President's Update November 18th, 2019

Bulldogs and Rockets both win twice this past weekend....The Bethune Bulldogs defeated our reigning champions 4-3 in a shoot out in Lumsden on Friday evening. Dale Spelchen scored the only goal of the first period and the Monarchs had a 1-0 lead. In the second period. Landon Fahlman scored late in the period to tie the game 1-1 but before the end of the period Dale Spelchen would score his second goal and then with nine seconds left in the period Brett Mennear would score for the Bulldogs and it was 2-2 heading into the third period. With nine minutes left in the last frame Braeden Adamyk put the Monarchs back in the lead but just 26 seconds later Mennear would score his second of the game and we were tied again. Going into the third the teams had 17 shots each but in the third period the Monarchs outshot the Bulldogs 21-11 and there were great opportunities and great goaltending especially in the last three minutes of the period. Nothing was decided in overtime and Brock Appleyard was the only player to score in the shoot out. Ryan Holfeild stopped 35 shots and picked up his first win of the season. Will Hood stopped 25 shots for the Monarchs. Bethune had two minor penalties and Lumsden had three. The Bulldogs then had their home opener on Saturday evening and defeated the Strasbourg Maroons 6-2. Jake Ulmer scored the only goal of the first period to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. In the second period the Bulldogs scored three times with Ulmer getting his second goal of the evening and Russ Neilson getting his first goal of the year and Brett Mennear picking up his thrid goal of the year. In the third period Shaye Frizzell and Mike Arnold scored to get the Maroons to within two. Nielson and Mennear would then score late in third period to make the final 6-2. Riley Focht-Gabriel made his first start for the Bulldogs and stopped 15 shots for the win. Rhett Freistadt stopped 38 shots for the Maroons. Strasbourg had five minor penalties and a misconduct. Bethune had three minor penalties and a misconduct. 

The Raymore Rockets won their first game of the year in Strasbourg 6-5 on Friday evening in Strasbourg. On this evening the Maroons retired the #18 Mark Cross jersey. Manager Darrell Orban also announced that the Highway Hockey League will be renaming the League's MVP trophy in Mark's name. We will have a new plaque on this trophy. The official name and information that will be on this trophy will be announced once we have consulted with Mark's family. The game was 1-1 after one period and 3-3 after two periods. In the third period the Maroons took the lead with a goal from Mike Arnold. the Rockets took the lead with goals from Michael Jordan on the power play and with a goal from Braden Bentz. Strasbourg would tie the game with a goal from Derek Edwards. The Rockets would take the lead for good with a goal just 22 seconds later from Corey Kosloski. Kevin Orthner picked up the win with 15 saves. Dallin Sorenson made 34 stops in the Strasbourg net. Strasbourg had three minor penalties and Raymore had two. On Saturday evening the Rockets picked up their second win of the weekend and second win on the road with an 8-4 victory over the Marlins in Southey. The Rockets led from start to finish. Tyrell Shulko led the way with four goals inlucing one power play goal. Tyler mueller scored twice including one power play goal. Rounding out the Rocket's scoring were Damien Bentz and Ryley Storzuk with a power play goal. The Marlins scored once in the second period and three times in the third period. Colby Brandt, Derek Frater, Eric Kuzek and Pat Thompson-Gale scored the Southey goals. Kevin Orthner picked up his second win of the year in the Raymore net. Shaun Fleming was in the Southey net. Southey only had three penalties but the Rockets scored on each of those power play opportunities. The Rockets had two minor penalties.

Tyler Mueller from the Rockets has the early scoring lead with 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points. Teammate Damien Bentz has 6 points and he is tied with Brock Appleyard from the Bulldogs. appleyard leads all forwards with six assists. Tyrell Shulko and Brett Mennear from the Bulldogs lead all scorers with four goals each. Riley Focht-Gabriel has a 2.00 GAA after one game. Kevin Orthner from the Rockets has two wins, Will Hood leads all goalies with 125 minutes played.

This weekend we have one game on Friday evening. The two teams that are 2-0-0, the Bethune Bulldogs and the Raymore Rockets, will meet in Raymore at 8 p.m. On Saturday evening we see a rematch from last year's final as the Lumsden Monarchs (1-0-1) will be in Raymore to play the Rockets. Game time is 7:00 p.m. Also on Saturday evening the Southey Marlins (0-2-0) are in Bethune to play the Bulldogs at 8 p.m.

All our games are reported on Twitter @highwayhockey  https://twitter.com/HighwayHockey or on the Pensky File @GeraldT  Scores via Twitter also show on the left side of our front page of our website.

Thank you for supporting senior hockey and the Highway Hockey League. Please get out to a game near you!

Gerry