The Albert Lea A Peewee team traveled to Worthington this last weekend for the District 4 Tournament. It was an eight-team tournament with only two teams advancing to regions.

Albert Lea was the No. 2 seed in the East entering the tournament. Its first game was against New Ulm which was the No. 4 seed in the west.

The Albert Lea boys came out with a very strong game playing one of their best passing games of the season with 11 different boys scoring points in the game. Albert Lea won 10-1.

In the second game the team went up against St. Peter, the No. 4 seed in the East, which just upset the No. 1 seed in the west Mankato. Scoring goals on St. Peter has given Albert Lea trouble this year beating them in St. Peter 4-1 in the beginning of the year and then tying them two other times including a scoreless tie at home earlier in the year.

The team played a very strong, physical game outplaying and outshooting St. Peter 35-17 but after three periods the score remained 0-0. Going into sudden death overtime with about one minute gone in the overtime period, St. Peter got a good bounce off of a deflection and scored to win the game 1-0.

But it was not over for Albert Lea the way the tournament was set up with two teams advancing to regions if you lose your second game then win your third you then have a chance to play the loser of the championship game to find a true second.

In the third game, Albert Lea found itself playing the No. 1 seed in the East, Faribault, who also got upset by New Prague the No. 3 seed in the East.

Faribault is one of the team&8217;s biggest rivals all season playing twice earlier in the year tying them 3-3 in Albert Lea and beating them 2-1 in Faribault.

Albert Lea jumped out to an early lead in the first period when Eric Carlson scored with an assist going to David Enstad to make it 1-0. Faribault answered back making it 1-1, but in the second period Levi Hacker scored the second goal with an assist going to Enstad making it 2-1 Albert Lea.

Faribault answered back before the end of the second making it 2-2.

In the third period, A.L. dominated play scoring two goals by Cody Haaland with assists going to Hacker and Carlson. Albert Lea was up 4-2 late in the game but Faribault scored a third goal with two minutes left in the game to make it 4-3. Faribault pulled its goalie and put on the pressure, but Albert Lea was able to hang on for the win.

It was a stellar game in the net for Griffen Wangen and playing a very strong defense for Albert Lea was Auston Larsen, Tyler Osmundson, Josh Martin, Adam Herbst, and Darik Weigel.

So Albert Lea found itself in its fourth game having to play the loser of the championship game to find a true runner-up.

Albert Lea ended up playing New Prague which lost to St. Peter.

Albert Lea started out the game with Hacker scoring an unassisted goal in the first shift to take an early lead and then Parker Thompson added another goal to make it 2-0 with assists going to Carlson and Enstad.

Early in the second period Haaland added a third goal with the assist going to Auston Larsen. Albert Lea then we took a 4-0 lead when Carlson and Larry Olsen added another to end the second period with assists going to Jared Hogstad and Larsen to complete the playmaker.

In the third period, things got a little chippy with both teams ending up in the box a lot, but Albert Lea managed to score twice to make it a 5-2 final.

Nate Stadhiem, Jared Hosted, Thompson and Olsen played very well on offense and Wangen was outstanding in goal all weekend.

The team advances to the Regional Tournament

March 2-4 in a round robin format. The first game is

Friday at 1:10 p.m. at Highland Arena in South St. Paul. It will play two games on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. The Sunday games are to determine which two teams will advance to the state tournament.