President's Update - February 19th

*** Update from Provincial 'A' Sunday afternoon....Wynyard 5 Balgonie 2

Playoffs have begun….game one updates for all series......

On Monday evening the third place Cupar Canucks (14-5-1) hosted the sixth place Lumsden Monarchs (8-12-0). This is the third year in a row these two teams have met in the first round of the playoffs. The Canucks defeated the Monarchs 10-1 in game one on Monday evening. There were only two penalties in this game and all goals were even strength. Justin Schulhauser, Kyle Ermel, Kyle Ross and Shea Van Luven each scored two goals for the defending champions. Jordan Pratt and Jaret Eberle also scored for the Canucks. Jesse Matlock scored the Monarch’s lone goal in the second period. Jamie Wutke picked up the win in net for the Canucks and Will Hood took the loss for the Monarchs. Hood played the first 32 minutes of game and then Trevor Thiessen was in net. Game two of this series is on Sunday at 7:00 p.m. in Lumsden.

Also on Monday evening the second place Wynyard Monarchs (15-5-0) hosted the seventh place Raymore Rockets (4-15-1) in game one of their series and won 7-3. Matt Strueby led the way for the Monarchs as he scored three times and added an assist. Strueby had one power play goal and scored the game winning goal. Justin Zadoroozniak, Dillon Shewchuk, Brett Leffler and Dillon Stubbs also scored for the Monarchs. Bryan Kauk had five assists in this game. Tyrell Shulko had a shorthanded goal and two assists for the Rockets. Josh Jordan scored on the power play and Ryan Donauer also scored for the Rockets. Dave Perkin picked up the win in net for the Monarchs and John Arscott was in net for the Rockets. Each team took six minor penalties. Game two of this series will be Friday evening in Raymore.

On Tuesday evening in Bethune, Mike Reich from the Bulldogs and Branden Sentes from the Maroons each scored a power play goal in the first period. In the second period Brent Becker and Dustin MacAngus gave the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead before Sentes scored again quickly after MacAngus goal to make it 3-2 going into the third period. Derek Fuchs would score just 21 seconds into the third to restore the Bulldog’s two goal lead. Past the halfway point of the third period Greg Ferguson would score on the power play and then Mitch McNish would score to tie the game up with just under five minutes left in game. Joel Kot would then score on power play and Reich would get his second goal of game into an empty net and the final score was 6-4 Bulldogs. Ryan Seibel would pick up the win in net for the Bulldogs and Jeremy Ellis was in net for the Maroons. The Bulldogs had ten minor penalties while the Maroons had six. Game two of this series is next Monday evening in Strasbourg.

In Avonlea the Arrows scored four times in the first period and went on to a 8-4 victory against the Southey Marlins. Gavin Mievre and Calvin Watson led the way for the Arrows with two goals each. Both players had one power play goal. Jared Molnar, James Ardelan, Cal Filson and Mark Ardelan with the game winner also scored for the Arrows. The Marlins did all of their scoring in the second period. Devin Hillier scored twice, Pat Thompson-Gale scored once and Cody Hall scored on the power play. Nathan Fischl picked up his first playoff win in net for the Arrows and Kurtis Sollosy was in net for the Marlins. The Arrows received four minor penalties while the Marlins were short twice. Game two of this series is in Southey on Saturday evening.

In Provincial play we still have three teams alive from the six that started. The Cupar Canucks lost two straight to the Balgonie Bisons last week. The Canucks are the defending Provincial ‘A’ Champions and have represented our league well and we congratulate them again for their excellent play this past year. The team the Canucks defeated for the Provincial crown, the Wynyard Monarchs, lost to Drake 3-1 on Saturday evening and then defeated Drake 9-3 on Sunday to win their second round Provincial ‘A’ series. The Monarchs now play Balgonie with that series starting next Sunday afternoon in Wynyard. There are a number of HHL players on the Balgonie Provincial team. The Strasbourg Maroons lost to Bruno on Monday afternoon 4-1 and lost their Provincial ‘A’ series 2-1. The Avonlea Arrows defeated Kelliher twice this past weekend in Provincial ‘D’ play, 3-1 in Kelliher and 6-3 in Avonlea, and won their two game total point series 9-4. For the second straight year the Arrows will play the Bethune Bulldogs in their next series. The Bulldogs defeated the Craik Warriors on Saturday evening 5-1 and the series 13-3. Last year the Arrows defeated the Bulldogs in a best of three semi-final and went on to lose to Drake in the Provincial final. This year these two teams will be playing a two game total point series going into a semi-final. Game one is on Friday, February 28th at 7:30 p.m. in Avonlea and game two is the next evening in Bethune at 8:00 p.m.

The League will announce of who has been nominated for awards this coming week. Still the best time of the year to get out to a game….please follow us on twitter and watch for all results on our website. Please get out to a game near you and thank you for supporting senior hockey at its best!

Gerry Tomkins

HHL President

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