President's Update - November 26th, 2017

Bulldogs back on track...Since losing to the Raymore Rockets in the first game of the year the Bulldogs have won three games in a row including a tight one Saturday evening against the Rockets. Raymore opened the scoring in this game late in the first period with a power play goal from Cody Mapes. Drew George would answer that goal for the Bulldogs but with a minute left in the period the Rockets would get another power play goal from Blaze Bentz and it was 2-1  for the Rockets after one period. Early in the second period Mike Reich would score a shorthanded goal to tie the game up. There would be no more scoring until 50 seconds left in the game when Drew George would score and the Bulldogs would have a 3-2 victory. Just like the first time these two teams met the goalies would be busy and would play well. Ryan Holfeld would stop 46 shots in the Bulldog net for the win. Dean Brothen stopped 37 shots in the Raymore net. The Rockets had two minor penalties and the Bulldogs had four. The Rockets were coming off a come from behind 7-4 victory over the Strasbourg Maroons the evening before. Tyler Bell scored 30 seconds into the game to give the Rockets a 1-0 lead. Sean Delwo would score for the Maroons and the score was tied 1-1 after one period. In the second period, five minutes in, Josh Jordan would score and the Rockets had a 2-1 lead. Sean Delwo would score his second goal of the night to tie the game up three minutes later. Greg Ferguson then scores to give the Maroons their first lead of the game with a shorthanded goal. Tyrell Shulko would then score on the power play and the game was tied 3-3. Late in the period Brett Kealy would score and the Maroons led 4-3 going into the third period. Drew Kocur would score early in the third period to tie this game up again. Tyrell Shulko would then score a natural hat trick, including one power play goal, in an eleven minute span and Shulko would end the evening with four goals and one assist. Off of four unanswered goals the Rockets would make the final score 7-4. Riley Focht-Gabriel would make 23 saves in the Raymore net to pick up the win. Dallin Sorenson would make 27 saves in the Strasbourg net. The Rockets had four minor penalties and the Maroons had four.

There were two other games on Saturday evening... In Lumsden, the Monarchs would score three power play goals while on a five minute power play in the first period and go one to defeat the Southey Marlins 10-2. Liam Brennan would score five times to lead the Monarchs with two power play goals, one shorthanded goal and two even strength goals. Austin Preete, Brady Aulie and Torey Lindsey would also score on the power play for the Monarchs. Kyle Johnson and Brady Aulie also scored even strength. Johnson would also have four assists and would match Brennan's five point night. Drew Wilde and Ricky Seidel would score for the Marlins. Kurtis Sollsosy stopped 26 shots in the Lumsden net and picked up the victory. Landen Moldenhauer had a very busy night in the Southey net making 42 saves. Lumsden had eight minor penalties and one misconduct. The Marlins had five minor penalties, one major penalty, one misconduct and a game misconduct. In Cupar, the Canucks defeated the Strasbourg Maroons 9-4. The Canucks led this game throughout with Brayden Frank leading the way with a six point night consisting of three goals and three helpers. Travis Orr also had a hat trick including a power play goal in that total. Josh Lang had a power play goal. Kyle Hall and Godric Tham also scored for the Canucks. Donovan Chow had three assists. Greg Ferguson had two goals for the Maroons, including a power play goal. Brett Kealy scored the other two goals for the Maroons. Tanner Kehler picked up the win in net for the Canucks. Rhett Freistadt and Tyler Kifferling split time in the Strasbourg net.

Brayden Frank and Kyle Johnson share the scoring race lead with 13 points each after five games played. Torey Lindsey from Lumsden is third with 12 points and Brady Aulie from Lumsden is fourth with 11 points. Tyrell Shulko and Tyler Bell from Raymore along with Liam Brennan from Lumsden are tied for fifth with 10 points. Frank and Brennan lead the league with seven goals scored each.  Kyle Johnson from Lumsden leads the league with nine assists. Ryan Holfeld leads all goalies with a 2.25 GAA. He also leads the league with 240 minutes played and is tied with Will Hood from Lumsden with three wins. The Bethune Bulldogs have the top power play which is clicking at 35.7%. Right there with them are the Lumsden Monarchs at 35.3%. The Raymore Rockets are next at 25%.  The Raymore Rockets have the top penalty killing unit which has a success rate of 90.9%. The Lumsden Monarchs are next at 90.5% and the Bulldogs are next at 83.3%. Lumsden and Bethune are the only two teams that have not allowed a shorthanded goal. Southey and Cupar are the only two teams that have not scored a shorthanded goal.

On Friday evening, the Cupar Canucks (2-2-1) visit the Raymore Rockets (2-3-0) at 8:00 p.m. On Saturday evening the Lumsden Monarchs (4-1-0) are in Strasbourg to play the Maroons (1-3-0) and the Southey Marlins (1-2-0) are in Bethune to play the Bulldogs (3-1-0). On Tuesday evening the Canucks play the Marlins in Southey at 8:00 p.m. and on Wednesday evening the Maroons are in Bethune to play the Bulldogs at 8:30 p.m.

Thanks for coming out to our games this week, we appreciate it. To keep up to date please 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 and we hope you can get out to a game near you!

Gerry Tomkins - President HHL