President's Update - January 18th, 2016

Rockets win two on the weekend….The Raymore Rockets defeated the Wynyard Monarchs 9-6 at home on Friday evening and then defeated the Avonlea Arrows in Avonlea on Saturday evening 4-2 to get to within three points of the first place Bethune Bulldogs. On Friday evening last year’s league MVP, Michael Jordan, had a hat trick and two assists and Tyrell Shulko scored twice to lead the way for the Rockets.  Nelson Davis, Braden Bentz, Chad Filteau and Cody Mapes also scored for the Rockets. Lyle Ostapowich and Brett Leffler each had two goals for the Monarchs. Brett Plouffe and Riley Storzuk also scored for Wynyard. Travis Bosch picked up the win in net for the Rockets and David Perkin was in net for the Monarchs. There were six minor penalties in the game and Brendan Eisnor from Raymore and Joey MacDonald from Wynyard each received fighting majors late in the third period and both received one game suspensions. On Saturday evening in Avonlea, Josh Jordan and Jordan Reeve each scored twice for the Rockets. Josh Jelinski and James Dombowsky replied for the Arrows. Travis Bosch picked up his league leading ninth win in net for the Rockets. Dean Brother was in net for the Arrows. Each team had four minor penalties. The Rockets play the first place Bethune Bulldogs at home on Wednesday evening and with a victory can move to within one point of the Bulldogs.

Lumsden Monarchs win big in Cupar….Coming off a 6-2 victory over the Strasbourg Maroons on Tuesday evening the Cupar Canucks were looking to make up for an opening night loss to the Lumsden Monarchs last November. That didn’t happen for the Canucks as they lost 12-1 to the Monarchs on Friday evening. Brady Aulie and Andrew Perrault each had three goals and two assists and team scoring leader Kyle Johnson had two goals and four assists to lead the Monarchs to victory in this game. Dillon Fisher, Ward Szucki and Liam Brennan with a power play goal also scored for Lumsden. Brett Boha scored the lone goal for the Canucks. Each team had seven minor penalties. Kurtis Sollosy picked up the win in net for the Monarchs while Tanner Kehler and Colby Miller split time in the Canucks net. Also on Friday evening the Strasbourg Marrons picked up their second win of the year with a 7-5 win at home against the Avonlea Arrows. The Maroons were down 4-3 going into the third period and scored four straight goals in the third period to take control of this game. Aaron Johnson scored twice and Jory Miller scored a shorthanded goal to lead the way for the Maroons. Tanner Exner, Mitch McNish, Aaron Johnson and Sean Delwo also scored for the Maroons. Keegan Ludwar scored twice, Devin Cobbold scored on the power play, Stuart Holland scored a shorthanded goal and Dayton Picard scored an even strength goal to pace the Arrows. Jeremy Ellis picked up the win in net for the Maroons and Aaron Husband was in net for the Arrows. There were eleven minor penalties in this game.

Bethune and Wynyard win big on Saturday evening….the first place Bethune Bulldogs defeated the Cupar Canucks 7-2 and the Wynyard Monarchs defeated the Strasbourg Maroons 9-2 on Saturday evening. In Bethune Brayden Frank scored the first goal of the game to give the Canucks an early 1-0 lead but Kyle Ross would then score a natural hat trick which included a power play goal before the period was over. The Bulldogs with their 3-1 lead going into the second period would get one goal in the second period off the stick of Russ Neilson and led 4-1 going into the third period. Jacob Ulmer, Drew George and Tyler Riche would score the last three Bulldog goals and Tyler Willyman would score for the Canucks. Ryan Senft picked up the win in net for the Bulldogs and Tanner Kehler was in net for the Canucks. The Bulldogs had two minor penalties and the Canucks had four. In Strasbourg the Wynyard Monarchs fired 66 shots at the Maroons on their way to a big 9-2 win over the Maroons. Matt Strueby, Brett Leffler and Donovan Hall each scored two goals for the Monarchs. Cody Straker, Robert Hillier and Nowell Greasley also scored for Wynyard. Greg Ferguson and Sean Delwo with a power play goal replied for the Maroons. Kevin Orthner picked up the win in net with 20 saves for the Monarchs and Jeremy Ellis stopped 57 shots for the Maroons. Strasbourg was assessed five minor penalties and the Monarchs had two.

Kyle Ross leads Tyson Sievert Trophy scoring race….Kyle Ross from the Bulldogs is leading the scoring race with 20 goals and 16 assists for 36 points in 12 games played. Teammate Mike Reich is second with 32 points and Kyle Johnson from the Lumsden Monarchs has moved into third place with 29 points. Tyrell Shulko from the Rockets is next with 28 points and last year’s scoring champion Brett Leffler from Wynyard is fifth with 26 points. Tyrell Shulko leads the league with 22 goals. Ryan Seibel from Bethune leads all goalies with a 2.92 GAA. Travis Bosch from Raymore is next with a 3.21 GAA and Ryan Senft from Bethune is third with a 3.45 GAA. Bosch leads all goalies with 9 wins and has logged 730 minutes in net to lead all goalies on that category. The Bulldogs lead the team goaltending at 3.23 GAA. Raymore is next at 3.32. The Lumsden Monarchs are now leading the league in penalty killing at 82.9%. Wynyard is next at 81.5% and they are followed by the Avonlea Arrows at 77.8%. The top power play unit in the league belongs to the Bethune Bulldogs who have cashed in 33.3% of the time. The Lumsden Monarchs are next at 26.6 % and the Avonlea Arrows are next at 26.3%. The top number (SH % and PP %) for special teams is now the Lumsden Monarchs at 109.4. Typically in the NHL teams are trying to be over 105. Right now the Lumsden Monarchs along with the Bethune Bulldogs and the Wynyard Monarchs are over 105. The Avonlea Arrows are at 104.1 and these are the only four teams in our league over 100.

First Round Provincial series are now set…All five teams that we have in Provincial ‘A’ now have their first round series games scheduled. As with other years this first round cannot start before January 20th so we will have a couple of league games that will have to be moved. This Saturday evening the Raymore Rockets will be hosting the Balgonie Bisons from the QVHL. On Sunday we have three more games with the Lumsden Monarchs in Grenfell to play the Spitfires (QVHL) at 2:00 p.m., Wynyard will be in Hague to play the Royals (FCHL) and the Avonlea Arrows will host the Balcarres Broncs (QVHL) at 7:30 p.m. The Bethune Bulldogs will be playing all of their games against Watrous the following weekend.

In League play the third place Lumsden Monarchs host the sixth place Avonlea Arrows on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday evening the first place Bethune Bulldogs will be in Raymore to play the second place Raymore Rockets. On Friday evening the first Bethune Bulldogs are in Cupar to play the Canucks and the Raymore Rockets are in Strasbourg to play the Maroons. On Saturday evening Lumsden will be in Wynyard and Cupar will be in Avonlea.

You can follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/HighwayHockey  All of our tweets, which include updates from all games, appear on our front page just under the Upcoming Games column if you just want to follow on the website. You can also follow my account Pensky File http://twitter.com/GeraldT 

If you follow us on any portable device remember you have the option of the mobile view or the regular desktop view which you can change at the bottom of the page. Thank you for your continued support of senior hockey in Saskatchewan and the Highway Hockey League… With Provincials starting there is lots of hockey for you to enjoy, please get out to a game near you.

Gerry Tomkins

President – Highway Hockey League