Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Upper Midwest Elite League News & Notes: Week 3
By Elite League Media Services
Team Southeast – led by a nine-point weekend from forward Justin Crandall – completed a three-game sweep and grabbed first place in Week 3 of the Upper Midwest High School Elite League. Southeast started the weekend in 4th place, but earned six points to leapfrog the three teams jammed at the top and now has a six-game winning streak.
In the Saturday opener, Southeast beat Team Great Plains 4-3 as Crandall assisted on three goals, two by St. Thomas Academy teammate Zach Schroeder. After Shane Omdahl’s goal for Great Plains cut the lead to 2-1, Crandall and Schroeder set up Bloomington Jefferson’s Caleb Herbert for a 3-1 lead. Goalie Ryan O’Shea made 25 saves in the win.
In the evening game, Schroeder’s two second-period goals helped break a 2-2 tie and give Southeast a 7-3 win over Team Northeast. Crandall had three more assists in the game, as did Herbert. The team completed the weekend sweep Sunday with a 7-5 victory over Team North. After falling behind 2-0, Southeast erupted for six second-period goals to take a 6-3 lead, and A.J. Reid’s third-period goal stopped a North comeback.
Also winning three times this weekend was Shattuck-St. Mary’s, entering their first week of league play. Goals were plentiful for Shattuck on Saturday at they beat Team Northeast 7-3 behind Nick Brunetau’s two goals, then topped Team Southwest 8-3, with Brad Robbins and Anthony Greco each scoring twice. On Sunday, Shattuck fell behind Team Wisconsin 2-0 after a period, but Guan Wang’s two goals led a comeback that ended in 5-3 Shattuck win.
Team Southwest stayed just one point behind Southeast with a 2-1 weekend that included Saturday’s most exciting game, a 2-1 win over Team Northwest. Mitch Rogge’s early goal gave Southwest a 1-0 lead that stood until the 3rd period, when Cal Decowski tied it up on a power-play goal. Another power-play goal, this one by Chad Hennum, with 8:02 remaining, gave Southwest the win. Goalie Jacob Meyers of Benilde stopped 36 of 37 shots for Southwest. After an 8-3 loss to Shattuck, Southwest bounced back on Sunday with a 5-2 win over Northeast as Max Gardiner scored twice.
Team North, which had struggled through a 1-5 start to the season, was the only other team with a winning record in Week 3, winning both Saturday games en route to a 2-1 weekend. First, Hermantown’s Adam Krause scored a pair of goals in a 3-1 win over Wisconsin. Goalie Tommy Burke then made 38 saves in a 5-3 win over Northwest.
Team Great Plains opened the weekend tied, for first, but lost two of three. A 7-3 win over Wisconsin – in which Shane Omdahl scored a pair of goals – were sandwiched around losses to Southeast and Northwest.
Northwest had a similar weekend, starting out in a first-place tie, but going 1-2. Sunday’s 7-4 win over Great Plains salvaged two points after losing Saturday to both Southwest and North. In the victory, Dan Fick of Forest Lake and Brett Patterson of Benilde each scored two goals, while Benilde’s Pat Steinhauser had three assists.
Team Northeast had trouble keeping the puck out of the net, giving up 19 goals in three weekend losses, while Wisconsin’s problems were on the offensive end as they scored just seven goals on the weekend.
NOTES: The league moves away from New Hope Arena for Week 4, with Shattuck-St. Mary’s hosting three games in Faribault, including a Wednesday night contest against Team Southwest. Great Plains will visit Shattuck Saturday night, while Team North makes the trip on Sunday. Three other league games will be played Saturday and Sunday at Wakota Arena in South St. Paul. Meanwhile, Ice Hawk Arena in Stevens Point, Wisconsin will host four games on Saturday, and a pair of contests on Sunday. The October 10-11 games will be back at New Hope. Later in October the league travels to Fargo, N. Dakota, Eau Claire, Wisc., Brainerd, Minn. and Grand Rapids, Minn.
Justin Crandall’s nine-point weekend gives him the league scoring lead with 11 goals and 11 assists for 22 points, two ahead of Southeast Teammate Caleb Herbert.
Southwest’s Jacob Meyers of Benilde continued his remarkable goaltending streak, stopping 54 of 56 shots over the weekend. He has now allowed just five goals on 149 shots for a league-leading save percentage of .966 to go with the top goals-against average of just 1.11.
This was the second full weekend with the experimental goals being used at New Hope Arena. The league is conducting an experiment on behalf of a manufacturer with a goal that has red netting and gray goal posts, instead of the traditional red posts and white netting.
Two more Elite League players made Division I commitments recently. Andrew Prochno of Minnetonka and Team Southwest committed to St. Cloud State, and Team Great Plains’ Brock Nelson of Warroad committed to North Dakota.
Darren Walker of The Video Scout flew in from Toronto on Saturday to shoot game video and conduct interviews with some Elite League players who are eligible for next June’s NHL Entry Draft. More than 100 scouts and coaches attended the Week 2 games at New Hope Arena. There were 23 NHL teams represented, along with 26 colleges and 10 USHL teams.
