President's Update January 23rd, 2013

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This weekend sees six Provincial games beginning on Thursday evening. There is a possibility of three more games, depending on earlier weekend results, and those would be played by Monday evening. On Thursday evening, the Bethune Bulldogs will be in Holdfast for game one of their two game total point Provincial ‘D’ series. On Friday evening, the Lumsden Monarchs will be in Arcola to play the Combines in game one of their best of three Provincial ‘A’ series beginning at 8:30 p.m. Also on Friday evening at 8:30 p.m., Southey hosts Langenburg in game one of their two game total point Provincial ‘C’ series.  On Saturday evening, Cupar will be in Nokomis for game two of their Provincial ‘A’ series. Cupar won the first game last Sunday 3-2. Also on Saturday evening, the Wynyard Monarchs play host to the Lanigan Pirates. The Pirates defeated the Monarchs 3-2 this past Monday in game one of their series. On Sunday evening at 7 p.m. in Strasbourg, the Maroons will play game two of their series with LeRoy. LeRoy won game one 5-2. If a third game is required it will be played on Monday in LeRoy at 8 p.m. If another game is required in the Nokomis/Cupar series it will be played Sunday in Cupar at 5 p.m. If another game is required in the Lanigan/Wynyard series it will be played on Sunday in Lanigan at 8 p.m.

We have moved two League games from the schedule this weekend. The Lumsden @ Strasbourg game slated for Saturday evening has been moved to Wednesday, February 6^th at 8 p.m. and the Cupar @ Wynyard game from Saturday evening will now be played on Wednesday, January 30^th at 8:30 p.m. Our schedule is kept current on our website. Please check the Schedule tab for the balance of this year’s schedule. All games upcoming are posted on our front page. On Friday evening the Raymore Rockets (7-8-1) will be in Wynyard (12-3-1) and the Avonlea Arrows (10-6-1) will be in Strasbourg (6-6-3). On Saturday evening we have one game as Raymore will be in Bethune to play the Bulldogs.

Highlights from this past weekend….beginning with Friday evening…..

On Friday evening Jaret Eberle had a hat trick (1 PPG), Justin Bernhardt and Kyle Ermel (1 PPG) each scored twice and Donovan Chow and Shea Van Luven each had a goal in the Canuck’s 9-0 win over the Raymore Rockets. Jamie Wutke picked up the shutout in the Canuck goal. Dale Hachkewich was given a match penalty in this game and was assessed a three game suspension.

In Avonlea the Arrows had a 2-1 lead over the Lumsden Monarchs at the halfway point of the game and pulled away in the second half with six unanswered goals to defeat the Monarchs 8-1. The Arrows got a hat trick and two assists from Lonny Forrester, two goals from James Ardelan and goals from James Dombowsky, Shay Neufeld and Levi Beingessner. Justin Mrazek picked up the win in net for the Arrows. There were only seven minor penalties in this game and there were no power play goals.

In Southey, the Marlins scored first on a goal from Shay Wirll and Pat Thompson-Gale had a natural hat trick that followed that goal however the Wynyard Monarchs got scoring from seven different players in a 10-4 victory over the Marlins. Brett Leffler (one PPG) and Brian Kauk each had two goals and four assists while Chad Mazurak had two goals and two assists. Derek Halldorson had a goal and six assists. The rest of the Monarch’s scoring came from Cody Straker (PPG), Mike Anderson (PPG) and Jordan Karakochuk. David Perkin picked up the win in net for the Monarchs. Southey had seven minor penalties and one fighting major while the Monarchs had six minor penalties and one fighting major with all but one of their penalties coming in the third period. Dale Spelchen received an Instigator penalty and received a one game suspension.

Saturday evening highlights….

In Lumsden it was Wall of Fame night. Congratulations to Bob Lawson (played from 1964 to 1983….played 435 games scored 375 goals and had 346 assists for 721 points), Bill Yeo (played from 1942- 1968) and Terry Matlock (1971-1989 played 524 games and scored 308 goals and had 373 assists for 681 points) on your induction. This was a good game and although the Monarchs may be sick of hearing about moral victories, they played well against one of the hottest teams in the league that rode a six game win streak into Lumsden. Gavin Mievre (PPG) and Calvin Watson scored for Avonlea and Jon Kress (PPG) scored for the Monarchs as the Arrows carried a 2-1 lead into the second period. Shay Neufeld would score late in the second period to give the Arrows a 3-1 lead.  Lumsden had plenty of chances to get back in this game in the third and scored on the power play with twenty seconds left but great goaltending by Justin Mrazek kept the Arrows on track with their seventh straight victory. Trevor Thiessen was in net for the Monarchs. In Cupar we had the Tyson Sievert Memorial game and Tribute. Prior to the game the League presented the renamed Tyson Sievert HHL Scoring leader Trophy, the Canucks presented Dale and Jackie Sievert Tyson’s Canucks jersey, the Cupar Lions Club presented a cheque for KidSport, a defibrillator was donated to the rink on behalf of the Sievert family in memory of Tyson and the Southey Marlins presented a cheque for KidSport. At the top of the page we have a picture of Dale and Jackie along with Cupar Canuck Captain Tyler Stewart, Ryan Bahan and Manager Cory Haines. The game itself looked like it was over as Cupar had a 4-0 lead after one period with goals from Kyle Ross, Tyler Stewart, Davis Brown (PPG) and Devin Stecyk. The Canucks led 6-3 after two periods as Justin Schulhauser and Ryan Bahan scored while Elliot Hubick (PPG), Evan Mohr and Terrance Marion scored for the Marlins. The Marlins charged back and tied this game at seven as they outscored the Canucks 4 -1 in the first six minutes of the third period.  Elliot Hubick scored his second goal and for the second evening in a row Pat Thompson-Gale had a hat trick. Thompson-Gale scored three goals in four minutes and twenty-two seconds. Ryan Gebhardt would break the tie with just over eleven minutes left in the game and  Tyler Stewart would score his second goal of the game on the power play with six minutes left to make the final 9-7 Canucks. Colby Miller picked up the win in net for the Canucks and Mitch Robinson was in net for the Marlins. In Strasbourg the Bethune Bulldogs scored early and went on to a 8-3 victory over the hometown Maroons. Dustin McAngus had two goals (one SHG) and three assists, Lucas Ulmer had a goal and four assists and the rest of their scoring came from Ryan Fishley, Jacob Ulmer, Derek Fuchs, Mike Reich and Tim Weber. Scoring for Strasbourg were Aaron Decorby, Evan Meyers and Greg Ferguson (PPG). Ryan Seibel picked up the win in net for the Bulldogs and Tyler Kifferling was in net for the Maroons. Strasbourg had three minor penalties and Bethune had four. On Saturday afternoon, The Wynyard Monarchs defeated the Raymore Rockets 7-5 in Raymore. This game was tied 3-3 after one period.  It was 6-4 for Wynyard after two periods and each team scored once in the third period. Jeremy Kwasny picked up the win in net for the Monarchs and Warren Niekamp was in net for the Rockets. Monarchs scoring came from Chad Mazurak with two goals (one PPG), Cody Straker, Joey MacDonald (PPG), Derek Halldorson (SHG), Brett Leffler and Mike Anderson. Bryan Kauk had three assists.  Raymore got their goals from Josh Belair, Brett Kuglin (PPG), Tyrell Shulko, Warren Bashutski (PPG) and Todd MacMurchy. Raymore had ten minor penalties and Wynyard had eleven.

On Tuesday evening the Cupar Canucks defeated the Bethune Bulldogs 9-4. Cupar powered their way to a 6-1 first period lead on goals from Justin Schulhauser, Ryan Bahan, Justin Bernhardt and power play goals from Shea Van Luven and Jaret Eberle. Mike Reich scored Bethune’s lone goal in the first period. In the second period Tyler Stewart scored on the power play before Jacob Ulmer and Brent Becker (PPG) responded for the Bulldogs. In the third period Justin Bernhardt scored on the power play and Ryan Bahan scored his second goal for the Canucks. Bethune’s only goal in the third period came from Jameson MacDougall on the power play. Jamie Wutke picked up the win in net for the Canucks while Ryan Seibel was I net for the Bulldogs. Bethune had ten minor penalties and Cupar had nine.

Brett Leffler from Wynyard now leads the scoring race with 21 goals and 22 assists and he has a seven point lead on teammate Bryan Kauk who has 13 goals and 23 assists. Kyle Ross from Cupar is next with 35 points. Watch out for Pat Thompson-Gale who now is in fifth place with 21 goals and 11 assists. Thompson-Gale and Leffler lead the league with 21 goals each. Our goalies saw their averages go up on the weekend…Nathan Fischl from Raymore is expected back in action soon and leads the league with a 3.05 GAA in five games played. Avonlea’s Justin Mrazek leads the league in minutes played with 1035 minutes and Mrazek and Jamie Wutke from Cupar lead the league with ten wins each.

Please get out to a game near you…lots of Provincial games to go to and just over two weeks left until the regular season ends. Thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League.

Gerry Tomkins - HHL President

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