BHS: Burnsville wins; Class AA update
The Blaze beat Rosemount, Cadets next
Sectional tournaments are getting down to the nitty gritty. If you are a Gold Rush fan, they are pulling the mats and going for the clean-up. After shifting through the pay dirt the past two weeks, sixteen gold nuggets will be panned. By this weekend, the sixteen will fill two state tourney brackets. The teams will be seeded. Everything will be readied. Final run to crown the two state hockey champs at the Xcel starts March 2nd and ends March 5th. This year's Class AA tourney already has new faces. Two of last year’s entrants, Edina and Blaine, are gone. Only Bemidji playing Moorhead looks strong as a returnee. The other five teams from last year’s Class AA field will be in a battle to get their Xcel ticket. In Class A, two time defending champs, East Grand Forks is in trouble. New Ulm, Spring Lake Park, New Prague, and St. Cloud Apollo are gone. Hermantown and Breck look to be the strongest of the potential remaining returnees. This posts leads with Burnsville’s 4-1 win over Rosemount in the Section 3AA semifinals and updates the Class AA playoff preview.
Burnsville's Cade Borchardt (#22) back hammers this pass into the Irish net to put the Blaze up 2-1. This score was the game winning goal.
Games played today, Thursday, and Friday will determine which sixteen teams will emerge with tickets to the Xcel and to the MSHSL Class AA and Class A tournament. Last Saturday, 30 more teams were washed away in play that saw the #1 team in the state, Benilde-St. Margaret’s, being eliminated. The top Lake Conference team, Minnetonka, was also eliminated and the two top teams in the Northwest Suburban Conference (Blaine and Centennial) were knocked out of the running. Blaine and Centennial were beaten by teams that finished third and fourth behind the two in the Northwest Suburban Conference regular season. Edina is out ending their streak of state tourney appearances at eight.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s was the #1 team in the state in regular season, but the Red Knights were upended by a physically strong Cretin-Derham Hall team. Blaine’s dynamic duo of Luke Notermann and Riley Tufte could not lead the Bengals to a fourth win this season over Maple Grove. The Bengals lost. And in a Saturday afternoon game played at Inver Grove Heights’ VMCC, the Burnsville Blaze beat the Irish 4-1. As noted here, the Blaze are a much improved team as they demonstrated beating Farmington at Farmington three weeks ago.
At some point in late December, the Blaze started to come together as a team. That just happens. Perhaps it happened because one of their strongest rooters and biggest fan is Cole Borchardt. Borchardt, one of the stars of past Blaze hockey teams, was injured two years ago in an automobile accident. He has attended most Blaze games this season. Burnsville struggled early in the season posting a 5-8-1 record in 2015. When the new year 2016 started, that changed. The Blaze posted an 8-2-1 record. In the eleven game stretch, the Blaze two losses were to Lakeville North 2-1 and Prior Lake 2-1. All eleven 2016 games were against South Suburban foes.
That is not insignificant with the potential for the South Suburban to send three teams to the Class AA at the Xcel (Lakeville North or Farmington and Prior Lake) and Burnsville. St. Thomas Academy beat Jefferson 6-3 in Section 3AA’s first semifinal game Saturday. It was their second 6-3 win in a row. In both games, the Cadets got key scoring from defenseman Jason Smallidge and Billy Jerry. They are efficient in their attack scoring 12 goals in 65 shots in the two games or one goal for every five shots. The Blaze and the Cadets will play each other at Ridder Arena 7:00 PM this Friday.
Burnsville-4 Rosemount-1
In the opening minutes of the first period, the Blaze’s Colton Kirschbaum broke free in the left faceoff circle and put a shot on Rosemount’s goalie Nick Hart. Hart made the tough save only to find Brenden Larsen standing at the top of the crease starting to bang the puck back into Hart’s pads. Hart held strong turning back Larsen’s point blank shot with Larsen’s stick bouncing off Hart’s pads. The puck popped into the top of the crease to Kirschbaum. The second Blaze forward had continued to move and was now trying to beat Hart to the puck teed up at the top of the crease. Hart’s dive beat Kirschbaum to the puck. On the scoreboard, that went down as a save. It was one of 34 saves Hart made during the game. It was the kind of save that Burnsville’s forwards forced Hart to make over and over again. The first period was a scoreless tie. The shots on goal were even, 11-10. Burnsville’s attack continued for most of the opening period. The game was played at a high tempo. The Irish’s best shot to score came on a shorthanded solo rush stopped by the Blaze goalie Nick Lee with six minutes left in the period.
The Blaze's Roman Ahcan puts away the weak side rebound to put the Blaze up 1-0.
This shot is on the way through the Blaze's Roman Ahcan (#3) legs to the net.
Burnsville's Eric Otto drives shot through Rosemount goalie Nick Hart's pads but the puck rebounds straight across the crease.
Burnsville took control of the game in the second period. In the first eight minutes of the period, the Irish defense battled holding off the Blaze offense until they drew a cross-checking penalty. A minute into the power play, a Blaze forward put a hard shot from the low right faceoff circle on Hart that rebounded to the open weak side. The Irish defense was caught over shifted right. The Blaze’s Roman Ahcan buried the puck to put the Blaze up 1-0. Cade Borchardt and Eric Otto got the assists. Burnsville led 1-0. Two minutes later, the Irish’s Grant Horsager put the puck on the Blaze net just inside the Burnsville blue line as Rosemount went for a line change. Horsager’s shot beat Blaze goalie Nick Lee to tie the game 1-1. Chad Hinkle got the assist. A minute later, Cade Borchardt scored the game winner. A Blaze player behind the Irish net hit Borchardt cutting across the slot with a quick pass. Borchardt one-timed the pass hammering the puck past Hart inside the right post before Hart could fully react. It was a great play. Otto and Nolan Sawchuk got the assists. Burnsville led 2-1. The Blaze outshot the Irish 20-7 in the second period.
Burnsville's Cade Borchardt (#22) scores the third Blaze goal. Borchardt would get a hat trick in the game.
Five minutes into the third period, the Blaze executed a neat three pass scoring play moving the puck right to left to right to Borchardt at the top of the crease. Borchardt’s quick shot beat Hart through the 5-hole for the insurance goal. The Blaze led 3-0 and held that lead launching a number of frontal attacks on Hart in the third period. Late in the game Borchardt scored an empty netter. Ahcan and Otto got the assists. Borchardt got the hat trick. He was involved in all four Blaze goals and that left his brother Cole smiling.
Class AA Update
The Section 1AA playoffs are down to the two expected teams. Lakeville North beat Rochester John Marshall 6-1 to advance to the championship game; Farmington beat Lakeville South 5-3 in the second semifinal. The two teams will play each other Friday at the Rochester Rec Center (game time 7:00 PM) for the ticket to the Xcel. North, seeded #1 has lost to #2 seeded Farmington twice this year 5-3 in early December and 1-0 in late January. This is an ultimate rivalry match. Historically the two, then small towns, Lakeville and Farmington competed in the Missota Conference. Lakeville North is the original Lakeville high school. The school district added North to their name when Lakeville South opened about 10 years ago. The two towns have grown and are now large city suburbs, but each retains its old “downtown” appeal and their high school sports rivalries. The two schools and towns have simply gotten bigger. When it comes to winning Friday’s hockey game, both teams will be ready. The Class AA defending champions, North (22-5-1) has been on a roll winning 17 of their last 18 games and has gotten stronger as the season progressed. Despite beating the Panthers twice this season, Farmington (17-9-1) has struggled at times as the season ended. Both teams are stocked with good players; North has junior Ryan Poehling on a roll. Poehling has posted 14 points/4 goals in the last five games. Farmington is led by a corps of six seniors (Erik Holmstrom, Wyatt Jensen, John Siebenaler, Grady Hauswirth, Tyler Jette, and Andy Meyer). This is going to be a fun game to watch.
Section 2AA has some turmoil going. Holy Family Catholic lost a controversial game to Eden Prairie 4-2 in the first semifinal game at Braemar Saturday. Prior Lake beat #1 seeded Minnetonka 3-2. The Eagles and the Lakers will play each other at Mariucci tonight. Game time is 8:00 PM. The two teams started this season playing each other. Eden Prairie won the game 6-3 behind Casey Mittlestadt’s four points. The Eagles won by scoring three unanswered goals in the last half of the second period. The game is a classic match-up between Lake Conference and South Suburban Conference teams. As a side note, players from both teams played for their association’s peewee A teams in the 2012 state peewee A tourney held in Alexandria. Prior Lake won the tourney.
In Section 3AA, St. Thomas Academy beat Jefferson 6-3 in Section 3AA’s first semifinal game Saturday. It was their second 6-3 win in a row in the playoffs. In both games, the Cadets got key scoring from defenseman Jason Smallidge and Billy Jerry. They are efficient in their attack scoring 12 goals in 65 shots in the two games or one goal for every five shots. Against Jefferson, St. Thomas Academy held the Jags to just 15 shots on goal. The Burnsville Blaze and the Cadets will play each other at Ridder Arena 7:00 PM this Friday for the Xcel ticket.
Section 4AA is down to three teams. Woodbury and Hill-Murray play a semifinal game tonight at Aldrich Arena in St. Paul. The winner will play #1 seeded Stillwater in the championship game Friday at Aldrich. Both games start at 7:00PM. The Hill has struggled as the season ended posting a 2-4-1 record in their last seven games. The Pioneers were outscored 17-19 in those games. They have not played Woodbury this season. Woodbury posted a 12-13 record in regular season. They closed the season with a 6-3 record with wins over Cretin-Derham Hall, White Bear Lake and Rosemount. One win was a 7-1 win over Park-Cottage Grove, a team that just lost to the St. Thomas Academy 6-3 in their sectional quarterfinals. The #6 seeded Royals upset #3 seeded Tartan in their quarterfinal game 3-1. Woodbury has a tough defense and this game could be closer than most people think. Still, it will be hard to ignore #1 seeded Stillwater in this section.
“Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my”, Dorothy said. We’re off to see the wizard of the Xcel. Blaine and Centennial should be tuning up for the Section 5AA title game and the ticket to the Xcel. But the Bengals and the Cougars are at home. Instead, the Tornadoes from Anoka led by Isaac Johnson will tackle the Maple Grove Crimson. The two teams will play each other Friday night at Aldrich Arena, game time 7:00 PM. Both teams pulled upsets in their semifinal game. Anoka beat Centennial 6-2 and Maple Grove beat Blaine 6-3. The Crimson held Blaine’s Notermann and Tufte in check while Trevor Janicke held his own “spring break” going wild scoring three goals and adding two assists. That was quite an upset. Not to be outdone, Anoka’s Isaac Johnson played the playmaker setting up three Tornadoes scores in their 6-2 upset win. Either Maple Grove (14-13-0) or Anoka (17-9-0) will be the surprise guest at the Xcel party next week.
It is tough to go all season unbeaten and end up posting the sole loss on your record two games short of the Xcel. That is what happened to Benilde-St. Margaret’s Saturday at Bloomington. The Red Knights lost to Cretin-Derham Hall, a tough physical team that is dangerous. The Hall now plays Wayzata in the Section 6AA semifinal tonight at Mariucci. Wayzata beat Edina 5-3 to advance to the championship game. The Trojans win over the Hornets was their fourth win over Edina this season. Before Saturday’s wins, Wayzata or Cretin-Derham Hall was on few if any Xcel guest lists. Section 6AA will send a surprise Class AA tourney entrant to the Xcel this year.
Section 7AA is very predicable in that Grand Rapids and Duluth East playing for the championship game was almost a given. At the heart of both teams are players that played for the Muscle Milk team that dominated the UMHSEL last fall. The M&Mers were strong enough to push the USA National U17 team to its limits before losing. Now Mitchell Mattson, Gavin Hain, and Alex Adams from the Rapids will face off against Luke Dow, Ash Altmann, and Shay Donovan from Duluth East. All were teammates on the Muscle Milk team that won the UMHSEL league title and playoff. That makes the outcome of this game very unpredictable. Grand Rapids beat Duluth East 4-3 in their single meeting this season. It is likely to be a one goal game again.
In Section 8AA remain as predicted. Bemidji plays Moorhead for the title tonight at Thief River Falls. The Lumberjacks beat St. Michael-Albertville in their semifinal game and Moorhead beat Rogers 4-2. Bemidji is favored to win this section and have one of the strongest teams in the state.