| 2/15/2005 CLASS A SECTION OUTLOOK Section 1A Albert Lea (23-2-0, #1 seed) is the defending Section 1A champion and have maybe their best team ever. The Tigers finished second in the Big Nine Conference and their only losses were to conference champ Class AA Rochester Century. Albert Lea returned most of their players that finished sixth in the 2004 State Tournament. Senior forward Jon Breuer is the #4 scorer in the state. Senior forward Quinn Ellingson has played excellently after transferring from Austin and senior forwards Pete Bracker, Corey Ellertson, Beau Larson and Tony Dugstad give the Tigers plenty of depth. Senior defensemen Dustin Trail and Travis McKinney along with junior Alex Lair all returned from last year. Sophomore goalie Clay Casanova, who got thrown into the starting spot in last year's Section tournament, has had a year to develop. Mankato East (15-10-0, #2 seed) gave Albert Lea a good game in their only meeting of the season, a 6-3 loss before Christmas. These two teams met in the Section 1A Finals last year with Albert Lea pulling off the upset with an overtime goal. Mankato East finished fifth in the Big Nine Conference. The Cougars don't have as much depth as the Tigers but have a couple good scorers in senior forward Neil Viola and junior forward Derek Hager. The Mankato East defense has played well most of the time and is capable of keeping the game close. New Ulm (13-9-0, #3 seed) won the South Central Conference and Marshall (13-7-4, #4 seed) was second in the Southwest Conference. Section 2A Duluth Marshall (19-6-0, #1 seed) is a heavy favorite in Section 2A. The Hilltoppers easily defeated the #2 and #3 seeds, Duluth Denfeld 13-2 and St. Cloud Cathedral 5-0. The only losses on the season for Duluth Marshall are to highly ranked teams, Warroad, Breck, Blake, Benilde-St. Margaret's, and Lake Of The Woods, plus Superior WI. Duluth Marshall won the Lake Superior Conference without a loss during the regular season. The Hilltoppers are powered by senior forwards Scott Kozlak and Chris Connolly. The defense is solid behind juniors Matt Letourneau and Kevin Jones and senior Tim Kleiman with junior Jason Paul in his second year in goal. Duluth Denfeld (10-5-0, #2 seed) was a bit of a surprise as the #2 seed. They did not have as good of a record as St. Cloud Cathedral but they did defeat the Crusaders early in the season, 6-2. The Hunters are a young team with their best players being junior forwards Rob Bordson, Brett Johnson, and Brandon Owen with freshman forward Jake Johnson. St. Cloud Cathedral (19-3-2, #3 seed), the defending Section 2A champs, had another fine season; however, two of the three Crusader losses were to the top two seeds in Section 2A. St. Cloud Cathedral has senior forward Mark Lies and junior forward Ryan Noack back from last year's State Tournament team along with senior defenseman Mike Schmidt, sophomore defenseman Matt Crandell, and senior goalie Joel Rindelaub. Sauk Rapids-Rice (13-11-1, #4 seed) is another young team like Duluth Denfeld. The Storm played better in the second half of the season and pulled off an upset over Class AA Brainerd, 5-3. Sauk Rapids-Rice played well but lost to St. Cloud Cathedral, 4-2, about ten days ago. Some of the top scorers for the Storm are juniors Jeremy Striet, Tommy Wippler, Andy Supan, and Kyle Henkemeyer, in addition to sophomore Travis Peckskamp. Section 3A St. Thomas Academy (15-10-0, #1 seed) has the worst record of any #1 seed in Class A, but six of their losses are to Class AA schools and the Cadets have played well in all of those games even though they were defeated. An overtime victory over Class AA Tartan was one of the highlights of the season. St. Thomas Academy also defeated #2 seed, Rochester Lourdes, 5-2, although it was in the first game of the year. In conference play, the Cadets finished fifth in the Classic Suburban Conference. Senior Dillon Donovan leads the team in scoring and eighth grader Jordan Schroeder is second. The Cadets have alot balance in their scoring while the defense is anchored by senior goalie Cameron Voss, in his third year between the pipes. Rochester Lourdes (12-10-2, #2 seed) played a plenty tough schedule but didn't come up with any big wins. The Eagles lost close games to Blake, St. Cloud Cathedral, and Totino-Grace. Senior forward Jamie Ruff is the leading scorer and sophomore Zack Owen had an impressive year. Section 4A Little Falls (17-8-0, #1 seed) looks on track for their first ever appearance in the State Tournament. The Flyers have a perfect 8-0 record against other teams in Section 4A. Little Falls has defeated #2 seed Wadena-Deer Creek twice, 6-0 and 5-1. The Flyers boast a big offerse led by senior forwards Steve Festler and Mikael Lickteig, two of the top scorers in the state. Junior forward Joey Cotton, sophomore forward Lukas Jorgenson, and freshman forwards Jared Festler and Beau Hanowski give the Flyers some depth up front. Junior Jake Kluver has been the main man in net all year. Wadena-Deer Creek (16-6-2, #2 seed) lost only one game last year before heading to the State Tournament. The Wolverines gradutated some of their best scorers from that team but still returned enough this year to have a respectable season with 16 wins. Senior forward Dustin Postell and sophomore forward Jascha Pettit lead the offense while seniors Tyler Wolden and Brandon Kvamme and junior Preston Stearns head up the defense. Morris/Benson Area (13-7-1, #6 seed) has had a good season and may be heard from more in the future. The Storm is led in scoring by three sophomore forwards, Tony Schultz, Jay Andrews, and Josh Griffith. Junior forwards Jake Erickson and Mitch Kleepspies have also played well. Section 5A Breck (21-2-2, #1 seed) ended up as the #1 seed even though they were beaten and tied by #2 seeded Blake during the regular season. It doesn't mean a whole lot because the Mustangs will still have a tough opponent in the semifinals, if they make it that far. Breck was the pre-season #1 team in Class A and spent most of the season ranked #1 in the state. The defending State Class A champs have most of their players back from last year. Senior forward Robby Dee tied for second in scoring in the state during the regular season and junior forward Jordan Fulton was #9. Seniors Brent Kettelkamp and Brent Brodersen and junior Drake Herd head up the defense with senior Alec Richards in goal. Blake (18-6-1, #2 seed) played better than Breck over the last half of the season. The Bears downed Breck 5-2 eng and tied the Mustangs 4-4 while winning the Tri-Metro Conference. The only loss for Blake after the Holiday Tournament was a 3-1 defeat by Totino-Grace. The Bears have balanced scoring led by senior forward Jeremy Robert, junior forward Chris Murray, and sophomore forward Mike Louwerse. Seniors John Wessbecker and John Patera have played well on defense while freshman Kent Patterson has been a pleasant surprise in net. Totino-Grace (22-3-0, #3 seed) lost three early season games to Thief River Falls, Benilde-St. Margaret's, and Breck; but have now won 20 straight games. Included in the streak are victories over Blake, Orono, and St. Louis Park. The Eagles feature two top goaltenders in seniors Dave Norling and Andy Houdek and the best defense in Section 5A allowing only 1.32 goals per game. Brian Schack and Brett Miller are two of the top senior Class A defensemen in the state while junior Brandon Graffunder may be the top junior Class A defenseman in the state. Leading the forwards are seniors Dan Malone and Erik Bredesen. Totino-Grace won the North Suburban Conference this season. Benilde-St. Margaret's (14-7-4, #4 seed) lost to Class A Blake, Warroad, and Orono during the regular season, and three Class AA schools in addition to Faribault Shattuck-St. Mary's. The Red Knights played Breck to a scoreless tie at the end of January and defeated Totino-Grace in December. Benilde-St. Margaret's finished second in the Metro Alliance Conference behind Orono. The Red Knights get most of their scoring from senior forwards Isak Tranvik and Eric Bigham plus sophomore defenseman Nick Jaskowiak. Sophomore Mark Guggenberger has played well in goal all season. Mahtomedi (13-10-2, #5 seed) came on in the second half of the season after a slow start. The Zephyrs were 9-2-1 in their last dozen games. Mahtomedi finished fourth in the Classic Suburban Conference but was the top Class A team in the conference. The Zephyrs lost to Breck, Blake, and Totino-Grace during the regular season. Senior forwards Adam Trissler and Tom Gibbons lead the offense Chisago Lakes (16-9-0, #9 seed) had an excellent season: it's too bad they are in Section 5A. They probably should be in Section 2A or a Section with the Rum River Conference teams and the St. Cloud Area schools. The Wildcats finished second in the Rum River Conference. Senior forward Josh Angrimson and junior forward Lance Baumgard topped the team in scoring. Section 6A Orono (17-7-1, #1 seed) didn't fare so well in their non-conference schedule, accumulating a 7-6-0 record before January, but the Spartans are 10-1-1 since January 1 including a win and a tie with Benilde-St. Margaret's. Orono won the Metro Alliance Conference. Orono was the 2004 State Class A Runner-up and still have some holdovers from that group. Senior forward Will Smith and junior forward Chris Haglund have been leading the offensive along with newcomer sophomore Adam Estoclet. Senior Tripp Standa is the Spartans top defenseman. Richfield (10-13-2, #2 seed) has played well at times during the regular season with wins over Orono, Mahtomedi, and Lake Of The Woods and ties with Hill-Murray and Tartan; but, the Spartans have also lost to Mahtomedi, Simley, Mound-Westonka, and Warroad. Richfield scored 71 goals and gave up 71 goals on the season. Mound-Westonka (14-10-1, #3 seed) biggest game of the season a 4-3 over Orono at the end of January. Senior Nick Zilka is one of the top scoring Class A forwards in the state. New Prague/Montgomery-Lonsdale (13-11-1, #4 seed) has a couple exciting players in senior foward Matt Ambroz, tied for fifth in the state in scoring, and sophomore forward Ryan Witty. Section 7A Section 7A is alot like last year. In 2004, the top four seeds were really close with #4 seeded Hibbing winning the Section. It's the same this season as any of the top three seeds could easily win it. Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl (17-4-3, #1 seed) drew the #1 seed by virtue of an overtime victory over Hermantown and tie with Hibbing during the regular season. The Blue Devils were also the #1 seed last year but lost to Hibbing in the Section semifinals. Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl has one of the best players in the state in senior defenseman Matt Niskanen and also one of the best freshmen in the state in forward Nico Sacchetti. Niskanen and Sacchetti led the Blue Devils in scoring but senior forwards Devin Ceglar and Kyle Altobelli plus sophomore Mark McGillivray lend support. Senior Casey Sloth and junior Logan Hoche split time in goal. All four Blue Devil losses have been to Class AA schools. Hermantown (21-3-1, #2 seed) was one of only five Class A teams to win over 20 games. The Hawks only losses are to Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl and St. Cloud Cathedral, both in overtime, and to Duluth Marshall, 3-0 eng. The Hawks also own a 3-1 victory over #3 seeded Hibbing. Hermantown's big scorer is senior forward Kyle Schmidt; however, a dozen other skaters scored over or near 20 points on the season. The defense can score, too, and has plenty of experience with three seniors and two juniors, plus outstanding sophomore Chad Huttel. Senior Jake Miller has started almost all the games in net. Hibbing (12-11-1, #3 seed) is right where they've been for the past couple of years. The Bluejackets come into the Section tournament with a mediocre record from having played many Class AA schools; however, Hibbing has won the Section 7A championship for the past two seasons. The Bluejackets have alot of potential with high scoring forwards Shea Walters and Chris Modich, both seniors, and junior Dustin Potter. Hibbing also has some good young forwards. The Bluejacket defense has been respectable this year with senior Brennan Poderzay in goal. Silver Bay (18-6-1, #4 seed) is an exciting, high scoring team. Junior forward Nate Breden tied for second in scoring in the state during the regular season. Junior forward Luke Taintor and senior defenseman Jesse Downey also put up big offensive numbers. The Mariners haven't beaten any of the top seeds but lost to Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl and Hermantown both by 4-3 scores. Eveleth-Gilbert/Mesabi East (11-9-1, #5 seed) relies on seniors Chris and Carl Babich along with Scott Hawley, but the Golden Bears have some good underclassmen and are capable of pulling off an upset. Section 8A Warroad (23-0-2, #1 seed) is the only unbeaten team in the state. The Warriors still have several players from the group that won the 2003 State Class A championship. Warroad finished fifth at the State Tournament last year after a quarterfinal loss to Orono. The Warriors had the #1 scorer in the state during the regular season in senior forward TJ Oshie. Senior forwards Ben Bengston and Josh Brodeen, sophomore forward Aaron Marvin, and senior defensemen Kyle Hardwick and Eric Olimb have also contributed big points on the offensive end. Senior goalie Mark Thiele was a backup last year but has played great this season. Thief River Falls (17-7-1, #2 seed) was a little of a surprise as the #2 seed since they were defeated by Lake Of The Woods during the regular season, 2-0 eng. The Prowlers have beaten some of the best Class A teams in the state in Blake and Totino-Grace but have lost twice to Warroad, 7-2 and 6-1. Thief River Falls gets most of their offense from senior foward Alec Holen and junior forward Michael Forney. Sophomore Michael Benedict is a top defenseman; but, if the Prowlers have a weakness, it's probably in goal. Lake Of The Woods (16-8-1, #3 seed) also lost to Warroad twice during the regular season, 5-0 and 4-0. The win over Thief River Falls and a 2-1 victory over Duluth Marshall were their two biggest wins of the year. The Bears are a little better team now since senior defenseman Aaron Gens came back from an injury seven games ago. Senior forward Greg Beller and junior forward Jeremy Beller are the top scorers. The defense, led by Gens with senior Jake Duick, sophomore John Clark, and junior goalie Jay Clark, can be tough. Detroit Lakes (14-10-0, #6 seed) had a very good season compiling a 13-4-0 record before their competition got a little tougher. You'll hear more from these guys next year as the top skaters for the Lakers are sophomore forward Joe Schiller and junior forwards Jedd Harms and Jake Bergquist. Goalie Mike Haggart and most of the defense will be coming back next year. |