Minnesota High School Hockey Report: Dec. 18-20, Edina Holiday Classic

Edina dominated the first period, outshooting the Thunderhawks 13-5, but were stymied for the most part. The only goal of the period came on a Connor Gaarder goal on a nifty move swinging around the net.

The second period was a very uneventful one. I had the “this is the No. 2 team in the state?” thought cross my head more than once during the period. The Hornets outshot the opposition again, 9-8, but it was almost like the Hornets thought they would get the victory for just showing up.

The only goal of the period came from Grand Rapids’ Austin Anderson tucked a lose puck past Edina Goaltender Johnny Ankeny one minute in.

What I would like to call the “holy s***, we might lose this game factor” kicked in hardcore for Edina in the third.
 
Edina’s John Eppel tucked a puck past Grand Rapids goalie A.J. Underwood one minute into the third to give Edina the lead for good, and it was all Hornets after that.

Edina then put their 49th-ranked power play (23.5%, they were one–for even on the night) to work for them. Edina’s Brendan Baker then put away a pass from Marshall Everson to put Edina up by two.

The Hornets had one more goal in them though, as Charlie Taft put away a loose puck while getting absolutely creamed at the top of the crease to round out the scoring.

I will credit Grand Rapids with a very solid penalty kill unit. Their PK unit was at 75 percent, but they played incredibly solid against Edina. They fell back into an incredibly solid passive box system, and held the majority of Edina attacks to the blueline and side boards.

The first game on Friday saw Eden Prairie play Grand Rapids. In short, Grand Rapids just got destroyed. Grand Rapids never got more than ten shots in any period, and the final shots were 46- 25.

Tom Hammann scored the only goal for Grand Rapids at the 9:22 mark of the first period, and then the onslaught was on. Power-play goals by Kyle Rau and Mike Erickson, both assisted by Nick Leddy.    

Second period goals by David Rath and Kyle Rau put the game away, and Eden Prairie packed the tent in the third period.

This just in (actually, not just in, everybody always new this)—Mike Erickson is really good. He has a point in every game, except one, including three against Lakeville North. He also has a goal in every game except one.

The senior captain is really getting himself noticed by NHL scouts; he has amazing speed, the only downside is he’s a little undersized, he’s 5’9’’.

The second game on Friday saw Edina play Elk river. It was more of the same for Edina—ugly, sloppy, play and then the “holy s***, we might lose this game factor”  kicked in again in the third.

We were only playing a 20 minute game, which had me worried. I and everyone else knew we would get run out of the rink if we played Eden Prairie like we played Grand Rapids and Elk River.

Nick Filipovich scored for the Elks at the 9:22 mark of the first period, and even though Edina thoroughly dominated the shot chart through two periods (they were up 21-13 after two, and ended up leading in shots by a wide margin; 33-17), they were stymied by Elk goaltender Anders Franke.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?