But first, let’s end the current season with a preview of the Minnesota State High School Class A and Class AA State Tourney opens at the Xcel this week.  Sixteen teams will be competing to be in the spotlight for Saturday’s championship games.  But who are these teams.  They are more than just team names like the Cougars, the Hornets, and the Skippers.  They are individual players who love the sport and have worked hard through the year skating in places where they can find competition.  Most have played hockey from the age of 6 to now 16 to 18 playing for their local youth hockey association. 

The following is my prediction of who will win the Class A tourney and how they got there.  It is filled in with background to help explain the drama on the Xcel ice over the next few days.  This post is more than “yes everybody knows that Hermantown and Monticello will meet in a Wednesday Class A quarterfinal game that is a repeat of the 2017 Class A championship game won by Hermantown in overtime”.  Most know that Moose goalie Tyler Klatt was in the nets for that championship game and returns this year.  In the 2012 Peewee A State Tourney quarterfinal game against Hermantown, the Moose peewees lost 9-1.  The Hawks won that game.  The Hawks’ Tyler Watkins scored in that 9-1 win.  Watkins and Klatt will face each other again Wednesday most likely for the last time but the drama left from that 2012 game remains when the Hawks and Moose play this week.

But first, let’s end the current season with a preview of the Minnesota State High School Class A and Class AA State Tournaments that open at the Xcel this week.  Sixteen teams will be competing to be in the spotlight for Saturday’s two championship games.  But these teams are more than just team names like the Cougars, the Hornets, and the Skippers.  They are individual players who love the sport and have worked hard through the year skating in places where they can find competition.  Most have played hockey from the age of 6 to now 16 to 18 playing for their local youth hockey association. 

The following is my prediction of who will win the Class A tourney and how they got there.  It is filled in with background to help explain the drama on the Xcel ice over the next few days.  For the parents of the players who will be skating and the youth coaches that suffered through the never ending peewee answers of yeah and huh and what did you say, enjoy this week.  

The 2018 Class A tourney opens Wednesday at the Xcel at 11:00 AM.  Tickets for the Class A rarely sell out and often it offers some of the most exciting and emotion filled hockey.  This year’s field is no different.  Mankato East, a team that has to vie with Mankato West for the best of the best of the Mankato youth hockey players appears to have pulled a four year coupe with four strong freshmen coming out of that program and playing as varsity.  These Cougars will go up against a team that has 10 players rostered from the Mahtomedi peewee A team that placed second in the 2014 state tourney.

In the second upper bracket game, two Wright County Conference teams meet when Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato plays Orono.  Litchfield beat Luverne in the Section 3A finals 2-1 in overtime.  Not to be outdone, Orono beat a surprising Breck 2-1 in overtime in the Section 2A finals.  Litchfield may have the hot goalie in ninth grader Darby Halonen.  Halonen stopped 29 of 30 shots when the Dragons beat another tourney team Monticello a month ago.  Orono’s success stems from their youth hockey program and their commitment to improve during the off season.  Most spent time skating in the Red and Black League.  Ten of Orono seniors played in the 2013 Peewee A State Tourney.  One Spartan, Jack Suchy, played in the UMSHEL last fall while eight of his peewee A teammates played Red and Black League.  Seven more Spartan varsity players also skated in the Red and Black last fall. 

The first nightcap game Wednesday features two teams from last year’s tourney championship Monticello and Hermantown.  The area code Hawks beat the Moose 4-3 in double overtime.  Dylan Samberg got the Hawks winning goal.  The 6’4” Samberg is gone this year playing defense for UMD.  Hermantown’s overall record is 20-6-2.  Last season, the Hawks posted a 9-1-1 record playing against Class AA schools and the Moose played 6 Class AA teams posting a 3-1-2 record last season; still the Hawks barely won.  This year the Hawks are 6-6 against Class AA teams and the Moose are 1-3-1.  This quarterfinal game will be interesting.  Three Hawks skated last fall in the UMHSEL Darian Gotz, Tyler Watkins, and Blake Biondi.  Watkins skated for the Hermantown peewee A team in the 2012 State PWA Tourney and faced Tyler Klatt in the nets for the Moose last year.  Monticello’s Devon Lyons, Kaleb Holme, and Keith Holme skated Red and Black.  Keith Holme played defense against Watkins in the 2012 State PWA Tourney.

The final game of the opening round has Thief River Falls playing Alexandria.  Thief River Falls is led by senior Aaron Meyers scoring 47 points/27 goals in 28 games.  Meyers has come on strong as a senior.  He was a YHH Top 50 pick in 2013 and has put together two good years for the Prowlers ending with a ticket to the Xcel.  Thief River is the only Mariucci Conference team to make it to the Xcel and they finished last in the conference.  The Prowlers' win over the young guns on the Warroad team (Owen Meeker and Grant Slukynsky) was big (where is Daimon Gardner).  Meeker, Slukynsky, and Gardner were YHH Top 50 picks in 2013.  The Falls will be up against a Alexandria team that should be loaded and ready for this tourney except for one thing-defense. 

Meyers and Alex's Ben Doherty were teammates on the Great Plains team in the UMHSEL last fall. Doherty joined Jack Westlund and Caleb Strong for the high school season.  The three have skated together since peewees.  In regular season play, the trio has scored over 40% of the Cardinal goals.  Alex lost 4-1 to East Grand Forks just three weeks before the Prowlers beat EGF to make state.  On the other hand, Alex beat St. Cloud Cathedral 3-2 in double overtime on a Westlund goal with assists going to Strong and Doherty.  The Westlund-Strong-Doherty line scoring is a family story for Cardinal fans since they played peewees and beat everybody in the 2014 Burnsville Thanksgiving PWA Tourney.       

Class A Pairings Quarterfinals matches a young team versus a strong team that may still be one year away in the opening game, two sisters battling each other in game two, a surprise upset (perhaps?) in game three, and two teams led by strong scorers and potential hot goalies in game 4.

Game 1-Mankato East v Mahtomedi: Mankato East finished fourth in the Big Nine Conference and is the only “Niner” team in the state tourney this year.  To get there, the Cougars’ line up was augmented by four freshmen headed by Layten Liffrig and Brett Borchardt.  Jacob Kanzenbach and Jacob Schrieber round out the four who fueled Mankato Youth Hockey bantam A and peewee A teams the previous four years.  Sam Schulz and Jake Anderson led the Cougars in points, Matthew Saizle led the team in goals scored followed by Liffrig.  Anderson and Liffrig were YHH Top 50 Peewee A picks.  Mahtomedi finished second in the Metro East Conference, behind STA and ahead of Hill-Murray.  They also came in second in the 2014 State PWA Tourney.  Ten of those PWA players are on the Zephyrs’ varsity this year as juniors and sophomores.  This game will be decided by the depth the Mahtomedi forwards and the goaltending of the Zephyrs Baily Huber.  Huber who played Red and Black last fall has posted 93% save average in the section playoffs starting all three games.  That has only brought his regular season average of 94% down slightly.       

Game 2-Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato v Orono: The hockey Gods should never pair conference team against conference team in the opening game of a state tourney.  It is worst then having to take mother to the prom.  Orono has decisively beaten Litchfield twice in Wright County play 10-0 and 7-2.  The Dragons goaltending and defense need to play better to keep Orono’s forwards in check.  The Dragon’s goaltending corps is young and led by ninth grader Darby Halonen.  Halonen has played tough in stopping 34 of 38 shots against Luverne in a 4-2 loss and 39 of 40 shots at New Prague in a 1-1 tie this past month.  Orono has 9 players who played in the 2013 PWA State Tourney.  Litchfield’s forwards in their second and third lines need to step up and slow Orono’s strong forward lines.    If that happens it will be a close game and then who knows.  Orono wins. 

Game 3-Monticello edges the Hawks: Monticello will be the crowd favorite playing in front of a large crowd in the first game of the evening.   Tyler Klatt will be in the nets for the Moose.  On paper, the Hawks look to be the best of the Class A field but the Moose have some punch and a good defense.  YHH has watched the Moose stars Ward, Zwack, Chiodo, and Voller last season since they were peewees only to see them loose to the Hawks last season in the state championship game.  The four are gone this year.

But Klatt returns and the heavy guns of the Hawks have also graduated.  Klatt will be prepared for this game and so will his teammates.  In a game played almost six years to the day the Moose lost, the Moose win.  Klatt leads them to the victory and he wont have to stop 60 shots.         

Game 4-Thief River Falls versus Alexandria: Thief River Falls and Alexandria will battle it out in the last quarterfinal game.  This game should be decided by the defenses.  Both teams will have firepower at the forwards, but core to winning will be in the goalies.  The Prowler goalie, Nick Corneliusen, has had a good year giving up an average of 2.00 goals while stopping 93% of the shots.  The Falls, after getting buried by East Grand Forks 5-2 in late February, came back to beat EGF 4-0 in the Section 8A finals.  Corneliusen stopped all 33 Green Wave shots.  After splitting the goaltending between senior Jackson Boline and junior Bailey Rosch in regular season play, the Cardinals have gone with Boline in the playoffs.  The senior Boline has done the job giving up just four goals in three games while stopping 95% of the shots on goal.  The Doherty line should have the edge over Meyer.  The 2014 Burnsville Thanksgiving Day PWA champs return to the spotlight.  In a tight game, Alex wins.  

Mahtomedi versus Orono and Monticello versus Alexandria:  These are both tough games to predict.  Without Hermantown, the reaction to the quarterfinal draw will be quiet.  The youth Hawks skate AA and have not made a state peewee A tourney since 2012.  For Minnesota Hockey playoffs to work, Hermantown needs to skate Bantam AA and Peewee AA regionals to keep the number of teams in the regional at eight.  The quiet is a reflection of that split.

The question in this first potential semifinal game is can Orono win another comeback game over Mahtomedi.   in the Section 2A semifinals, Orono started slow in their win over Minneapolis.  The Spartans trailed 3-1 going into the third period.  They needed two power play goals in the first two minutes of the third period to get back into the game and then scored a third power play goal and a shorthanded goal to take the lead 5-3.  Mahtomedi will not let Orono off the hook.  The Zephyrs should get the lead and hold it cruising to a win.  Monticello versus Alexandria is another tough game, but Klatt is not enough.  The Doherty line keeps rolling and Boline keeps stopping as the Cardinals eke out a semifinal win.

Championship-Mahtomedi versus Alexandria In the 2014 Peewee A State Tourney played in Crookston, both the Mahtomedi and Alexandria teams were in the lower bracket and both were favored to win and face each other in the semifinals.  But Armstrong upset Alex led by goalie Nikki Harnett’s play in the nets.  Ben Doherty made a great effort to turn the game playing with a fractured wrist.  That matchup didn’t happen and Alex went on to win consolation and Mahtomedi took second place losing to a Matthew Gleason led Highland Central team.

Now the two teams each with the core of those two PWA youth winning teams and a healthy Alex team should meet in the Class A State Championship game.  That is what is great about Minnesota Hockey.  In the end, the hard work of the players shows up over the years and shows the love of the game both kids and parents share.  So why not a repeat two PWA championship teams playing years later in the finals when it really counts in the Class A State Championship game.

Or does it really count who wins?  My memories are filled with the names of high school players who played during my time in high school, not who won but the fact that they made state.  So Mahtomedi and Alex will each play a rugged game and in the end the Zephyrs’ goalie Huber is the difference.  Mahtomedi wins the state championship but all parents, coaches, players, and managers win for just being there.