President's Update - December 7th, 2014

***Strasbourg @ Avonlea game scheduled for Friday, December 12th has been moved to Sunday, December 14th at 3:00 p.m.****

Last Tuesday evening the Bethune Bulldogs scored three unanswered goals in the third period in Strasbourg to defeat the Maroons 6-4. The Bulldogs took an early 2-0 lead on goals from Dustin MacAngus and Chad Fiege. The Maroons would strike back with a power play goal from Mitch McNish and two even strength goals from Quinn McIntosh to take a 3-2 lead into the second period. There was no scoring in the second period but early in the third period Ryan Funk would score to even the score up. Strasbourg would answer quickly on a goal by Greg Ferguson. After that goal Bethune would score three straight off the sticks of Jake Ulmer, Kyle Ross and Mike Reich with a power play goal to make the final score 6-4. Ryan Senft would pick up the win stopping 16 of 20 shots in the Bulldog’s net. Tyler Kifferling took the loss in the Maroon’s net stopping 45 0f 51 shots fired his way. The Maroons were assessed eight minor penalties and the Bulldogs had five minor penalties called against them.

On Friday evening we had a full slate of games and the Strasbourg Maroons were in Raymore and did to the Rockets what the Bulldogs did to them Tuesday evening by scoring three unanswered goals in the third period, two of them in the last minute of play, to defeat the Rockets 5-4. Tyrell Shulko scored on the power play in the first period to give the Rockets a 1-0 lead going into the second period. Michael Jordan would then score twice in the second period to give the Rockets a 3-0 lead. Greg Ferguson and Tanner Exner would finally get the Maroons on the board but late in the period Todd MacMurchy would score to give the Rockets a 4-2 lead going into the third period. Greg Ferguson would score his second goal of the game early in the third period to get the Maroons to within one and the score would stay that way until the last minute of the game when Mitch McNish scored to tie the game with 42 seconds left and then Greg Ferguson would complete the hat trick and give the Maroons the win with a goal with just 14 seconds left in the game.  Jeremy Ellis picked up the win in net for the Maroons. Kevin Orthner was in net for the Rockets. Each team was assessed seven minor penalties. In Lumsden, the Monarchs bounced back from a lopsided loss to the Maroons with a 5-1 victory over the Avonlea Arrows. Brendan Ryan and Ryan Herman would score in the first period and then Steve Eberts scored in the first minute of the second period to give the Monarchs a 3-0 lead before the Arrows would answer with a goal from Brendon Lewis just after the Monarch’s third goal. The Monarchs would then score less than a minute later when Ryan Herman picked up his second goal of the game. Kelly English would score for the Monarchs in the third period to finish the scoring and make the final 5-1. Kurtis Sollosy picked up his third win of the year in net for the Monarchs. Kelly Lueck was in net for the Arrows. Shots were even with 35 taken by each team. Avonlea was assessed two minor penalties and two major penalties while the Monarchs took four minor penalties and a major penalty. In Cupar the Bethune Bulldogs defeated the Cupar Canucks 6-1. Shea Van Luven and Russ Neilson (ppg) scored in the first period for the Bulldogs. Kyle Ross (ppg), Dustin MacAngus and Van Luven with his second goal of the game made it 5-0 after two periods. MacAngus would get his second goal of the game on the power play in the third period. The Canuck’s lone goal would come after that goal off the stick of Cody Hall. Ryan Seibel picked up the win for Bethune in net and Colby Miller was in net for the Canucks. Each team was assessed six minor penalties and misconduct.

On Saturday evening the Wynyard Monarchs were in Strasbourg. The Maroons picked up their fifth win of the season with a 3-1 victory. Tanner Exner and Tyson Orban would score for the Maroons in the first period and then Greg Ferguson would score his league leading ninth goal on the power play in the third as the Maroons built up a 3-0 lead. Matt Strueby would break up the shutout bid with a power play goal to round out the scoring. The Maroons were assessed seven minor penalties. The Monarchs were assessed six minor penalties, misconduct and three game misconducts.

Jeremy Ellis from the Maroons and Kurtis Sollosy from the Monarchs lead all goalies with 3-0-0 records in net. Ellis has a 2.33 GAA in 180 minutes played and Sollosy has a 2.34 GAA in 205 minutes played. Teammates Ryan Seibel and Ryan Senft from the Bulldogs are next with 3.00 GAAs. Kelley Lueck from the Arrows leads all goalies with 304 minutes played and David Perkin from Wynyard is next with 300 minutes. Michael Jordan leads all scorers with 14 points…7 goals and 7 assists. He is followed by two Maroons, Tanner Exner with 2 goals and a league leading 11 assists and Greg Ferguson with 9 goals and 3 assists. Kyle Ross and Lucas Ulmer from Bethune are next with 11 points. Jared Adams from Raymore with 10 points and Calvin Watson from Avonlea with 9 points are next. Cody Mapes from the Rockets and Greg Ferguson from the Maroons lead all scorers with two game winning goals each. Mitch Boucher from Bethune and David Fisher from the Lumsden Monarchs are the only players to have scored a shorthanded goal this year. In team statistics, the Wynyard Monarchs lead all teams with a 37% success clip on the power play. They are followed by Strasbourg at 25.1% and Bethune at 25%. The top penalty killing unit in the league belongs to the Bethune Bulldogs with an 87.5% success rate. The Lumsden Monarchs are next with an 86.2% kill rate and they are followed by Strasbourg at 84%. The Wynyard Monarchs are the most penalized team in the league averaging 30.8 minutes per game. They are followed by Bethune at 27.8 and Lumsden with 22 minutes per game. The least penalized team in the league would be the Strasbourg Maroons with an average of 10.3 minutes per game.

On Tuesday evening the fourth place Raymore Rockets (3-2-1) are in Lumsden to play the second place Monarchs (4-3-0) at 8 p.m.  On Friday evening the fifth place Cupar Canucks (2-3-1) are in Raymore to play the Rockets. On Saturday evening the sixth place Wynyard Monarchs (2-3-0) are in Bethune to play the second place Bulldogs (4-1-0). The Monarchs defeated the Bulldogs in last year’s final. Also on Saturday evening the Avonlea Arrows (0-4-1) are in Cupar and the Raymore Rockets are in Strasbourg to play the first place Maroons (5-1-0). The Strasbourg @ Avonlea game scheduled for Friday evening has been moved to Sunday at 3:00 p.m.

Please note that the Highway Hockey twitter feed is now on our main page for your convenience….so you don’t have to be on twitter to get the updates from our league. The Highway Hockey feed will show all tweets sent from our feed. You will get our new “mobile view” on your handhelds….there is an option at the bottom of the page to go to a desktop view. If you prefer you can just follow us  http://twitter.com/highwayhockeyor on the Pensky File http://twitter.com/GeraldT

Please get out to a game near you and thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League.

Gerry Tomkins

President - HHL