President's Update - December 19th, 2016

Merry Christmas!...As we head into the holiday break until January 6th, we have completed 35 games of our 63 game schedule. There are two games to be played on Tuesday with Raymore in Lumsden and Avonlea in Cupar. The Bethune Bulldogs lead the way with a perfect 10-0-0 record. On Friday evening they had their closest opportunity to lose as they defeated the Strasbourg Maroons 4-3 in overtime. The Maroons are the first team to get a point in a Bulldog game this year. On Friday evening Paul Albers scored on the power play for the Bulldogs and then Sean Delwo scored on the Maroon’s power play and it was 1-1 after one period. There was no scoring in the second period yet the Bulldogs had a commanding 35-13 advantage on the shot clock. In the third period there was no scoring until there was just under three minutes left in the game and the Maroons had a 2-1 lead after Delwo scored his second goal. One minute later Kyle Ross would score to tie the game and just 39 seconds later Jacob Ulmer would score to give the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead with just over a minute left in game. Dylan Marcott would score for the Maroons with 27 seconds left and this game ended up going to overtime where Kyle Ross would score with just over four minutes into the extra frame and the Bulldogs had their tenth win of the year, Ryan Holfeld picked up the win in net for the Bulldogs and Jeremy Ellis stopped 58 shots in the Strasbourg net. Each team had three minor penalties. The Maroons head into the break with 5-4-2 record in third place and have been involved in all three of the overtime games played this year. Also on Friday evening the Raymore Rockets defeated the Wynyard Monarchs in Wynyard 3-2. Michael Jordan and Braden Bentz scored in the first period to give the Rockets a 2-0 lead going into the second period. Kyle Kinequon would score in the second period for the Monarchs and Eric Popadynec would score early in the third period to tie the game. Travis Mohr would score for the Rockets with just under three minutes left in the game to seal the win for the Rockets. David Perkin would pick up the win in net for the Rockets and Adam Jordan was in net for the Monarchs. Wynyard had six minor penalties and Raymore had five.

The Rockets then played the Avonlea Arrows on Saturday evening in Avonlea. Cole Melrose and Todd MacMurchy scored in the first period for the Rockets and Josh Jelinski and Kyle Oleniuk scored for the Arrows in the second period and it was 2-2 going into the third period. The Rockets proceeded to score six times in the third period and won 8-2. Scoring in the third period we’re Michael Jordan with two goals, MacMurchy with his second goal of the evening, Brett Mohr, Bryan Melrose and Travis Mohr on the power play. David Perkin picked up the win in the Rocket’s net and Jesse Gooding was in the Arrow’s net. The Arrows had two minor penalties and the Rockets had one. Also on Saturday evening the Cupar Canucks won their second game of the year 4-3 against the same team they won their first game against, the Wynyard Monarchs. The Canucks got a goal from Matt Boha in the first period and a power play goal early in the second period from Travis Orr and a goal from Brett Boha late in the period. Kevin Pelletier would score for the Monarchs in the second period and it was 3-1 Canucks going into the third period. Donovan Hall scored on the power play for the Monarchs and Eric Popadynec would score and the Monarchs tied the game 3-3. With just over six minutes left in the game Godric Tham would score the winning goal for the Canucks. Colby Miller picked up the win in net for the Canucks. Adam Jordan was in net for the Monarchs. The Canucks had eight minor penalties in this game. The Monarchs had one minor penalty and a major match penalty for spearing. Drew Litwin has been suspended three games for this offence.

The Lumsden Monarchs played in Avonlea last Tuesday evening and defeated the Arrows 6-0. Will Hood picked up the shutout in net for the Monarchs. Tyler Penny had two goals with the balance of the scoring coming from Liam Brennan, Jared Adams, Brady Aulie and Kyle Johnson.

Kyle Ross leads the scoring race with 16 goals and 19 assists for 35 points. Teammates Drew George and Jacob Ulmer are behind him with 30 and 29 points respectively. Michael Jordan from Raymore is next with 28 points. Will Hood from Lumsden leads all goalies with a 1.50 GAA. Ryan Holfeld from Bethune leads all goalies with 7 wins. Adam Jordan from Wynyard leads all goalies with 520 minutes played. The penalty killing was a lot better this past week. The Lumsden Monarchs lead all teams with an 81.6% rate on kills followed by Raymore at 80% and Strasbourg at 76.7%. The Bethune Bulldogs lead all teams on the power play with a 36.7% success rate. They are followed by the Cupar Canucks at 31.3% and the Wynyard Monarchs at 30.8%.

This is our last report of 2016 and on behalf of the players, team executives, our officials, Managers, Coaches and all of our volunteers league wide (especially to my brethren in the box)...Merry Christmas and we will see you in the New Year. You can follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/HighwayHockey all of our tweets, which include updates from all games, appear on the front page just under the Upcoming Games column if you just want to follow us on the website during games. You can also follow my account the Pensky File http://twitter.com/GeraldT Thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League and please get out to a game near you next year!.

Gerry