Section 5A Preseason Prediction
| Team | Regular Season Wins in '10-'11 | More or Less Wins in '11-'12 | Section Rank |
| Hermantown | 20 | Less | 1st |
| St. Cloud Cathedral | 15 | More | 2nd |
| Rogers | 16 | More | 3rd |
| Princeton | 7 | More | 4th |
| Moose Lake Area | 17 | More | 5th |
| Proctor | 16 | Less | 6th |
| Sauk Rapids-Rice | 7 | More | 7th |
| Mora/Hinckley-Finlayson | 11 | Less | 8th |
| Legacy Christian Academy | 8 | More | 9th |
| Pine City/Rush City | 5 | More | 10th |
| North Branch | 7 | Less | 11th |
1. Hermantown
F Jared Thomas (12) - 53 pts (24g, 29a)D Brian LeBlanc (12) - 26 pts (6g, 20a)
F Andrew Mattson (12) - 23 pts (8g, 25a)
- Class A state runner-up Hermantown shocked me with its impressive run to and through the state tournament last season. The Hawks graduated a lot of very good players the year before and I gave them no shot at winning the Section at the start of last season. I have learned my lesson.
- Hermantown has the third most returning goal scorers in the Section behind Moose Lake Area and St. Cloud Cathedral. The Hawks have the deepest team returning.
- Top goaltender Connor Lucas graduated. Senior Matt Messinger or junior Chad Illikainen will most likely to take over or share time in goal.
- The Hawks did lose one very good player in senior Billy Grillo. Grillo transferred and will solidify a very good defense and overall team at Duluth Denfeld in Section 7A this season.
- Hermantown is the second best team in the state in Class A heading into the season, behind only Section 2A's Breck School.
2. St. Cloud Cathedral
F Austin Poganski (10) - 35 pts (22g, 13a)F Will Hammer (10) - 31 pts (15g, 16a)
F Danny Johnston (12) - 25 pts (13g, 12a)
- The best freshmen duo in the state from 2011-2012 will lead the Crusaders this season.
- St. Cloud Cathedral has depth filled with juniors and sophomores.
- The Crusaders have two solid returning junior goaltenders, Josh Robak and Connor Amundson.
- St. Cloud Cathedral should return to be one of the toughest Class A teams in the state this season.
3. Rogers
F Bryan Jungles (12) - 36 pts (14g, 22a)F Neal Smith (12) - 24 pts (9g, 15a)
G Robby Vukelich (12) - 8 wins, 2.07 GAA, .926 save %
G Keaton Mumm (12) - 7 wins, 2.13 GAA, .908 save %
- The Royals should be right up there with Hermantown and St. Cloud Cathedral.
- Rogers is another senior-filled, led team that would like to give Rogers its first state tournament birth in boys high school hockey.
- The Royals will not match the scoring-depth that the Hawks and Crusaders have but they will arguably have the best defense and goaltending in the Section.
4. Princeton
F Jake Green (10) - 21 pts (13g, 8a)F Danny Pelzer (12) - 19 pts (8g, 11a)
F Daniel Voce (11) - 14 pts (8g, 6a)
- The Tigers have almost everybody back from last season so they will be deep at every position.
- Senior goaltender Ryan Carlson, who had all seven wins, 3.36 GAA, and a .889 save percentage, is back.
- This team could double the number of regular season wins this season over last years total of seven.
5. Moose Lake Area
F Tyler Cisar (11) - 75 pts (44g, 31a)D Josh Cisar (12) - 45 pts (19g, 26a)
F Chris Gassert (12) - 30 pts (12g, 18a)
- The Rebels will be a fun team to watch. They tend to score a lot of goals and they are aggressive.
- Moose Lake Area is returning 82% of their goal production from last year, 101 goals. That is tops in the Section.
- The Rebels may even reach an incredible 20 wins and average over five goals per game this season.
- I would love to rank the Rebels higher but they play in a weaker conference, Two Rivers, and they do struggle against teams that defend and goaltend well.
- Moose Lake Area's defense gave up over 3.5 goals per game last season.
- The Rebels will have an inexperienced, young goaltender between the pipes this season.
- After 17 wins during the regular season and one in the first round of the playoffs last season, Moose Lake Area learned the hard way that defense and goaltending are vital for getting deeper into the playoffs. They lost 10-1 to Rogers in the Section quarterfinals.
6. Proctor
F Ian Ecklund (12) - 36 pts (15g, 21a)G Ryan McCarthy (12) - 9 wins, 2.81 GAA, .863 save percentage
F Jesse Scanlon (12) - 22 pts (7g, 15a)
7. Sauk Rapids-Rice
F Luke Richardson (12) - 21 pts (14g, 7a)D Mitch Gwost (12) - 18 pts (7g, 11a)
F Tyler Long (11) - 11 pts (7g, 4a)
8. Mora/Hinckley-Finlayson
F Dylan Libra (11) - 26 pts (15g, 11a)D Derek Graves (11) - 23 pts (8g, 15a)
F Chuck Anderson (12) - 19 pts (6g, 13a)
9. Legacy Christian Academy
F Ike Larson (11) - 29 pts (13g, 16a)D Nolan Bloyer (10) - 14 pts (8g, 6a)
G Nick Stolarczyk (12) - 5 wins, 4.03 GAA, .884 save percentage
10. Pine City/Rush City
F Jordan Pangerl (12) - 27 pts (17g, 10a)F Drew Gerold (12) - 20 pts (10g, 10a)
F Timothy Broz (12) - 18 pts (5g, 13a)
11. North Branch
D Zach Fairbanks (12) - 11 pts (2g, 9a)F Mitch Patten (11) - 6 pts (4g, 2a)
F Chace Johnson (12) - 5 pts (2g, 3a)
