Marshall Everson then tapped home a shot at the far post to put the Hornets up for good, and then Connor Gaarder added the insurance marker, working the two-on-one perfectly. Gaarder faked the pass to Everson, then ripped a wrist shot past the Elk goalie for the short-handed tally.
The player that impressed me the most on Elk River was their Freshman goaltender Anders Franke. He got the short end of the stick in the tournament going 2-1, and he’s a little undersized—his height isn’t listed, but I’d guess he’s no taller than 6’1’’ or 6’2’’.
Through seven games (he’s started all Elk River’s games as a freshman), he’s posted a 90 percent save percentage and a very good 2.14 GAA. He’s 4-3 on the season, with one shutout, a 3-0 blanking of Andover where he made 20 saves.
But then, it's still early. The main concern about young goaltenders is their consistency, and being able to play night in and night out. Still, he’s a solid butterfly style goaltender who’s only going to get better with age.
The first game Saturday, the Elk River-Grand Rapids game, was a mismatch. Elk River ended up winning 6-3, but it wasn’t even that close. Grand Rapids never got more than ten shots in any one period, and Elk River put up at least a goal in every period, and four in the second.
Grand Rapids scored two quick goals in the first, Duston Schulte at 2:45, and Patrick Moore at 10:37. CJ Pullar opened the scoring for Elk River, his first of two points in the game, and his eighth and ninth points in as many games.
The second period was all Elks, with three very quick goals to chase goaltender A.J. Underwood from the game. Ryan Jaremko notched his second goal and tenth point in nine games at the 1:08 mark, then Nick Filipovich scored, followed by Levi Lutz 23 seconds later.
Ryan Larson then came on to play goal for Grand Rapids, and he didn’t do much better than Underwood. He didn’t even flinch when Nick Filipovich scored his second goal of the evening to round out the second period scoring.
With the game more of less in the bag, Elk River packed up the tent in the third. Chad Hennum scored for Elk River followed by Grand Rapids’ Sam Rendle with his 13th point in nine games, but this game was decided a long time ago.
The last game of the tournament featured the marquee match up of Edina Vs. Eden Prairie, a very heated rivalry at that. Heading in to the game, I thought Eden Prairie had the game in the bag, considering how Badly Edina played in the first two games of the tournament.
The action was back and forth all game, although Eden Prairie got off to a slow start in the first. Eden Prairie got outshot 15-6 in the first, but only ended up down by one goal, with Brett Stolpestad tallying an early marker for Edina.
Eden Prairie came out with guns blazing in the second, as the Eagles scored twice on the powerplay, once by Mike Erickson at 6:50, and again by Kyle Rau at 8:43. Edina had their own special teams scoring fest going on though, led by defenseman Brendan Baker, who had a whale of a game.
Baker tallied his first of the game at 13:12 of the second period on the power play to tie the game, then again at 6:21 of the third period, also on the power play, for the game winner. Final shots in the game were 33-39 Edina.
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