President's Update - February 27th, 2017

Bethune and Lumsden move on in Provincials…Congratulations to the Bethune Bulldogs defeating the Milestone Flyers 6-3 on Saturday evening in Bethune and moving on to the southern final of Provincial ‘A’ winning their series 2-0. Kyle Ross scored twice including a power play goal. Also scoring for the Bulldogs were Justin Bernhardt, Lucas Ulmer, Russ Nielson and Matt Strueby. Bethune outshot Milestone 44-28. In Lumsden on Friday evening the Monarchs defeated the Balgonie Bisons 5-2 and won this series 2-0. The Monarchs were down 2-1 after two periods but scored four unanswered goals in the final frame to secure the win. Lumsden got scoring from Torrey Lindsay, Jared Adams, Andrew Perrault, Liam Brennan and Tyler Penny. The Monarchs outshot the Bisons 40-28. Lumsden now will play the Bethune Bulldogs in the south final. Game one of this series will be Sunday in Bethune at 5 p.m. Last year these two teams met in the series going into the south final and Bethune prevailed 3-2 and 6-5 in OT. In the north two teams from the Sask West Hockey League are playing each other in the north final…..Wilkie Outlaws versus the Kindersley Red Lions.

In Provincial ‘C’ the Raymore Rockets will be playing the south final against the Whitewood Orioles of the Triangle Hockey League. In Provincial ‘B’ Wynyard hosts Watrous on Monday evening in game two of the two game total point series trailing 11-6.

Monarchs and Bulldogs up 2-0 in semi-final series….the Lumsden Monarchs defeated the Strasbourg Maroons 10-2 on Sunday evening in Strasbourg to take a 2-0 lead in their semi-final series. Austin Preete, Torrey Lindsay and Liam Brennan each had two goals to lead the way for the Monarchs. Preete also had two assists to make it a four point night for him. Also scoring for Lumsden were Dale Spelchen, Andrew Perrault, Jared Adams and Brady Aulie. Lindsay had the only power play goal of the evening. Mark Cross and Greg Ferguson scored for the Maroons. Matt Weninger picked up the win in net for the Monarchs stopping 26 shots. Jeremy Ellis was in net for the Maroons. Strasbourg had four minor penalties and Lumsden had three. Game three of this series is Tuesday in Lumsden. The Bethune Bulldogs defeated the Raymore Rockets 5-0 on Thursday evening in Raymore and then won 8-1 in Bethune Sunday afternoon to take a 2-0 lead in their semi-final series. On Thursday evening Drew George had a hat trick and Ryan Holfeld stopped 35 shots for the shut out to lead the Bulldogs. Justin Schulhauser and Jacob Ulmer also scored for Bethune. Riley Focht-Gabriel stopped 24 shots in the Rockets net. Bethune had eight minor penalties and two misconducts and the Rockets had six minor penalties, one misconduct and a game misconduct. Gord MacMurchy was assessed a one game suspension for the game misconduct taken in the last ten minutes of the game. On Sunday in Bethune, Paul Albers had the natural hat trick scoring shorthanded, on the power play and even strength to lead the way for the Bulldogs. Kyle Ross had a shorthanded goal and an even strength goal. Drew George and Justin Schulhauser also scored for Bethune. Cole Melrose had the only goal for the Rockets. Ryan Holfeld picked up the win for the Bulldogs in net and David Perkin was in net for the Rockets. Bethune had five minor penalties and Raymore had three. Game three of this series is on Thursday in Bethune at 8:30 p.m.

2016-17 HHL Awards will be listed here next Monday.

Provincial Schedules are listed under the Provincials tab and league playoff series are under the Schedule tab. You can follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/HighwayHockey all of our tweets, which include updates from all games, appear on the front page just under the Upcoming Games column if you just want to follow us on the website during games. You can also follow my account the Pensky File http://twitter.com/GeraldT

Thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League. Enjoy playoffs and Provincials this week….

Gerry