St. Cloud Tech at St. Paul Academy
7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 22

Before last season St. Thomas Academy moved up to Class 2A after dominating Section 4 the past few years, leaving the door open for some new programs to make noise out east. Looking for a possible new bully on the eastern suburban block? Check out No. 16-1A St. Paul Academy, which has quietly been building a strong program under coach Bill Owens. The Spartans won 18 games last winter and have an extremely young lineup back. Leading returning scorer Dev McCabe is just a freshman (yes, he scored nine goals and 33 points as an eighth-grader) and top goal-scorer Matt Dahlseide is just a sophomore (he had 14 goals and 22 points as a freshman). St. Paul Academy looks to be on the rise.

The Spartans play host Saturday night to St. Cloud Tech, a program that third-year coach Joel Heitkamp is trying to build into a consistent winner. It could be a reloading year for the Tigers, though, as they graduated stalwart goaltender Austin Althaus and four of their top five scorers. Tech has just two returning players who scored double-digit points: Joey Mendel and Braden Altena.