Upper Midwest High School Elite League starts Tuesday

The best Minnesota high school hockey players, underclassmen from the 2008-2009 season, are getting together for what can be called an eight week all-star league starting on Tuesday, September 8th. It is the Upper Midwest High School Elite League.

There are seven main 'all-star teams', six from Minnesota, one from Wisconsin. Each of those teams play 21 games in seven weeks and then play in a final tournament in week eight. Two other teams, Shattuck-St. Mary's and Team Norway, are also involved but neither play a full 21-game schedule nor will they play in the final tournament.

Most games are played on the weekends, two on Saturday, one on Sunday. To see the master schedule, please check it out here. Schedules and rosters for all of the teams are at the top, middle of this website.

There is only one game on Tuesday which will be played at the New Hope Arena (South) at 7:00 PM between Team Northwest and Team Southwest.

Team Northwest has four players from Blaine (University of MN recruit Nick Bjugstad, goaltender Dan Harper, Gavin Tufte, and Eric Scheid), three players from Wayzata (DJ Jones, Scott Holm, and Seth Barnes), and three players from Benilde-St. Margaret's (Christian Horn, Brett Patterson, and Patrick Steinhauser). Northwest also has three players from last year's state champion teams. Andrew Ford, winning goaltender in the Class AA Championship game, and defenseman Chase Loken are on the Northwest roster along with forward Tyson Fulton from Breck School, 2008 Class A Champions.

Goaltenders and now Team Northwest teammates, Dan Harper (Blaine) and Andrew Ford (Eden Prairie), were in goal when their teams faced each other in the Class AA State Semifinal last March. Eden Prairie won 4-2.

Team Southwest, 2008 Elite League Champions, is loaded again with teams from the Classic Lake and Lake Conferences. Ironically, Team Southwest has goaltender Jacob Meyer from Benilde-St. Margaret's on its roster and they also have three players from Eden Prairie (Michael Erickson (F), Mitch Rogge (F), and Dan Molenaar (D)). The roster includes four players from the high-scoring Edina Hornets (Charlie Taft, Michael Sit, Max Everson, and David Jarrett), five players from the Minnetonka Skippers (University of Minnesota recruit Max Gardiner (F), Thomas Schutt (F), University of Wisconsin recruit Troy Hesketh (D), Andrew Prochno (D), and Justin Holl (D)), and three players from the Bloomington Jefferson Jaguars (Zach Knight (F), Tyler Dietzler (F), and Jeffrey Pauluk (D)). Hopkins has two good players on the team in goaltender Alex Fons and forward Archie Skalbeck. Breck School also has a player on Team Southwest, forward Michael Morin.

The other eleven games of the week will be played this weekend in Oregon, Wisconsin at the Oregon Community Arena (Group A) and up in Duluth at MARS Arena (Group B).

In 2008, Team Southwest had the most points in the league and won the tournament. That team included Nick Leddy of the Class AA state champion Eden Prairie Eagles, Edina's Zach Budish, Marshall Everson, and Anders Lee plus Danny Mattson from the Academy of Holy Angels. The defeated team Northwest, 3-1, in the championship game. Team Wisconsin defeated Team North, 5-4 in overtime, to claim third place.

Duluth East's Max Tardy (North) lead the tournament in scoring with 33 points (16 goals, 17 assists). After Tardy, New Prague's Schyler Adams (Southeast) (15 goals, 13 assists) and Matt Paape (Wisconsin) (13 goals, 15 assists) of Appleton United (WI) tied for second in points.

University of Minnesota recruits Nate Schmidt (North) (6-14-20) of St. Cloud Cathedral and Leddy (Southwest) (7-10-17) led all defensemen in scoring.

Matt Cooper led the all-star cast of goaltenders with a .912 save percentage and a 3.50 goals against average.

It should be another good tournament in 2009 and it should provide some insight on what to expect for the coming high school season.