Section 5AA Playoff Preview
My pick: Centennial
Section 5AA has to be the most wide open of them all. The first five seeds have a legitimate shot at making the 'big show'. Maple Grove and Blaine have split victories with top seeded Centennial this year.
The second seed Champlin Park have lost to Centennial twice, split victories with Osseo, and tied/won against Coon Rapids.
The third seed Blaine lost twice to Champlin Park and split victories with Centennial.
The fourth seed Osseo lost twice to Centennial and Blaine. The Orioles split victories with Champlin Park and Coon Rapids.
The fifth seed Maple Grove split wins with Centennial, Osseo, and Coon Rapids and then lost twice to Champlin Park & Blaine.
Even sixth seed Coon Rapids has an outside chance to make some noise if they can find a way to slow the scoring down of their opponents. They've show that they can beat teams within their Section.
Blaine and Osseo matches up better against Centennial than the other teams in the Section. Blaine can slow high scoring teams down while Osseo appears to be stronger in goal. The Cougars have shown that they can be scored on. However, one of those two teams will need to rely on their defensive and goaltending strength to slow down the office of Hess, Pitlick, and Larsen in order to advance to state.
