President's Update - March 6th, 2017

Highway Hockey League 2016-17 Awards winners:

Ken Hale Memorial Award Manager of the Year: Randy Kuntz - Lumsden Monarchs

Lynwood Miller Coach of the Year Award: Darrell Orban - Strasbourg Maroons

HHL Most Valuable Player Award: Kyle Ross - Bethune Bulldogs

Eckdahl-Jenkins Memorial Award – Most Valuable Player Local: Mark Cross - Strasbourg Maroons

Stats-Van Trott Award Rookie of the Year: Riley Focht-Gabriel - Raymore Rockets

HHL Most Sportsmanlike Player Award: Eric Schultz - Strasbourg Maroons

All-Star Goaltender: Ryan Holfeld - Bethune Bulldogs

All-Star Defencemen: Joel Kot – Bethune Bulldogs & Andrew Perrault – Lumsden Monarchs

All-Star Center: Kyle Ross – Bethune Bulldogs

All Star Right Wing: Drew George - Bethune Bulldogs

All-Star Left Wing: Greg Ferguson - Strasbourg Maroons

Tyson Sievert HHL Scoring Champion: Kyle Ross – Bethune Bulldogs G 24 A 33 – pts 57

Pennant Winners: Bethune Bulldogs 17-0-0 - 34 pts

Gunnar Lindal Memorial Team Goaltending Trophy: Ryan Holfeld & Ryan Seibel - Bethune Bulldogs 17-0-0 - 34 points 2.81 GAA

We will be presenting plaques at upcoming games.

Highway Hockey League Final starts this week… For the second year in a row the Bethune Bulldogs will be playing the Lumsden Monarchs in a best of five League Final. Lumsden defeated Strasbourg 6-5 in Lumsden on Tuesday evening in a game that saw the Monarchs take a 5-0 lead into the second period only to see the Maroons storm back to make it 5-5 after two periods. Liam Brennan would score the only goal of the third period and the Monarchs punched their ticket to the league final with a 6-5 victory. The Bethune Bulldogs defeated the Raymore Rockets 11-2 on Thursday evening to sweep their series and advance to the league final. The Final is set to begin in Bethune on Thursday, March 9th at 8 p.m. Game two will be in Lumsden on Tuesday, March 14th at 8 p.m. and game three will be in Bethune on Thursday, March 16th at 8 p.m. If a game four is required it will be in Lumsden on Tuesday, March 21st and if a game five is required it will be played on Thursday, March 23rd in Bethune. Last year Bethune defeated Lumsden three straight games to claim the Robert Schultz Cup.

Torrie Lindsay of the Lumsden Monarchs is leading playoff scoring with 5 goals and 12 assists in five games played. Mark Cross from Strasbourg is next and he finished the playoffs with 5 goals and 8 assists. Kyle Johnson and Liam Brennan from Lumsden each have 12 points and the Bulldog’s Justin Schulhauser has 11 points in three playoff games and occupies fifth place. Ryan Holfeld from Bethune leads all goalies with a 0.43 GAA after two playoff games. Matt Weninger from Lumsden leads all goalies with four wins.

Raymore Rockets win first game of the Provincial ‘C’ South Final...The Raymore Rockets defeated the Whitewood Orioles 6-2 on Saturday evening to take a 1-0 lead in their best of three Provincial ‘C’ south final. The Rockets were tied with Orioles 2-2 after one period. Bradyn Melrose and Travis Mohr scored for the Rockets and Skylar Hladun and Colton MacPherson scored for the Orioles. In the second period the Rockets took a 4-2 lead on goals from Tyrell Shulko and Cole Melrose. Tyrell Shulko and Bradyn Melrose scored the goals in the third period to make the final score 6-2 Rockets. Game two of this series is in Raymore on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. If a game three is required it will be played on Monday in Whitewood at 8:30 p.m.

Bethune Bulldogs defeat Lumsden Monarchs in game one of Provincial ‘A’ South Final...In double overtime the Bethune Bulldogs defeated the Lumsden Monarchs 9-8 to win game one of the Provincial ‘A’ south final Sunday evening in Bethune. If my math is correct…since losing to Watrous in game one of Provincials in 2016, the Bethune Bulldogs have now won 41 straight games in League playoffs, regular season play and Provincial playoffs. Closest defeats this season would include a 4-3 overtime victory over the Strasbourg Maroons on December 16th, a 5-4 double overtime victory over the Davidson Cyclones in the first round of this year’s Provincials and this game against Lumsden that they won in double overtime. Lumsden had a 3-1 lead after one period. Robert Hillier, Austin Preete and Greg Ferguson scored for the Monarchs. Mike Reich scored the lone Bulldog goal. Lumsden also led the shot clock 13-11. In the second period Bethune tied the game up at 3-3 on goals from Mike Reich and Brett Parker. Brady Aulie would score to give Lumsden a 4-3 lead after two periods. Shots were 27 for each team. Then things got interesting….Tanner Exner would score to give Lumsden a 5-3 lead but Kyle Ross and Matt Strueby would score quickly and the game was again tied. Tanner Exner would then score to restore the Lumsden lead to 6-5 and quickly Brady Aulie would score and the Monarchs were on top 7-5. In a matter of two minutes and 37 seconds we had five goals scored. It would be another eight minutes before we saw another goal at the 13:46 mark when Lucas Ulmer scored to get the Bulldogs to within one. 42 seconds later Drew George would do what he has done all season….score the big goals and this game was tied 7-7 with just over five minutes to go. With just under two minutes to go another guy who scores the big goals, Kyle Ross, would put the Bulldogs up 8-7 for the first time in the game. Yet another big play guy, all-star defenceman Andrew Perrault, would score for the Monarchs with 59 seconds left in regulation and this game was tied 8-8. At the end of regulation shots were 47-39 Bethune. Bethune would outshoot the Monarchs 8-2 in the first overtime but there would be no scoring. In the second overtime both teams had plenty of chances to end the game but it wasn’t until the 10:17 mark that Drew George scored from behind the net near the end of a power play. Lumsden outshot Bethune in the second overtime 5-3 and the final shots for 70 minutes of hockey were 58-46 Bethune. Game two of this series is Saturday evening in Lumsden at 8:00 p.m. If a game three is required it will be on Sunday at 7:00 p.m. in Bethune.

One of these two teams will be in the Provincial ‘A’ final and if Raymore wins we will have two teams in Provincial Finals. Lots of hockey left so please get out to a game near you!

Provincial Schedules are listed under the Provincials tab and league playoff series are under the Schedule tab. 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. Enjoy playoffs and Provincials this week…

Gerry