HHL Update - January 23rd, 2018

Provincials are here...All of our teams have until February 19th to get their first round of Provincials completed. In Provincial 'A' all of our teams play QVHL teams. The Cupar Canucks will open up their best of three series against the Grenfell Spitfires in Cupar on Saturday, February 10th. Game two will be the following Sunday in Grenfell and if a game three is required it will be on Sunday the 18th of February in Grenfell. The Southey Marlins open up their series with the Balgonie Bisons on Saturday, February 10th in Southey. Game two will be Friday, February 16th in Balgonie at 8:30 p.m. and if a game three is required it will be Sunday, February 18th at 4:00 p.m. in Southey. The Lumsden Monarchs will be playing the Milestone Flyers with game one in Lumsden on Sunday, February 11th at 7:30 p.m. Game two is in Milestone on Saturday, February 17th at 8:00 p.m. and game three if necessary is on Sunday, February 18th at 8:00 p.m. in Lumsden. The Raymore Rockets begin defence of their Provincial 'C' title against the Wawota Flyers of the Big Six League. This two game total point series opens in Wawota on Sunday, February 11th at 7:30 p.m. Game two of this series is in Raymore on Saturday, February 17th at 8:00 p.m. The Strasbourg Maroons open their Provincial 'D' series against the Central Butte Flyers of the Sask Valley Hockey League and the third "Flyers" team that our teams play in the first round. Game one is Friday, February 16th in Central Butte at 8:30 p.m. Game two of this series will be the following evening in Strasbourg at 8:00 p.m. The defending Provincial 'A' champion Bethune Bulldogs will be playing 'AAA" this year and participating in the Allan Cup in Rosetown April 9th - 14th. They will be playing the Provincial Championship against the Rosetown Red Wings of the Chinook Hockey League. Game one will be on Saturday, February 24th in Rosetown. Game two is Saturday, March 10th in Bethune. Game three will be on Sunday, March 18th in Rosetown at 4:00 p.m. If a game four is required it will be played on Friday March 23rd in Bethune. Game five if required will be in Rosetown on Saturday, March 24th. We will have all of the Provincial play up on our Provincial page.

The Highway Hockey League had two games scheduled last Friday. The visiting Raymore Rockets defeated the Strasbourg Maroons 6 -3. In Cupar the Bethune Bulldogs forfeited their game against the Cupar Canucks. On behalf of the league I apologize to the community of Cupar for what transpired. We were not advised that this was going to happen and the fate of this game should have been resolved earlier in the week. There is a simple process for changing games and it did not happen here. The Cupar Canucks were awarded the two points for the win. In Raymore Zak Gorill scored in the first period and Mike Arnold scored early in the second period to give the Maroons a 2-0 lead. The Rockets would get goals from Tyrell Shulko and Cody Mapes to tie the game. Tyson Orban would score to get the lead back for the Maroons. Drew Kocur would score to tie the game and then Tyler Bell would score on the power play and the Rockets had a 4-3 lead going into the third period. Kyle Oleniuk would score twice in the third period to make the final score 6-3. Riley Focht-Gabriel picked up the win in net for the Rockets and Dallin Sorenson was in net for the Maroons. Each team had two minor penalties.

On Saturday evening there was just one game played. The Southey @ Bethune game has been moved to Tuesday, February 6th at 8:15. The Lumsden Monarchs defeated the Strasbourg Maroons 7-1. Liam Brennan scored the first three goals of the game so he had the natural hat trick and the game winning goal .Andrew Perrault, Brady Aulie, Justin Nychuk and Kyle Johnson also scored for Lumsden. Donovan Thompson scored for the Maroons. Aaron Moran picked up his first HHL victory in net for the Monarchs and Rhett Freistadt was in net for the Maroons.Lumsden had five minor penalties and Strasbourg had six.

On Friday evening the Strasbourg Maroons (3-11-1) visit the Southey Marlins (4-9-0) at 8:00 p.m. Also Friday evening the Bethune Bulldogs (10-2-1) are in Lumsden to play the Monarchs (10-6-0). On Saturday evening the Southey Marlins will be in Cupar to play the Canucks (10-4-1) and the Bethune Bulldogs will be in Raymore to play the Rockets (7-9-0).

Thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League.

Gerry