2015 Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament Brackets

Sixteen teams punched their ticket last week to the XCel Energy Center to play in next week's Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament.

Seeds have been determined and match-ups set for the tournament. As usual, Class A--the designation for smaller schools-- will play their quarterfinals on Wednesday, then take Thursday off while Class AA--the designation for larger schools--plays their quarterfinal round. Both sections will play their semifinal round on Friday, with the championship games taking place on Saturday.

The top five teams in each class are seeded, with the final three spots determined by random draw. Here's how the field ended up this year:

Class AA

Seeds:

1. Lakeville North

2. Edina

3. St. Thomas Academy

4. Blaine

5. Eden Prairie

And here is the schedule, again with the quarterfinal games starting on Thursday:

# 2 Edina vs. Bemidji    11AM

#3 St. Thomas Academy vs. Duluth East  1PM

#1 Lakeville North vs. Hill-Murray    6PM

#4 Blaine    vs.  #5  Eden Prairie    8PM

The winners of the morning session meet each other in the first semifinal on Friday night, and the winners of the night session meet in the late game Friday night.

Handicapping the field, this looks like a three-horse race. Lakeville North went through the regular season undefeated. Edina's only loss this season was to Lakeville North. If they meet , it will be the third game in three days for both teams, which likely gives Edina an edge with their depth. Complicating matters is third seed St. Thomas Academy, who could give Edina all they can handle in the semifinal, and could easily win the whole tournament.

Class A

Seeds:

1. Hermantown

2. Mahtomedi

3. East Grand Forks

4. Breck

5. St. Cloud Apollo

And here is the schedule to kick off the tournament on Wednesday:

#2 Mahtomedi   vs. New Ulm     11AM

#3 East Grand Forks vs. New Prague  1PM

#1 Hermantown vs. Spring Lake Park   6PM

#4 Breck  vs. #5 St. Cloud Apollo 8PM

Same schedule as the Class AA tournament, with the winners of the morning session meeting in the first semifinal on Friday morning, and winners of the evening session meeting in the second semifinal on Friday afternoon.

Hermantown comes into the Class A tournament as the heavy favorite. They dropped a pair of games to Class AA teams from the southwest Twin Cities suburbs, then rolled through the rest of their schedule, including a shutout win over East Grand Forks. After the Hawks, the field is relatively wide open, which should make for a fun tournament.