President's Update - March 21st, 2016

Bethune and Lumsden meet in League Final.....For the first time ever the Bethune Bulldogs and the Lumsden Monarchs are meeting in the league final. Since Bethune came back to our League in 2000 these two teams have not met in any playoff series. The Monarchs got into the final with a 3-1 victory in Raymore on March 15^th. In that game all of the scoring was in the second period. Austin Preete scored a shorthanded goal, Ryan Herman scored a power play goal and Carter Selinger scored the winner. Cody Mapes scored the Rockets goal on a power play.  Kurtis Sollosy picked up the win in net for the Monarchs and Travis Bosch was in net for the Rockets.  The Monarchs won this series three games to two. Game one of the League final was on Thursday, March 17^th in Bethune. The Bulldogs had a 5-2 lead going into the third period and proceeded to score six more goals in an 11-4 victory. Drew George had a shorthanded goal, a power play goal and an even strength goal to lead the way for the Bulldogs. Shea Van Luven, Lucas Ulmer and Dustin MacAngus each had two goals. Kyle Ross and Jacob Ulmer also scored for Bethune.  Lumsden’s scoring came from Ward Szucki with two goals and Brady Aulie with two goals.  Each team was assessed seven minor penalties. Game two of this series is March 21^st in Lumsden and game three is March 22^nd in Bethune. If a fourth game is required it will be played on Sunday, March 27^th at 7:00 p.m. in Lumsden. Going into game two of the final, Kyle Ross from Bethune leads all scorers with 6 goals and 11 assists and 17 points. Drew George from the Bulldogs is one point back with 16 points and Carter Selinger from the Monarchs is third with 14 points.

Bethune Bulldogs win game one of Provincial ‘A’ final

The Bethune Bulldogs hosted the Rosetown Redwings in game one of the Provincial ‘A’ final on March 19^th.  A big crowd was greeted with a game that featured a lot of goals. Five minutes into the first period, Kyle Ross hustled into the Redwings end and won a puck battle and sent a perfect pass to Lucas Ulmer who scored the first goal of the game. Just 24 seconds later Drew George scored to put the Bulldogs up 2-0. Again, very quickly the Redwings would respond on a goal from Russell Goodman. Goodman would score again and just ten minutes into the game it was 2-2. With just two minutes left in the period Jordan Johnston would score for the Redwings shorthanded and it was 3-2 Rosetown after one period. The Bulldogs led the shot clock 14-11. Early in the second period Kyle Ross would feed a long pass to Drew George and the George would fire the puck past Jeff Harvey shorthanded and the game was tied 3-3. The Bulldogs would score again with eight minutes left in the period on a goal from Mike Reich. With three minutes left in the period Troy Casper would score for the Redwings and then with two minutes left Jordan Johnston would score and the Redwings held the period lead 5-4. The Bulldogs led the shot clock 35-22. In the third the Bulldogs would gain the lead for the third time in this game with two early third period goals. Drew George completed his hat trick with just over a minute played in the third period. Paul Alber’s backhanded a shot past Harvey two minutes later and the Bulldogs would lead 6-5 with just under 17 minutes left in the period.  With four minutes left in the game Jordan Johnston would pick up his second shorthanded goal of the game essentially from the same spot as the first shorthanded goal and the game was tied again. Drew George would score his fourth goal of the game right after that goal and the Bulldogs would again get the lead and would hold on for a 7-6 victory. Ryan Senft was in goal for the Bulldogs and Jeff Harvey was in net for the Redwings. The Bulldogs outshot the Redwings 51-35. With this victory the Bulldogs have now won thirteen games in a row…nine games in Provincials and four games in League playoffs. Game two of this Provincial ‘A’ series is Thursday, March 24^th in Rosetown at 8:00 p.m. The Bulldogs have a fan bus going to Rosetown. If a game three is required it will be played in Bethune on Tuesday, March 29^th.

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Just a week of hockey left and there is still time for you to get out to a game. Just check our front page for all upcoming games. Thank you for supporting senior hockey and the Highway Hockey League!

Gerry Tomkins

President - HHL