Minnesota high school boys hockey

The Minnesota High School Boys Hockey program is a high school ice hockey program in the State of Minnesota. Based on tournament attendance, ice hockey is the most popular high school sport in the state. (approximately 256 schools and over 6,500 participants in total due to cooperative team arrangements) field sanctioned varsity teams competing in the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL). These teams are divided into two classes, AA and A. Each class is also divided into eight sections.

Attendance has been strong throughout the years, with 22 tournaments eclipsing the 100,000+ barrier, and in 2015 a record setting total of 135,618 (both classes). In the 2006 State Tournament, the average attendance per game in the championship brackets was 18,000 people. The Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament is currently the largest state sports tournament in terms of viewing and attendance, beating the Texas State High School Football Tournament, Florida's State High School Football Tournament, and Indiana's State High School Basketball Tournament.

High school hockey players throughout Minnesota participate in a maximum of 25 contests, excluding the section tournaments and the Minnesota State Boys' High School Hockey Tournament. Teams currently play three 17-minute periods to comprise a game. A lengthened period time was adopted by the Minnesota State High School League in 2003.

Boys hockey concludes their season with a four-day tournament in March that features sixteen teams competing for championships in both classes. From 1945 through 1991 the tournament consisted of a single class, eight team tournament instead of the present day two class (AA and A) tournament. Private schools were not allowed to play in the Tournament until the 1974-75 season. In 1992-93, the tournament was composed of Tier I and II teams. This two-year experiment sent the top teams from each of the eight sections to the Tier I portion of the tournament and the remaining teams conducted a playoff to determine who would be included in the Tier II tournament. In 1994, the dual class system was adopted and teams were placed into a class structure based on school enrollments.

Since 1994, the MSHSL's process to determine section assignments for boys' hockey is based on school enrollments and activity classifications. The basic premise is to place the largest 64 schools into Class AA and the remaining high schools in Class A. Both Classes are then divided into 8 Sections each. Teams are placed into their section assignments with geographic location as a primary consideration. High schools initially placed in Class A have the option to play at the Class AA level.

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