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FELDY: Rochester native Mark Stuart won't hit free agency in a few months. The Atlanta Thrashers announced today that Stuart has signed a three-year contract extension, reportedly worth a total of $5.1 million.
Stuart, 26, will make $1.6 million in 2011-12, followed by $1.7 million in 2012-13, and $1.8 million in 2013-14.
FELDY: I had heard from a few people about Eric Mackey's great goal against Rochester Century a couple of weeks back. Mackey scored a diving goal in the Feb. 15 game, which JM won, after coming out of the penalty box.
I asked for your help on getting the video, and thanks much to Eric's mom, Brenda, who came through with a link to it on YouTube. I had to watch it a few times before I realized just how good the goal is. But, you'll see Century goalie Cam Sellnow, on the right hand side of the screen, come out to attempt to poke the puck away. It gets by him, then you'll see Mackey dive and knock it in.
Great goal.
NOTE: Keep watching the video. It shows the goal in full-speed first, then goes to slow-mo at about the 20-second mark.
Here's the link to the video; thanks again to Mrs. Mackey for the help. She sent the link last week and I hadn't gotten around to posting it until now. Sorry for the delay!
FELDY: Senior defenseman Bill Norman's season with the Rochester Mayo hockey team didn't end in a good way. A turnover by the stellar two-way player led to Century's game-winning goal in Thursday's Section 1AA quarterfinal game at Graham Arena.
But Norman, a foreign-exchange student from Sweden, could have his best hockey playing days in the U.S. still ahead of him.
Two sources close to the Mayo program have confirmed that multiple NCAA Division I teams, including the University of Maine, have been in contact with Norman about playing college hockey.
Norman was a catalyst for the Spartans this season. He quarterbacked the power play, running the point. He played on the penalty kill and in 5-on-5 situations. He rarely left the ice. He was Mayo's leading scorer with 17 goals and 30 assists, for 47 points. He assisted on both of the Spartans' goals in the loss to Century on Thursday.
Now, if he chooses, Norman could possibly play D-I hockey. Norman has a brother who plays pro hockey in Sweden. Maine coaches were apparently very familiar with his brother and feel that Norman could develop into a high-end defenseman.
A couple of catches here: 1. Norman isn't done with high school. I'm told that, in Sweden, they go to school a year longer than we do in the U.S. So, Norman will return home and have one more year of high school. 2. Norman could ultimately decide to stay in Sweden and pursue pro hockey there.
From what I hear, Maine coaches would like Norman to go home, play his final year of high school hockey there, and possibly a year of junior hockey.
According to a source, one of Maine's assistant coaches was in the Twin Cities last week to scout a game, and he decided to drive down to Mayo's game against Faribault on Feb. 17. The coach then pulled Norman aside to talk about his future after the game. Norman had a goal and two assists against Faribault.
Norman may not ever suit up for Maine, or even play D-I hockey, but it looks like that option is there for him if he chooses.
Good Sunday afternoon, all.
Thanks to those of you who joined me for the live blogs from Section Semifinal Saturday at the Rec Center yesterday. If you would like to read a replay of any of the live blogs from yesterday, they can all be found here.
If you can't make it to Thursday's Section 1A final between Lourdes and New Prague, I'll be back on the live blog at 6:45 p.m. Just log on to PostBulletin.com and click the link on the homepage. Or, you can go to the link I provide above.
* * *
After three-and-a-half months of hockey, the Section 1A and 1AA tournaments are down to the teams that we thought would be here.
In 1AA, we'll have a rematch of last year's all-Lakeville section title game. A year ago, North upset top-seeded South to get to the state tournament. Can the Panthers do it again? They've lost to South twice already this season, by three goals each time. Second-seeded North's best shot at a second consecutive upset of No. 1 seed South is to stop the high-powered scoring trio of Justin Kloos, Drew Brevig and Alex Harvey.
North and South are scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Friday at the Rochester Rec Center for the section championship. ... Maybe later this week we'll get into the whole issue of two Lakeville schools having to come to Rochester to play in a section final.
In 1A, No. 3-ranked and top-seeded Rochester Lourdes is back in position to go to state for a third consecutive season. Standing in their way: third-seeded New Prague.
The Eagles will make their fourth consecutive appearance in the section title game. They lost three years ago to Mankato West and beat Red Wing each of the past two years. The Eagles advanced to this year's section final by ending the Wingers season for a third straight year, 4-2, on Saturday. New Prague advanced to the tite game with a 4-1 win against Albert Lea.
Lourdes and New Prague will play at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Rec Center. If New Prague plays like it did in the first period on Saturday, it will give Lourdes all it can handle. These teams have some history, too, which we'll get into more as the week goes on. Lourdes has knocked New Prague out of the playoffs each of the past three years, and each time in the section semifinal round.
* But, back to Saturday's games at the Rec. It's usually one of the most entertaining days of the hockey season around here, but none of the four games on Saturday provided much drama or excitement. The building was never more than half full, either, and there wasn't a single band there all day. The atmosphere was flat and that, I believe, had an impact on several teams.
Both of the Section 1AA games were effectively over after the first period. North led Century 4-0 after one period, scoring twice in the final 2 minutes of the period to zap any momentum Century had gained. South led Farmington 3-0 after one and outshot the Tigers 25-2 in the first 17 minutes. Both games resulted in 7-0 final scores.
Century players said they had a good practice on Friday, after an emotional victory Thursday night against rival Mayo. Century actually had good energy right off the bat, but the Panthers had some miscues they couldn't afford.
First, they took four penalties in the first period. North only scored on one power play, but it kept many of Century's top players on the ice in penalty killing situations. It was energy Century couldn't afford to use. Second, Century gave up too many odd-man rushes. I counted five in the first period alone, and at least three of those were the direct result of North forwards blocking shots by Century d-men near the blue line.
A number of Century players were visibly hurting (emotionally) after the game, especially several underclassmen, who had a strong bond with this group of seniors. It was a tough year for Century, with so many players battling injuries and illnesses.
Senior Matt Mills unfortunately had injuries cost him a good portion of the season, including the playoffs. Junior Blake Heroff was in and out of the lineup all season with a nasty hip injury. He rested and iced it as much as he could; he'll have surgery about a month from now. I've been told it's the same injury that cost former Century goalie Alex Kangas his season with the Gophers this year.
The gratifying part of this season for the Century coaching staff has been the past couple of weeks, watching how some seniors were playing their best hockey (coach Bruce Frutiger gave a big nod to d-man Joe Canakes, who had a huge goal in the first period of the Mayo game). We sure can't forget d-man Nick Raehsler or goalie Cam Sellnow. Those guys have been a big part of the program for three years; both played in the state tourney as sophomores and were there game-in, game-out this season, doing what the coaches asked.
* OK, on to the Section 1A side.
The Lourdes-Red Wing game was close for a couple of periods, but with the way Lourdes was playing defense, I never got the feeling that the Eagles were in jeopardy.
Coach Josh Spaniol could sense the Eagles were a bit flat when he entered the locker room before warmups, but, he said, they were able to fight through it. Jason Samuelson had two goals, one set up nicely by Alex Funk. Senior D Rory Vesel also had a nice individual effort on his unassisted goal in the second period. And Andy Benner got Lourdes on the board with a nice play while forechecking at the end of a penalty kill. He took the puck away from a Wingers player, skated in and beat Red Wing goalie Sam Amendolar five-hole.
In the other 1A final, New Prague jumped on Albert Lea early and the Big Nine Conference-champion Tigers never really recovered. The Trojans scored twice in the first five minutes of the game, then Curt Brezina scored twice in a five-minute span early in the second for a 4-0 lead.
Albert Lea had some good chances, and actually tied New Prague with 34 shots on goal in the game, but either the Tigers shot the puck high or wide, or Trojans goalie Joe Morris robbed them.
Morris could be the great equalizer in Thursday's section final. He was outstanding in the first period against Albert Lea. Had he not been at his best, that could have been a 2-2 game after one; then who knows what happens.
When the teams met in the regular season, Lourdes beat New Prague, 3-1, at Graham Arena, back on Dec. 7. Lourdes scored twice in the final 4:12 of the first period that day, both on the power play, and never trailed. Both teams put 21 shots on goal in that game. Both teams are obviously playing better now than they were at that time, but based on what we saw Saturday, I'd expect another close game on Thursday.
FELDY: So, I think the Internet issues at the Feldy household are finally fixed. All it took was Mrs. Feldy to look at the problem and fix it. Good thing I have her around!
Sorry I was unable to post any preview stuff this morning, or any thoughts yesterday, but I'm at the Rec Center all day today.
For updates, log on to PostBulletin.com and on the home page is a link to my live game blogs. I'll be back on at 1:45 p.m. for the Lourdes-Red Wing game.
PHERSY: Well, it's championship weekend. The Ice Hawks still control their own destiny, but they need to win both games this weekend to earn a Minnesota Junior Hockey League title.
The Hawks host the Lakers at 7 tonight at the Rec Center. They must win tonight to make tomorrow night up in St. Cloud (against the league-leading Lumberjacks) mean something. Two wins, and a regular-season league title is coming home to Rochester.
I tracked down coach Nick Fatis for a little Phersy and Fatis Show ... we thought that sounded good. Coach talks about the injuries and everything that's going on this weekend.
Check it out, and get your rear ends to the Rec Center tonight!!!
FELDY: The Interwebs couldn't have picked a worse day to stop working at the Feldman house. Three playoff hockey games in town tonight, involving all four Rochester teams, and I HAVE NO INTERNET CONNECTION!
So I'll bring you an abridged version of High School Tonight, thanks to the wonder of the Android.
The headline for this post refers to a story that hopefully most of you saw in Wednesday's Post-Bulletin. Brenda Ewing, the mother of JM senior forward Zach Ewing, is recovering from breast cancer, and hopefully most of the difficult treatments are behind her. The other seven seniors on the JM varsity got together last summer and had pink stocking hats made, with the words "JM HOCKEY" on them. They've sold then at games and at school for $15 each and have raised nearly $900, if my math is correct.
Most Rockets are also wearing pink laces in their skates, which has drawn some colorful comments from opponents, but the JM players aren't the least bit bothered.
Tonight, most of JM's players will play a home playoff game for the first time. Farmington comes to the Rec Center for a 7 pm Section 1AA quarterfinals game. JM beat Farmington by six goals in their first meeting, on Nov. 30. The Tigers have one of the top scorers in the section, though, in senior Tyler Grubb (51 points).
JM will need to take advantage of its depth. The Rockets have three solid lines and five d-men who can be trusted in most situations. And senior goalie Bryan King is in his fourth year as a varsity player. If JM is going to make a deep playoff run, they'll need him to be a game changer.
I'm getting ready to head over to Graham Arena, where our other three Rochester teams are in action at 7 pm. Lourdes, the top seed in Section 1A, faces No.9 seed LeSueur-Henderson at Graham IV. The big game of the night is at Graham I, an intra-city showdown between Mayo and Century.
Lourdes seems like a lock to win tonight, but I'd be willing to bet that coach Josh Spaniol reminded his boys yesterday that a No.9 (St. cloud Apollo) knocked off a No.1 (Little Falls) already this postseason.
As for the big game at Graham I, it's the fourth meeting of the season between Mayo and Century. The Panthers won the first matchup, 4-2, at the Kiwanis Festival in December, but Mayo has topped Century twice in the past five weeks by a combined score of 8-0.
Can Mayo continue that trend or will Century reverse it? The biggest keys for the Panthers: stay out of the penalty box and play short shifts to stay fresh. Mayo's power play is outstanding right now and the Spartans have three lines that are clicking. If Mayo gets up early, they'll make it tough on Century to get anything going offensively.
That's it for now. I can't take much more of typing on a phone. I'll have updates from Mayo-Century on Twitter (@PBFeldy) and game results at PostBulletin.com later tonight.
PHERSY: We're back! This week we lead off the show with some talk about Tubby Smith and the lowly University of Minnesota men's basketball team, then we talk about the possibility of the Vikings signing some free agents in the near future. We move on to some high school wrestling talk, followed by Feldy ranting about high school hockey. And we wrap the show up with Minnesota Wild chatter.
It's the longest show ever. So we're sorry in advance. If you make it all the way through this bad boy, you get a prize (payable from Feldy).
FELDY: If the past few years are any indication, the Section 1A boys hockey tournament, which gets underway tonight at four sites, should be entertaining.Plus, Semifinal Saturday at the Rec Center is only four days away! That's one of the most enjoyable days of the season for me as a reporter and a hockey fan, getting to watch four good hockey games, from 11:30 a.m. until after 10 p.m. It's a long day, but a fun one.
As I was looking at this year's bracket, I noticed that New Prague is in the opposite half of the bracket as Lourdes. That has to make the Trojans breathe a little sigh of relief, with some of the postseason heartbreakers they've had against Lourdes in recent years.
That gets me thinking about some of the fun games we've had at the Rec Center over the past three years.
An interesting note here: The top seed in Section 1A has lost in the section semifinals or final the past three years. (In other words, Lourdes can't afford to get complacent at any time from now until whenever its season comes to an end.)
Three years ago, then-junior Cole Peterson scored with less than a minute remaining in OT to give Lourdes a 3-2 victory against a New Prague team that inculded a freshman named Seth Ambroz. He'll play for the Gophers next fall. Then, in the section final, a Mankato West team led by guys named Litchfield and Leivermann. Of course, the star of that section final was West's diminutive goalie, Tyler Bruggeman, who stopped 40 shots to deny the top-seeded Eagles a trip to state.
The following year (2009), a sophomore goalie for Lourdes named Nick Heimer stopped 23 shots in his first section championship game to lift the Eagles past top-seeded Red Wing, 3-2. That sent Lourdes to state for the first time since 2003. That win came on the heels of a 4-0 win against New Prague in the section semis, a game that Lourdes led just 1-0 six minutes into the third period.
And, last year, the game that sticks out to me is Red Wing's victory against top-seeded Faribault in the section semifinals. The Wingers put on a clinic, perfectly executing a great game plan designed by coaches George Nemanich and Bob Rajanen. The Wingers went on to fall to Lourdes in the section final.
Back to the present. Let's take a look at the favorites, the other contenders and the rest of the field:
THE FAVORITES
* No. 1 Rochester Lourdes: The Eagles have won the section title two years in a row. They're ranked No. 5 in the state and have lost just three times this season (to the No. 1 Class A team in Minnesota, STA; the No. 1 team in Wisconsin, Eau Claire Memorial; and the then-No. 5 team in Class A, Duluth Marshall). That said, the Eagles have won five games by one goal, and if I know the Lourdes coaching staff, they're reminding the players this week of how close a few teams in this section were to beating them.
Heimer is the backbone for this team. Coach Josh Spaniol has praised Heimer's efforts after every game for the past month or so, even in the 6-5 loss to top-ranked St. Thomas Academy (a game in which the winning goal was scored on a rebound that the Eagles defenders didn't clear). Heimer, like many of the players on this team, has been through two section tournaments, two section title games and two state tournaments. They're comfortable in big-game situations, but if they let down in the slightest, any of the other top five teams are capable of beating them.
* No. 2 Albert Lea.The Big Nine conference champion Tigers are playing with a load of confidence. They're 9-0-1 in their past 10 games and haven't lost in 40 days, since a 6-5 setback at Mankato West on Jan. 13. They have perhaps the premier scorer in the section -- F Eric Carlson (35-25--60) -- and goalie Griffin Wangen has shown in several recent games that he can hold his team in a game.
THE OTHER CONTENDERS
* No. 3 New Prague.The Trojans aren't exactly on a roll coming into the postseason. They're just 2-2-1 in their past five games, but they can certainly take some confidence out of tying Holy Angels, 5-5, in their final regular season game. N.P. doesn't have the high-powered scorers it has had in recent years -- the team's leading scorer is soph. F/D Cody Meyer (8-10--18) -- so it has to rely on solid defense and strong play from veteran goalie Joe Morris (10-11-1, 2.76 GAA, .909 save pct.).
* No. 4 Mankato West.The Scarlets showed that they could hang with the best in the section this year, playing Lourdes to a one-goal game in January, and splitting the season series with Albert Lea. The obvious fear factor for opponents of the Scarlets is senior F Ville Rantanen, the state's leading goal scorer (48) and second-leading points producer (80). Rantanen is not great on the defensive end, but West's opponents better take notice when he has the puck on his stick. West isn't a one-man band, though. Senior Drew Weber has 58 points (22-36--58) and senior F Andrew Frentz has 46 points.
THE FIELD
No. 5 Red Wing has been in the section title game each of the past two seasons, falling to Lourdes both times. There's a chance the Wingers could meet Lourdes in Saturday's semifinal round, if Red Wing can get past Mankato West on Thursday. Jr. F Mike Stegora leads the team with 22 points.
No. 6 Northfield lost to its likely quarterfinal opponent, New Prague, twice this season, each time by three goals. The Raiders have to beat Austin tonight, though, in order to face New Prague on Thursday in the quarterfinals. Northfield is led by soph. F Andrew Scofield (22-12--34), who is on a tear, with 18 points in the past eight games.
The rest of the field faces an uphill battle to even get to the Rec Center on Saturday for the semifinals. No. 7 Faribault was the top seed in the section a year ago, but was outplayed and outcoached in the semis. The Falcons would have to upset Albert Lea just to reach the semifinals this year.
So, that's it for Section 1A. Games get going tonight with first-round play at four sites -- No. 12 Mankato East at No. 5 Red Wing; No. 11 Austin at No. 6 Northfield; No. 10 Waseca at No. 7 Faribault; and No. 9 LeSueur-Henderson/St. Peter at No. 8 La Crescent.
A preview of the Section 1A and 1AA tournaments will appear in the P-B print edition on Wednesday. It will include a feel-good story about some Rochester John Marshall players rallying together to help one of their teammates and his family off the ice. It's a story that's close to my heart, too. I'll explain more about that on here tomorrow. Hopefully my writing does the story justice. The previews in the print edition will also include a team-by-team look at all of the quarterfinal matchups in Section 1A and 1AA.
FELDY: Lourdes boys hockey coach Josh Spaniol informed me this morning that Lourdes and Mayo will both play their Section 1 quarterfinal games at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Graham Arena complex.
Mayo's Section 1AA game against rival Rochester Century will take place in Graham Arena I, while Lourdes' Section 1A game against either La Crescent or LeSueur-Henderson/St. Peter will be held at Graham Arena IV.
The arena switch shouldn't be a problem for Lourdes, who, in all honesty, should be able to beat either La Crescent or L-H/SP handily, regardless of where they play. Lourdes has played a handful of its games at Graham IV this season, including three in the Kiwanis Festival in late December and a 3-2 win against Mankato West in January.
The winner of the Mayo-Century game will play in Saturday's Section 1AA semifinals at the Rec Center, most likely against No. 2 seed Lakeville North, at 5:30 p.m.
Assuming Lourdes wins its quarterfinal game, the Eagles will play at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Rec Center against either Mankato West or Red Wing (assuming that Red Wing beats Mankato East in Tuesday's first round matchup).
In addition, if John Marshall beats Farmington on Thursday (7 p.m., Rec Center), the Rockets will play at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Rec Center. They will play the winner of Thursday's game between top-seeded Lakeville South and Dodge County or Winona.
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