President's Update - January 27th, 2014

Showdown in Bethune......

 

Two teams with five game winning streaks met in Bethune on Friday evening and it is appropriate that this game was decided in a shootout. The Bethune Bulldogs scored early in this game on a goal from Jens Johnson and the Avonlea Arrows would score late in the first period on a power play goal from Calvin Watson to send the teams into the second period tied at one. The Arrows would score early in the second period as Jared Molnar found the net and then the Arrows would quickly score on the power play as Watson would pot his second goal of the game and the Arrows had a two goal lead. Late in the period Derek Fuchs would score to get the Bulldogs within one goal. Fuchs has scored in each of the last three games. With just under 2 minutes left in the game Jens Johnson would score his second goal of the game to send this game into overtime. This game went to a shootout and Mike Reich would score the winning goal to give the Bulldogs their sixth win in a row with a 4-3 victory.  Ryan Seibel picks up his ninth victory of the year in net. Colin Munroe was in net for the Arrows. The Bulldogs had six minor penalties and the Arrows had three. The Arrows, 5-0-1 in their last six games, have six games left and if they get 10 points out of those games they will finish first in regular season standings.

 

In Raymore the Rockets held off the Southey Marlins 7-6. This game was tied at two after one period and the Rockets were up 5-3 after two periods. The Marlins scored three times in the third but could never get the equalizer as the Rockets scored twice. Tyrell Shulko had a hat trick, including two goals on the power play, to lead the Rockets and take over the lead in most goals scored in the league at 24. Josh Jordan had two goals and two assists including a shorthanded goal. Tim Weber and Mark Long, with the eventual game winner, would also score for the Rockets. Cody Hall scored twice for the Marlins including their only power play tally with the rest of the Marlin’s scoring coming from Jared LaCosta, Dominic Perrault, Pat Thompson-Gale and Ryan Branton. John Arscott picked up the win in net for the Rockets and Gatlin Schwartz was in net for the Marlins. The Rockets took five minor penalties while the Marlins took three. The other Friday game saw the Lumsden Monarchs score five times in the second period and go on to an 8-3 victory over the Maroons in Strasbourg. Stuart Poulin (1 PPG & GWG) led the way with two goals with the balance of the Monarch’s scoring coming from Russ Neilson, Denby Haysom, Miquel Pereira, Brendan Ryan, Austin Preete and Jesse Matlock. Tanner Exner, Greg Ferguson and Aaron Decorby scored for the Maroons. Trevor Thiessen stopped 28 shots to pick up the win for the Monarchs in net. Tyler Kifferling stopped 24 shots for the Maroons. The Maroons had three minor penalties while the Monarchs had one.

 

On Saturday evening in Cupar, Tyler Stewart and Davis Brown would score to put the Maroons in a 2-0 deficit going into the second period. The Maroons would respond with four goals in the second period as Greg Ferguson scored twice and Tanner Exner and Aaron Decorby scored and the Maroons took a 4-3 lead over the Canucks going into the third period. Tyler Stewart would score his second goal of the game to tie the game for the Canucks but Greg Ferguson would complete the hat trick to give the Maroons the lead back until late in the game when Kyle Ross would score on the power play to send this game to overtime. This game would require a shootout and Aaron Decorby would get credit for the winner and the Maroons would go home with a 7-6 victory over the Canucks. Jeremy Ellis evened his season record to 4-4 in net for the Maroons. For the Canucks, the shootout loss was only Colby Miller’s second loss of the year in net. The other game on Saturday evening saw the Wynyard Monarchs defeat the Southey Marlins 18-1.  Despite this game being tied at one after one period, the Marlins short bench didn’t help as the Monarchs exploded for eight goals in the second period and nine in the third period. Bryan Kauk led the way with a power play goal and seven assists. Other scoring came from Justin Zadoroozniak with four goals, Brett Leffler with a hat trick and an assist, Eric Popadynec with two goals and two assists, Matt Strueby with a hat trick  (1 PPG) and three assists, Donovan Hall with two goals and three assists and goals by Dillon Shewchuk, Joey MacDonald and Mike Anderson. David Perkin picked up his league leading thirteenth win of the year in net for the Monarchs. Gatlin Schwartz was in net for the Marlins. The Monarchs had two minor penalties while the Marlins had three.

 

In Provincial action, the Cupar Canucks defeated the Arcola Combines 5-3 on Friday evening to take a 1-0 lead in their Provincial ‘A’ series. Game two was postponed and will now be played on Thursday evening in Cupar. Game three if necessary will be in Arcola on Friday evening. The Balgonie Bisons scored seven times in the third period and defeated the Lumsden Monarchs 12-3 last Tuesday evening. Of note…Tyrell Shulko, John Arscott, Josh Jordan, Pat Thompson-Gale and Dominic Perrault from our league are on the Balgonie Provincial team. Game two of that series will be Wednesday evening in Balgonie. If a game three is required it will be played on Monday, February 3rd in Lumsden. Two more Provincial ‘A” series involving Strasbourg and Wynyard and two Provincial ‘D’ series involving Avonlea and Bethune will begin in February. The Strasbourg Maroons begin their series with Bruno this Sunday at 4:00 p.m. in Bruno.

 

Pat Thompson-Gale from the Southey Marlins continues to lead the chase for the Tyson Sievert Scoring Trophy with 23 goals and 25 assists for 48 points. Bryan Kauk from Wynyard is now second with 42 points and he is followed by Brett Leffler who has 41 points. Tyrell Shulko from Raymore is next with 35 points and Donovan Hall from Wynyard has moved into the top five with 32 points. Nathan Fischl of the Arrows leads all goalies with a 2.55 GAA. David Perkin from the Wynyard Monarchs leads all goalies with 13 wins and 917 minutes played. Ryan Seibel from the Bulldogs leads all goalies with two shut outs. Brett Leffler from Wynyard leads all scorers with 7 power play goals. Dominic Perrault from Southey has six while Brady Aulie from Lumsden, Bryan Kauk and Chad Mazurak from the Wynyard Monarchs have five each. Mike Reich from Bethune and Pat Thompson-Gale from Southey lead all scorers with three shorthanded goals each. The top power play unit in the league belongs to the Wynyard Monarchs who are scoring on the power play at a 34.7% success rate. They are followed by Southey at 32.1% and Avonlea at 26.8%. The Lumsden Monarchs have improved to 17.8% and have the lowest power play %. The top penalty killing unit belongs to the Avonlea Arrows at 84%. They are followed by the Cupar Canucks at 83.3% and Wynyard Monarchs at 78.7%. The lowest penalty kill % belongs to the Raymore Rockets at 67.1%.

 

As you can see we have had to adjust our schedule a bit this week to accommodate SHA provincials. We are postponing the Lumsden @ Cupar Friday evening game and will have a new date posted on our schedule shortly. On Tuesday evening the second place Avonlea Arrows (11-2-1) host the sixth place Strasbourg Maroons (7-8-1) and on Wednesday evening the third place Bethune Bulldogs (11-4-1) host the fourth place Cupar Canucks (9-5-1). On Friday evening Avonlea will be in Raymore to play the seventh place Rockets (4-11-1) and the eighth place Southey Marlins (1-15-1) are in Strasbourg to play the Maroons. On Saturday evening Cupar is in Wynyard to play the first place Monarchs (13-4-0) and Bethune is in Avonlea. All games are current on our front page of our website.

 

This is a great time of the year for senior hockey with the regular season coming to a close and playoffs on the horizon and with Provincials just starting to roll. Please get out to a game near you and thank you for supporting senior hockey at its best!

 

 

 

Gerry Tomkins

 

HHL President

 

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