President's Update - December 15th, 2014

On Tuesday evening the Raymore Rockets scored twice in the first period and scored four more times in the second period for an impressive 6-1 victory over the hometown Lumsden Monarchs.  Tyrell Shulko led the way for the Rockets with two goals. Craig Cornelsen, Tyler Murray, Godric Tham and Nelson Davis with the game winning goal also scored for Raymore. Mac Hubick scored for the Monarchs.  John Arscott stopped 29 of 30 shots fired his way while Will Hood stopped 44 of 50 shots sent his way. Lumsden was assessed three minor penalties and Raymore had five.

On Friday evening, Elliot Hubick scored just 35 seconds into the game to give the visiting Cupar Canucks a 1-0 lead only to see the Raymore Rockets roar back with four straight first period goals. Tyrell Shulko scored two of those goals with Catlin Sich and Michael Jordan scoring the other two goals. Cody Hall would score the only goal of the second period and it was 4-2 for the Rockets heading into the third period. Jared Adams would score early in third period with what would end up being the game winning goal as Chad Filteau would score for the Canucks right after that goal and Cody Hall would score his second goal of the game for the Canucks later in the period to make the final score 5-4 for Raymore. Tyrell Shulko and Michael Jordan would end up with four points each for the Rockets. Catlin Sich would record three points. John Arscott picked up the win in net for Raymore and Tanner Kehler was in net for the Canucks. Cupar was assessed eight minor penalties while the Rockets had eight minor penalties, one major penalty and two game misconducts. Brett Mohr from the Rockets received a one game suspension from this game.

Saturday evening saw three games on the slate. In Strasbourg the visiting Raymore Rockets scored the only goal of the period when Godric Tham scored on the power play. In the second period the Maroons would score four times. Tyson Orban scored twice, Greg Ferguson would score and Eric Schultz would score on the power play to give the Maroons a 4-1 lead going into the third period.  In the third period Godric Tham would score his second goal of the game for the Canucks but that would be it as Ferguson would notch his second goal of the game into an empty net. Jeremy Ellis stopped 32 of 34 shots fired his way for the Maroons and Kevin Orthner stopped 25 0f 29 Strasbourg shots for the Rockets. The Maroons had two minor penalties and the Rockets had five. In Bethune, Ryan Senft picked up a shutout in the Bulldog’s 5-0 win over the Wynyard Monarchs. Russ Nielson would score the only goal of the first period on the power play. In the second period Jake Ulmer and Lucas Ulmer scored to make it 3-0 heading into the third period.  In the third period Russ Nielson and Jake Ulmer each scored their second goal of the game to make the final score 5-0. Ryan Senft picked up the win in net for the Bulldogs while David Perkin had a very busy night in net for the Monarchs. Bethune had three minor penalties and two misconducts called on them in this game while the Monarchs were called for one minor penalty and misconduct.  In Cupar, Colby Miller had a shutout as the Canucks defeated the Avonlea Arrows 7-0. Chad Filteau had a hat trick and six points to lead the way for the Canucks. Bryan McNabb Jr. scored twice and Davis Brown and Cody Hall also scored for the Canucks. Donavon Chow picked up four assists in this game.  Cupar Canucks had three minor penalties and the Arrows had two. Colby Miller picked up the win for the Canucks and Kelley Lueck was in net for the Arrows.

On Sunday afternoon the Strasbourg Maroons won their seventh game of the year with a 6-3 victory over the hometown Avonlea Arrows. Greg Ferguson and Sean Selwo scored in the first period for the Maroons. Ferguson now leads the league with 12 goals. In The second period Stuart Holland would get the Arrows on the board but Brady Heintz would score to restore the two goal lead for the Maroons. Shay Neufeld would then get that goal back for the Arrows before Tanner Exner would score on the power play late in the period for Strasbourg. Avonlea would answer that goal with a goal from Kyle Oleniuk to make it 4-3 for the Maroons going into the third period. In the third period Brady Heintz would score on the power play and Quinn McIntosh would finish the scoring to make the final 6-3. Jeremy Ellis picked up the win in net for the Maroons and Kelley Lueck was in net for the Arrows. The Maroons were assessed one minor penalty and the Arrows took four.

Michael Jordan of the Raymore Rockets leads the scoring race with 8 goals and 13 assists for 21 points. Tanner Exner from the Maroons is next with 3 goals and a league leading 14 assists. He is followed by teammate Greg Ferguson who has 16 points. Not only does Ferguson lead the league in goals scored but he also leads the league with 3 winning goals. Chad Filteau from the Canucks is next with 14 points and he is followed by Lucas Ulmer from the Bulldogs with 13 points. Jeremy Ellis leads all goalies with 5 wins and no losses. Ellis has a 2.40 GAA in 300 minutes played. Ryan Senft from the Bulldogs leads all goalies with a 2.00 GAA. He has three wins and no losses along with one shutout. Kurtis Sollosy from the Lumsden Monarchs is second in GAA with a 2.34 GAA.  Kelley Lueck from the Arrows leads all goalies with 423.5 minutes played. In team stats the Wynyard Monarchs have the best power play with a 33.3% success rate. They are followed by the Strasbourg Maroons at 28.1% and the Bethune Bulldogs at 28%. The Cupar Canucks have the lowest power play success at 3.3%. Raymore Rockets have had the most power play opportunities (43) and the Avonlea Arrows have had the fewest (23). The Bethune Bulldogs have the best penalty killing rate at 88.6%. They are followed by the Lumsden Monarchs at 87.1% and the Strasbourg Maroons at 82.1%. The lowest rate of kill belongs to the Cupar Canucks at 71.8%. The Raymore Rockets have been shorthanded the most in league (43) and the Avonlea Arrows have been shorthanded the least (22). Lumsden and Strasbourg are the only two teams that have won every game they have scored first.

This is the last week of hockey before the holiday break. This is the first time I can remember we have no games scheduled between Christmas and New Year’s Day. On Wednesday evening the fourth place Lumsden Monarchs (4-4) play in Bethune against the third place Bulldogs (5-1-0). On Friday evening the fifth place Cupar Canucks (3-4-1) will be in Wynyard to play the sixth place Monarchs (2-4-0) at 8:30 p.m. There will be a moment of silence for Gunnar Lindal at this game. Gunnar was a longtime Monarch in many capacities and played for 25 years with the organization. Grandsons Aaron Lindal, Tyson Lindal and Tayler Jordan all played in our league. The Lumsden Monarchs will be in Raymore to play the second place Rockets (5-3-1) at 8:00 p.m. On Saturday evening the first place Strasbourg Maroons (7-1-0) will host the Cupar Canucks, the seventh place Avonlea Arrows (0-6-1) are at home against the Wynyard Monarchs and the Raymore Rockets will be in Bethune to play the Bulldogs.

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

Many of the teams’ home games this weekend will have some Christmas flavour…please get out to a game near you…safe travels and thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League.

Gerry Tomkins

President - HHL