President’s Update – November 22nd, 2012

Submitted by Gerry on Sun, 05/13/2018 - 02:57

Our season started on Friday evening with 3 games played. Our defending Champions were in Lumsden Friday evening. Justin Mrazek stopped 8 shots before Avonlea scored on their first shot of the game 10:12 into the first period when Mike Miller scored. Things evened out for the next fifteen minutes and then the Arrows flexed their muscles and scored three goals in just two and a half minutes thanks to Shay Neufeld, Layton Ludwar and Cal Filson. David Fisher from the kid line scored for Lumsden in the third period assisted by Steve Eberts. That was all Lumsden could get past Justin Mrazek. Shay Neufeld and Josh Jelenski scored on the power play after that so make the final 6-1 Arrows. Shots were 43-32 Lumsden…In Southey, the new look Marlins hosted the Raymore Rockets. Goalies Ryan Senft from the Marlins and Rocket Nathan Fischl were dominant on this night as the Marlins picked up the win 2-1. Shay Wirll scored for the Marlins just 1:23 into the first and the score stayed the same for the next 57:14 until Mac Hubick scored to make it 2-0 for the Marlins. Just forty-two seconds remained in the game when Dallas Thiessen broke the shutout attempt by the Marlins. There were 22 minor penalties and one misconduct….Cupar Canucks opened up the season against the Wynyard Monarchs at home with a 4-2 victory. Donovan Chow opened up the scoring just 1:45 in and the Monarchs responded with two first period goals…one from Mike Kesserling on the power play and the other by Brett Leffler to take a 2-1 lead after one period. In the second period Tyler Stewart and Kyle Ross scored to make it 3-2 Canucks after two periods. Donavon Chow picked up his second goal on the power play just fifteen seconds into the third period and that would be all of the scoring. Jamie Wutke picked up the win in net for the Canucks and Dave Perkins was in net for the Monarchs. There were seventeen minor penalties in this game.

On Saturday evening the Avonlea Arrows hosted the Strasbourg Maroons in a rematch of our 2012 final. The Arrows opened up a 2-0 lead on the Maroons on goals from James Ardelan and Josh Jelenski. Branden Sentes got the Maroons to within one before Cal Filson restored the two goal lead. Evan Meyers scored for the Maroons before the end of the period to get the Maroons back to within one goal. The Maroons have a streak of twenty games (19-0-1) where they have garnered points in regular season games and last season had a knack of coming up with timely goals in the third period…..well they did once again as Daryl Knaus scored on the power play and Tyson Orban scored with less than two minutes left in the game to tie the Arrows. Overtime settled nothing and after ten shooters in overtime Tyson Orban’s goal was the difference. Tyler Kifferling picked up the win for the Maroons and Justin Mrazek was in net for the Arrows. In Raymore the Rockets came back from defeat the evening before to defeat the Cupar Canucks 5-1. Scoring for the Rockets were Tyrell Shulko, Ryan Cruse on the power play, Josh Belair, Shane Baum and Todd MacMurchy. The lone Canuck goal was courtesy of Tyler Stewart on the power play. Cupar had three minor penalties while the Rockets had five minor penalties and one misconduct. Nathan Fischl picked up the win in net for the Rockets while Jamie Wutke was in net for the Canucks. In Wynyard the Monarchs of the north hosted the Monarchs of the south. After two periods this game was knotted at 4. Wynyard’s scoring came from Brett Leffler, Derek Halldorson, Mike Kesserling on the power play and Dale Spelchen. Lumsden ’Monarchs scoring in the first two periods came from Tyson Getzinger, Austin Preete and a pair of goals from Lance Morrison. In the third period Wynyard scored four goals, three of them on the power play. Brett Leffler, Derek Halldorson and Chad Mazurak scored on the power play while Sam Gudnason scored even strength. Final score 8-4 Wynyard. Dave Perkins picked up the win for Wynyard and Jordan Wiest was in net for Lumsden. There were twenty-five minor penalties in this game.

On Tuesday evening the Strasbourg Maroons had a home opener they might want to forget and also had their 21 game streak of getting at least a point stopped (21-0-1). The Cupar Canucks scored four goals in the first four and a half minutes and seven times in total in the first period as they cruised to a 10-3 victory. Canuck scoring came from Eric Heisler, Kyle Ermel, Nolan Huber, Davis Brown, Donovan Chow, Kyle Ross and two goals each from Justin Schulhauser and Adam McPherson. The Maroons scoring was highlighted by the first shorthanded goal of the year scored by Kurtis Decker. Also scoring for the Maroons were Greg Ferguson and Tanner Exner on the power play.

This Friday the Bethune Bulldogs play their first game of the year when they host the Wynyard Monarchs. Other games on Friday include Avonlea @ Cupar and Strasbourg @ Southey. There are two games on Saturday featuring Southey @ Raymore and Lumsden @ Strasbourg.

Slowly we are finishing our website makeover. Soon we will have a live feed from Twitter…Feel free to follow us and you will receive game updates.

http://twitter.com/GeraldT and from our new account http://twitter.com/highwayhockey

Our email address is highwayhockey@gmail.com

Pocket schedules are out. There is lots of hockey to watch, please get out to a game near you and thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League.

 

Gerry Tomkins

President - Highway Hockey League

 

Before the review of opening weekend…a couple of points of interest. The Semans Wheat Kings have officially notified the League that after a one year leave of absence they will be folding the franchise. Our pocket schedules had a slight error on them which has caused a delay but we expect to have them out this weekend in your community. Next month we will be announcing some new trophy names. We are very proud of these trophies, some of which are nearly fifty years old. Some of our trophies have never been named or are named after companies no longer in existence. We are going to add to the trophies that have already been named after honoured members of the HHL community.

We extend our thoughts and prayers to the Beaudry family on the passing of Rob Beaudry who was a member of the Strasbourg Maroons. The Resurrection of Life service was held last Saturday.

The Cupar @ Strasbourg game that was scheduled for Friday, November 9th will now be played on Tuesday, November 20th at 8 p.m.

Our 2012-13 season begins on Friday evening….I have as much information as the Managers have given me as opening rosters are not yet published on our site….Our 2012 Champions, the Avonlea Arrows, begin their season in Lumsden. I haven’t been able to glean a lot of information on the Arrows but to suffice to say we know their modus operandi….be competitive, don’t panic if we lose a few games early, get focused in January and most important win Championship in March. I doubt we’ll see much different from this veteran group.  Chris Prohar is the Coach and he will be assisted by Regan Nelson. I have seen the Lumsden Monarchs in two exhibition games. I see the trio Lance Morrison, Kyle Bradshaw and Jon Kress are back. I also see two former Semans Wheat Kings, Denny Joyal and Matt Sych have joined the team. The core of last year’s team is there and I believe the final roster will show a couple of additions from the Junior C program…Chris Whitteron and Zach Anderson to name two. Casey Lawford has retired as coach and the Monarchs have retained Darrell Haysom as their new Coach. Darrell is a former Lumsden/Bethune Lions Midget AA Coach who was part of the team that went to the Provincial final a few years ago.

The Cupar Canucks are very excited about this year and open up at home against the Wynyard Monarchs on Friday evening. Departures this year include Rhett Reinhardt, Chris Chow and Jordan Morgan. Morgan will be the assistant Coach this year. A couple guys with the name Kyle and with Cupar connections have joined the Canucks….Kyle Ross and Kyle Ermel. Ex-Cougar Adam McPherson has also joined the club this year. Ex-Marlin Shea Van Luven has joined the Canucks along with goalie Colby Miller who played in Carnduff last year. He will join Jamie Wutke to form the Canucks goaltending duo. I believe longtime Highway Hockey league goalie Warren Niekamp has retired. Warren won the GAA trophy last year with Jamie. Manager Cory Haines says this is his last year playing. New Canuck Coach is Bryan McNabb. Wynyard also has some changes this year….most important are departures…Clint Proznik has retired…..and is now a Referee…The Captain, Ryan Peterson is retiring. Ryan has been a great ambassador for the game, for his team and for the League. He is a former winner of the Most Valuable Player local and the Sportsman Award. Ryan is one of those guys that I love to watch simply because he always worked hard and you knew he loved to play….reminds me a bit of Murray Cranch that way. The Monarchs welcome local Brett Leffler. Dave Perkins is back to play goal. Ex-Marlins 2012 All-Star defenceman Chad Mazurak and former League MVP Derek Halldorson have joined the Monarchs as has Dale Spelchen who played with Balcarres last year.

Our third game on Friday night sees Highway 6 rivals Raymore Rockets playing the Southey Marlins in Southey. The Marlins have a massive change to their makeup….departures include Nick Mazurak, Derrick Fox, Mike Nowosad, Dan Morin, Curtis Markewich, Jared Ross, Shea Van Luven, Joey MacDonald, Warren Bashutski, Travis Mohr, Spencer Hoehn and Chad Mazurak. I’d say that is change…an absolute rebuilding year.  As far as additions go…..they had a full bench in Lumsden for an exhibition game and we’ll see what is on the starting roster Friday night. The Rockets have been quiet but my experience tells me that is when they do well….I know the Rockets have picked up two ex-Marlins….Mike Nowasad and Warren Bashutski. Also new is Justin Menke and the Rockets also welcome back Ryan Cruse. Departures include Colin Herman and Kevin Monastyrski.

On Saturday evening Cupar is in Raymore, Lumsden is in Wynyard and 2012 pennant winners, Strasbourg Maroons are in Avonlea to meet the Arrows who defeated them in last year’s League final. The Strasbourg Maroons key departure is HHL multi award winnerNeil Kodman. Kodman won MVP, the Scoring title trophy and was the HHL All-Star Center in 2012. I will update their changes next week.

The Bethune Bulldogs do not begin their season until November 23rd. They will be hosting a rare Friday evening game on that date against the Wynyard Monarchs. They have the bulk of their core players back and I know they have added Joel Kot who was with the U of R Cougars last year and they are welcoming back Ryan Cox who was injured last year. We will tell you a bit more about their roster before their opening night next Friday. The Bulldogs are working with the Bethune Curling Club to present an Aaron Pritchett concert in Bethune Friday evening.

As you are all aware, we are revamping our website. We will endeavor to have everything up in the next week….archives, up to date contact list etc. We will have twitter feeds on our website this year. I will be sending tweets from two accounts on game nights and when there is HHL news to share…..

http://twitter.com/GeraldT and from our new account http://twitter.com/highwayhockey

Barry will be putting all of the registered players up on team pages. Once teams are SHA registered this will be done and like the start of every year there will be lots of additions and maybe a few deletions. Statistics are updated once a week.

To all of our teams…good luck in the new season and please be safe. Thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League. You may contact us at any time via email highwayhockey@gmail.com

 

Gerry Tomkins

President

Highway Hockey League