| 2/19/2006 CLASS AA SECTION OUTLOOK Section 1AA Lakeville North (11-11-3, #1 seed), finished eighth in the Lake Conference, defeated Rochester Mayo 7-3 in December, defeated Rochester Century 3-2 at Lakeville, did not play Rochester John Marshall during the season. Rochester Century (11-11-1, #2 seed), defending Section 1AA champion, after a 1-5 start was 10-6-1 over the rest of the season, split two close games with Rochester Mayo, 2-1 win and a 4-3 loss, lost at Lakeville North, defeated Rochester John Marshall twice in overtime. Rochester Mayo (15-8-1, #3 seed), lost to Lakeville North, split with Rochester Century, defeated Rochester John Marshall twice. Rochester John Marshall (13-11-0, #4 seed), did not play Lakeville North during the regular season, lost two overtime games to Rocheser Century, lost to Rochester Mayo twice. Section 2AA Cretin-Derham Hall (21-4-0, #1 seed), finished first in the Suburban East Conference, defeated both Hastings and Woodbury twice during conference play, closest game was a 3-2 overtime victory at Woodbury, did not play St. Paul Johnson during the regular season. Hastings (14-9-2, #2 seed), finished fourth in the Suburban East Conference just ahead of Woodbury, split with Woodbury during the regular season, Woodbury (14-9-2, #3 seed), finished fifth in the Suburban East Conference St. Paul Johnson (19-5-2, #4 seed), won St. Paul City Conference and Twin Cities Championship Game over Minneapolis Southwest, tied Woodbury in the South St. Paul Premier Holiday Tournament. Section 3AA Hill-Murray (23-1-1, #1 seed), finished first in the Classic Suburban Conference, tied Academy Of Holy Angels 3-3 in January, only loss was to St. Thomas Academy 5-4, defeated White Bear Lake 1-0 in December, did not play Centennial or Roseville. Centennial (17-5-3, #2 seed), finished third in the Northwest Suburban Conference, tied Academy Of Holy Angels during the regular season, 5-5, at the Schwan Cup, shutout White Bear Lake at home but tied the Bears at the Schwan Cup, defeated Roseville 4-3 in their first game of the season. White Bear Lake (15-8-2, #1 seed), defending Section 3AA champion, finished tied for second in the Suburban East Conference with Roseville, lost to Hill-Murray 1-0 in December, lost at Centennial but tied the Cougars in the Third Place Game of the Schwan Cup (Gold Division), split with Roseville. Roseville (14-8-3, #4 seed), finished tied for second in the Suburban East Conference with White Bear Lake, split the Bears during the regular season, did not play Hill-Murray, lost to Centennial in early December. Section 4AA Blaine (20-4-1, #1 seed), finished first in the Northwest Suburban Conference, the surprise team of 2006, was not ranked in the top 20 at the start of the season, after a 3-4 start, won 16 straight games and was unbeaten in their last 18 games, did not play Wayzata during the regular season, defeated Robbinsdale Armstrong 5-3, defeated Maple Grove at home but was tied by the Crimson, 2-2, last week at Maple Grove. ?Wayzata (15-10-0, #2 seed), finished second in the Classic Lake Conference, did not play Blaine, split with Robbinsdale Armstrong, defeated Maple Grove in their first game of the season, biggest win of the season was a 5-4 overtime victory at Duluth East in December, finished the season with four overtime games, winning two and losing two. Robbinsdale Armstrong (14-11-0, #3 seed), finished third in the Classic Lake Conference, lost at Blaine, split with Wayzata, defeated Maple Grove 4-2 in December. Maple Grove (12-11-2, #4 seed), finished fourth in the Northwest Suburban Conference, beat a couple good teams, Burnsville and Minnetonka, early in the season but was unable to come up with another win over a top 20 team, tied Blaine 2-2 at home last week. Section 5AA Academy Of Holy Angels (22-1-2, #1 seed), rated #1in Class AA all season long, defending Section 5AA and State Class AA champion, finished first in the Missota Conference, only loss on the season was at Faribault Shattuck-St. Mary's 5-1, tied both Hill-Murray and Centennial, did not play any team from Section 5AA during the regular season. Eagan (15-9-1, #2 seed), another surprise team from 2005-2006, not rated in the initial Let's Play Hockey poll, upset Eden Prairie in their first game of the season, finished third in the Lake Conference, split with Burnsville and Apple Valley. Burnsville (14-10-1, #3 seed), finished fourth in the Lake Conference, had a seven game winning streak at the end of the season until two final losses to Rosemount and Bloomington Jefferson, split with Eagan but took two games from Apple Valley. Apple Valley (12-9-4, #4 seed), finished fifth in the Lake Conference, was rated #10 at the beginning of the season but finished outside the top 20, split with Eagan, lost to Burnsville twice, defeated Rosemount twice, both by 4-1 scores, tied Eden Prairie twice. Section 6AA Bloomington Jefferson (19-4-2, #1 seed), defending Section 6AA champion, finished first in the Lake Conference, had a win, 5-2, and a tie, 2-2, with Eden Prairie during the regular season, did not play Minnetonka or Edina. Eden Prairie (18-3-4, #2 seed), finished second in the Lake Conference, had a loss and a tie with Bloomington Jefferson, defeated Minnetonka 3-2 last week, defeated Edina 4-0 at the Edina Holiday Classic. Minnetonka (15-9-1, #3 seed), finished first in the Classic Lake Conference with two wins over Wayzata, did not play Bloomington Jefferson, last week lost to Eden Prairie and Edina but beat Edina 5-1 in January, lost at Academy Of Holy Angels 4-3 in January. Edina (13-12-0, #4 seed), finished fourth in the Classic Lake Conference, did not play Bloomington Jefferson, lost to Edina at the Edina Holiday Classic, split with Minnetonka, had a couple big wins over Burnsville, Grand Rapids, and Apple Valley. Section 7AA Duluth East (19-5-1, #1 seed), defending Section 7AA champion, started slowly with a 4-4-0 record in their first eight games, went 15-1-1 in the remaining games including a 14 game winning streak to end the regular season, defeated Grand Rapids 5-2, lost at Elk River 3-1, split with Cloquet/Esko/Carlton, had victories over Moorhead, Centennial, Roseville, and Brainerd. Grand Rapids (16-8-0, #2 seed), started 4-5-0 in their first nine games, were 12-3-0 thereafter, one of the top teams in the Iron Range Conference, lost to Duluth East, edge Elk River 3-2 in overtime, defeated Cloquet/Esko/Carlton twice. Elk River (18-5-2, #3 seed), defending Section 4AA champion, moved to Section 7AA in 2005-2006, finished tied for first with Blaine in the Northwest Suburban Conference, defeated Duluth East, lost to Grand Rapids, did not play Cloquet/Esko/Carlton. Cloquet/Esko/Carlton (19-5-1, #4 seed), finished tied for first in the Lake Superior Conference with Duluth Marshall, was the only team to defeate Duluth Marshall during the regular season, split with Duluth East losing 2-1 in overtime at the DECC, lost twice to Grand Rapids, did not play Elk River, tied Brainerd at Brainerd. Section 8AA Moorhead (17-6-1, #1 seed), defending Section 8AA champion, split with Roseau during the regular season winning 4-3 in overtime at home and losing at Roseau 5-2, played a tough non-conference schedule, defeated Centennial, Grand Rapids, Roseville, Wayzata, and White Bear Lake, lost to Hill-Murray, Bloomington Jefferson, Duluth East, and Academy Of Holy Angels, 3-2, in the championship game of the Schwan Cup (Gold Division). Roseau (21-4-0, #2 seed), split with Moorhead, only other losses were to Class A teams, Thief River Falls, Totino-Grace, and Warroad. Split with Thief River Falls and Warroad during Mariucci Conference play. |