President's Update - January 19th, 2015

Three victories this week move the Bethune Bulldogs into second place….Three victories this week against the Avonlea Arrows, Lumsden Monarchs and the Strasbourg Maroons moved the Bethune Bulldogs into second place. On Wednesday evening Mike Reich had 2 goals (one PPG) and 4 assists to lead the Bulldogs to a 9-2 victory over the Avonlea Arrows. Lucas Ulmer and Shea Van Luven each had two goals with the rest of the scoring coming from Joel Kot, Jacob Ulmer and Kyle Ross. Troy Murray and Josh Jelinski each scored for the Arrows on the power play with Shay Neufeld assisting on both goals. Bethune had six minor penalties called against them and Avonlea had three. Ryan Senft stopped 22 of 24 shots for the win in next while Kelly Lueck stopped 33 shots fired his way for the Arrows. On Friday evening in Lumsden, the Monarchs became the first team in the league to score on the Bulldogs first in a game when David Fisher scored just over a minute into the game. That would be the only goal for Lumsden as Bethune would score eleven straight goals which included five power play goals on their way to an 11-1 victory. Bethune outscored Lumsden 26-5 in three games played this year. In this game Mike Reich scored three times, twice on the power play. Shea Van Luven, Ryan Funk and Joel Kot also scored on the power play. The balance of the Bulldog’s scoring came from Jacob Ulmer who scored twice, Derek Fuchs, Mike Boucher and Tyler Riche.  Ryan Senft stopped 21 of 22 shots for the win in the Bethune net. Will Hood faced 60 shots in net for the Monarchs. Bethune was assessed eight minor penalties, three misconducts plus one game misconduct. Lumsden had nine minor penalties, one major penalty and a game misconduct. As a result of an aggressor and instigator call Chris Whitteron was suspended two games. Thank you to Mr. Tristan Oremba who came out to watch this game. He is a big Highway Hockey League fan and we appreciated him coming out to a game.

On Saturday evening the Bulldogs had a showdown with the first place Strasbourg Maroons. Brady Heintz would score the only goal of the first period to give the Maroons a 1-0 lead going into the second period. Lucas Ulmer would score the first of two goals he scored on this night in the second period for the Bulldogs. Sean Delwo would get the lead back for the Maroons only to have Mike Reich score his sixth goal of the week one minute later to send this game into the third period tied 2-2. Reich has eight goals and six assists in his last four games. Kyle Ross would score just one minute into the third period and Lucas Ulmer would score ten minutes later to make it 4-2. Tyson Orban would get the Maroons to within one with less than eight minutes left and that is all the scoring there would be with the Bulldogs winning 4-3. Ryan Senft stopped 20 of 23 shots fired his way for the win in net for the Bulldogs. Senft is now 7-0-0 this season and leads the league with a 2.00 GAA.  Jeremy Ellis suffered his first loss of the season in net for the Maroons stopping 37 of 40 shots. Ellis is now 8-1-0 this season. He is second amongst goalies with a 2.67 GAA. Bethune had an even 100 shots in their two weekend games. Bethune had seven minor penalties and the Maroons had six. These two teams will play each other again on January 28th in Bethune. Two of the Maroons three losses have now come against the Bulldogs.

The Raymore Rockets also had a good weekend coming up with a 6-5 victory over the Canucks in Cupar Friday evening and then beating the Lumsden Monarchs 8-0 at home on Saturday evening. In Cupar, The Rockets have now moved into third place. In the Cupar game, Raymore never trailed. Josh Jordan, Todd MacMurchy and Josh Jordan with his second goal of the game coming on the power play gave the Rockets a 4-3 lead heading to the second period. Jordan Pratt and Travis Orr with a power play goal scored for Cupar in the first period. Todd MacMurchy would score again in the second period and Godric Tham would also score in the middle frame. Chad Filteau scored the lone goal for the Canucks in the second period that the Rockets led 5-3. Tyrell Shulko would score early in the third period and it was this goal that would hold up as the winning goal as the never give up Canucks would score twice more to get within one goal and just fall short. Donovan Chow scored both of those goals, one being on the power play. John Arscott picked up the win in net for the Rockets and Tanner Kehler was in net for the Canucks. The Rockets were assessed eleven minor penalties and the Canucks had ten and one game misconduct.  On Saturday evening the Rockets returned home and beat the Lumsden Monarchs 8-0 with Kevin Orthner picking up the shutout for the Rockets. The Rockets scored once in the first period, three times in the second period and four times in the third period. Michael Jordan led the way for the Rockets with a hat trick and two helpers. Jordan scored one even strength goal, one shorthanded goal and one power play goal. Jordan has 9 points in his last three games and now leads the scoring race with 33 points. Godric Tham and Tyrell Shulko each scored twice and Cody Mapes scored once to complete the Rockets scoring. Kurtis Sollosy was in net for the Monarchs. The Rockets had seven minors and the Monarchs had five minors. The Rockets won all three of their games against Lumsden this year.

The Wynyard Monarchs played once this weekend. They were going after their eighth straight win and a tie for first place should they defeat the first place Strasbourg Maroons. Instead they lost and now find themselves in fourth place. Despite my erroneous tweets, the Maroons never trailed as they led 1-0 after one period and 4-0 after two periods on their way to a 4-1 victory. Brady Heintz scored on the power play in the first period. Greg Ferguson with the game winner, Mitch McNish and Quinn McIntosh scored in the second period for the Maroons. Ferguson's goal was his 17th and that leads the league. Matt Strueby scored the lone Monarchs goal. Jeremy Ellis picked up the win ion net for the Monarchs and Dave Perkins was in net for the Monarchs. The Maroons had seven minor penalties, one major and a game misconduct called against them in this game. The Monarchs had nine minor penalties, one major and a game misconduct. The Maroons won the season series against the Monarchs two games to one.

On Saturday evening the Cupar Canucks defeated the Avonlea Arrows 6-3 in Avonlea. The Canucks are 4-1-0 on Saturday evenings this season and have now moved into fifth place. Riley Gooding opened the scoring in this game for the Arrows and then Travis Orr popped two in for the Canucks to make it 2-1 heading to the second period. Kyle Oleniuk would score early for the Arrows but just over a minute later Chad Filteau would score to put the Arrows back up by one.  A power play goal would give Travis Orr a hat trick on this evening late in the period. In the last minute of the period James Dombowsky would score for the Arrows and the score was 4-3 going to the third period. Cody Hall and Travis Orr with his fourth goal of night would seal the win for the Canucks. Orr would end up with a five point night. He has a five game point streak in which he has scored 7 goals and 5 assists for 12 points. Tanner Kehler picked up his second win of the year in net for the Canucks and Kelley Lueck was in net for the Arrows. The Canucks had three minor penalties and a misconduct while the Arrows had three minors, a major and a game misconduct.

Provincials start this week. In Provincial ‘A’ all four of our participating ‘A’ teams are in one quadrant of the draw. Wynyard hosts the Bruno T-Birds on Wednesday at home at 8 p.m. The winner of this series will play Bethune in the next round. On Tuesday evening the Strasbourg Maroons play host to the Balcarres Broncs at 8:00 p.m. Right beside them in the draw, we have the Raymore Rockets playing host to the Davidson Cyclones  on Sunday, January 24th at 7:00 p.m. In the "so you're telling me there's a chance" department....If all three of our teams win their first round series we will have all four spots in one quadrant guaranteeing a team in the semi-finals… In Provincial ‘C” the Lumsden Monarchs will host the Eatonia Huskies on Saturday, February 7th. Avonlea will be playing Central Butte Flyers in Provincial “D’ starting in February. Click here to follow Provincial results.

Statistics will be updated this week.

This coming Friday will see Wynyard (9-5-0) play in Cupar against the Canucks (5-7-2), Strasbourg (11-3-0) in Lumsden to play the Monarchs (5-10-0) and Avonlea Arrows (0-12-1) in Raymore to play the Rockets (9-5-1). On Saturday evening, Bethune (10-2-1) will be in Wynyard, Cupar is in Strasbourg and Lumsden is in Avonlea. All games this weekend are at 8 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

Thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League. Provincials start this week, playoffs will start soon…it is a good time of the year for senior hockey…please get out to a game near you.

Gerry Tomkins

President - HHL