USA Hockey Photo

Our MHR/LiveBarn Week 22 Games of the Week highlighted more great playoff action from around the United States. Last weekend’s featured games included matchups from the Prep Hockey Conference, and the Tier 1 Atlantic Youth Hockey League as well some Minnesota District Tournament action.

The Prep Hockey Conference held its playoffs last weekend at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Fairbault, Minn. Featuring some of the top-ranked school-based 18U boys’ prep programs from the United States and Canada, the PHC Playoffs did not disappoint.

Our PHC Game of the Week was a semifinal clash between No. 2 Culver Academy and No. 3 Mount St. Charles. MSC skated away with a 3-2 victory to advance to the championship game vs. No. 1 Shattuck, and the host Sabres captured the title with an 8-1 victory after defeating Canada’s top-ranked prep team from St. Andrew’s College, 4-1, in the semifinals.  

All of the action from the PHC Playoffs can be seen on HockeyTV, and you can CLICK HERE for the results and statistics.

Minnesota District Tournament action wrapped up last weekend as well, with some teams competing for district titles and regional-tournament berths while others hoped to capture a championship while also improving their regional-tournament seedings. Minnesota District Tournament action took place all over the state throughout the weekend. You can CLICK HERE for a rundown of the tournament action from each district.

For our Games of the Week, we featured one matchup each from the Peewee and Bantam AA age groups. Our Bantam AA showdown was for the District 8 championship, with the No. 9 Rochester Mustangs taking on the 14^th-ranked Rosemount Irish in Eagan, Minn., Saturday, while our Peewee matchup had No. 9 Osseo-Maple Grove taking on No. 28 Wayzata in Game 2 of their best-of-three District 3 championship series Saturday in Plymouth.

OMG won the Pee Wee series opener, 5-4 in overtime, Feb. 20, and skated away with the district crown after knocking off the Trojans, 3-1, in Saturday’s Game 2. Rosemount captured the District 8 Bantam AA crown with a 6-2 victory against Rochester.  

The Atlantic Youth Hockey League (AYHL), one of the top Tier 1 AAA youth leagues in the United States, also held its playoffs last weekend. With teams located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Connecticut, some AYHL playoff winners earned automatic berths in the final round of the Atlantic District Tournament, which will be contested in the weeks ahead. The AYHL offers competition from ages 10U through 18U.

Our featured game from the AYHL Playoffs was in the 2010 age bracket Sunday, with the top-ranked Philadelphia Jr. Flyers taking on the No. 13 North Jersey Avalanche in a round-robin matchup. The Jr. Flyers won, 7-4, setting up a rematch in the championship game, also won by Philadelphia, 5-3.

CLICK HERE for AYHL Playoff information. All AYHL Playoff games still can be viewed on LiveBarn.

 

Week 22 MHR/LiveBarn Featured Games of the Week  

#3 Mount St. Charles (3), #2 Culver Academy (2)

Level: USA Boys 18U Tier 1

Date: Saturday, February 25

Time: 1:30 p.m. ET

Location: Shattuck-St. Mary’s School – Fairbault, Minn.

Event: Prep Hockey Conference Semifinals

Stream: HockeyTV

Culver knocked off the Northwood School, the overall 15^th-ranked USA Boys 18U team, 3-0 in the quarterfinals Friday to advance to this semifinal against Mount St. Charles. MSC earned a bye into the semifinals by winning the PHC East Division regular-season championship, while Culver finished second in the West Division, eight-points behind top-ranked Shattuck-St. Mary’s. Shattuck also earned a bye and beat Canada’s No. 1 prep team, St. Andrew’s College, which had knocked off overall USA No. 18 South Kent Selects Academy, 4-1, in the quarterfinals, in the semifinals. Mount St. Charles rallied from a 2-1 deficit after two periods to record a come-from-behind 3-2 victory against Culver in this semifinal and advance to the championship game against Shattuck. SSM ultimately earned the title with an 8-1 victory against MSC. Mount St. Charles struck first in the semifinal win with a goal by Patrick Murphy from Gates Omicioli before Culver’s Romulus Riego de Dios struck twice to give Culver a 2-1 lead entering the final period. Murphy set up Jake Gutwirth for the tying goal with 14:25 left in the third, and Christian Venticinoue potted the game-winner with 6:31 remaining. Thomas Neu and Connor Gengle assisted on the deciding tally, making a winner out of netminder Cody Butikis, who turned aside 31 Culver shots. Vaughn Makar also made 31 saves for the Eagles. It was all Shattuck in Sunday’s championship game as the Sabres sprinted to a 6-0 lead through two periods en route to the 8-1 victory. Hunter Anderson led the way for Shattuck with two goals and two assists, while Aidan Park recorded a hat trick and Zach Nehring contributed a pair of assists. Ian Spencer, Shaun Rios and Cooper Pierson each had single goals for the Sabres. Liam Beerman made 27 saves to earn the win in goal. Omicioli scored the lone Mount St. Charles goal.

 

#9 Osseo-Maple Grove (3), #28 Wayzata Trojans (1)

Level: Minn-Kota Peewee AA

Date: Saturday, February 25

Time: 2:05 p.m. ET

Location: Plymouth Ice Center – Plymouth, Minn.

Event: Minnesota District 3 Championship Series

Stream: MNHockeyTV

Osseo-Maple Grove took Game 1 of this best-of-three championship series by a 5-4 margin in overtime Feb. 20. Despite OMG’s series-winning 3-1 victory in Game 2, both teams advanced to the Minnesota Regional Tournament. Osseo-Maple Grove will face No. 29 Lakeville South in the East Region, and Wayzata will face No. 19 Rosemount in the East Region. These teams met twice previously during the regular season, with OMG recording 4-0 victories in each contest. Osseo-Maple Grove is 26-15-5 on the year and has outscored its opponents, 159-110. OMG takes a six-game unbeaten streak (5-0-1), dating to a 6-3 loss to the No. 4 Minnetonka Skippers Feb. 5, into regionals. They also fell to the Skippers, 4-0, the previous day and dropped the two games leading up to those losses. Minus that four-game skid, OMG has posted a 25-11-5 record during the rest of its season. Right before that four-game losing streak Osseo-Maple grove beat the third-ranked Woodbury Predators, 3-2. Despite posting a record of 9-36-1 to date, Wayzata pushed OMG to the brink in both games of districts. The Trojans have been outscored, 257-140, this season and entered the championship series having lost 13 straight games. Both teams held onto their Minn-Kota rankings following district play.  

 

#14 Rosemount Irish (6), #9 Rochester Mustangs (2)

Level: Minn-Kota Bantam AA

Date: Saturday, February 25

Time: 2:00 p.m. ET

Location: Eagan Civic Arena – Eagan, Minn.

Event: Minnesota District 8 Championship Game

Rochester beat No. 42 Waseca and No. 35 West St. Paul to set up this championship matchup against the No. 14 Irish. The Mustangs shut out Waseca, 6-0, before holding off West St. Paul, 3-2. Rosemount beat No. 26 Lakeville South, 7-2, and No. 31 Cottage Grove, 5-1. These two teams met the fourth time this season in the District 8 title game, with the Mustangs holding a 3-0 series lead before the Irish pulled off the upset win. They had outscored the Irish, 13-2 in those three previous contests. The closest game before Rosemount’s win last weekend had been decided by a 3-1 margin Nov. 27. Rochester is 29-15-5 on the season and has outscored its opponents, 185-111. Rosemount is 33-20-4 and has outscored its foes, 228-166. The Irish score an average of nearly four goals per game while allowing less than three tallies per contest. Rochester scores about a 3.8 goals-per-game clip and allows just over two goals per contest. The Mustangs have recorded shutouts in two of their last four games and have allowed zero or one goal 16 times this season. Prior to the loss to Rosemount, they had been unbeaten in their previous nine games (7-0-2) after enduring an eight-game winless streak (0-7-1). Rochester is 29-8-4 if you throw that eight-game stretch out. The Irish now have won six-straight games since a 4-1 loss to No. 3 Osseo Maple Grove Jan. 21. Rosemount, which holds on to its No. 14 ranking, advances to the Minnesota South Region Tournament. Rochester also keeps its No. 9 ranking and will compete in the South Region.  

 

#1 Philadelphia Jr. Flyers (7), #13 North Jersey Avalanche (5)

Level: USA Boys 2010 Tier 1

Date: Sunday, February 26

Time: 1:30 p.m. ET

Location: IceLine – West Chester, Pa.  

Event: AYHL Playoffs

Stream: LiveBarn

The first-place Jr. Flyers and second-place Avalanche met in the final game of round-robin play at the AYHL Playoffs, with Philadelphia recording a 7-5 victory to set up a rematch in the championship game. The Jr. Flyers claimed the league title with a 5-2 win in the finals and remain the nation’s top-ranked team. Meanwhile, the runner-up Avalanche moved up to the 12^th spot in the rankings after two tough battles against No. 1 Philadelphia. The Jr. Flyers finished regular-season play in the AYHL with a 26-0-2 record and 54 standings points before going 4-0-0 in the playoffs. They outscored their opponents, 227-36, in league play and have complied an astounding overall 390-111 scoring margin in posting an impressive 53-5-3 overall record. North Jersey went 22-4-2 (46 points) and outscored its opponents, 165-70, in AYHL play. Overall, the Avs are 32-10-5 and have outscored their opponents, 254-143. North Jersey handed the Jr. Flyers one of their three ties this season when the teams skated to a 5-5 draw Oct. 22. Both teams knocked off the No. 25 New York Saints and No. 27 Philadelphia Hockey Club in the AYHL Playoffs. Philadelphia now has won 20-straight games and has outscored its last 10 opponents, 69-18. The Jr. Flyers’ last loss was a 3-1 setback vs. Pittsburgh Penguins Elite Dec. 31. The Avalanche stretched their unbeaten streak to 11 games (10-0-1) before the two losses to Philadelphia.