PWAA: OMG wins title, playoffs began
Eden Prairie's goalie has the rebounding puck rolling over his helmet
Hockey in Minnesota hits is at its peak in February each year. February is the month for playoffs at all levels of the sport. Girls High School Hockey is already underway and Boys High School Hockey will follow in two weeks. This coming week, youth hockey playoffs start at the district level for all the youth levels that have state tourneys. All the levels of play, except for Bantam AA and Peewee AA, the seeding is fairly complete with most District playoffs starting Friday February 12 and ending February 21. This post is the first of a series that will summarize peewee AA and peewee A playoffs that will start play next week. This first post starts at the top with the combined District 3/5/6 Peewee AA league managed this season by District 3. The combined D3 league’s top three teams are NOW ranked #1 Osseo/Maple Grove, #2 ranked Edina, and #3 ranked Eden Prairie. Last night at the Maple Grove Community center, OMG beat Eden Pairie 5-1 to finish their regular league season play with 16-1-0 record and remains #1 in Peewee AA hockey in Minnesota.
OMG's Sam Jacobs (behind the Eagle defender) scores the fourth Crimson goal in OMG's 5-1 win. OMG ended their regular season winning D3's combined Peewee AA league. The Crimson play their first D3 playoff game February 17 at the St. Louis Park Rec Cente
Minnesota Hockey organizes the tourney in 4 year increments
Minnesota Hockey has organized the Peewee AA State Tourney play down into three levels, district playoffs (or district names their #1 seed), four regional tournaments, and one state tournament. Every four years, Minnesota Hockey defines the process to be used for the following four year. By doing so, they have a developed a fair approach to matching teams. Peewee AA (and Bantam AA) approach differs from other levels. Peewee A and Peewee B1 (and Bantam A/B1) play downs are not the same as Peewee AA or Bantam AA. Those will be discussed in the next post. For the peewee AA play down, there is a split approach on how teams are selected from districts to participate in the four regional tourneys.
The North Regional is allocated to Districts 11, 12, 15, and 16. Each district sends two teams to the North Regional. They did that last year and will do it for the two following years. The other three regionals (East, South, and West) will consist of 24 seeded teams seeded from the remaining districts (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10) one of the three 8 team double elimination tournaments. The top two finishers in each of the four regionals gets a ticket to the state tourney.
The above table is an excerpt from the Minnesota Hockey Handbook. It applies to Peewee AA and Bantam AA only. The columns in the top table list by year the district hosting the tourney (under 2016, the South Regional is hosted by District 9). In the bottom table left the matches for the North Regional quarterfinal round are listed under the 2015-2016 column. In the table right, the matches by seeded are listed for the East, West, and South Regionals.
The North Regional Tournament will consist of Northern Minnesota teams (NOW ranked #9 Duluth East, #11 Cloquet, and #29 Hermantown from District 11, #8 Grand Rapids from District 12, #37 Moorhead and #43 Brainerd from District 15, and #25 Bemidji and #15 Roseau from District 16). The rules state that each district will bring two teams to the North Regional to be played at Roseau this year. With District 12 sending only one team, Minnesota Hockey leaves the decision to the decision on the eighth team to the participating directors but Hermantown (ranked in the 20’s) would be hard to ignore.
That leaves 35 peewee AA teams competing for 24 regional seeds. Currently, the top 30 NOW ranked peewee AA teams include six Northern Minnesota teams. Teams, looking for a regional seed once district playoffs are over, that are in the top 30 will have the edge in the seeding process for the East, South, and West Regional. Once seeded, Minnesota Hockey has already determined based on seed who and where a team will play. For example, the #1 seeded team (most likely Osseo/Maple Grove) will play the #24 seeded team (St. Paul Capitals AA based on current NOW rankings) in the opening game of the South Regional hosted by District 9 in Owatonna. With the Owatonna Hockey Association’s peewee AA team having a good season and ranked #19, they should end up at home in the South Regional. Teams seeded #18 or #19 will play in the South Regional.
In the combined D3 league, two District 5 teams, STMA and Buffalo are struggling. The third D5 team, St. Cloud, is not. For the Knights and the Bison, their best chance to get to a regional is to beat St. Cloud for District 5’s #1 seed. The loss would not eliminate the #10 ranked St. Cloud team from the regionals. They would likely be seeded regardless of the D5 playoff outcome. Four of the combined league teams will play in District 3’s peewee AA playoffs (#1 OMG, #24 Minneapolis, #13 Wayzata, and #32 St. Louis Park). Based on current standings, those playoffs would match OMG and St. Louis Park in one game and Minneapolis and Wayzata in the second game. The District 3 playoffs are double elimination and that helps Minneapolis and St. Louis Park.
St. Louis Park is likely to play OMG and will have to work hard to win that game. If they pulled an upset, the Orioles could move up sufficiently to take a regional seed or win D3’s #1 seed. If St. Louis Park loses, they get another shot by beating either Minneapolis or Wayzata in the second game and beating Minneapolis or Wayzata in the final playoff game. Minneapolis can’t afford two losses in the D3 playoffs either. They need to win at least one game. Wayzata and OMG can afford two D3 playoff losses and advance to the regionals.
District 6 has no playoff at the Peewee AA level. Their #1 seed automatically goes to the team that finishes highest in the league. After last night’s loss to OMG, Eden Prairie still has a narrow hold on the D6’#1 seed but has to hope Edina does not run the table on the Eagles by winning their last 12 points (four games). In the battle for second place in the combined D3 league, Edina has the edge over Eden Prairie.
February 4, 2016: The view from Maple grove community center made it a nice night to be out and about.
The NOW ranked #1 Osseo/Maple Grove Hockey Association's Peewee AA team took their first loss two weeks ago losing to Edina 4-2. That broke a 30 game win streak stated after losing their only game of the season to Edina 4-1. OMG clinched the league title last Sunday with a win over St. Michael/Albertville. Last night at the Maple Grove Community Center, the OMG added three points. A win meant more to Eden Prairie who is locked in a battle with Edina for second place. A second place finish should give the Eagles D6's #1 seed to the regionals. For Osseo/Maple Grove, it was their last regular season game of the season. A loss would not be a good way to start the playoffs in two weeks, but the Osseo/Maple Grove fans did not have to worry. The Crimson offense was on fire.
It took Osseo/Maple Grove 32 seconds to score their first goal. Carrying the puck into the right slot, a Crimson forward put a hard shot on Eden Prairie goalie Cooper Czech. Czech made a good stop with his left leg pad, but the puck rebounded to the open weak side Chris Kernan. Kernan rapped the puck in the net to put OMG up 1-0. Sam Jacobs and Brandon Reller got the assists. For Czech, the first goal was an ominous sign that he would face a relentless fast moving Crimson offense. The OMG attack continued. Another Crimson attack ended up with Cade Wessman in the slot left on a rebounding puck. Wessman scored with Jonathon Halstrom getting the assist. At the end of the first period, OMG led 2-0.
On this first period play, Eden Prairie goalie Cooper Czech makes a diving glove save on a weak side OMG play.
Eden Prairie’s defense stiffened in the second period. The Eagles started to tie up the OMG forwards in the offensive zone and beat the points on the breakout. With eight minutes left to play, the Eagles drew a checking penalty and held the Crimson off the scoreboard for the first 90 seconds of the penalty kill until OMG drew a checking penalty. The 30 second 4-on-4 went scoreless, but the Eagles did not adjust to their 5-on-4 advantage once their penalty ended. OMG’s Justin Janicke succeeded in knocking the puck forward at the Eagles blue line and beat Eagles' goalie Czech on a solo rush to score a shorthanded goal. OMG led 3-0. Brock Faber got the assist.
The Eagles opened the third period with a quick goal off a melee at the left crease. Drew Holt got the goal with Carter Batchelder getting the assist. The goal was scored in the firs minute of play and cut the Eagles lead to 3-1. A minute later, the Eagles almost scored a second goal, OMG recoverred from the near miss and launched a counter attack by immediately getting the puck low in the Eagles zone. A minute later, a shot of Czech's pads resulted in a rebound to Sam Jacobs in the left slot area. Jacobs powered a shot through two Eagle defenders beating Czech’s glove. OMG led 4-1. Kernan got the assist.
At that point in the game, with 10 minutes left to play, OMG drew a hooking penalty. The Crimson had a great penalty kill with the four Crimson forwards controlling the play in neutral ice and launching attacks on the Eagles nets off quick passes to a solo breaking forward at Eden Prairie's blue line. With five minutes to play, Wessman scored his second goal of the game to end the scoring 5-1. Grant Zick and Ian Barbour got the assists.
The game started at 6:30 and ended just past 7:30. That included a five minute warm-up. The two teams played three 15 minute stop time periods in 55 minutes. The game was fast on the ice and flew by with few stops in the action. It was a sign of two good teams playing hockey. The Eagles have three games left and need to win all three to have a chance to beat Edina for second place. With no D6 peewee AA playoff, a second place finish should get either Edina or Eden Prairie D6's #1 seed to the regionals. Edina also has three games left including Prior Lake, a team the Hornets last played in early November winning 6-2.
Eden Prairie goalie Cooper Czech just realizes the puck went into the net on this hard shot by Cade Wessman (top of the crease). Wessman's score put 5-1 OMG up 5-1. OMG wins the D3 combined Peewee AA title.
3. Cooper Czech makes another stop on this point blank shot.
Congratulations to the Osseo/Maple Grove Regular Season Champs
The Osseo/Maple Grove Association’s peewee AA team shows what good coaching can achieve at the peewee level. This is not a “packed team” from last year as some associations have done and are doing. Of the 15 forwards on this season’s team, eight players are returning from last year’s peewee AA team and seven played for the association’s peewee A team. At the Edina Invitational in late December (a tourney that they won), the Crimson peewees played good hockey. Last night they played a better, more cohesive game. It was good hockey, as good as any have played since the Edina Association’s 2012-2013 Peewee AA team that won the state tourney and went unbeaten in Minnesota. The Hornets only loss was to the nationally ranked #2 Honeybaked AAA Tier 1 team that season.
Here is what is different about the OMG Peewee AA team from other peewee teams that reflects the coaching. Most peewee AA/A teams in Minnesota consist of players who have the skills to skate and play at fast speeds. The OMG Association’s peewee AA team has the same skills but plays like a football team in that they use different plays requiring different formations on the ice during the game to keep the pressure on their opponent. They are one of the few peewee teams that has learned to cycle the puck in the offensive zone at speed successfully. The few teams that cycle involves a three player weave around in a corner in the offensive zone. Most teams that do this can only excute at slower speeds, but not OMG. That is one big difference. The second is OMG forwards last night rotated into a three player weave and often dropped a defenseman low as part of the weave to sustain the cycling with the forward out of the weave moving to a defensive point. Third, in addition to the weave, the OMG forwards could work the puck around the perimeter of the offensive zone quickly bouncing the puck off all three boards at the correct angles to complete passes. Fourth, their defense men at the points could take a pass with the puck bouncing off the side boards correctly and box out a forward. Fifth on OMG's penalty kill, once the puck was in Eden Prairie’s zone, they would widen their defensive box and move the box into the neutral zone. If they captured the puck, they would pass backward and move as a unit passing the puck around the Eden Prairie forwards working on setting up a play to a breaking forward at their opponent’s center blue line.
To all this, add a countless number of little things that the players have been coached to do that they executed. They are a talented team that has been coached very well. For a coach to achieve this level of play against a solid defensive team in Eden Prairie, are coaches that have to be congratulated.
But with all the laudatory comments, there are some negatives. Two things that remain a problem to the OMG team this year is triggered by their losses to Edina. Edina has always worked hard and will be a barrier to OMG’s state tourney title hopes. The Hornets exploit potential weaknesses.
Edina will counter the OMG offense especially if the Crimson cannot consistently complete their play off the cycling. It is not enough to cycle. Last night, against Eden Prairie, they drove the Eagle defense crazy in the corners and found the open player in the slot. But OMG could not consistently get an effective shot off on the Eagles’ net. They have to cycle with some success their plays. Second, OMG has consistently slowed in the third period after getting the lead. They did that at the Edina Invitational and they did that last night. And it showed. Eden Prairie scored early in the third period to cut the Crimson lead to 3-1 and had a great opportunity a minute later to score again, but fate would not have it.
Still OMG has improved in the past month and have showed where peewee hockey can be played. Peewee aged kids learn from playing against and watching their peers play. OMG peewee AA coaches are to be congratulated. The Crimson may not win state, but peewee hockey in Minnesota will be better because of what they have done with their team this season. The Crimson team is a fun team to watch.
OMG's Justin Janicke (#8) turns after scoring this shorthanded goal on a solo rush from the Eden Prairie blue line to put the Crimson up 3-0.