Hermantown and Virginia to Clash in Class A Quarters

East Draws Rematch with Hill-Murray

The seedings for both the Class A & AA State Tournament were completed this morning, and two of the three area teams will meet in the first round in St. Paul.

Hermantown was seeded #3 and will face Virginia/MI-B in the opener. Virginia went unseeded for the second straight year at the tournament. Hermantown won the regular season battle at home against Virginia 4-2 back in December. The puck will drop at 1:00PM on Wednesday afternoon.

Duluth East was not seeded in the AA bracket and drew #4 seeded Hill-Murray. The Pioneers upended the Greyhounds 5-1 earlier this year at the Schwan Cup, which was also held at the Xcel Energy Center. Face off is slated for 8:00PM on Thursday night.

Full state tournament brackets for both classes can be found through the link at the top left of this page.

Top Seeds Advance in Class A Quarters

Hunters Squeek by in OT

All 8 of the top seeds in section 5A and 7A advanced in quarterfinal action on Thursday night. Most with relative ease.

The one exception is Duluth Denfeld. The #2 seed Hunters needed overtime to get past #7 St. Michael-Albertville by a 5-4 score in section 5A play. Hermantown, St. Cloud Cathedral, and Rogers all coasted into the semis.

In section 7A, Hibbing survived an early scare from Eveleth-Gilbert, but turned it on to advance with a 5-0 victory over the Golden Bears. Virginia, International Falls, and Duluth Marshall all cruised to running-time victories to gain spots in the semifinals on Saturday.

More complete recaps from Thursday`s action will be posted here shortly!

Six is Common Theme in 7AA Quarters

Lumberjacks Put a Scare into the Elks

Three teams advanced by scoring six goals on Tuesday night in the Section 7AA quarterfinals, but the top seeded Elks were not one of them.

Elk River survived a huge scare from #8 seeded Cloquet/Esko/Carlton with a goal in the second overtime as they eaked out a 4-3 win to move on. The Elks will face Forest Lake, who shutout the Grand Rapids Thunderhawks 6-0. That game will be at the DECC in Duluth on Saturday at noon.

In the bottom bracket, Duluth East cruised to a 6-1 win over Cambridge-Isanti. The Greyhounds will face Andover in the other seimifinal matchup after the Huskies skated past Saint Francis 6-2. Game time for this one will be 2:00 (following semifinal #1) at the DECC on Saturday.

In opening round action in section 5A, #8 North Branch knocked off #9 Moose Lake Area 6-4 and advanced to face #1 seeded Hermantown in the quarterfinal round. #6 Proctor upended #11 Pine City/Rush City 5-2 to advance to battle #3 seed St. Cloud Cathedral in the quarters. The two other quarterfinals will feature #4 Rogers vs. #5 Sauk Rapids-Rice and #2 Duluth Denfeld vs. #7 St. Michael-Albertville. Sauk Rapids advanced with a 12-1 thrashing of #12 Meadow Creek, while St. Michael advanced with a 3-0 blanking of #10 Mora/Hinckely-Finlayson. All games begin at 7:00 on Thursday night at the high seed`s home rink.

In Section 7A, #8 Silver Bay skated past #9 Ely 7-3 to advance to face top seeded Virginia/MI-B. #10 Two Harbors rallied to upend #7 Greenway 6-5 in overtime in the other 7A play-in game. The Agates will travel to International Falls to face the #2 Broncos on Thursday.

In Wisconsin, Superior needed 5 overtimes to advance to the section 1 championship game, which they will host on Saturday. Chris Bishop scored unassisted 30 seconds into the game's eighth period as the top seeded Spartans defeated River Falls 2-1 and will face New Richmond in the finals. New Richmond also won 2-1, defeating Menomonie in the other semifinal. The title game is slated for 1:00PM at Wessman Arena this Saturday.

Surprisingly, the Superior/River Falls game was not the longest game of the night. In section 8AA, St. Cloud Tech outlasted Bemidji 4-3 in 6 overtimes in what will go down as one of the longest games in playoff history.

This Week`s State Rankings (2/18)

Provided by Let`s Play Hockey Magazine

High School Hockey rankings, provided by Let's Play Hockey

BOYS AA

1. Minnetonka

2. Wayzata

3. Eden Prairie

4. Hill-Murray

5. Edina

6. Bloomington Jefferson

7. Blaine

8. Centennial

9. Burnsville

10. Eagan

11. Elk River

12. Duluth East

13. Holy Angels

14. Andover

15. Benilde-St. Margaret’s

16. Maple Grove

17. Osseo

18. Moorhead

19. Cretin-Derham Hall

20. Brained

BOYS A

1. Breck

2. St. Thomas Academy

3. Hermantown

4. Warroad

5. Mahtomedi

6. Virginia/Mt. Iron-Buhl

7. Thief River Falls

8. Rochester Lourdes

9. Alexandria

10. Faribault

11. St. Cloud Cathedral

12. Blake

13. Sartell-St. Stephen

14. Hibbing/Chisholm

15. Mound-Westonka

16. Totino-Grace

17. Duluth Denfeld

18. Spring Lake Park

19. South St. Paul

20. New Prague

View this week`s area rankings here.

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