Minnesota Hockey Implements New Seeding Process for AA Region Tournaments

Panel of Coaches Will Be Used To Seed AA Teams to the South, East and West Regions

New AA seeding process coming

Wayzata Blue’s Phillip Iten Blast in triple overtime earn a Bantam B state title.

St. Paul, MN – June 25, 2013 – Minnesota Hockey today announced a newseeding process for AA Region tournaments following passage at the Minnesota Hockey Board Meeting held at the Marriott Minneapolis West on Sunday, June 23.

The new process will insure that every District will be represented in Region Tournaments to preserve a state-wide flavor at the State Tournaments, and will include coaches’ rankings for seeding.

The AA Tournaments will continue to consist of four Regions: North, South, East and West, but beginning with the 2013-14 season, teams will be assigned differently.

The North Region will consist of Districts 11, 12, 15 and 16. The North Region, currently with eight AA teams, will be a double-elimination tournament advancing two teams to State.

The South, East and West Region Tournaments will consist of Districts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10, which currently have 34 AA teams. The top 24 teams will be assigned, by rank, to these Region Tournaments. Each Region will be a double-elimination tournament and advance two teams to State.

Following the completion of District tournaments, a panel of seven coaches from the aforementioned Districts will rank all the teams from #1 to #34. The top 24 teams will be seeded and placed in the three region tournaments. However, should a number one seed from a District not be in the top 24 teams, that team will be assigned to the lowest seed. For example, if a team that is ranked 27th by the panel and is the #1 team seed from its District; it would receive an automatic bid into one of the three Region tournaments.

“The addition of the AA State Tournaments was a huge success last season and these changes will only add to the experience,” said Dave Margenau, President of Minnesota Hockey. “The process of selecting qualifiers for the three ‘southern’ Regions is similar to the NCAA Hockey Tournament selection process and will bring competitive parity between the Regions.”

The coach’s panel will be determined in a process by which each District Director will submit three Peewee coaches and three Bantam coaches. The Minnesota Hockey tournament committee will then select one Peewee coach and one Bantam Coach from each District to be on the panel. The panel’s members will be announced in January of 2013.

The results of the seeding process will be posted on Minnesota Hockey’s website, www.minnesotahockey.org, the Monday following District Tournament play.