Peewee A Season Recap

Another good article showcasing a bright future for our program.

2009-10 EGF Peewee A Recap

The Pee Wee A’s had an incredible season accomplishing nearly every team goal that was set at the beginning of the season. The team rolled with a record of 41 wins 4 loses and 1 tie. The offensive juggernaut averaged an amazing 7.52 goals per game while outscoring their opponents 346 to 119 on the year.

The team didn’t lose a game all year to any teams from northern Minnesota including traditional hockey powers like Roseau, Moorhead, Cloquet and Duluth East. The future Green Wave trounced opponents to capture their host tourney by a combined scores of 40-7 to win the EGF Invitational. The team also had a great showing in the annual Dick Johnson Tourney in Roseau beating some of the top State powers. In the opening game of the Roseau tourney they were matched up with Eden Prairie (who ended up finishing 3rd at the Pee Wee State Tourney). Playing shorthanded the entire weekend due to injuries, EGF pulled off a big 5-4 win in a evenly matched game. After beating Brainerd handily, EGF would play Elk River, which little at the time did anyone know these 2 teams would meet again with a trip to State on the line. But the game in Roseau may have been the most exciting game in the entire Roseau tourney with 2 highly offensive talented teams and EGF would come out on top with a 6-4 win. EGF lost in the semi’s to Edina (the eventual State Champion) and they closed out the 16 team Roseau tourney beating Woodbury to take home 3rd place.

The team went undefeated vs. district teams through out the regular season and added 3 more convincing wins on their way to winning the District 16 Tourney Championship to advance to the Regional Tourney. At Regions, EGF would advance through pool play to the Championship game and would meet up with them pesky Elks of Elk River again. This time they would fall to the eventual State Runners up in a high paced wide open hockey game which ended in a heartbreaking 5-4 loss. It was a tough way to end a great year and to fall short of their goal to make the State tourney. But it was great game between 2 even teams and it was still a magical season and it will be a fun group to follow in future years!

Team members include: Nathan Peabody, Trent Stengl, Austin Monda, Cooper Jerome, Sam Larson, Reed Hjelle, Tye Ausmus, Trevor Selk, Jace Pesch, Taylor Brierly, Mason Kallock, Tanner Tweten, Grant Loven, Reed Corbid, Garrett Lieberg Coaches: Jason Hearn (1991) and Matt Fore (1992)

Another Season Recap

Here's another recap covering our Peewee B American Federal Bank team. Thanks to the Coaches for sending this in. Congratulations on a great year!

The 09-10 East Grand Forks American Federal Pee Wee “B” hockey was a great team. This was a team of players working together as a “team” in the true sense of the word, as there were no true standouts. They worked together as a group and when one was down someone else would pick up the slack. They were a strong team from the start and only improved from there. This team would go far and do very well in the season, tourneys, and deep into the play-offs.

With only three returning players; from a Third place at state the season before, there were a lot of questions to who would be the leaders of the team. This was a team of good skaters and not a lot of size they needed to learn to control the play early or be run over. With good goaltending, strong defense, and timely scoring the AFB went on to great things.

In tournament play, we learned a lot about our identity as a team. In a down year in the district, this is where we would find our competition and hone our skills. In our early home tourney, in early Dec., we played very strong, but ran into a very good Winnipeg team in pool play. This left us with a third place finish and a lot of confidence going into the season. In Jan. we played teams: from Blaine, Elk River, and Stillwater; all very close, but putting together a complete team weekend to take first place! We hoped to continue this run later on in the month and participating in a Roseau tourney. We again played very well, but got a little cocky in the final round robin team of Mesabi East. Who had thoughts of revenge on their minds, after being beaten soundly by the AFB the previous season at Regions. We gave away a big third period lead and were forced into a third place game. Losing to Mesabi East showed us that we could never let up, not even for a minute.

After going undefeated in District 16 play, the AFB went into the District Tournament the no. 1 seed we played two very tough games with Bemidji and Red Lake Falls. By learning the lessons from earlier in the season we came out on top, District 16 champions! With high hopes, we went into the West Region Tournament in Crookston, hoping to earn a trip to State in Roseau. We were upset early by a gritty Brainerd team 2-1 and were manhandled by a great Sauk Rapids team 9-0.We thought our season was over and the final round robin game against Moorhead would be it for the year. We thought wrong. We learned that we needed to win by two goals and we could advance to the Regional Championship. We had beaten and tied them earlier in the season; in the earlier tie we were down 2-1 and badly outplayed; but with our own gritty performance we managed to tie the game with only two seconds left in the game. We were very confident we could win the Regional game. Little did we know that this would be our game of the season. We started early going up 1-0 at the end of one period, but the ice was much tilted to our end, and by the end of the second period we were down 2-1. Our heads were down but our spirit was not broken. We spoke in the locker room that we did not want our season to end here. We told ourselves that it was only three goals and we could go on to the championship. With a goal early in the third, one in the middle, and our goalie at the door to be pulled we scored the third goal we went up 4-2 and won, all though we were outshot 42-18 we just wanted it more. We went on to the championship against Little Falls. What we saw was like looking in a mirror. It was back-and-forth the whole game, the score was 0-0 late, and with a late goal by Little Falls ended our hopes of a State berth. Even though it was a loss we all knew we left it all on the ice.

With a record of 37-7-1, a tourney championship, undefeated district play, and a District 16 Championship; the EGF AFB demonstrated what being a team was all about. There were no stars on this team; only players playing for each other. They won when they were supposed to and won even in their losses. These players will go on to better things; Josh Weber, Ethan Kringlen, Mavryck Blake, Andrew Knopp, Wyatt Swanson, Tommy Pace, Casey Swanson, Nathan Heisler, Brady McDonald, Levi Pesch, Alex Heisler, Braden Shea, Jake Olson, Nick Hovde, Broc Helgeson, and Dryden Dragich may not have made it to State, but will forever be champions.

Building Towards the Future

Here's the 1st installment of the season recaps. Some people have offered to write a season recap on each team in our program and we thank them tremendously! We'll start with Peewees and finish with our Greenwave Varsity team. A lot of great accomplishments look to pave the way for future success for our Greenwave! Here's the article on the Peewee B American Legion squad.

2009-10 EGF Youth Hockey Recap

The Pee Wee B Legion had a remarkable season. UND students Billy Brewitz and Mark Schafer, both from Rosemount, MN, with a little help from Tony Weber and Chip Shea, knitted together a team made up of players that had skated Pee Wee B, Squirt A, and Squirt B hockey the previous season. The 2008-09 Pee Wee Legion team had a tough year and 2009-10 found Pee Wee Legion again the second of two B teams so expectations were not real high for this club, finishing around .500 would be considered hugely successful…so most thought! Final record was 28-6-0, averaged 4 goals a game to 1.74 for the opponents which translated to 136 to 59 scoring edge for Pee Wee Legion.

The season started with three games on the road, which they swept! That brought them to the EGF Pee Wee B tournament where they beat Grand Forks, Minot, and Bismarck sending the undefeated Pee Wee Legion team to the championship against the defending Winnipeg City Champs, the Assiniboine Park Rangers. The Rangers won the game 3-1 with an empty net goal, but Pee Wee Legion proudly claimed 2nd place and with their 6-1-0 record, having already surpassed most expectations by the first weekend in December. They played 6 more games in December and won all of them including a sweep over the two Bemidji teams, a win against Red Lake Falls, and a tough game up in Roseau.

January started out great with two wins, one against the Fargo Angels in EGF and another later that day up in Thief River Falls. The next weekend they dropped their first district game in the rematch in Red Lake Falls. The rest of the month saw Legion lose two more district games to East Grand Forks American Federal Bank and Bemidji Blue as well as a game to Grand Forks and were 18-5-0 heading into the Roseau Pee Wee B Tournament. In Roseau the boys cruised through pool play beating Grand Forks, International Falls, and Roseau, again putting them in the championship game, this time against Mesabi East who had made short work of their pool including an 8-4 win over East Grand Forks Pee Wee American Federal Bank. This was the most brilliant piece of coaching and player execution that most Eastsider's have seen in how the defensive corps completely shut down the scoring ace for Mesabi and kept every threat outside. The forwards played as a well oiled machine with excellent passing and threw everything at the net. The hero was the EGF netminder who stood on his head, totally frustrating the Mesabi East squad. After 45 minutes of nail biting, stomach churning suspense, Pee Wee Legion slammed the door on Mesabi and took the 4-0 win and the tournament championship! With this win, the February 4, 2010 edition of Let’s Play Hockey Magazine named Pee Wee B American Legion the Sports World USA Youth Team of the week! Really, really? WOW!

After Roseau, there were just two weekends and 4 games left in the season, and the boys swept those games. Legion finished district play at 10-4-0 in a tie for 2nd with Red Lake Falls, trailing only EGF American Federal Bank who finished district play undefeated at 14-0-0. RLF won the tie breaker and Legion got the #3 seed in the tournament matched up against the Roseau team they had beaten three times during the season. Roseau scored early in the first and Legion matched it in the second. Nobody scored in the third and this one went to overtime! Roseau pretty much owned the overtime and a couple minutes in won a battle in the corner, threw the puck in front of the net which pin balled around and into the net for the overtime winner. Legion worked their way up the consolation side of the bracket beating Thief River Falls and Bemidji Blue to claim the Consolation Championship.

Team members include: Connor Shea, Garrett Thoreson, Ben Olson, J.D. Rodriguez, Davis Beauchamp, Josh Blazek, Jarod Reak, Cole Weber, Clarke Peterson, Cody Wolff, Tyler Lindstrom, Cody Stengl, Cody Barta, Ben Gottberg
Coaches: Billy Brewitz and Mark Schafer