Feature Story
Lumberjacks win title, first-round playoffs set
By Brian McDonough
The Granite City Lumberjacks were crowned
regular-season champions of the MJHL after their 3-0 win over the Minnesota
Owls on Friday night.
With the title, the Lumberjacks secure
one of the league’s two berths to the upcoming Tier
The MJHL’s
playoff champion will be the league’s second representative at Nationals. If
the Lumberjacks also win the playoff title, the runner-up of the playoff finals
will join
In their victory over the Owls,
goaltender Justin Lochner turned aside all 37 shots
to earn the shutout. Alex Naujokas, Tyler Wahl and
Monte French connected for the
“The guys have worked very hard all
season and have been very consistent in their efforts throughout the season,”
said Lumberjacks head coach Brent Boerger. “Honestly,
our kids were happy about the win, but I think they’re looking forward towards
the playoffs coming up.”
The Minnesota Junior Hockey League
announced the schedule for the first round of the playoffs.
The postseason began with a play-in game
on March 4 between the Minnesota Wildcats and the St. Paul Lakers. The winner
of that game advanced to a best-of-three quarterfinal series against the
regular-season champion Granite City Lumberjacks.
The remaining three best-of-three
quarterfinal series – Minnesota Ice Hawks vs. Hudson Crusaders; Minnesota Owls
vs. Minnesota Flying Aces; Wisconsin Mustangs vs. Twin Cities Northern Lights -
will be played on March 6-7 with the third game, if necessary, scheduled for
March 8.
The quarterfinal winners will advance to
the best-of-three semifinals, with the semis winners advancing to the
best-of-three finals.
The playoff champion will earn the MJHL’s second berth to the USA Hockey Tier
If the Lumberjacks, who secured the
league’s first berth to Nationals by way of their regular-season title, also
win the playoff championship, the playoff runner-up will represent the MJHL in
2009 MJHL Playoffs
Friday-Sunday, March 6-8
#1
#2 MN Ice Hawks vs. #7
#3 MN Owls vs. #6 MN Flying Aces
#4
Let’s Play Hockey
wants to publish your hockey stories. From tournament reports, to feature
stories on teams, players or coaches, to opinion pieces on the game of hockey, Let’s
Play Hockey accepts submissions from readers throughout the hockey
community. To submit your hockey story and/or photo(s), e-mail us at editor@letsplayhockey.com.