President's Update - January 30th, 2019

Provincials begin for our teams on Friday, February 8th. This year we have four teams participating. Bethune, Cupar and Lumsden are competing in 'A' and Southey is in 'B'. Players from Strasbourg, many playing with Marlins, and Raymore are playing for other teams in Provincials. I will confirm where everyone is playing and report that information. Next Friday, the 8th of February, the Cupar Canucks will be in Balgonie to play the Bison at 8:30 p.m. On Saturday, the 9th of February, the Southey Marlins will host the Carnduff Red Devils at 8:00 p.m. and the Lumsden Monarchs will host the Grenfell Spitfires at 8:30 p.m. On Sunday, the 10th of February, the Bethune Bulldogs will host the Balcarres Broncs at 4:00 p.m. All series are on our Provincial page.

This past weekend the Raymore Rockets clinched third place with a come from behind 5-3 victory over the Southey Marlins in a game played Saturday afternoon in Raymore. The Marlins were on a four game winning streak. Southey had three goals in the second period and took a 3-2 lead into the third period. The Rockets would score three times in the third period to pick up the win. The Rockets got power play goals from Cody Mapes and Dillon Schwartzenberger and Mapes also had a shorthanded goal. Braden Bentz and Tyrell Shulko also had goals. Dean Brothen picked up the win in the Raymore net. Taylor Wilton, Pat Thompson-Gale and Travis Mohr with a power play goal scored for the Marlins. David Perkin was in net for the Marlins. Raymore had 8 minor penalties and a misconduct called on them and Southey had five minor penalties. The evening before, the Marlins defeated the Cupar Canucks 8-7 which assured them of at least fourth place. Each team scored three goals in the first period and two goals in the second period. The Marlins outscored the Canucks 3-2 in the third period.  Trey Levebrve scored twice for the Marlins. Riley Mohr had a power play goal as did Taylor Wilton, only Wilton's goal was also the game winner. Ryley Storzuk, Carter Budzak, Pat Thompson-Gale and Travis Mohr also scored for the Marlins. Brett Boha scored twice for the Canucks, one goal being on the power play. Travis Orr scored twice on the power play. Dallas Michlik, Devin Stecyk and Donovan Chow also scored for the Canucks. Colby Miller was in the Southey net. Southey was assessed five minor penalties, a major, a misconduct and a game misconduct. Cupar had five minor penalties, a major and a game misconduct.

The Canucks were in Bethune on Saturday evening and lost 6-4 to the Bulldogs. Bethune had five even strength goals and an empty net goal. Scoring came from League scoring leader Lucas Ulmer, Jacob Ulmer, Mitch Nielson, Carter Smith and two goals from Brock Appleyard. Kyle Hall, Donovan Chow, Vaughn Woolsey and Brett Boha with a power play goal scored for the Canucks.  Ryan Holfeld picked up the win in the Bethune net and Colby Miller was in the Cupar net. We almost had our second regular season game of the year without a penalty....only one penalty called and that was against the Bulldogs and did result in a goal for the Canucks. 

One other game this weekend saw the Lumsden Monarchs defeat the Strasbourg Maroons 7-4 in Lumsden on Friday evening. The Lumsden Monarchs will receive the League Pennant Trophy for finishing first in the regular season. This is the first time since 2001 that the Monarchs have claimed the title. Tyler Penny and Jesse Matlock each scored twice for the Monarchs. Liam Brennan, Braeden Adamyk and Brady Aulie also scored for Lumsden. Strasbourg got goals from Tyson Orban and Blake Hubick and also got power play goals from Bryton Beattie and Eric Shultz on the power play. The Monarchs had eight minor penalties, one major penalty and a game misconduct. The Maroons had six minor penalties, one major penalty and a game misconduct. James Beattie was suspended for one game as per rule 6.10.02 (d) for Instigator/Aggressor. Travis Bosch picked up the win in the Lumsden net with 29 saves. Dillon Sorenson played the first two periods in net for the Maroons and Rhett Freistadt played the third period. 

This is the last weekend for the regular season. The Strasbourg Maroons host the Cupar Canucks on Friday evening. On Saturday evening the Lumsden Monarchs are at home playing the Raymore Rockets. The Strasbourg Maroons will be in Bethune to play the Bulldogs. The two teams that have the bye into the semi-finals will be playing a make up game on Wednesday, February 6th at 8:30 p.m. in Bethune.

We will have a look at the final year's statistics, a preview of the first round best of three playoff series and a look at potential award winners for the 2018-19 regular season awards next week.

As always, I thank you for supporting the HHL and for your support of senior hockey. Please follow us on twitter to keep current of scores and happenings https://twitter.com/HighwayHockey    You can follow our home page on game nights to get sores, just refresh to get Twitter postings.

Gerry