President's Update - March 7th, 2016

Submitted by Gerry on Sun, 05/13/2018 - 03:26

Bethune Bulldogs on a mission…The Bulldog train keeps rolling down the track. The defending HHL champions and Provincial ‘A’ finalists from 2014-15 lost their first Provincial game in January to Watrous and since then have reeled off nine consecutive wins in Provincials and league playoffs. The Bulldogs started their HHL semi-finals with a 10-3 victory over the Wynyard Monarchs on March 1st in Bethune.  Drew George, Derek Fuchs, Mike Reich and Jake Ulmer each had two goals to lead the way in this game. Kyle Ross also scored and added four assists and Joel Kot also scored to complete the scoring for the Bulldogs. Cody Straker with two goals and Riley Storzuk with one goal scored for Wynyard.  Ryan Senft picked up the win in net for the Bulldogs and David Perkin was in the net for the Monarchs. The Bulldogs had seven minor penalties and the Monarchs had four. There were no power play goals in this game although one of Reich’s goals was scored shorthanded. On March 5th the teams met in Wynyard for game two of the series. Riley Storzuk and Brett Leffler gave the Monarchs a 2-0 lead after one period. An early second period shorthanded goal from Jake Ulmer got the Bulldogs on the board and that goal was answered quickly by Donovan Hall and the Monarchs were up by two goals. Derek Fuchs and Drew George would score late in the period and this game was tied 3-3 going into the third period.  The Bulldogs would score four times in third period with goals coming from Mike Reich, Russ Nielson, Troy Willfong and a second goal from drew George. Nielson also had four assists which gave him a five point night. Ryan Senft picked up the win in net for the Bulldogs and Kevin Orthner was in net for the Monarchs. Wynyard had seven minor penalties and Bethune had five.  The evening before the second game of this series the Bulldogs were in Radville to play game one of their Provincial ‘A’ semi-final and defeated the Nationals 8-5. Game two of this series will be played in Bethune on Friday, March 11th at 8:00 p.m. The winner of this series will play the winner of the Hague Royals versus Rosetown Redwings in the provincial ‘A’ final. The Bulldogs and Monarchs will finish their semi-final series this week with game three being played on Monday, March 7th and “if necessary” games scheduled for Wednesday in Wynyard and Thursday in Bethune.

Raymore Rockets take lead in semi-final series versus Lumsden Monarchs…

On Thursday, March 3rd in Raymore the Raymore Rockets and Lumsden Monarchs started their HHL semi-final series. The Monarchs got an early goal in the first period from Tyler Murray and an early goal in the second period from Kyle Johnson and had a 2-0 lead. Chad Filteau and Michael Jordan would both score in the second period to tie game up 2-2 going into third period. In the third period Travis Mohr would score early and later in the period Todd MacMurchy would score on the power play and the Rockets would win 4-2. Travis Bosch picked up the win in net for the Rockets and Kurtis Sollosy was in net for the Monarchs. Each team had four minor penalties. On Saturday, March 5th these two teams would meet in Lumsden for game two of the series. There was no scoring in the first period. As with game one, the Monarchs would score first and that happened early in the second period on a goal from Carter Selinger. Five minutes later Chad Filteau would score to tie the game up and just over two minutes later Todd MacMurchy would score his second power play goal of the series and the Rockets had a 2-1 lead going into the third period. Davis Brown would score for the Rockets eight minutes into the third period on the power play and the Rockets had a two goal lead. With just under four minutes left in the game Ward Szucki would score for the Monarchs on the power play and it was 3-2 Rockets. That would be the final score and the Rockets now have a 2-0 lead in this semi-final series. Travis Bosch stopped 32 in the Raymore net and Kurtis Sollosy stopped 27 shots in the Lumsden net. Lumsden was assessed ten minor penalties and Raymore had nine. Game three of this series is Friday, March 11th at 8:00 p.m. in Raymore. If a fourth game is required it will be played on Sunday, March 13th in Lumsden at 8:00 p.m. Game five, if required, is scheduled for Tuesday, March 15th in Raymore.

2015-16 Highway Hockey League Awards….

Last week we announced this year’s list of award nominees for Highway Hockey League Awards. Next week, in this blog we will announce this year’s winners of the awards and will also announce the 2015-16 All-Star team next Monday by 1:00 p.m. Many of the trophies that are presented have been in existence throughout the entire fifty year history of our league. I will give you a bit of history on each of these awards when we publish the award winners next week. Award winners will receive their plaques either at their team windup or during the league final.

We send condolences to the Joe Martin family. Joe was from Silton and passed away on February 29th. He was a key contributor both as a builder on the HHL executive and was a referee in the early days of the Highway Hockey League. His funeral is on Friday, March 11th at 2:30 p.m. in Silton at the United Church.

 

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Please get out to a game near you!

Gerry Tomkins

President - HHL