President's Update - February 26th, 2013

Highway Hockey League Semi-Finals set

The Bethune Bulldogs defeated the Raymore Rockets on Wednesday evening and will now face the Wynyard Monarchs with game one happening this Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in Wynyard. The Strasbourg Maroons will face the Cupar Canucks in the other semi-final with game one set for Cupar at 8 p.m. on Sunday. Semi-Finals preview and Quarter-finals wrap up will be posted before the weekend.

Provincials Update:

Provincial ‘A’

The Cupar Canucks defeated Balcarres 5-4 on Friday evening and have moved on to the Provincial ‘A’ semi-final against the Lumsden Monarchs. The Monarchs defeated Midale 4-2 on Friday evening in Lumsden and then won the series on Sunday evening with a 6-3 victory.  The Wynyard Monarchs had two late goals on Saturday evening and pulled out a 6-5 come from behind victory against Rosthern to force a game three on Sunday afternoon in Wynyard. In game three, the Monarchs led 1-0 after one period, were down 3-1 after two periods and scored four times in the third period to pull out a 5-3 victory. The Monarchs will now play the Bruno T-Birds in the other semi-final.

Provincial ‘C’

The Southey Marlins season has come to an end. They were defeated 10-1 in Radville on Saturday evening. Radville won the two game total point series 17-5.

Provincial ‘D’

The Avonlea Arrows defeated the Craik Warriors 7-4 in Avonlea on Saturday evening and 4-3 in Craik on Sunday to take their two game total point series 11-7. The Arrows will now face the Bethune Bulldogs. The Bulldogs defeated the Odessa Bruins 8-1 on Sunday afternoon in Bethune and won their two game total points series 11-4.

We will have all new series posted just as soon as we have confirmation of times…keep posted and congratulations to our teams that have advanced in Provincial play.

HHL Playoffs update......

Raymore versus Bethune:

The Raymore Rockets won both of the first two games of this series in Bethune to take a 2-0 lead in this series. The Bethune Bulldogs won 8-5 on Friday evening to make this series 2-1 for the Rockets. In game one the Rockets easily defeated the Bulldogs 10-3. Josh Jordan had a hat trick and two assists, Ryan Cruse had two power play goals and Dallas Thiessen scored twice. Also scoring for the Rockets were Warren Bashutski, Todd MacMurchy and Tyrell Shulko. Shulko also had six assists in this game. Bulldogs scoring came from Derek Fuchs with two goals and Jeremy Forbes. Nathan Fischl picked up the win in net for the Rockets. The Bulldogs lost their goalie Ryan Seibel to a season ending shoulder injury early in the third period. Game two went into double overtime. The Bulldogs were in the lead or tied with the Rockets throughout this game until Dallas Thiessen scored three minutes into the second overtime frame to give the Rockets the 5-4 victory. Byron Horvath had two goals for the Rockets while Cole Bentz and Ryan Cruse scored on the power play. Nathan Fischl was very busy in the Rockets net with over 60 shots on him and picked up the victory. The Bulldogs scoring came from Lucas Ulmer, Derek Fuchs, Dustin McAngus and a power play goal from Brent Becker. Troy Moltz was in the net for the Bulldogs and faced 50 shots from the Rockets. The Rockets took eight minor penalties in this game and the Bulldogs had four. Game three is Raymore saw the Bulldogs outshoot the Rockets 42-25 on their way to an 8-5 victory. Derek Fuchs led the way with 3 goals. Lucas Ulmer and Mike Reich (1 PPG) each had two goals while Brent Becker and Dustin MacAngus (PPG) also scored. Todd MacMurchy had two goals (1-PPG) and Josh Jordan (PPG), Cole Bentz (PPG) and Brett Kuglin also scored. Evan Peterson picked up the win in net for the Bulldogs. Nathan Fischl was in net for the Rockets. Fischl has faced 103 shots in his last two games against Bethune. The Bulldogs had ten minor penalties and the Rockets had eight and a misconduct. Update....Bethune wins game four 11-3...game five Wednesday evening in Bethune.

Strasbourg versus Avonlea:

There was another overtime game in Avonlea, this one being the third this year against Strasbourg in Avonlea. Quinn McIntosh scored eight minutes into overtime to give the Strasbourg Maroons a 4-3 victory in game one. Aaron Decorby and Tanner Exner scored in the first period to give the Maroons a 2-0 lead after one period. Lonny Forrester scored early in the second period for the Arrows but Decorby would score his second goal of the game a minute after the Arrow’s goal. Leading 3-1 in the third period, James Dombowsky scored twelve minutes in to the third period and then Mark Jelinski would score with 1:38 left in the period to put this game into overtime. Tyler Kifferling picked up the win in net for the Maroons. The Maroons had three minor penalties and the Arrows had two. These two teams led the league with fewest penalty minutes during the regular season. Game two the next evening in Strasbourg saw the Maroons beat the Arrows 8-4 despite being outshot in this game. Josh Jelinski scored twice (one PPG) in the first period and Lonny Forrester score a shorthanded goal to give the Arrows a 3-1 lead going into the second period.  Brady Heintz scored the Maroons lone goal in the first and then goals by Quinn McIntosh and Greg Ferguson would tie this game after two periods. The third period was all Maroons as Ferguson would score two more goals, McIntosh and Heintz would get their second goal of the game and Tyson Orban would score. Kifferling picked up his second win of the playoffs in net. There were penalties in this game as the Maroons had eight minor penalties, a major penalty, a game misconduct and two misconducts. The Arrows had four minor penalties, a major penalty and a game misconduct. Game three was played in Avonlea on Wednesday evening with the Arrows getting back into the series with a 5-2 victory. The Arrows had a 4-0 lead in this game after two periods. Shay Neufeld had two power play goals and Calvin Watson had a power play goal. The Arrows had three power play opportunities in this game and scored on each opportunity.  Jared Molnar and James Ardelan scored for the Arrows to round out the scoring. Eric Schultz and Tanner Exner scored for the Maroons. Justin Mrazek picked up the win in net for the Arrows. Update....Strasbourg wins game four 5-4 in double overtime and advance to semi-finals....details to come.

Cupar Canucks versus Lumsden Monarchs

The Canucks won game one in Cupar 9-4. Six goals in the second period did it for the Canucks. Kyle Ermel had a natural hat trick and two power play goals in this game which was part of his four goals that he scored. Kyle Ross had a power play goal and six assists. Other Cupar scoring came from Tyler Stewart, Ryan Bahan, Davis Brown (PPG) and Justin Schulhauser.  Jamie Wutke picked up the win in net for the Canucks. Lumsden scoring came from Jon Kress with two goals, Chris Whitteron and Tyson Getzinger. On Wednesday evening, Jon Kress scored one minute into the first period and the Monarchs would never relinquish the lead from that point on…however….the Canucks would tie this game four times before Denny Joyal scored his second goal of the evening in overtime to give the Monarchs a 5-4 victory. Austin Preete and Jesse Matlock with a power play goal rounded out the scoring for the Monarchs. Jordan Wiest had 43 shots to handle on his way to his first win of the year. Justin Bernhardt scored twice in this game including the goal that put  this game into overtime. Jaret Eberle scored on the power play and Jordan Pratt picked up a goal. Jamie Wutke faced 46 shots in this game. On Saturday evening the Cupar Canucks defeated the Monarchs 9-4. Goals by Brett Matlock, Tyson Getzinger and Brady Aulie put the Monarchs in front of the Canucks 3-2 after one period. In the second period the Canucks found their stride. Kyle Ross scored two shorthanded goals and a power play goal for a natural hat trick to give the Canucks a 5-3 lead. Ross also had four assists in this game to give him seven points for the game. Davis Brown (1-PPG) and Justin Bernhardt each scored twice and Cory Haines and Justin Schulhauser also scored. Lumsden's other goal came from Steve Eberts. Jamie Wutke picked up the win in net for the Canucks and both Jordan Wiest and Trevor Thiessen played in net for the Monarchs. Update....Cupar wins game four 5-2 and advance to semi-finals....details to come.

Wynyard versus Southey:

The Wynyard Monarchs have defeated the Southey Marlins in three straight games to advance to the semi-finals. Combined with regular season play, the Monarchs won 7 games against the Marlins this year. Game one was an 8-1 victory with Brett Leffler leading the way with a hat trick (one PPG).Derek Halldorson had two goals one PPG) and Chad Mazurak, Mike Anderson and Aaron Lindal (PPG) scored the rest of the goals for the Monarchs. Jeremy Kwasny picked up the win in net. Game two saw the Monarchs win 9-5 and also saw Leffler with a goal along with three assists. Bryan Kauk had four goals (one PPG). The balance of the scoring came from Mike Kesserling, Eric Popadynec, Derek Halldorson and Dale Spelchen. Nick Davis led the way for the Marlins with two power play goals. The Marlins other goals came from Joseph Bergen, Shay Wirll and Dylan Mohr. David Perkin picked up the win for the Monarchs in net. Game three on Wednesday evening saw the Monarchs win 7-3. Donovan Hall led the way with a hat trick (2 PPG’s). Aaron Lindal scored twice and had two assists. Eric Popadynec and Chad Mazurak also scored. The Marlins scoring came from Pat Thompson-Gale, Shay Wirll and Mac Hubick. All of the Monarchs scoring came on the power play. The Monarchs had fourteen minor penalties and the Marlins had seven. Jeremy Kwasny picked up his second playoff victory in net.

Cupar's Kyle Ross has 4 goals and 12 assists in three games and leads the Playoff scoring race. Teammate Kyle Ermel has 4 goals and 6 assists and is in second place. Wynyard's Brett Leffler has 4 goals and 5 assists and is in third. The Bulldog's Derek Fuchs leads all scorers with 6 goals in three games. Jeremy Kwasny leads all goalies with a 2.00 GAA and two wins. Statistics from the playoffs are under our “Statistics” tab at the top of the page. All upcoming Provincial and HHL Playoff games are listed on the left side of this page. HHL boxscores from playoffs are listed under the "schedule tab" up top and full Provincial results are listed under the "Provincials" tab. It's the best time of the year for hockey, please get out to a game near you and thank you for supporting the Highway Hockey League.

Gerry Tomkins

HHL President

Keep current on HHL games and HHL teams playing in Provincials on Twitter by using either or both of the following accounts…

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