President's Update - January 3rd, 2019

First off, here is to a great year for everyone...our 2018 schedule ended on December 22nd. That weekend the Strasbourg Maroons had a back to back set with the Raymore Rockets. On the Friday evening in Strasbourg the Rockets opened the scoring with goals from Michael Jordan and Brett Kealy and had a 2-0 lead. The Maroons would respond with a power play goal from Sean Delwo and then late in the period got a shorthanded goal from Tanner Exner and it was tied going into the second period. Mike Arnold would score a shorthanded goal in the second period and then  Jory Miller scored. There was no scoring in the third period and the final score was 4-2. Rhett Freistadt picked up the win in the Strasbourg net stopping 31 shots. Dean Brothen stopped 27 shots in the Raymore net. The Maroons had more penalties in this game than we have seen in previous games taking seven minor penalties and one misconduct. The Rockets had four minor penalties and a misconduct. On Saturday evening in Raymore, the Rockets built up a 5-0 lead with power play goals from Tyler Bell and Tyrell Shulko and even strength goals from Blaze Bentz, Josh Jordan and Tyler Bell. With 39 seconds left in the first period Jory Miller would score for the Maroons and it was 5-1 going into the second period. Mike Arnold and Eric Schultz would score to get the Maroons to within two goals but Michael Jordan would score to give the Rockets a three goal lead with just over seven minutes left in the period. Tanner Exner would then score his second shorthanded goal of the weekend and it was 6-4 going into the third period. In the third period Sean Delwo would score with seven minutes left in the period and then Garret Lockeridge would score with just under three minutes left and this game would go to overtime. With almost no time remaining in the OT period Mike Arnold would score and complete the comeback for the Maroons who won 7-6. Dallin Sorenson and Rhett Freistadt would split time in the net for the Maroons and Freistadt would pick up his second victory of the weekend. Riley Focht-Gabriel was in net for the Rockets. The Maroons had five minor penalties called against them and the Rockets had just one minor call. 

There was one other game on Friday evening as the Lumsden Monarchs defeated the Southey Marlins 14-4 in Southey. Brody Luhning led the way for the Monarchs with five goals, including a power play goal. Carter Hanson had two goals, including a power play goal, and two assists. Kyle Johnson had one goal and four assists in the game. Other Lumsden scorers were Steven Turner, Mason Haus, Braeden Adamyk, Austin Preete, Liam Brennan and Christopher Whitteron. Pat Thompson-Gale had two goals for the MArlins including a power play goal. Carter Budzak and Travis Mohr also scored for Southey. Travis Bosch picked up the win in the Lumsden net and David Perkin and Adam Gawryluik split time in the Southey net. 

Our last game of the weekend had the Southey Marlins in Cupar on Saturday evening. The Marlins bounced back from their home loss on Friday against the Monarchs with a 4-3 shootout win over the Canucks. In this game Dylan Mohr started the scoring for the Marlins with a power play goal. Rylan Freed would score late in the period and it was 2-0 for the Marlins going into the second period. Travis Mohr would score the only goal of the second period and the Marlins would lead 3-0 going into the third period. In the Third period cue the comeback for the Canucks. Landon Fahlman, Travis Orr and Brayden Frank would score and send this game to overtime. Overtime decided nothing and Pat Thompson-Gale would get credit for the winning goal in the shootout and the Marlins would win 4-3. Ryan Senft would pick up the win in the Southey goal. Tanner Kehler was in the Cupar goal. Cupar received three minor penalties and Southey had six plus a misconduct.

Lucas Ulmer of the Bulldogs leads all scorers with 29 points and leads all with 17 assists. Tyrell Shulko from the Rockets is second with 28 points and he leads all scorers with 15 goals. 2018 scoring leader Kyle Johnson from Lumsden is third with 25 points. Rounding out the top five are Mike Reich from Bethune with 23 points and then tied for fifth are Carter Hanson from the Monarchs and Josh Jordan from the Rockets, each with 22 points. Jordan leads all scorers with five power play goals. Tanner Exner from the Maroons leads all scorers with three shorthanded goals. Tyler Shulko from the Rockets leads all scorers with three game winning goals.

Tanner Kehler from Cupar leads all goalies with at least five games played with a 2.24 GAA. Will Hood is next with a 2.43 GAA and league leading seven wins. Travis Bosch from Lumsden has five wins and a 3.00 GAA. David Perkin from Southey leads all goalies with 459.5 minutes played.

Bethune Bulldogs lead the league with a 35.5% success rate on the power play. Lumsden Monarchs are next at 31.4 % and they are followed by the Raymore Rockets at 25.8%. The top penalty killing team are the Lumsden Monarchs at 85.4%. They are followed by the Bethune Bulldogs at 82.6% and the Cupar Canucks at 77.5%. There have been 14 shorthanded goals scored so far this year. The Strasbourg Maroons have scored five of them. The Raymore Rockets have allowed the most with six scored against them. All teams have scored at least one shorthanded goal and the Southey Marlins are the only team that have not allowed a shorthanded goal against them. 

On Friday evening our schedule resumes with all teams in action. The fourth place Canucks (4-6-2) are in Lumsden to play the Monarchs (12-0-0), the third place Bulldogs (7-4-1) are in Raymore to play the second place Rockets (7-4-2) and the Southey Marlins (3-8-0) are home against the Strasbourg Maroons (3-9-0). On Saturday evening Lumsden is in Strasbourg, Bethune hosts Southey and the Rockets are in Cupar to play the Canucks.

Thank you as always for supporting the Highway Hockey League. Follow us on Twitter http:twitter.com/HighwayHockey or just follow us on our home page and refresh on game nights to see the tweets of scores. Please get out to a game near you.

Gerry