President's Update March 25th, 2013

HHL Awards Dinner

Southey Rink - Monday, April 1^st

Mingle -   6-7

Dinner -   7-8

Awards  - 8-9

Tickets - $15

For information or tickets contact your local Manager or Pete Hubick 306-726-2999

Cupar Canucks 2013 HHL Champions!

Cupar Canucks 2013 Provincial Senior 'A' Champions!

The Cupar Canucks defeated the Wynyard Monarchs 7-3 Friday evening in Cupar to claim the 2013 Highway Hockey League Championship,.

The Cupar Canucks defeated the Wynyard Monarchs 7-3 on Friday evening to claim their first HHL championship since 1996. There was a good pace in the first period and Wynyard at one point had outshot Cupar 10-2. 6:35 in Brett Leffler fired a puck over Wutke’s shoulder and the Monarchs took the early lead. Eight minutes later Kyle Ross passed the puck to Kyle Ermel from behind the net and Ermel made no mistake and this game was tied. The first penalty of the game was called fifteen minutes in against the Monarchs and Tyler Stewart would score to put the Canucks up 2-1. With just over a minute left in the period, it was another Ross to Ermel play, a perfect pass and again Ermel made no mistake with his shot and it was 3-1 for the Canucks after one period. The Canucks killed off the balance of a penalty early in the second but just after that kill Mike Kesslering would fire in a goal on Wutke’s left side. This goal was set up by an excellent pass from Dale Spelchen and it was 3-2. Every time it seemed Wynyard was back on track Cupar would answer and Justin Bernhardt did that just two minutes later and it was 5-2 Cupar. Kyle Ermel would jump on a rebound and score and he would have a hat trick and would give Cupar a 5-2 lead with twelve minutes left in the second period.  The Monarchs had a string of power plays in the second period and a shot from inside the blue line from Chad Mazurak with seven minutes left on one of those power plays would get the Monarchs to within two goals. Again the Canucks would respond with just over three minutes left in the second period on a nice play as Ryan Bahan would score from Stewart and Eberle. The period would end 6-3….and it would stay that way until an empty net goal late in the period from Kyle Ermel which was his fourth goal of the game. Kyle Ross would finish the game with 4 assists and Justin Bernhardt had a goal and 4 assists..

This was the Canuck’s third championship in the HHL. The Canucks went through the playoffs with just one loss and that came in their first round series with Lumsden. In Provincials they have only lost two games and one of them was against these same Monarchs in game one of the Provincial ‘A’ final, The Monarchs will go after a Provincial title on Saturday evening in Cupar. Should the Canucks win on Saturday evening, game three will be Sunday afternoon in Wynyard.

 Congratulations to both of these teams. Both have had excellent seasons in League and Provincials. As of Saturday evening these two teams will have met five times in seven days and nine times this season. They could end up playing six times in eight days. This is excellent senior hockey and if you get an opportunity to watch on Saturday evening and possibly Sunday afternoon, do it.

Final Statistics, end of the year wrap up and more information on this year’s awards dinner in Southey on Monday, April 1^st will be on our site by Monday.

*****Cupar Canucks Provincial 'A' Champions*****

The Cupar Canucks defeated the Wynyard Monarchs 4-1 Sunday afternoon to claim the 2013 Provincial 'A' Championship.

More details of game to follow....

HHL Final (Robert Schultz HHL Championship Trophy)...Game Three Friday evening in Cupar

***Update – GAME TWO…*** Shea Van Luven scored at the 11:44 mark of the third period to break a 3-3 tie and the Cupar Canucks went on to defeat the Wynyard Monarchs 5-3 on Wednesday evening. Kyle Ross scored one minute into the first period to give Cupar their first lead of the evening. Bryan Kauk scored to tie this game and then late in the first period Shea Van Luven scored on the power play to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead. Very late in the period Dale Spelchen scored for the Monarchs and the teams were tied at 2 going into the second period.  In the second period Donovan Hall would give the Monarchs their first lead of the game as he scored on the power play.  Kyle Ross would score on the power play three minutes later and this game was tied again. There was no scoring the rest of the second period and Van Luven’s second goal of the game midway through the third period would end up the game winner. Justin Bernhardt scored an empty net goal to make the final 5-3 for the Canucks. Cupar goalie Jamie Wutke picked up his eighth win of the playoffs and Dave Perkin was in net for the Monarchs. Each team had ten minor penalties. Game three of this series is Friday evening in Cupar.

***Update – GAME ONE…***

 The Cupar Canucks claimed game one of the HHL best of five Championship series with a 4-2 victory over the Wynyard Monarchs in Cupar on Tuesday evening. There was no score after one period….Cupar outshot Wynyard 23-8 and each team had one penalty. In the second period Tyler Stewart scored to put the Canucks up 1-0 and three minutes later he added a power play goal to make the score 2-0. Brett Leffler would score quickly after Stewart’s second goal but just 31 seconds later Kyle Ross would score his fifth shorthanded goal of the playoffs to put the Canucks up 3-1 after two periods. In the third period, Brett Leffler scored his second goal of the game at the 8:30 mark to get the Monarchs within one. Kyle Ermel would score with five minutes left in the third period to put the Canucks up 4-2. There were plenty of chances for scoring on power play in the third period but that didn’t happen. There was a game misconduct taken by Cody Straker late in the game which resulted in a one game suspension which will be served in game two on Wednesday. Jamie Wutke picked up his seventh win of the playoffs in net for the Canucks. Dave Perkin had a very busy night in net for the Monarchs. Cupar took 14 minor penalties and one misconduct and Wynyard had 16 minor penalties, 1 major penalty, 1 misconduct and a game misconduct. Game two is Wednesday evening in Wynyard.

The Wynyard Monarchs advanced to the League final last Friday evening with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Bethune Bulldogs in Wynyard. A power play goal from Brett Leffler got the Monarchs into the lead 1-0 after one period. In the second period Mike Reich got the first of three goals he would score in this game. This first goal came while the Bulldogs were shorthanded and tied this game...however...Aaron Lindal scored sixteen seconds later on the power play to restore the lead for the Monarchs. Reich would then notch his second goal half way through the second period on the power play. The Monarchs would score their third power play goal of the game with two seconds left in the second period as Donovan Hall would score.  Just two minutes into the third period, Reich would pick up his third goal and the score remained 3-3 until the end of the third period. Wynyard would kill of a penalty early in the overtime frame and then Bryan Kauk scored 5:48 into overtime to secure the win for Wynyard. Dave Perkin picked up the win in net for the Monarchs and Ryan Seibel was in net for the Bulldogs. There were 23 minor penalties and three misconducts in this game.

Next up for the Monarchs are the Cupar Canucks….and they will play them many times as the Monarchs are playing the Canucks in the Provincial ‘A’ final as well.  The Canucks and Monarchs played each other four times in League play with each team winning their home games. Game one of this series is Tuesday evening in Cupar with game two happening on Wednesday evening in Wynyard and game three in Cupar Friday evening.

In Provincial play, the Wynyard Monarchs won game one of their series with Cupar in Wynyard on Sunday afternoon with a 3-2 victory.  Mike Anderson scored on the power play in the first period to give the hometown Monarchs a 1-0 lead after one period. Early in the second period Kyle Ross scored for the Canucks and then Tyler Stewart scored on the power play to give the Canucks their first lead of the game. In the third period Eric Popadynec scored to tie this game and then with four minutes left in the game Mike Kesserling scored shorthanded and the final score was 3-2. Game two of this Provincial series is Saturday evening in Cupar. If a game three is required it will be played in Wynyard on Sunday.

Congratulations to the Drake Canucks who defeated the Avonlea Arrows 5-1 on Friday evening in Drake and then 4-1 on Sunday afternoon in Avonlea to claim the Provincial ‘D’ title.

Here are the All Star selections for 2012-13 season that are being voted on by the teams in our League:

Statistics for the playoffs, Championship schedule and Provincial schedule are all available on tabs on our home page. There is a still lot of hockey to get out and see…please keep your eyes on our upcoming schedule and we will see you at the rink.

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