NOW ranked #8 Mankato Mavericks easily beat host Red Wing in the opening game of the tourney.  It was surprising how easy the win was.  Mankato came prepared to play and scored seven goals in the opening period behind a hat trick by Layten Liffrig.  Two of Liffrig’s scores were unassisted; one more and he would have had what is known as a “pure hat trick”, three unassisted scores in the period.  Liffrig did score three more times to finish the game with seven, five were unassisted.  Somewhere in that thought is almost two “pure hat tricks”.  Jacob Schreiber, Jacob Kanzenbach, and Quintin Steindl each got one goal.  Hunter Meixner and Ben Carlson each scored two goals.  Mankato outshot the Wingers 46-1 in the game.  The Mavericks came prepared to play.  

Halfway through the opening period, the game was tied 0-0.  Albert Lea drew a tripping penalty.  A minute later, the Bulldogs’ Brody Lamb scored a power play goal to give Dodge County a 1-0 lead.  The Bulldogs had the edge in play in the first period outshooting the Tigers 10-8.  Dodge County scored twice in the first two minutes of second period to take a 3-0 lead.  The Bulldogs defense shut down Albert Lea for the rest of the second period holding the Tiger’s offense to just six shots on goal.  Charles Blaisdell got the goal to put Dodge up 2-0; Lamb got the second goal making the score 3-0 going into what turned out to be a wild third period.  In the first five minutes of the final period, Dodge County added three more scores to take a 6-0 lead with 10 minutes left to play.  The Bulldogs got scores from Isaac Rogne, Carl Schutz, and Matt Donovan.  It took five minutes of running time before Albert Lea could score.  The Tigers’ Blake Ulve started the comeback scoring to cut the lead to 6-1.  Four minutes later, Tucker McKinney scored to continue the Tiger rally cutting the lead to 6-2.  A minute later Ulve scored again to cut the lead to 6-3.  In the last minute of play, Isaiah Vanryswyk scored to make it 6-4.  Then time ran out, Dodge County won 6-4.

Northfield finished in second place behind Mankato.  In regular season play, they had beat The Bulldogs (St.Peter/LeSueur) three times by an average score of 9-1.  This opening game proved to be tough for the Bulldogs, but they played better in the playback games.  The Bulldog Hockey Association supports a cooperative sponsorship program between Cleveland High School, LeSueur-Henderson High School, Tri-City United High School and St. Peter High School.  Offically, their high school team is known as LSHSPTTCUC Bulldogs.  But they call themselves The Bulldogs and so does YHH.  Their varsity had a good season in the Big South Conference.  The Bulldogs varsity always seems to play well and finished this season with a 15-10-0 record.  They will likely play Rochester Lourdes in a key Section 1A game this week.  Don’t be surprised if they win.  

Halfway through the third period of their opening round game, #10 ranked Faribault and Winona were tied 4-4.  Then, in the space of two minutes, the Falcons scored twice.  Faribault’s Zach Siegert got the game winner and Jackson Reineke got the insurance goal giving the Falcons a 6-4 goal and the eventual win.  But for the first 38 minutes of the game, it was well played game between two teams determined to win and move on.  Winona’s Cameron Jensen scored the opening goal of the game in the first three minutes of play with Matt Thesing scoring a minute later to put the Winhawks up 2-0.  Faribault’s Blake Vinar scored two minutes later to cut the lead to 2-1.  Faribault outshot the Winhawks 10-6 in the opening period.  Halfway through the second period, the Falcons’ Jackson Reineke scored unassisted to tie the game 2-2.  Two minutes later, Winona’s Thesing scored his second goal to put the Winhawks up again 3-2.  With two minutes left to play in the period, Faribault tied the game again on a goal by David Nesburg.  The Falcons’ Brody Pavel scored a buzzer beater to put Faribault up 4-3 going into the third period.  Three minutes into the third period, Winona tied the game 4-4 on a goal by Ayden Ruesgen before Faribault scored the final two goals to win the game.  Faribault out shot the Winhawks 32-22 in the game.

Mankato-7 Faribault-2

In District 9 championship playoff game, Mankato scored three times in the opening period.  But with one minute to play in the period, Faribault’s Jacob Schreiber scored to cut Mankato’s lead to 3-1. The Mavericks’ Layten Liffrig continued his scoring playoff binge getting two first period goals.  Ben Carlson got a third goal.  Carlson one timed a pass from the end boards beating Falcons’ goalie Jack Knutson from the slot to put Mankato up 1-0.  Liffrig’s second goal was an opportunity goal.  When a hard shot from the slot resulted in the puck sliding behind Knutson, Liffrig was there to rap the puck in the net.     With ten seconds to play in the period, a Maverick checking penalty put the Falcons on the power play to open the second period.  Despite being outshot 16-4 in the period, Falcons were not out of the game when they returned for the second period of play.  Knutson had a good period of play in the nets and played a solid game facing 49 shots (YHH count) in the game and posting a 86% shots saved stat.

The Falcons’ power play never settled in the first two minutes of play in the second period.  Mankato’s penalty kill shut the Falcons’ power play down.  When Mankato drew a second penalty 30 seconds later (a two and ten), Faribault had another shot at a power play score to narrow the lead and again never got organized.  The Mavericks killed the second penalty.  For the next six minutes, the two teams battled with neither team scoring until Liffrig struck again.  This time, he took a short pass at the Faribault blue line, beat the defense and beat a screened Knutson in the upper right corner for the fourth Maverick goal.  The Mavericks simply wore down the Falcons in the third period.  Faribault, skating only two lines, tired.  Knutson faced early pressure as the Mavericks added three more scores.  Three minutes into the period, Jacob Kanzenbach scored, Brett Borchardt scored four minutes after Kanzenbach, and Aiden Prochaska scored with three minutes left to play.  Faribault’s Lucas Linnemann scored with thirty seconds left to play to end the game 7-2.

Mankato gets District 9’s #1 seed and will play at New Ulm in the South Regional.  Mankato will open the South Regional playing District 6’s #3 seed (YHH guess is Edina A or Burnsville).  Faribault will play Windom, District 4’s number two seed in the last game of the first round at New Ulm.    

Playback Bracket

Albert Lea-4 Red Wing-3 (overtime)

In the first elimination game of the tournament, Red Wing got a last minute goal from Hayden Zylka to tie the game 3-3 at the end of regulation time, but the Wingers could not hold the Tigers in overtime.  Albert Lea’s Logan Hacker scored the winning goal with two minutes to play sending the Tigers onward in the D9 playoffs and Red Wing home.  Red Wing’s Caden Benway got the first goal of the game.  On the power play, Benway beat the defense at the blue line, skated down the slot and beat the goalie to put the Wingers up 1-0.  The Tigers struck back, pressuring the Red Wing defense for the rest of the period, but could not score.  Despite outshooting Red Wing 13-5 in the period, they trailed 1-0 going into the second period.  Halfway through the second period, Red Wing drew a tripping penalty.  On the power play, the Tigers’ Markus Dempewolf scored the power play goal from the slot to tie the game 1-1.  Four minutes later, Dempewolf beat the Red Wing defense in the right faceoff circle and beat Red Wing goalie Calyn Blue with a hard shot that caught the roof of the net for the score and to put Albert Lea up 2-1.  The Tigers’ Isaiah Vanryswyk scored halfway through the third period to give Albert Lea a 3-1 lead before Red Wing mounted it’s comeback.

Two minutes after Vanryswyk’s score, Red Wing’s Will Wooden scored to cut the lead back to a single goal 3-2.  That set up Hayden Zylka’s tying goal with 45 seconds left to play.  Zylka beat the Tiger defense cutting across the crease right to left.  His shot bounced off the left goal post and slid along the goal line stopping against the Tigers’ goalie left leg pad.  Zylka continued his pressure after the shot resulting in the puck sliding backwards across the goal line for the score to tie the game and send it to overtime.  Goalie Calyn Blue had a good game for the Wingers stopping 42 of 47 (YHH count) Tiger shots saving 92% of the shots on net.  Albert Lea has size and talent in their forwards and that bodes well for the varsity in a few years.  This Red Wing team finished the season with a strong defense.  They also have some talent at forward.  With a solid defense, that should start to show at the bantam level next two years.  It was a good game and a tough way for the Wingers to end their season.  

Northfield-6 Albert Lea-2

Northfield scored two minutes into the first period on a goal by Spencer Klotz.  Chase Murtha scored a power play goal four minutes later to put Northfield up 2-0.  Ryan Will scored unassisted to put the Raiders up 3-0.  Late in the opening period, Albert Lea’s Samuel Witham scored to cut Northfield’s to 3-1.  The first period ended with the score 3-1.  The game tightened in the second period.  Albert Lea scored late with 10 seconds left in the period, to close the game to 3-2.  Five minutes into the third period, Northfield drew a hooking penalty.  Playing shorthanded on the penalty kill, the Raiders Joshua Kruger scored the key goal unassisted to put the Raiders’ up 4-2.  Three minutes later, Will got his second goal of the game.  Northfield led 5-2.  Late in the game, Klotz scored his second goal of the game.  Northfield won 6-2.  Albert Lea outshot Northfield 19-16 in the game.      

Dodge County-6 The Bulldogs-4

Dodge County beat The Bulldogs twice early in the season and beat the ‘Dogs again Sunday morning.  The win set up a match with Northfield for the #3 seed.  In that game, Northfield edged Dodge County 5-4 in overtime to advance to the South Regional.