7AA boys hockey playoffs begin Saturday with pig-tail game
The Section 7AA boys hockey tourney gets underway this weekend, with seeding taking place Wednesday night. Cambridge-Isanti (5-19) will host St. Francis (7-14-4) in the No. 8 vs. No. 9 play-in game on Saturday, Feb. 18 (7:00 p.m.) at the Isanti Arena. The Bluejackets defeated the Saints 5-3 back on Dec. 8.
Senior Brennan Osen scored two goals against both St. Michael and Buffalo this week.
The winner of that game gets the task of traveling to Duluth East (23-1)– the No. 1 seed again for the section– for the Tuesday, Feb. 21 quarterfinals (7 p.m.). The powerful Greyhounds are the three-time defending champs in the section and have held the No. 1 ranking in Class AA all season.
Andover (15-7-1) and Grand Rapids (19-6) and are the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in 7AA. The section semifinals will be Feb. 25 at Amsoil Arena in Duluth (10 a.m. & 12 p.m.), with the championship scheduled for March 1 back in Duluth.
Knights rally on Bluejackets
Bluejacket senior Brennan Osen scored 23 seconds into the Feb. 11 home battle with St. Michael-Albertville, but the Knights fought back to win the Mississippi 8 game. Peter Storlie’s power play goal had C-I leading 2-1 early in the second period, but STMA answered with two goals in that stanza and led 4-2 four minutes into the third period. Osen delivered a power-play goal with four minutes remaining to cut the Knight lead to 4-3.
• In their final Mississippi 8 game of the season, the Bluejackets fell 8-3 to host Buffalo Feb. 14.
Osen stayed hot with two more goals for the C-I boys. Jordan Locken added the team’s last goal which had the game tied 3-3 25 seconds into the third period. But the Bison tallied five unanswered goals to roll to victory.
M-8 Boys Hockey
Rogers 7-0, 17-6-1; St. Michael-Alb. 4-2-1, 14-9-1; Buffalo 4-4, 7-15-1; Monticello-AML 2-5-1, 6-17-2; Cambridge-Isanti 1-7, 5-19.
