QVHHL Update - January 24th

First off...a big "Thank you" to Access Now and Monday Nooner for being in Lumsden on Sunday. The Balcarres/Lumsden game will be broadcast next Sunday at 7 p,m, I believe and should be available on the Access App. We will confirm that and have it up on Twitter. We appreciate the support and it was great to put a face to the names! The game played Sunday afternoon saw the Balcarres Broncs win the season rubber match 6-2 over the Monarchs. An early power play goal from Cody Ellingson put the Broncs up 1-0. Sam Aulie would then score for the Monarchs to tie the game up. At exactly the mid point of the first period Cory Kosloski would score for the Broncs to put them up 2-1. Just after that goal David Spooner left the Balcarres net with injury and Dean Brothen came into the game. The period would end 2-1 Broncs. There was no scoring in the seond period until late in the period when Tyler Nueller would score to put the Broncs up 3-1 going into the third period. In the third Kosloski would score his second goal of the game and Justin Bernhardt and Brett Boha would add to the total before Riley Riddell would score for the Monarchs to make the final 6-2. The third period did feature a fight between Cody Ellingson and James Beattie. Along with those major penalties Lumsden had seven monor penalties and Balcarres had 6. David Spooner stopped 6 shots in the Balcarres net before leaving game and Dean Brothen stopped 28 to finish the game in the Broncs net. Dawson Macauley stopped 30 shots in the Monarchs net.

We had one game on Friday evening...the Odessa/Vibank Bruins defeated the Southey Marlins 7-6. Kyle Stroh and Zak Zborosky scored power play goals in the first period to put the Bruins up 2-0. In the second period the Bruins scored five times. Keigan Callendar and Eamon Milligan scored on the power play and the other goals were scored by Dylan Herman whicle Zborosky and Stroh would each score their second goals of the game. The Marlins were down 5-0 at one point in the second period but did score three goals with Landon Walters scoring twice including a power play goal and also got a goal from Arthur Miller. It was 7-3 going into the third period. The Marlins would score three times in the third and the comeback fell just short with yet another one goal loss for the Marlins. Rhett Sandercock, Travis Gerrard and Walters with his hat trick goal would do the final scoring for the Marlins. Garrett Bloomquist would pick upo the win in the Bruin's net while Dallin Sorenson was in the Marlin's net. The Marlins had nine minor penalties along with one major penalty and a misconduct. The Bruins had 10 minor penalties along with a major and a misconduct. 

On Saturday evening the Marlins would defeat a shorthanded Bethune team 12-0 at home. Josh Grimm, Pat Thompson-Gale and Kiegan Jackstiet led the way with 2 goals each. Arthur Miller, Devan Harrison, Derek Frater, Travis Gerrard, Mason Mullaney and Max Kotyk also scored for the Marlins. Kevin Orther picked up the shutout in the Southey net. Southey had two minor penalties and Bethune had none. Also on Saturday evening the Balcarres Broncs defeated the Bruins 4-3 at home. Brett Boha opened the socring for the Broncs and shortly after that Linden Lang would score for the Bruins and it was 1-1 going into the second period. Early in the second period Jared Martin would score to put the Broncs up 2-1. The Bruins would quickly answer that goal with a power play goal from Justin Schaeffer. Less than two minutes later Zak Zborosky would score to put the Bruins up 3-2. Less than a minute later Brayden Frank would score and this game was tied 3-3 with 12 minutes left in the second period. With just under six minutes left in the period Paul Albers would score on the power play with what would be the winning goal for the Broncs. No scoring intghe third period would make the final 4-3 for the Broncs. Dean Brothen picked up the win in the Balcarres net and Garrett Bloomquist was in the Bruins net. Balcarres had 7 minor penalties, a double minor penalty and a major penalty. The Bruins had five minor penalties and a major penalty.

Kevin DuFour and Kyle Johnson from the Monarchs continue to lead the scoring race with 28 points each. Kyle Stroh from the Bruins is now thrid with 27 points and he is followed by Sanfred King and teammate Lane Harbor from the Spitfires each with 26 points. Mitch Kilgoire from the Spitfires leads all goalies with a 7-1 record and a 2.75 GAA. Ross Riley from the Flyers is next with a 4-0 record and a 2.99 GAA. Team goaltending is tight as Milestone leads with a 3.07 GAA with Grenfell next at 3.18. Grenfell continues tio lead all teams on the power play with a 35.5 success rate. The top penalty kill team is now a tie with Balcarres and Milestone both at 84%.

We have one game on Tuesday evening with the Southey Marlins (4-8-2) in Grenfell to play the Spitfires (9-2-0) at 8:15 p.m. On Friday evening the Bethune Bulldogs (0-11-0) are at Odessa/Vibank to play the Bruins (6-6-1) at 8:30 p.m. Also on Friday evening there is a rematch of tuesday's game between the Spitfires and Marlins in Southey at 8:00. On Saturday evening the Milestone Flyers (9-3-0) will host Grenfell at 8:00 p.m. The other game that evening will see the Southey Marlins in Lumsden to play the Monarchs (6-7-0) at 8:30 p.m. 

On Saturday evening we have our first Provincial game as the Balcarres Broncs will be in Drake to play the Canucks at 7:00 p.m. This is game one of a Provincial 'A' best of three series. All of our Provincials are up on the Provincials page. Please follow us on Twitter or check our front page to keep up to date on league and provincial happenings.

Thank you for supporting senior hockey. We are getting close to playoffs and Provincials are about to begin and as I am reminded many times thui s is when it counts and this is when interesting things happen...and they do. Please get out to a game near you!

Gerry