Rosemount is a No. 2 seed in Section 3AA
Eastview and Rosemount are seeded first and second in the Section 3AA boys hockey playoffs and will be among the teams looking to end a seven-year private school winning streak.
Eighth seed Hastings (16-9-1) defeated ninth-seeded Apple Valley/Burnsville (5-21) in a play-in game Tuesday and advances to play Eastview (17-7-1) in the quarterfinals Thursday at Apple Valley Sports Arena. Other quarterfinal games are seventh seed Eagan (11-13-1) at Rosemount (18-7), sixth seeded Two Rivers (17-8) at third seed St. Thomas Academy (15-8-2), and fifth seed and two-time defending section champion Cretin-Derham Hall (14-10-1) at Park of Cottage Grove (15-10). All quarterfinal games start at 7 p.m. except Eagan-Rosemount, which starts at 6.
Semifinal games are 6 and 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26, at Braemar Arena in Edina, with the championship game 7 p.m. Friday, March 1, also at Braemar.
Cretin-Derham Hall won Section 3AA the last two years and defeated St. Thomas Academy 4-2 in the 2023 championship game. STA won the section five years in a row from 2017 and 2021 and also took first in 2015, the season after opting up to Class AA.
The last time a South Suburban Conference school – or any non-private school – won Section 3AA was 2016, when Burnsville took down St. Thomas Academy 7-1 in the championship game.
There didn’t seem to be much separating Eastview, Rosemount and St. Thomas when it came time to seed the section playoffs last weekend. The three have similar records. STA, Eastview and Rosemount were 13th through 15th in last week’s Let’s Play Hockey Class AA rankings. In the Minnesota-Scores.net Quality Results Formula rankings, Rosemount was ninth, with Eastview and STA tied for 13th.
Eastview’s 7-0-1 regular-season record against Section 3AA opponents likely earned the Lightning the top seed. They defeated Rosemount, Eagan and Apple Valley/Burnsville twice each, and St. Thomas Academy once. Eastview and Cretin-Derham Hall tied 4-4 on Jan. 16. A 3-2 victory over South Suburban Conference champion Shakopee on the final day of the regular season probably didn’t hurt either (the Lightning finished second in the SSC, two points behind Shakopee).
“After the seedings came out, somebody told me it was the first time in Eastview’s history they have been seeded first,” Lightning coach Aaron Fulton said. “I don’t know if that’s true or not, and I also don’t know if it means a lot. Look at the 8-9 game. Apple Valley has played us tough, and Hastings has a winning record. Top to bottom, the section is probably the strongest it’s been since I’ve been here.”
Eastview, which made the most recent of its two state tournament appearances in 2013, enters the playoffs with a six-game winning streak and is 11-1-1 in its last 13, Forwards Zach Wooten (46 points) and Jordan Brothers (45) are among the SSC’s leading scorers, and goalie Gabe Otis has a 2.11 goals-against average and three shutouts.
“We’ve played some competitive, tight games the last few weeks, which should help us with the playoffs coming up,” Fulton said. “Our players have done a good job paying attention to the details and when they do that, they can play with more freedom.
“We’ve had good, solid goaltending all year. We’re killing our penalties, although I’d like to see us spend less time doing that. We made some adjustments to our power play and if we can bring (the conversion rate) up to 25-30 percent, we should be in good shape for the playoffs.’
Rosemount, the SSC’s third-place team, has had a season of streaks. The Irish won 10 in a row after losing their opener to defending state Class AA champion Minnetonka. Then they lost four in a row, followed by a six-game winning streak. They finished the regular season with back-to-back victories over Lakeville South and Eagan by a combined 11-1.
Senior forward Hans Hedlund leads Rosemount with 41 points and is one of four Irish players with at least 10 goals. Junior forward Christian Garrity has a team-high 20 goals. Trent Nelson has had the majority of starts in goal and has a 2.03 goals-against average and two shutouts.
The state high school boys hockey tournament has been held every year since 1945 and Rosemount has been there once – in 1992, during the ill-fated two-tier experiment. The state tournament was one class and eight teams through 1991. But the Minnesota Legislature passed a law in 1989 requiring the Minnesota State High School League to expand the boys hockey tournament within three years.
For the 1991-92 season, programs were assigned to tiers based on perceived strength, not necessarily enrollment. The 64 teams judged to be the state’s best went to Tier I, with the rest going to Tier II. Rosemount was assigned to Tier II.
The 1991-92 Irish were 1-20-1 in the regular season but hit their stride in the playoffs. Rosemount won three section games to reach the state tournament, then won its first two at state before falling to Greenway 6-1 in the Tier II final.
Chris Hvinden, captain of the Irish’s Tier II runner-up team, now is an assistant coach for the state tournament-bound Rosemount girls squad.
The tier system lasted one more season before being scrapped in favor of the two-class, enrollment-based format that still exists today.
Section 1AA
Five-time defending Section 1AA champion Lakeville South goes into this year’s tournament as the top seed, to no one’s surprise.
The section has shrunk to seven teams, meaning the Cougars (15-10) will have a bye in the quarterfinals. They play the winner of quarterfinal game between fourth seed Owatonna (17-5-3) and fifth seed Lakeville North (6-17-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Hasse Arena. Owatonna plays host to Lakeville North at 7 p.m. Thursday.
In the other half of the bracket, sixth-seeded Farmington (6-19) plays at No. 3 seed New Prague (15-8-2), and No. 2 seed Rochester Century/John Marshall (19-4-2) takes on seventh seed Rochester Mayo (3-21-1), with both games at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The Section 1AA championship game is 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 29, at Rochester Rec Center.
Despite having the fourth-best record in the section, Lakeville South had the highest QRF ranking. That traces to a schedule that included 24 games against Class AA teams, several of which are among the top-ranked teams in the state. The Cougars also were 4-0 against Section 1AA opponents in the regular season.
South Suburban Conference members Lakeville North, Lakeville South and Farmington have won the last 14 Section 1AA championships. That run started in 2010, when Lakeville North played in the Lake Conference before becoming one of the original members of the SSC.
The Panthers also advanced in 2006, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018. They won the state championship in 2015 after finishing second the year before.
Farmington qualified for the Class AA tournament in 2016 after two earlier trips to state in Class A. Lakeville South made its first state appearance in 2008, then returned in 2012, 2017, and each of the last five years. South was Class AA runner-up in 2021, losing to Eden Prairie in overtime in the championship game.
Lakeville South finished fifth in the South Suburban and struggled at the end of the regular season, losing its last three games and four of its last six. Junior forward and leading scorer Jackson Ernst (35 points) will try to help the Cougars clean the slate in the section playoffs.
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