The editors note: Starting at 7pm on Wednesday and until around 10pm on Friday, 16 Minnesota boys’ hockey teams will win their section tournaments and win seats in state class 2A and 1A tournaments. Here’s where you can keep up with all the action. Go back for updates as the anticipation before the game grows and the results come from all over Minnesota.
Results from sections and schedules | Preparatory hockey center
Live broadcasts of tonight’s finals:
1AA Lakeville North vs. Lakeville South, 7 p.m.
3AA: Eastview vs. Cretin-Derham Hall, 7 p.m. (PrepSpotlight TV $)
7AA: Andover vs. Grand Rapids, 7 pm (WDIO-TV $)
8A: Thief River Falls vs. Warroad, 7pm (audio only)
Thursday: 13:05 – Two more things about hockey in Minneapolis
Last month, when the Minneapolis City Cooperative Program began to attract attention, we profiled how the program became a contender for the state tournament after beating some of the schools that dominated them in the past. You can read this story here.
Also, one of the questions that arose after Minneapolis beat Delano for the section’s title was: What if Minneapolis teachers go on strike next week? Will the team still go to the state? The answer is here.
Thursday, 12:40 – Preliminary match, class 2A, section 1
Josh Storm, a 2000 Lakeville graduate, remembers rival games against Burnsville and other Lake Conference schools as he skated for the Panthers hockey team.
Five years later, Lakeville opened a second high school. These days, the hereditary North and the “newcomer” South are at the top of their list of rivals. Both reside in the Southern Suburbs Conference and Class 2A, Section 1. Quite often one has to beat the other to reach the state tournament.
Thursday’s game at the Rochester Recreation Center marks the ninth time since 2010, with the Lakesville deciding the Championship in Section 1 at the expense of the other. They split the previous eight meetings.
These are the hallmarks of rivalry. Storm didn’t have to finish his first season as a South coach to find out what was at stake when the Cougars and Panthers teamed up.
“It’s a really big job and it doesn’t matter if one team is good or average,” Storm said. “Everyone wanted to talk about it before the games of this year’s regular season. You’ve heard a lot, “We have the north tonight.”
Jake Taylor, in his third season as head coach of the North and 10th in the Panthers team as a whole, knows the climate well.
“It’s been a great experience for the most part,” Taylor said. “Sometimes it can get a little warm.
“At the end of the day, the lives of these children are intertwined. There aren’t always a lot of hockey games in high school that are buzzing around. The kids in Lakeville get two, and often three, of these games each year. “
Thursday’s game is North’s chance for revenge. South won 6-3 and 3-0 in the South Suburban Conference. Both matches were competitive. North led 3-2 after two periods in the first meeting. And the Cougars took a 1-0 lead, entering the third period of the rematch.
South (24-3) holds the No. 1 seed in the section, followed by the No. 2 seed North (21-6).
Fun things can happen to the favorite at the time of the playoffs. In 2010, 2011 and 2018, the team of Lakeville, which swept the two conference meetings of the season, fell in the crucial third match with a trip to St. Paul on the line.
“I actually talked to the boys about it the other day, the year the South beat us in the finals,” Taylor said. “Rivalry and emotion level the playing field. Usually the group that is hungriest is the group that wins.”
The Cougars are starving to regain the state tournament after falling into double overtime at last season’s championship game. And Storm can’t wait to make the trip.
Thursday is Storm’s first final as head coach. He was Rosemount’s assistant in 2008, when the Irish lost one game to the state, losing to Woodbury. Storm, who has coached Owatonna for the past 10 years, sought peer advice this week.
“They told me, ‘Be the rock.’ Be stable. “Even if you’re nervous inside,” Storm said.
South is the three-time defending champion of the sections and “has somehow taken over as the more dominant team lately,” Taylor said. “But we’re doing pretty well. Our kids have matured and become good players, and I’m excited to give my best to the South.”
Thursday, 6 a.m. – Morning titles from Wednesday’s game
“We endured the noise.” Minneapolis will announce for the first time in 28 years
Edina defeated the Red Knights 4-0 in the final of Section 2A
For the first time in history: Prior Lake will become
№ 1 in 1A? Hermantown crushed Denfeld 11-0 for the Section 7A title
Moorhead beat Elk River 8-4 for the fourth straight tournament
Wednesday, noon – preliminary game, class 1A, section 2
Delano’s boys’ hockey coach Gerrit van Bergen does not allow it.
Not at all.
He “1000 percent” wants the Tigers to beat Minneapolis in Wednesday’s Class 1A Division 2 championship game at the St. Louis Recreation Center and qualify for the state tournament for the fifth time in six seasons.
He also knows what is at stake in the Minneapolis program, last presented at the state tournament 28 years ago. And van Bergen understands what it means for a program to succeed after many disappointing endings.
“As a fan, it’s good to see new teams in the tournament,” said van Bergen. “You may be unhappy that it’s not you, but you can appreciate what the other team has achieved.
Recently, van Bergen’s already stable program has been on the brink. Five times in six seasons from 2011-16, Delano lost to Breck in the playoffs. With growing domestic expectations for a talented team to finally break through in 2017, the Tigers killed their enemy in the section championship match and reached their first state tournament.
There are parallels to Minneapolis. The team without a nickname, which attracts players from several of the state’s largest cities, won No. 1 for the playoffs in Section 2. In the last eight seasons, the team has never leveled better than No. 4 and has never won a semifinal match.
Legitimacy came in six days in January, when Minneapolis defeated opponents in the Orono and Delano sections of the road. This newspaper and several local television news stations paid attention.
“Attention is fun,” van Bergen said, recalling the spotlight on his Tigers in 2016-17. And the kids deserved it. They worked to change the history of our program and this created a lot of excitement. But this is where it should stop. The children must be separated. You still have to work hard, improve and play for each other. “
The Delano players in the list for 2016-17 put each other first. No one joined in early to pursue a youth hockey opportunity. Fortunately, van Bergen said, they were rewarded with participation in the state tournament.
Minneapolis, which tolerates a handful of players from youth associations each year choosing private schools, is backed this season by a critical mass of first-hockey players against good kids who play hockey. The team is creating the most impressive season of the decade under coach Joe Djidjic behind the bench.
“I think the kids who play for them see how the university team succeeds and realize that they don’t have to take off or transfer to have experience of what high school hockey can be,” van Bergen said.
When Delano, about 30 miles west of Minneapolis, finally demolished Breck’s private subway school, state tournament observers welcomed the arrival of a new team from a small town.
Meeting Minneapolis in a very important rematch does not mean that Delano becomes the villain. But tigers are no longer the sentimental choice.
“It’s new to us,” said van Bergen, a former Delano player. “I told our children, ‘We’re number two and we’ve already lost to them. In many ways, you’re an outsider. “It’s certainly a little different.”
One of the last scenes in the Donnie Brasco movie about mobsters reveals Al Pacino as the gangster Benjamin “The Left” Ruggiero, who receives a phone call to attend a meeting he knows will end in his death. Lefty has vouched for the protagonist, played by Johnny Depp, an undercover FBI agent.
Before leaving the apartment, Lefty tells his girlfriend: “And listen to me, if Donnie calls …, tell him …, tell him, uh …, if it was someone, I’m glad it was him. “
The scene came to mind when van Bergen said, “If it weren’t for us, it would be great to see Minneapolis leave.”