President's Update - January 15th, 2019

The Southey Marlins won their third shoot out game of the year Saturday evening in Strasbourg. There have been five shootouts so far this year and the Marlins have been in three of them and have won all three of the shootouts they have been in. Coming off a 5-0 loss in Lumsden the evening before, the Marlins were down 3-0 early in the second period and proceeded to score three straight goals and tie the game up. Before the end of the second period, the Maroons would score and the Marlins would quickly answer that goal and the teams were tied 4-4 going into the third period. It stayed that way right through overtime. In the shootout, Noah Bennett would get the goal that would give the Marlins the 5-4 win. Rylan Freed would score twice for the Marlins including a power play marker. Travis Mohr would score and Pat Thompson-Gale would also score on the power play.  Mike Arnold led the way for the Maroons with two goals, including a power play goal. Tyson Hubick would also score on the power play and the other goal came off the stick of Blake Hubick. David Perkin picked up the win in the Southey net and Rhett Freistadt was in the Strasbourg net. The Marlins had seven minor penalties and the Marlins had five plus a game misconduct. The Marlins lost to the Monarchs in Lumsden the evening before 5-0 in Lumsden. The Monarchs got goals from Liam Brennan, Kyle Peterson and Brady Aulie in the first period. Kyle Johnson and Torey Lindsay would score in the second period. Travis Bosch stopped 17 shots in the Lumsden net to record the shutout. David Perkin stopped 26 shots in the Southey net. These two teams did not record a penalty the first time they met this year but on this night they each had six minor penalties and a misconduct.

The Maroons lost on Friday evening in Cupar 4-3 to the Canucks. In this game the Maroons held a 1-0 lead going into the second period on a goal from Sean Delwo. In the second period the Canucks got goals from Travis Orr, Dallas Michlik and Brayden Frank to take a 3-1 lead going into the third period. Kyle Hall would score on the power play in the third to give the Canucks a 4-1 lead. Tanner Exner and Zak Gorrill would score for the Maroons and the Canucks would hang on for a 4-3 victory. Tanner Kehler picked up the win in the Cupar net and Rhett Freistadt was in the Strasbourg net. Cupar had one minor penalty called on them and Strasbourg had two. There was one other game this past weekend in Bethune. The Raymore Rockets were the visitors and had a 1-0 lead going into the second period thanks to a goal from Tyrell Shulko. Lucas Ulmer would score for the Bulldogs in the second period and then Michael Jordan would score late in the period to give the Rockets a 2-1 lead going into the third period. In the third period Joel Kot and Carter Smith scored and the Bulldogs held on to win 3-2. Ryan Holfeld picked up the win in the Bethune net stopping 41 shots. Dean Brothen was in the Raymore net and stopped 32 shots. Bethune had six minor penalties and a misconduct and Raymore had four.

Provincials will start in February! We have three teams in 'A' and one in 'B'. Strasbourg and Raymore are not in Provincials this year. I understand there are Strasbourg Maroons playing with the Marlins and that some of the Rockets will be playing with other teams in Provincials. In 'A:', the Lumsden Monarchs will be playing the Grenfell Spitfires, The Cupar Canucks will be playing the defending Provincial champion Balgonie Bisons and the Bethune Bulldogs are playing the Balcarres Broncs. So in 'A' it is the HHL versus the QVHL in round one and yes I have a friendly wager with QVHL President Chris Pollock. In Provincial 'B' the Southey Marlins will be playing the Carnduff Red Devils from the Big Six league. For updated playing times and scores please go to our Provincials page.

Lucas Ulmer from the Bethune Bulldogs has opened up a seven point lead in the scoring race. He has 17 goals and 23 assists for 40 points. 2017-18 HHL scoring leader Kyle Johnson from the Monarchs is next with 33 points. Tyrell Shulko from the Rockets is next with 30 points. Rounding out the tp five are Kyle Hall from Cupar with 28 points and Mike Reich from the Bulldogs with 27 points. The top scorer from the Marlins is Pat Thompson-Gale with 23 points and the the top scorer from the Maroons is Mike Arnold with 23 points. Tyler Bell and Josh Jordan from the Rockets lead all scorers with five power play goals each. Tanner Exner from Strasbourg leads all scorers with 3 shorthanded goals. Tyrell Shulko from the Rockets, Braeden Adamyk from the Monarchs and Lucas Ulmer from the Bulldogs lead the league in game winning goals with three each. Will Hood from Lumsden leads all goalies with a 2.43 GAA and has a 7-0-0 record. Teammate Travis Bosch is next with a 2.63 GAA and he has a record of 8-0-0. Tanner Kehler from Cupar has a 2.93 GAA and he is followed by Ryan Holfeld from the Bulldogs who is at a 3.25 GAA. Dean Brothen from rounds out the top five with a 3.77GAA. David Perkin from Southey leads all goalies with 704.5 minutes played.

The Bethune Bulldogs lead the league with a 31% power play success rate. They are followed by Lumsden at 30.2% and Raymore at 23.4%. It is the same order for success on penalty killing. The Bulldogs are at 88.2%, the Monarchs are at 88% and the Rockets are at 79.2%. The League average per team for the power play is 23.25% and for penalty killing 76.8%. There have been 18 shorthanded goals this year. The Southey Marlins have allowed the fewest with one and the Raymore Rockets have allowed the most with 8. The Strasbourg Maroons lead the league with 5 shorthanded goals scored. The least penalized team in the league are the Strasbourg Maroons with an average of 8.13 minutes per game. They are followed by the Canucks at 9.33 minutes, the Rockets at 10.19 minutes, the Monarchs at 11.46 minutes, the Marlins at 14.94 minutes per game and then the Bulldogs with an average of 15.31 minutes per game. 

This weekend we have four games. On Friday evening the Lumsden Monarchs (15-0-0) are in Southey to play the Marlins (5-11-0). On Saturday evening the Bethune Bulldogs (11-4-1) are in Strasbourg to play the Maroons (3-12-1), the Monarchs are in Raymore to play the Rockets (7-7-2) and the Marlins are in Cupar to play the Canucks (6-7-2).

As always, thank you for supporting senior hockey and the HHL. Please follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/HighwayHockey to stay up to date on scores and information or just refresh our home page on game nights and watch the Twitter feed for updated scores.

Gerry