President's Update/HHL Announcement - January 17th, 2013

It has been a busy week in hockey…..We had three one goal games on Saturday evening. In Bethune, for the second Saturday evening in a row, we went to overtime as Pat Thompson-Gale scored his third goal of the game in overtime to spark the Southey Marlins to their third win in four games 5-4 over the Bulldogs. One of Thompson-Gale’s goals came while shorthanded and he now leads the league with four shorties. Mike Vondoellan and Evan Mohr also scored for the Marlins and both goals came on the power play. Ryan Senft picked up the win in net for the Marlins. Bethune’s scoring came from Mike Reich with two goals….the second goal came on the power play and I still don’t know how he got over Senft’s shoulder. Brent Becker and Travis Holt also scored for the Bulldogs. Harrison Terriann was in net for the Bulldogs. In Wynyard, the Strasbourg Maroons were in their second overtime game is as many nights. On Friday evening they lost in a shootout to the Arrows and on this evening would lose in overtime as Bryan Kauk scored just forty seconds into the overtime frame. Quinn McIntosh gave the Maroons their first lead of the game with just over five minutes left in the game as he scored while the Maroons were shorthanded. Mike Kesserling would score for the Monarchs with just over a minute left when the Monarchs were shorthanded. That would be shorthanded goal number 30 in the HHL this season! Brett Leffler and Aaron Lindal would also score for the Monarchs in this game. Eric Schultz and Tanner Exner also scored for the Maroons. David Perkin would pick up the win in net for the Monarchs and Tyler Kifferling was in net for the Maroons. In Avonlea, the Arrows hung on for a 5-4 victory over the Raymore Rockets. This was the fourth win in a row for the Arrows. The Rockets winning streak of four games came to a halt. The Arrows scored four times in the second period with three of the goals coming on the power play to take a commanding 5-1 lead going into the third period. The Rockets scored three times, including twice on the power play to get within one goal but the Arrows held on to the lead for the last eleven minutes of the third period to preserve the victory. Shay Neufeld, Brendan Vanthuyne and Jared Molnar all scored on the power play for the Arrows. Stuart Holland and Kyle Mader also scored for the Arrows. Justin Mrazek picked up the win in net for Avonlea. The Rockets got power play goals from Justin Menke, Tyrell Shulko and Josh Belair. Cole Bentz also scored for the Rockets and Warren Niekamp was in net for the Rockets.

Friday evening highlights included the second shootout of the season between the Maroons and the Arrows with Stuart Holland providing the shootout winner for the Arrows. The Maroons won a shootout game against the Arrows on November 17^th in Avonlea. The Arrows tied this game up four times in this game and it was James Dombowsky who scored the only goal of the third period to get this game to overtime. Stuart Holland had two goals and an assist for the Arrows in addition to the shootout winner. Jared Molnar and Shay Neufeld (PPG) also scored for the Arrows. Justin Mrazek picked up the win in net for the Arrows. Maroons scoring came from Aaron Decorby with two goals (one PPG) and goals from Greg Ferguson, Branden Sentes and Quinn McIntosh. Tyler Kifferling was in net for the Maroons. In Wynyard, the Bethune Bulldogs scored four times in the third period for a comeback 7-5 victory over the hometown Monarchs. Mike Reich led the way with a hat trick which contained two power play goals and he also had two assists. Reich now has eleven goals in six games played. Derek Fuchs had a shorthanded goal for the Bulldogs. The balance of the Bulldog’s scoring came from Jacob Ulmer, Lucas Ulmer and Jameson MacDougall. Ryan Seibel picked up the win in net for the Bulldogs. The Monarchs were led by Brett Leffler with two goals (one PPG) and an assist. Leffler leads all scorers in the League with eighteen goals. He also is tied for second in power play goals with four. Kyle Ross of the Canucks has six power play goals and leads that category. Leffler is also tied for second in League in shorthanded goals with three. Also scoring for the Monarchs were Donovan Hall, Aaron Lindal and Cody Straker. Jeremy Kwasny was in net for Wynyard. In Cupar, the Canucks continued to roll with their twelfth victory in a row with a 7-3 victory over the Southey Marlins. The Canucks scored four times in the third period in route to their win. Tyler Stewart led the way for the Canucks with a hat trick. Kyle Ross and Kyle Ermel each had two goals (one PPG each) and an assist. Colby Miller picked up the win in net and leads all goalies with a 2.75 GAA. He is 4-0-0 on the season. Marlins scoring came from Tom Thompson-Gale, Mike Vondoellan and a power play goal from Elliot Hubick. Ryan Senft was in net for the Marlins. There were nineteen minor penalties in this game along with two misconducts. In Lumsden the Raymore Rockets scored twice early in the game and went on to defeat the Lumsden Monarchs 7-3. Brett Kuglin had two goals, including a shorthanded goal, and Josh Jordan scored twice to lead the way for the Rockets. Other Rockets scoring came from Tyrell Shulko with a power play goal, Josh Belair and Justin Menke. Warren Niekamp picked up the win in net for the Rockets. Lumsden scoring came from Tyson Getzinger, Lance Morrison and Austin Preete. Trevor Thiessen started the game in net for the Monarchs and Jordan Wiest finished the game in net.

On Tuesday evening in Southey our defending League champion  Avonlea Arrows won their fifth game in January and their fifth game in a row…where have we seen this script before and right on cue? The Arrows controlled this game throughout and started early with goals from James Ardelan, Josh Jelinski and Calvin Watson in the first five minutes of the game and went on to a 7-3 victory. Watson would score his second goal of the game in the second period. Shay Neufeld would score twice and Jared Molnar would also score to complete the Arrows scoring. Justin Mrazek, our 2012 HHL All Star goalie and current minutes played leader, would pick up the win in net for the Arrows. Pat Thompson-Gale continued his great play for the Marlins with two goals including a power play goal. Terrance Marion also scored for the Marlins. Mitch Robinson was in net for the Marlins.

The Provincial schedules are now out. In provincial ‘A’ we have three HHL teams and three LLHL teams playing each other and they have nine days to play their series in round one…nine days….we have a Provincials tab with the listing of all of our teams and the series that they are involved with. We are striving to keep League games intact…please watch the “Upcoming Games” box for any changes.  We know the Cupar @ Wynyard January 26th game must be moved to accomodate Provincials. Both Nokomis and Cupar have a three game weekend coming up and the first game of their series starts on Sunday in Cupar at 5 p.m. The Strasbourg Maroons start their series with LeRoy on Sunday at 7 p.m. in LeRoy. Wynyard and Lanigan are playing in the other Round one ‘A’ series and game one of that series is on Monday at 8 p.m. in Lanigan. Both of these teams could also end up in a three game weekend next week if a game three is required. In Provincial ‘D’ the Bethune Bulldogs start their series with Holdfast on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. in Holdfast. The rest of our teams…Avonlea in ‘D’ (vs. Frontier), Southey in ‘C’ (vs. Langenburg), Raymore in ‘A’ (vs. Balcarres) and Lumsden in ‘A’ (vs. Arcola-Kisbey)…start their series at the end of the month. I will tweet whatever information I get from the Provincial games and will post all scores on the Provincials page.

On Friday evening, The Lumsden Monarchs (0-14-0) are in Avonlea to play the third place Arrows (8-6-1)…the Cupar Canucks (13-1-0) are in Raymore to play the Rockets (7-6-1). The Rockets are the only team to have defeated the Canucks and that happened in Raymore on November 17^th….the Wynyard Monarchs (10-3-1) are in Southey to play the Marlins (5-8-1). On Saturday evening the Lumsden Monarchs will be hosting the Avonlea Arrows on Wall of Fame Night. This year the Monarchs are honoring Terry Matlock, Bob Lawson and Bill Yeo. They will be introduced during period break and there is a steak night prior to the game at the Lumsden Hotel and tickets are just $20. In Cupar the Canucks are hosting the Southey Marlins. As per the announcement at the end of this President’s Update, the League’s scoring trophy is being renamed in honour of Tyson Sievert and this evening is the Tyson Sievert Memorial Game and Tribute. In Strasbourg, The Maroons (6-5-3) are hosting the Bethune Bulldogs (7-4-2) and in Raymore the Rockets will be playing the Wynyard Monarchs.

This is a great time of the year for senior hockey as playoffs near in League and Provincials begin. For the best in senior hockey action, please get out to see a game near you. Thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League.

Gerry Tomkins

President - HHL

I will be sending tweets from two accounts on game nights and when there is HHL news to share…..as long as I keep getting updates….all of our recent tweets can be found at the bottom of our web pages.

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

January 14^th, 2013 - HIGHWAY HOCKEY LEAGUE Announcement:

As announced at the start of the season, the Highway Hockey League will be changing the name of some Awards trophies that do not presently have a formal name or that have a name of a commercial sponsor that may no longer be sponsoring a trophy with their name on the trophy. It is my pleasure to announce that beginning this year we have three trophies that we are proud to be renaming.

Our Championship Trophy, in existence since 1966, will now be named the Robert Schultz HHL Championship Trophy. Robert was involved in many capacities with the Strasbourg Maroons, including both Coach and Manager. Our plan is to unveil this updated trophy at a Maroon game prior to the end of the season. We thank the Schultz family for their support.

Our Coach of The Year Trophy will now be named the Lynwood Miller Coach of the Year Trophy. Lynwood was a longtime volunteer and booster with the Avonlea Arrows. Our plan is to unveil this updated trophy at an Arrows game prior to the end of the season. We thank the Miller family for their support.

Our Scoring Champion Trophy will now be named the Tyson Sievert HHL Scoring Champion Trophy. Tyson played in our League with the Cupar Canucks and prior to being a Canuck he played with the Southey Marlins. This updated trophy will be introduced this Saturday evening in Cupar in a game against the Southey Marlins. We thank the Sievert family for their support.

When our 2012-2013 Awards are presented this year, we talk about each individual that has their name on a trophy. We will also be announcing plans regarding the four trophies left that we plan to rename.