President's Update - February 22nd, 2016

Wynyard Monarchs and Lumsden Monarchs advance to semi-finals…It took three overtime games and the Wynyard Monarchs would defeat the Avonlea Arrows 2-1 in their first round series. On Saturday, February 20^th in Avonlea, the Monarchs would erase a 4-1 deficit in the second period and come back and win 6-5 in overtime to even this series at one game each. Stuart Holland and Ryan Makenzie would give the Arrows the lead and Dale Spelchen would score late in the first period for the Monarchs and the Arrows had a 2-1 lead going into the second period. Devin Cobbold and Andrew Sillers with a shorthanded goal would put the Arrows up 4-1 but Brett Leffler and Riley Storzuk would score quickly for the Monarchs and the Arrows would have a 4-3 lead going into the third period. Chad Mazurak would score a power play goal midway through the third period to tie the game and with just under five minutes left in the third period Justin Nychuk would score a shorthanded goal to give the Arrows the lead back. With just under three minutes left in the period Eric Popadynec scored to put this game into overtime. 3:56 into the overtime frame Donovan Hall would score the winning goal for the Monarchs. Mason Brewster picked up the win in net for the Monarchs and Dean Brothen was in net for the Arrows. The Arrows had seven minor penalties and a game misconduct and the Monarchs had six penalties. On Sunday afternoon in Wynyard the deciding game of this series would also go to overtime.  Special teams would play a large part in this game.  Cody Straker and Eric Popadynec would score in the first period to give the Monarchs a 2-0 lead. Sean Whelan would score early in the second period on the power play for the Arrows. Chad Mazurak would score with just over three minutes left in the second period to restore the two goal lead for the Monarchs. Josh Jelinski would score with one minute left and then with two seconds left in the period Stuart Holland would score on the power play and this game was tied 3-3. In the third period Sean Whelan would score a shorthanded goal to give the Arrows their first lead of the game but just thirty seconds later Donovan Hall would score on the power play and this game would head to over time. In overtime the Brett Plouffe would score on a 5 on 3 power play and the Monarchs would win 5-4. The Arrows would be assessed seven minor penalties and the Monarchs two. Kevin Orthner picked up the win in net for the Rockets and Aaron Husband was in net for the Arrows.

In Cupar on Saturday evening, the Lumsden Monarchs defeated the Cupar Canucks 5-4. Kyle Johnson scored twice in the first period for Lumsden and Dylan Mohr from the Canucks would score twice in the first period and the game was tied 2-2 going into the second period.  Tyler Murray would score on the power play in the second period to give the Monarchs a 3-2 lead going into the third period. Devin Lipinski scored early the third period to tie this game up at 3-3. Jared Adams and Brady Aulie would score to put the Monarchs back up 5-3 and Godric Tham would score in the last minute of the period and the final score would be 5-4 for the Monarchs. Jackson Lattrace won his first game in senior hockey in net for the Monarchs and Colby Miller was in net for the Canucks. Cupar had two minor penalties and the Monarchs had one. On Sunday in Lumsden, the Monarchs would win game two and the series with a 5-4 victory. Donovan Chow, Godric Tham and Tyler Wilyman would score in the first period for the Canucks and Jared Adams would score the lone Monarch goal in the first period and it was 3-1 Canucks going into the second period.  Carter Selinger would score on the power play early in the second period and Brady Aulie would score late in the period and the game was tied 3-3 going into the third period. As with the night before Lumsden would take a 5-3 lead in the third period on goals from Kyle Johnson and Carter Selinger. Brayden Frank would score shorthanded after the last Lumsden goal and the final score would be 5-4. Aaron Schweitzer would pick up the win in net for the Monarchs and Colby Miller would stop 42 shots in the Cupar net.  Cupar had five minor penalties and Lumsden had four.

In the other first round series the Raymore Rockets were at home to the Strasbourg Maroons on Friday evening and came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Maroons 3-2 in game one of their best of three series. The Maroons took a 2-0 lead in the first period on two power play goals from Garret Lockeridge and Greg Ferguson. Davis Brown would score late in the period and the Maroons led 2-1 after one period. Brown would get his second goal of the game in the second period shorthanded and the game would be tied 2-2 going into the final frame. Michael Jordan would score with ten minutes left and the Rockets would hold on for a 3-2 victory. Travis Bosch would pick up the win in net for the Rockets and Tyler Kifferling was in net for the Maroons.  The Rockets had five minor penalties called against them and the Maroons had three. Game two of this series is on Tuesday, February 23^rd in Strasbourg and if a third game is required it will be the following evening in Raymore. 

Provincials Update…The Lumsden Monarchs host the Bethune Bulldogs in Provincial ‘A’ action on Thursday, February 25^th at 8:00 p.m. in game one of their best of three series. Game two will be the next evening in Bethune at 8:30 and if a third game is required in this series it will be on Sunday, February 28^th in Lumsden at 8:00 p.m. The Strasbourg Maroons host the Gull Lake Greyhounds from the White Mud Hockey League on Friday, February 26^th at 8:00 p.m. This two game total point series concludes on Sunday in Gull Lake at 5:00 p.m.

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Raymore and Strasbourg finish their series this week while Lumsden, Bethune and Strasbourg play in Provincials this weekend. HHL semi-finals will begin next week. Please get out to a game near you.