaker 6-4. Rocky Mountain lost all three pool games but ended their visit on a positive note tying St. Cloud 2-2. The RRs’ Noland Sargent and Colin Walter each scored a goal; St. Cloud’s Calvin Gronseth scored twice.

White Bear Lakes' Cameron Berg scores on this shot to put the Bears up 1-0 in the first period of the championship game against Wayzata. The two teams met twice during the tourney. The Bears won the first game 3-2 in Gold Pool play.

Championship Sunday

First Semifinal: Wayata Beats Edina 6-5. In the first Bantam AA semifinal game played Sunday morning, #4 seeded Wayzata beat #1 seeded Edina 6-5. The winning score came on a last minute goal by Reid Sanders. Wayzata led 3-2 going into the third period powered by the line centered by Joel Matthews with Ryan Mulrenin at wing. The Trojan duo figured in the first four Wayzata scores. Edina’s Peter Colby scored the opening goal halfway through the first period. Luke Fairchild tied the game 1-1 a minute later with Matthews and Mulrenin getting the assists. Wayzata’ Mulrenin scored twice in the second period with Matthews assisting on both goals. The Hornets’ Mason Nevers got a late third period score. Wayzata led 3-2 going into what turned out to be a wild third period.

A Wild Third Period

Edina blitzed the Wayzata defense in the opening minutes controlling the puck in the Trojan zone but could not score. Their offense had a developed a number of good scoring chances off breakaways that developed low in the Wayzata zone. For the first five minutes of the third, Edina dominated play getting good shots low left only to miss weak side right open net rebounds. With five minutes gone, the Hornet defense at the blue line points started to get anxious. They became more and more aggressive trying to hold the puck in the Trojan zone. The anxious defense cost the Hornets. It started when Matthews banged the puck through a Hornet defense man at the right point, the defense man lost control of the puck and took himself out of the play. Matthews set sail for the Hornet net. He beat the Hornet goalie Ramsey Bell to put Wayzata up 4-2. Edina came back more aggressive and were caught too deep. This time Wayzata generated a three man rush and after being stopped initially on the play, Sanders scored off a melee when a shot from the left low faceoff circle rebounded to him in the left crease for the put back. With just over four minutes left in the game, Wayzata scored again to take a seemingly insurmountable 5-2 lead.

The Hornets called time with four minutes left in the game. When the puck was dropped again, Edina pulled their goalie. Edina’s fourth forward on the ice did not float randomly, but anchored his play to the left boards while the other three forwards collapsed their right side creating a pile in front of the Wayzata net and open space on the right side. The Hornet then use pressure to drive the Wayzata breakout to the left. The Trojans could not beat the “anchored forward”. Edina scored three goals to tie the game in the next 90 seconds. The first goal came in less a minute after the time out. A hard shot from the left rebounded into the slot to Peter Colby. Having time, Colby took sight and drove the puck past Wayzata’s goalie Danny Fraga to cut the Trojan lead to 5-3. Thirty seconds later, Edina scored again. The scoring play started with the Hornets turning a left breakout into a low rush and shot on the net from the left side. The puck rebounded out to the Hornets’ Nevers in the slot. Nevers buried the puck to cut the Trojans lead to 5-4. Thirty seconds later, Edina tied the score. They got the puck low and worked it to the right point area Drew Bishop. Bishop’s quick shot beat Fraga to tie the game 5-5. Bell returned to the Edina net with two plus minutes to play. The Wayzata game winner came in the last minute of the overtime period. It was started when the Trojans’ Nick Gardner five foot shot from behind the end line left crease rebounded into the slot to Sanders. Sanders used his back hand to beat Edina goalie Bell high left for the game winner. It was a great period of hockey.

Edina's Peter Colby scores to start a late three goal Hornet comeback.

Edina's Mason Nevers scores to make a 5-4 game.

Edina's Drew Bishop (#6 right) celebrates tying the game 5-5.

Edina's defense over shifted on this play intent on cutting off the shooter low right. He got the shot off and the puck rebound to Wayzata's Reid Sanders #6 for the winning goal.

Second Semifinal: The Bears beat the Jags 4-1

The “Cinderella run” of the Jags to repeat as the Edina Invitational Bantam AA champs ended Sunday morning with their 4-1 loss to the Bears in the championship semifinals. The two teams matched up reasonably based on their pool play. Both swept their pools beating good teams by fair margins. Each was skating three lines and getting good play out of all three and both defenses and goaltenders were playing well in the tourney. The first five minutes of the opening period saw both teams rolling all three lines and an evenly played game. The Jefferson bench was going with shorter shifts and at the five minute mark was about to create a mismatch of getting their top line on the ice against the Bears third line out when White Bear Lake drew a penalty. That should be a good thing for Jefferson. But not this Sunday morning. The Jags went to their power play unit that pulled players from two of their lines. They got some pressure on the power play, but couldn’t score. Jefferson had problems after that transitioning from the power play back to a normal rotation. With few stoppages, Jefferson scrambled for the next three shifts with the Bears pressuring the Jags defense in the Jefferson zone. With five minutes left in the period, the Bears’ Cameron Berg picked up a rebound below the left face off dot and soloed in on goalie Max Ritchie beating Ritchie low to put White Bear Lake up 1-0. A Jefferson interference penalty a minute later put the Bears on the power play. A minute into the power play, Sam Newpower scored for White Bear Lake. The Bears led the Jags 2-0 at the end of the first period. Jefferson outshot the Bears 7-5 in the period, but struggled to get their lines rolling as the period ended.

Two successive penalties were called on Jefferson at the start of the second period. The Jags killed the two penalties but as in the opening period could not get their rotation going. The second Jefferson penalty also carried a 10 minute misconduct. Jefferson’s lines were tiring. For the last ten minutes of the second period, White Bear Lake carried the play into the Jefferson zone and pressured them forcing a number of long shifts. Late in the period, the Bears Billy Rose beat the Jefferson defense. Skating down the right slot, Rose fired beating Jags goalie Ritchie to put the Bears up 3-0. Each team scored in the final period. White Bear Lake’s Rose got his second goal of the game and Jefferson’s Justin Johnson scored. Bears won 4-1 and would play Wayzata for the championship in the last tourney game Sunday evening. Jefferson and Edina, the two teams that clashed for the last Edina Tourney Bantam AA championship last January in front of a crowd about a thousand strong, would meet for third place earlier.

White Bear Lake scores to take a 3-0 lead over Jefferson in their 4-1 semifinal win.

Championship game: Wayzata beats the Bears 2-1

It took most of the first period for the two teams to get rolling. Once they did, the game became a fast skating game that forced the goalies to make some big stops at the top of the crease. Both teams played the first period like it was their fifth game in four days, tired. The game opened with the puck moving slow and often left dangling alone on the ice. Two Wayzata penalties halfway through the first period resulted in some Bear pressure but no scores. White Bear final broke the scoreless deadlock late in the period. The Bears’ Cameron Berg beat the Wayzata defense at the Trojan blue line right and fired from the top area of the right faceoff circle.

With the Wayzata goalie Danny Fraga buried under a mass of players, White Bear's Jack Steidl tries to swing the puck for the tying goal.

His shot beat Bears’ goalie Vint Wyatt in the upper right corner of the net for the 1-0 Bears lead. Berg’s goal came with less than 30 seconds left in the period. White Bear outshot Wayzata 9-7 in the period. Less than three minutes into the second period, Wayzata tied the game 1-1. The Trojan’s Joel Matthews beat the Bears forwards along the boards in the Wayzata zone and succeeded in knocking the puck forward to Ryan Mulrenin skating full stride in the neutral zone. Mulrenin beat the Bears goalie Danny Fraga on a hard shot from the top of the left faceoff circle. The remainder of the period was spent with Wayzata pressuring the Bears in the White Bear zone most of the first half of the period and White Bear pressuring Wayzata in the Trojan’s zone in the second half of the period. The second period ended in a 1-1 tie with the Bears holding an edge in shots on goal 18-17.

Hockey, mom, apple pie, and Chevrolet.

Third Place game: Edina beats Jefferson 7-0. Edina’s Aaron Frenkel scored a hat trick, Liam Malmquist scored once and added two assists, and Mason Nevers scored twice and picked up two assists as the three Hornets led Edina to a third place win over Jefferson 7-0. Drew Bishop scored the seventh goal for Edina. Hornet goalie Jack Wolfe got the shutout. Nevers led the tourney in points (14). He was second in goals (7) to Frenkel’s 8 scores. Wolfe was the top goaltender in the tourney posting a 3-0 record (with two shutouts giving up three goals and stopping 94% of the shots on net.

.....and the Vikings beat Green Bay. Do they play next Sunday?