| 2/23/2004 CLASS AA SECTION OUTLOOK Section 1AA Rochester John Marshall (20-3-2, #1 seed), the Big Nine Conference champs, is the top seed for the second year in a row. Last year, the Rockets lost to Lakeville in the semifinals. This year, if they meet Lakeville, it will be in the Finals. First of all, Rochester John Marshall faces a possible matchup with Rochester Century in the semifinals; a team they tied and narrowly defeated during the regular season. The Rockets get good scoring from seniors Rob Amundson and Jake Hovick as well as juniors Pete Moehnke and Jared Skovbroten. RJM rotates two senior goalies and senior Jake Bosben is a standout defenseman. Lakeville (13-7-5, #2 seed) is the two-time defending Section 1AA champs and could very well make it a third time this year. The Panthers even have a better record this year than the past two seasons and finished in a tie for third in the Lake Conference.. Lakeville is very much like RJM. The Panthers get good scoring from a group of seniors and juniors. Senior defenseman Adam Davis is Lakeville's top scorer, but the Panthers don't rotate goalies. Senior Brandon 'BJ' O'Brien has started every game this year. Rochester Mayo (16-8-1, #3 seed), which has some good scorers in seniors Andy Roberts and Kyle Textor, and Rochester Century (13-11-1, #4 seed) are long shots Section 2AA Roseville has won the Section 2AA title for the past two years, but the Raiders were moved to Section 3AA leaving Section 2AA wide open. Any of the top four seeds could make it to the State Tournament. Tartan (19-6-0, #1 seed), who has never been to the State Tournament, is the top seed, but the Titans were beaten 7-1 last week by the #3 seed, St. Paul Johnson. Tartan gets balanced scoring from seniors Scott Motz, Ryan Bradshaw, and Aaron Purpur along with juniors Chris Thompson and Eric Schulz. Senior Brandon Mlynarczyk and junior Jake Schmidt achor the defense. Freshman Carey Wood has been the main man in goal. St. Paul Johnson (17-9-0, #3 seed) defeated Tartan and Woodbury during the regular season. The Governors get good production from seniors Joe Balsimo, Mike Mullaney, Jordan Pearson, Bobby Kuehl, and goalie Jim Olson. Hastings and Woodbury finished fourth and fifth in Suburban East Conference. Even though Hastings has a losing record (10-15-0, #2 seed), they have played all the teams in the conference tough and the Raiders have beaten Woodbury twice. Hastings lost their top two players last fall to Faribault Shattuck-St. Mary's. Sophomore forward Jerad Stewart leads the offense and senior Evan Berger has played almost every minute in goal. Woodbury (14-10-1, #4 seed) was the early season favorite in Section 2AA with a 7-1-1 record that included a win over Tartan; however, the Royals lost to St. Paul Johnson and logged only a 6-8 mark in conference play. Woodbury has some solid scorers, but the Royals have shuffled goalies all season long. Section 3AA Pre-season favorite and the #1 team in Class AA for most of the season, Centennial (24-1-0, #1 seed), needs three more wins for their first ever appearance in the State Tournament; however, a possible matchup with White Bear Lake in the Section Finals looms in the way. The Cougars have some gaudy offense stats due to their play in a relatively weak North Suburban Conference, where they finished in first place. Centennial averages over 9 goals per game while giving up just over 1 goal per contest (27 goals in 25 games). Senior forward Tom Gorowsky was the leading scorer in the state and junior RJ Anderson is one of the top defensemen. Even with the easy conference schedule, the Cougars have still defeated most of the top teams such as Moorhead, 3-1, late in the season and Academy Of Holy Angels, 4-3, in the Schwan Cup during the holiday season. White Bear Lake (21-4-0, #2 seed) was one of the hottest teams in the last half of the regular season. The Bears won 14 games in a row before losing to Moorhead a couple weeks ago. The Bears also claimed the Suburban East Conference title. White Bear Lake was already a Top Ten team before they added senior forward Casey Parenteau, who became eligible in early January. Centennial shutout White Bear Lake 5-0 in the second game of the season, but that was long before Parenteau was in the lineup for the Bears. Hill-Murray (19-6-0) would be the favorite in alot of other Sections, but they draw the #3 seed in Section 3AA. Senior forward Sam Kelly and junior forward Ryan Guentzel are big scorers while senior Jay Cascalenda played superbly after converting to defense. The Pioneers finished the season on top of the Classic Suburban Conference. Mounds View (16-8-1, #4 seed), third in the Suburban East Conference, and Roseville (14-11-0, #5 seed), second in the Suburban East Conference are long shots. One oddity of Section 3A is that is has three conference champions. Section 4AA Elk River (16-8-1, #1 seed) garnered the top seed, but the Elks looked alot better before senior defenseman Nate Prosser went to the USHL during the holiday break. Elk River was the Northwest Suburban Conference champs this year and lost only once to any of the other top seeds in the Section. Senior forward Joe Long is the Elks top scorer and junior forward Collin Ostroot has had a fine season. Maple Grove (16-6-3, #2 seed) finished the regular season with a win over Osseo, good for second place in the Northwest Suburban Conference. The Crimson also defeated Anoka earlier in the year and lost two close games with Elk River. Senior forward Tommy Dee leads the offense and senior Matt Case leads the defense. Osseo (14-8-3, #3 seed) is still a young team. The Orioles best scorers are juniors Jake Pernula, Jim Jensen, Matt Morin, and sophomore Gerrit Hooker. Osseo is one of two teams to have defeated Elk River during conference play. The Orioles are capable of beating any team from Section 4AA on any given night. Osseo finished in a tie for third place, with Anoka, in the Northwest Suburban Conference. Anoka (17-5-2, #4 seed) is the defending Section and State champs and maybe the surprise team of the Section. After losing twelve seniors from last year's championship group, the Tornadoes have come back to be a force in the Northwest Suburban Conference. Most of last year's solid defense returned in senior defensemen Matt Sorteberg, Chase Evertz, and Eric Johnson along with senior goalie Kyle Olstad. Next page |