Holiday tournament time means fun times for hockey fans like myself. For parents of players; it means traveling and hauling hockey gear and the seemingly endless waiting game. Yet once the puck drops, all that toil seems worth it. The player is playing the greatest game on ice and memories are born. The camraderie of teammates are built and solidified at these events. Its something players often miss more than the memories of the games themselves once their playing days are over. Still for a fan who has no players of my own toil for my only chore is driving to a local arena, paying for a ticket and watching a game. For me, my Holiday Tournament tradition has become the St. Paul Premier Tournament at South St. Paul's historic Wakota Arena. Its a chance for me to watch some great hockey as well as reconnect with my mentor, and good friend Eagan Head Coach Mike Taylor. His teams have enjoyed some tremendous success over the last decade or so that I've been coming to the tournament and its something I look forward to each and every year.
Eagan has been champion at the St. Paul Premier Tournament for the last 4 seasons. Again, they are considered a strong candidate to hoist the tournament trophy and add another to their well-stocked trophy case. The Wildcats come into the game as the 19th ranked team in the state as chosen by Let's Play Hockey in their December 24th poll. I watched Eagan's semi-final match up against Woodbury. As was the tradition, we took our normal spot near home side and I stood at the rail with my dad as we watched the game. So would Eagan make a 5th straight championship appearance?
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1st Period Thoughts: From the opening faceoff the action immediately tiltled to the Woodbury end of the ice. Junior goaltender Zach Gartner found himself under siege as the Wildcats aggressive forecheck immediately put the Royals on their heels. Eagan was taking every chance to fire shots on goal, but to Gartner's credit he was staying calm making save after save. Woodbury was bottled up in its own zone and they were frantically chipping and chasing where they could but Eagan's defense was great at gathering up the loose puck, making a good outlet pass to start the rush back into the Royals' end. It simply was just a matter of time as Eagan was seemingly a step or two faster, not to mention far more physical than Woodbury. The Royals' players had to keep their head on a swivel as the Wildcats forwards were dishing out bodychecks aplenty, and it was obvious Eagan was not only bigger and faster, but much stronger too. Time after time you'd see an Eagan forward dish out a big check and everytime it was a Royal player being put on their backside as they separated man from puck very effectively. You could see how the physical game of Eagan was affecting the psyche of the Royals' as they often looked hesitant to gather up the puck along the wall fearing being the target of some vicious check. The Wildcats would strike first as Jack Jenson made a pretty toe drag move by a defender before ripping a shot by Gartner and it was 1-0 Eagan. The Wildcats continued to pour it on, dishing out hit after hit but in their zealousness to knock the Royals' into next week they'd take the first penalty of the game as Nick Gray would get caught with his elbows up. You could hardly tell it was a Woodbury power play, with the way the Wildcats were controlling the play. Jack Jenson and Kyle Stebbing were flying all over the Woodbury zone, keeping them bottled up in their own end and all the Royals could manage was one long range dump in that went on goal. The Wildcats had maybe 3-4 shots on goal while shorthanded. The Royals were trying to counter attack when they could, but Andrew Lindgren was not facing many shots. However, Gartner's quality work between the pipes meant all Woodbury needed was one shot to the tie the game and they got just that. On a rare opportunity to attack off the rush the Royals would score as Kyle Buche slid a pass over to Nick Sheak that was tapped in to make it 1-1 despite being thoroughly outplayed to that point. You could sense Eagan was a little annoyed, and they stormed the Royals zone the last few minutes but Gartner kept the Wildcats at bey and you knew Woodbury had to be pretty pleased thus far to be tied at this point.
2nd Period Thoughts: With the Wildcats starting the 2nd period with a power play it was a good opportunity for Eagan to reclaim the lead and that they did. At first their power play sort of reminded me of that of the Minnesota Wild, a bit static working the puck between the point man and the player along the halfwall but almost soon as I made that comment the Wildcats moved the puck in close where Jenson finished it off on a shot from near the crease, 2-1 Eagan. The next few minutes were really going to tell all the fans in attendance where this game was headed. Eagan wasn't going to leave it to chance as they continued to out hustle, out hit and out chance the Royals who were just hoping to get the puck out of the zone hoping to keep the game close. The Wildcats would light the lamp again as Ian Entzion tapped home a rebound after a good first save by Gartner, 3-1 Eagan. You could see in the body language the Royals were both a little tired and a little intimidated by the Wildcats who were going into overdrive as they'd score again about a minute and half later as Jenson fired a wrist shot by Gartner to give himself a hat trick and Eagan a 4-1 lead. One player for the Woodbury who could actually skate with the Wildcats, who as a team were on a whole different level than the Royals was junior Tristan Mayer. Mayer was the smallish, smooth skating waterbug who could stay with Eagan but unfortunately whenever the Royals looked to break out of the zone and counter attack they'd slow the play down which played right into the Wildcats' hands. I watched on more than one occasion where Mayer wanted to press the attack up the ice only to have a linemate slow down and stop, hoping to find a trailing player and instead having the puck stripped from them and their potential chance being thwarted. I wondered if I was watching a Wild game for a moment with Woodbury's race in and then slow it down style of play. Eagan would add to its lead a few minutes later on a nice playoff the rush where Nick Gray was stonewalled by a great initial save by Gartner but he couldn't get out to cover the rebound before it was tapped home by Peter Zibley, 5-1 Wildcats. The Royals could manage a few weak shots towards Lindgren but he spent most of the period leaning against his goal looking kind of bored. Eagan would score two more times as Jenson and then Entzion to give the Wildcats a 7-1 lead going into the 2nd intermission. The Wildcats were not entirely perfect though, they were making some significant mistakes. One player who made some very questionable decisions with the puck was Eagan senior Tommy Muck. Muck coughed up the puck a few times in his own zone, which fortunately for him the Woodbury forwards were not able to capitalize on the opportunity but if he were to do that against an Edina or St. Thomas Academy, or even a Hermantown; those could well end up in the back of their own net. He did play better in the 3rd period, and is a tall defenseman with a long reach and reasonable puck handling skills and a good hard point shot.
3rd Period Thoughts: Predictably, Eagan Head Coach Mike Taylor used the comfortable lead to give his 2nd and 3rd lines more ice time. The Wildcats 3rd line controlled the zone better than the Royals' top line and Woodbury still spent most of its time chasing Eagan around its end of the ice. Kyle Stebbing would score on sort of a flukey goal to give the Wildcats an 8-1 lead just 50 seconds in. The rest of the time, the Wildcats were content to play keep away with the puck with a strong cycling game down low. Woodbury didn't have the legs nor the physical ability to seal off Eagan's forwards from the puck and the running clock spared the Royals from allowing the game reach double digits. Eagan outshot Woodbury 49-17 in the game.
Eagan will be playing #2 ranked Class A powerhouse Hermantown in the championship. Hermantown steamrolled tournament host South St. Paul 11-0 on Saturday night. Last year the Wildcats battled to a 5-5 tie in a dramatic back and forth championship game. Eagan ended up winning in the shootout. Here is a link to the article I wrote last year about that Championship game.
3 Stars of the Game:
1st Star: #24 F – Jack Jenson (Eagan) ~ With 4 goals and 2 assists, the senior assistant captain had a huge day for Eagan. He was by far the best player on the ice between the two clubs and his speed and offensive skills were very evident. He also exhibited great lower body strength as he simply powered through attempted checks by Woodbury.
2nd Star: #7 F – Kyle Stebbing (Eagan) ~ Stebbing was an absolute hitting machine for the Wildcats. He kind of reminded me of former Wild winger Cal Clutterbuck with the general fiestiness of his game. He had more than a few shifts where he registered multiple hits and I really believe it was his tenacity that kind put the Royals on edge. Stebbing's hitting somewhat overshadowed the fact he had a nice game statistically with a goal and 3 helpers to his credit.
3rd Star: #30 G – Zach Gartner (Woodbury) ~ Sure, he gave up 8 goals but he kept the Royals in the game far longer than most goaltenders would have. When the floodgates opened in the 2nd period, it wasn't because he was letting in soft goals it was because he wasn't getting much of any support from his defenseman and Eagan was tallying on the rebounds. Gartner had a number of tremendous stops and it would've been interesting to see how he would do if he played for a team that could give him more goal support.
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