President's Update - November 30th, 2015

Games from the last week in the Highway Hockey League....Last Tuesday evening the Bethune Bulldogs scored four times in the first period, three times in the second period and four times in the third period and defeated the Cupar Canucks 11-0. Kyle Ross scored four times, Lucas Ulmer and Russ Nielson both scored twice and Mike Reich, Barrett Nielson and Shea Van Luven also scored. Ryan Seibel picked up the shutout and Tanner Kehler was in net for the Canucks. The Bulldogs were assessed three minor penalties and the Canucks did not have a penalty.

On Friday evening in Raymore the Ben Struthers and Josh Jelinski scored 35 seconds apart early in the first period to give the Avonlea Arrows an early 2-0 lead over the Rockets. Josh Jordan would score the only other goal of the period and it was 2-1 for the Arrows heading to the second period. Tyrell Shulko and Travis Mohr would score early in the second period to give the Rockets their first lead of the game and then Keegan Ludwar would score on the power play to get the Arrows back even. Before the period was over Michael Jordan would score and the Rockets led 4-3 going to the third period. Shulko, Jordan and Mohr would each score their second goal of the evening to put the Rockets up 7-3 and Ben Struthers would pick up his second goal of the night for the Arrows and the final score would be 7-4 for Raymore. Travis Bosch stopped 27 of 31 shots from the Arrows and picked up the win in net for the Rockets. Dean Brother was in net for the Arrows. The Arrows had six minor penalties and the Rockets had four.

There were two games on Saturday evening. In Bethune the Bulldogs beat the Strasbourg Maroons 9-2. Jake Ulmer, Kyle Ross and Mike Reich (one ppg) each scored twice to lead the way for the Bulldogs. Derek Fuchs, Carson Sinclair and Mitch Boucher also scored for the Bulldogs. Greg Ferguson would score a power play goal and Tanner Exner scored for the Maroons.  Ryan Senft picked up the win in net stopping 20 0f 22 shots. Tyler Kifferling was in net for the Maroons and stopped 45 of 54 shots sent his way. Both teams had four minor penalties, one major for fighting, a misconduct and one game misconduct. Carson Sinclair from the Bulldogs and Quinn McIntosh from the Maroons both received a game misconduct for fighting in the last ten minutes and each has been assessed a one game suspension. Also on Saturday evening the Lumsden Monarch’s Wall of Fame game was played. The first period was what could be described as wide open with each team having sixteen shots on net. Liam Brennan scored just 41 seconds into the game for the Monarchs and then Dayton Picard scored for the Arrows six minutes later. Lumsden would then get two quick goals midway through the period from Ben Findlay and Tyler Murray to take a 3-1 lead. The Arrows would then get two late period goals. One goal was scored by Sean Whelan and another goal was scored on a penalty shot by Wil Putland and the game was tied 3-3 going into the second period. The game would stay tied until midway through the second when Liam Brennan would notch his second on the power play.  Six minutes later Tyler Murray would score his second goal of the evening while the Monarchs were shorthanded. Just eighteen seconds later Jared Adams would score to put the Monarchs up by three. Murray would score his third goal of the evening to complete his hat trick in the last minute of the period and the Monarchs were up 7-3 going into the third.  The Arrows came to life in the third and scored twice on the power play with Picard and Whelan each getting their second goals of the evening. Kristian Brook would get another goal for the Arrows late in the period and the Monarchs only goal of the third period came from Carter Selinger.  Final score was 8-6. Kurtis Sollosy picked up the win in net for the Monarchs and Aaron Husband was in net for the Arrows. Lumsden had six minor penalties and Avonlea had four.  The evening was a great success for the Monarchs as they honoured former HHL players Doug Croft and Brad Haus by inducting them into the Wall of Fame.

Three Bulldogs can be found on top of the scoring race with Mike Reich leading the way with 6 goals and 10 assists and 16 points. Kyle Ross is next with 13 points and he leads the league with 9 goals. Russ Nielson is third with 10 points. Tyrell Shulko from Raymore, Tanner Exner from Strasbourg, Kyle Oleniuk from Avonlea and Jake Ulmer from Bethune are next with 9 points each. Mitch McNish from Strasbourg, Dayton Picard from Avonlea and Liam Brennan from Lumsden round out the top ten scorers with 8 points each. Ryan Seibel (1.50 GAA) and Ryan Senft (1.33) from Bethune lead the team goaltending category with a 1.40 GAA and five wins.  Early in the season team statistics show Avonlea with the best power play at 45.5% followed by Raymore at 29.4% and Lumsden at 22.7%. Top penalty kill belongs to the Bulldogs at 90% followed by Wynyard at 88.9% and Raymore at 86.7%. There have been six shorthanded goals so far this year and the Lumsden Monarchs lead in that category with three scored. Cupar has allowed two against.

There are five games this weekend.  On Friday evening the first place Bethune Bulldogs (5-0-0) will be in Lumsden to play the second place Monarchs (3-1-0) and the Strasbourg Maroons (0-4-1) will be in Cupar to play the Canucks (0-2-0).  On Saturday evening the Strasbourg Maroons will be in Raymore to play the second place Raymore Rockets (3-1-0) and the Wynyard Monarchs (2-2-0) will be in Avonlea to play the Arrows (1-3-0). These two teams will also meet on Sunday afternoon in Avonlea at 3:00.

Pocket schedules are now in your community. We are distributing 50^th anniversary stickers for helmets and there are a few extra and if you would like one let me know. You can follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/HighwayHockey    You can also follow my account Pensky File http://twitter.com/GeraldT  All of our tweets, which include updates from all games, appear on our front page just under the Upcoming Games column if you just want to follow on the website. When you locate us on your mobile device remember you can go to the bottom of the front page and switch to desktop if you wish. We are about to change some colour schemes on our site to make it easier for you to read and we are working on completing our archives of players.

I apologize to those affected by the cancellation of the Cupar at Wynyard game this past Saturday evening. We will try and make sure there are no more cancellations this season. This game will be rescheduled. Thank you again for supporting senior hockey in Saskatchewan and for supporting the Highway Hockey League.

Gerry Tomkins

President - HHL