Title drought ongoing for southern hockey teams

Hockey season is here again. The slate is clean: zero wins, zero losses for everyone. This, of course, means it's time for coaches to tell you one thing: They like their chances.

"I think the team that we selected is going to do some good things for us here," said fourth-year Burnsville coach Janne Kivihalme, a day after ending tryouts last week. "We're definitely excited with what we have."

The big question, though, is who repeats this positive sentiment in four months when all the medals and hardware have been handed out at the state tournament?

For some time, that's been few in the south metro.

Not since Simley placed second in the Class 1A field in 2003 has a team from the Star Tribune South's coverage area gone to the state championship game. In Class 2A, you have to go all the way back to Apple Valley's state championship in 1996 to find a team that's advanced to the title game.

Meanwhile, less than a gallon of gas away, such teams as Eden Prairie and Edina have reaped recent rewards. Others continue to gain all the praise.

In this year's preseason Class 2A Let's Play Hockey state poll, the top eight teams are all from the metro's first ring, yet you have to scan down to No. 19 -- Apple Valley -- to find a ranked south metro team.

So, why is that?

Everybody has an opinion, and Kivihalme said he believes the gap really isn't all that wide.

"It comes down to which team is ready to go on any given night," he said.

Rankings are simply a number on paper. But games played are for real, and those numbers don't lie.

In the Lake Conference last season, Bloomington Jefferson and Eden Prairie each had 18-1 league records. Third place went to Eagan, six games behind with a 12-7 mark.

Eden Prairie finished the year on an 18-game winning streak en route to the Eagles' first state championship.

One of its toughest games on that path came in early February, when they defeated the Blaze 7-6 in overtime.

"It could have gone either way," Kivihalme said. "[Team comparison] is very close. It's just a matter of sequence of years."

Geography also has something to do with it --the larger the community, the deeper the talent pool.

So left to work with what he's given, Kivihalme stays in touch closely with Burnsville's youth hockey program, from mites (ages 8 and younger) on up to junior gold (high school, nonvarsity).

Especially at the older levels, he relays the varsity game plan and areas of emphasis to the youth-level coaches throughout the year.

"It's good to spend some time there," Kivihalme said. "They see you, know your face a little bit. You get to teach them your points. And the more help you can give that younger generation coming up, the more prepared they are when they come to us."

As he prepared to run the first full-varsity practice of the season, Kivihalme was told of the 13-season Class 2A state title game drought for area teams.

After a surprised raise of the eyebrows, he smiled.

"We'll have to change that, huh?"

bstensaas@startribune.com