President's Update - December 21st, 2014

We’ve reached the halfway point....Merry Christmas!

Maybe a little shorter update this week….like you I need to make Christmas happen….The Bethune Bulldogs hosted the Lumsden Monarchs this past Wednesday evening and defeated the Monarchs for the second time this year. Mike Reich with four goals and two assists, Kyle Ross with one goal and five assists and Russ Nielson with one power play goal and four assists led the Bulldogs to a 10-2 victory. Mark Lustig, Dustin MacAngus, Tyler Riche and Kayne Ulmer also scored for the Bulldogs. Reich and Riche both scored shorthanded goals. Steven Eberts scored both goals for the Monarchs with one goal coming on the power play. Ryan Seibel was in goal for the Bulldogs and Kurtis Sollosy was in net for the Monarchs. The Bulldogs were assessed seven minor penalties and 10 minute misconduct while the Monarchs had six minor penalties and 10 minute misconduct.

Friday evening in Wynyard the Monarchs defeated the Cupar Canucks 6-2. Chad Mazurak with one power play goal and four assists and Lyle Ostapowich with two goals led the way for the Monarchs. Also scoring for the Monarchs were Justin Zadoroozniak, Riley Storizuk and Donovan Hall with a power play goal. Devin Lipinski and Brett Boha with a power play goal responded for the Canucks. Dave Perkin picked up the win in net for the Monarchs while Colby Miller was in net for the Canucks. Each team was assessed five minor penalties and misconduct. The identical score happened in Raymore Friday evening as the Rockets defeated the Lumsden Monarchs 6-2 thanks to a four goal explosion in the second period.  Michael Jordan and Tyrell Shulko each scored twice in this game for the Rockets. Cody Mapes and Josh Schwindt with a power play goal also scored for Raymore. Shay Wirll and Kelly English replied for the Monarchs. Kevin Orthner picked up the win in net for the Rockets and Will Hood was in net for the Monarchs. The Rockets were assessed four minor penalties and the Monarchs had seven.

On Saturday evening Wynyard picked up their second win of the weekend with an 8-4 victory over the hometown Avonlea Arrows. The Raymore Rockets were defeated 7-2 in Bethune by the Bulldogs and in Strasbourg the Maroons won their eighth game of the season with a 4-2. In Avonlea the Monarchs scored the first eight goals of the game before the Arrows reeled off four straight in third period. Matt Strueby and Brett Leffler each had two goals to lead the way for the Monarchs. Jordan Zadoroozniak, Chad Mazurak, Cody Straker and Donovan Hall with a power play goal had the balance of the Wynyard goals.  Layton Ludwar (ppg), Keegan Ludwar, Josh Jelinski and Mark Jelinski scored for the Arrows. Dave Perkin picked up the win in net for the Monarchs and Deric Kuntz played his first game in net for the Arrows. The Arrows had five minor penalties called against them and the Monarchs had two.  In Bethune, the Bulldogs scored three times in the first period, twice in the second period and twice more in the third period as they cruised to their seventh win of the season over the Raymore Rockets. Shea Van Luven had a hat trick and Jake Ulmer had a pair of goals to lead the way for the Bulldogs. Lucas Ulmer and Mike Reich scored the other Bethune goals. Cody Mapes and Kyle Schmalenberg replied for the Rockets. Ryan Senft picked up the win in net for the Bulldogs and Kevin Orthner was in net for the Rockets. The Bulldogs had seven minor penalties and the Rockets had six. In Strasbourg, Kurtis Decker scored what would be the game winning goal on the power play two minutes into the third period to break a 2-2 tie. This was Decker’s second goal of the game. Jory Miller and Greg Ferguson also scored for the Maroons. Chad Filteau and Travis Orr with a power play goal responded for the Canucks. Tyler Kifferling stopped 34 of 36 shots fired his way for the victory in net. Tanner Kehler stopped 30 of 34 shots in net for the Canucks. The Canucks had seven minor penalties while the Maroons had five.

Statistics are posted…please have a look. Barry posts three pages of statistics each week including team statistics on page three. We are at the half way point of the season with 32 of the 63 games regular season games played. Michael Jordan from the Raymore leads all scorers with 10 goals and 14 assists. Kyle Ross from Bethune and Tanner Exner from Strasbourg are next with 19 points.  Greg Ferguson from Strasbourg is in fourth with 17 points and continues to lead all scorers with 13 goals. Ryan Senft from the Bulldogs leads all goalies with a 2.00 GAA. Jeremy Ellis from the Maroons leads all goalies with five wins and David Perkin from Wynyard leads all goalies with 480 minutes played.

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

Thank you to all that support our league and senior hockey in Saskatchewan. We are all trying very hard to keep senior hockey alive and at its best in our leagues throughout our province. On behalf of the Highway Hockey League executive, HHL team management and coaches, our officials, our volunteers from every town and from our players….our sincerest wishes to all of you and your families for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Travel safe, enjoy time spent with your family and your friends and we will see you at the rink the first weekend of January.

Gerry Tomkins

President - HHL