Bayside Chatter: Tourneys up next for Mariners hockey

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Next up for both the boys and girls high school hockey teams is holiday tournament play. The girls are at the top division of the Schwan Cup in Blaine Monday through Wednesday. The boys host the Silver Bay Blue Line Club/AmericInn tournament at Rukavina Arena Tuesday through Thursday.

The boys tourney features a North vs. South format all three days of the event. The south teams are Legacy Christian (1-4), Robbinsdale Cooper (3-3), and the St. Paul Saints (1-4). The North has Silver Bay (1-3), Ely (3-2), and Moose Lake (4-2). These records are through Dec. 18.

With no bracketed play the tournament may need tie breakers. You get two points per win and zero for a loss. After a regulation tie you will have an eight-minute 5-on-5 overtime followed by a five-minute 4-on-4, a five-minute 3-on-3, and then a shootout.

A tie in game points has the tiebreakers in order as No. 1 head to head, No. 2. least goals allowed, No. 3 subtracting goals against from goals scored, No. 4 most goals scored, and No. 5 least penalty minutes and then a coin flip.

The Blue Division of the Schwan Cup has six ranked teams, Silver Bay and Sun Prairie of Wisconsin are the only unranked teams. Breck is No. 4 in Class A, Red Wing  is No. 10, and Eveleth-Gilbert is No. 16. Benilde-St. Margarets is No. 4 in AA. St. Croix Valley is No. 1 in Wisconsin and Fargo North is No. 2 in North Dakota. The Mariners, at 6-3-1, open up with 4-5-1 Red Wing. Opposite them is 3-6 Breck and 5-2 Fargo. Benilde is 8-2-1, Sun Prairie is 4-1, Eveleth is 8-5, and St. Croix Valley is 6-0-1.

Front cover

That was Silver Bay’s Mark LeBlanc on the cover of the December 2010 issue of USA Hockey magazine. It was taken at a pro-celebrity pheasant hunt in South Dakota to raise funds for South Dakota hockey.

Tags: bayside chatter, sports, hockey