St. Cloud Area Youth Hockey Teams Survive “Super Sunday” At The MAC

Multiple St. Cloud area hockey teams advanced to the regional tournament after winning at the District Five finals Sunday afternoon at the MAC in St. Cloud.

The St. Cloud Bantam AA boys hockey team advanced to the tourney, along with the Bantam B team and girls' U14 team.

From Sartell, the boys Bantam A and Peewee A teams advanced, while Sauk Rapids will send their Peewee A team to next week's regional tourney. River Lakes sends two teams to the regional as well, their Peewee B and girls' U12B teams.

Full recap via Townsquare Media's Joe Erickson below:

It was dubbed as Super Sunday,  and District 5 hockey teams made sure it lived up to its dubbing..if you are a rink rat. The problem is, you won’t find rink rat in the dictionary.   It doesn't appear in any thesaurus.   I will assure you are not going to see it in any urban dictionary.   So according to those credible sources, it must not exist.

So following that logic, I don't exist.  And neither do the other hockey nuts seen at the MAC in Saint Cloud this weekend.  But I do, and they do.  People like Vaughn Cornelius...watching and supporting all levels of hockey.  In a conversation with Cornelius yesterday after Cathedral advanced in the Boys Sections,  "What time do we play tomorrow?"  Almost instinctively.  His wife, Gina, quickly exclaimed, " We don't play until Thursday".

Or Ryan and Jenni Pruse who in their spare time can be found at the rink...hours at a time!  As well, Jamie and Kim Cumming (and kids)  are known to attend a 'few' games. As Kim said to me Sunday morning (with a smile on her face), "...looks like we'll be here all day. "   And they would... as the Saint Cloud Peewee AA  would play Buffalo not once,  but twice on Sunday,  three times in two days.

The Saint Cloud Bantam AA would do the same against district rival STMA.   Both teams played elimination games after losing in the double elimination format.   Both teams lost the deciding game, but the Bantam AA squad received an at-large bid to the Regions.

No Fries!

When the MAC runs out of fries, a comfort food at the MAC, and have to run to Sam's Club,  you know it's a busy weekend! That happened, but all was well when they found some ‘reserve’ crinkle fries, later!

Saint Cloud/Buffalo take 3
When Saint Cloud Peewee AA Luke Johnson lit the lamp in the first minute of the Championship rematch, St. Cloud was on its way, so they thought.  Less than a minute later, Calvin Gromseth added a power play goal to make it 2-0. Buffalo cut the lead in half, but Saint Cloud’s Bryce Becker made in a two goal advantage five minutes into the second period.  Buffalo was not to be denied.

A minute later, they scored to make it a one goal lead, and I had a hot dog. Buffalo tied the game in the third and the pressure of a trip to the Regions was on. And on and on they played.

And in the second overtime,  Buffalo advanced to the Regions on a deflected shot.  A tough way to end the season.