SJHL Saturday Roundup!

The home openers were held in six different centres last night which saw the home teams win four of the six games.

In Weyburn, the Wings rode a strong performance by goaltender Kyle McConnell, to skate away with the 2-1 victory in front of 1086 mostly happy people. Preston Shupe and Craig Cornelsen both scored their first goals of the season for the Wings. Scott Doody, Ethan Gardner, Joel Langevin and Kyle Haines chipped in with assists. Evan Neibrandt scored his first SJHL goal for the Terriers with Stephen Martinuk and Greg Coburn getting the assists. McConnell made 28 of 29 saves for the Wings, many of which were of the spectacular variety. Mark Currie played a strong game for the Terriers as he battles Lynden Sammartino for playing time. Currie stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced.

In Wilcox, the Humboldt Broncos stole the show away from the home crew as they defeated the Notre Dame Hounds 4-2. Jordan Schindel paced the Broncos with a goal and an assist. Laurent Benjamin, Steven Schroeder and Evan Bryksa also scored for the Broncos while Russell Nielsen chipped in with a pair of assists. Travis Montgomery and Cody Mapes scored for the Hounds while Rylan Schwartz had two assists. Rookie Andrew Bodnarchuk was sharp in the Broncos goal turning aside 28 of the 30 shots he faced. Antoine Desrosiers allowed 4 goals on 37 shots for the Hounds.

The Bruins faithful went home unsatisfied Saturday night as there team fell 6-3 to the Melville Millionaires to drop to 0-2 for the season. Brad Johnston had a goal and two assists to lead the Millionaires. Daniel Hope and Dion Campbell each added two goals while Shane Stanicky also scored for the Mils. Bryant Dyke, Jarret Fisher and Curtis Beech each added two assists for Melville. Kyle Stroh scored twice for the Bruins with Kyle Ermel adding a single. Travis Bosch made his first SJHL start for the Mils stopping 33 of the 36 shots he faced. Guillaume Perusse had an off night for the Bruins as he made only 19 saves.

It was blowout night in Kindersley as the Klippers throttled the Battlefords North Stars 12-3. There were numerous multi-point players for the Klippers. Jonathan Redlick led the way has he scored 3 goals while adding an assist. Matt Sawa had two goals and two assists while Ben Ritchie had a goal and three assists. Defenseman Milo Miller also had a goal and three assists. Brett Leedahl added a goal and two assists for the Klippers. Also having multi-point games for Kindersley were Ryan Sawka, Travis Eggum, Jerrett Bicknell, Casey Rempel, Kirk Pearce and Jeremy Beller. Ricky Cey had a goal and an assist for the Stars who also got singles from Tyrell Schulko and Jesse Lebreton. Ryan Nieszner stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced for the Klippers. Poor Adrien Lemay had to spend the entire game for the Stars and allowed the 12 goals on 39 shots. It should be noted that the Klippers scored five unanswered goals in the final five minutes of the game.

The Melfort Mustangs rebounded from a loss in Flin Flon on Friday to defeat those same Bombers 4-1 on Saturday night. John Payne, Kyle Fraser and Tommy Brown each had a goal and an assist for the Mustangs. Clint Olson added a goal. Reid MacLeod had the lone goal for the Bombers. David Ritz was not kept to busy on this night as he only was forced to make 17 saves on 18 shots. Carsen Chubak had his first SJHL start for the Bombers and stopped 22 of the 26 shots he faced.

The Nipawin Hawks also won their home opener as they battled the La Ronge Ice Wolves and won 3-2. Regean Carriere scored twice for the Hawks including adding the game winner with less than five minutes to play. Adam Schwark also scored for Nipawin while Steve Mason and Torrie Dyck chipped in with two assists each. Everette Lerner had a goal and an assist for the Wolves. Adam Moar also scored for La Ronge. Derek Kleinsteuber made 33 saves for the Hawks in the victory. Jonathan Jobin was sharp at the other end as he had to make 38 saves on 41 shots.

Saturday's Three Stars:

1. Jonathan Redlick - Kindersley Klippers (3 G, 1A)
2. Brad Johnston - Melville Millionaires (1G, 2A)
3. Milo Miller - Kindersley Klippers (1 G, 3A)

Honorable Mentions: Kyle McConnell (Weyburn), John Payne (Melfort), Regean Carriere (Nipawin), Daniel Hope (Melville), Andrew Bodnarchuk (Humboldt)

If I was the guy to pick the SJHL players of the week - my picks would be:

Player of the Week - Ryan Sawka - Kindersley Klippers
Defenseman of the Week - Milo Miller - Kindersley Klippers
Goalie of the Week - Jonathan Jobin - La Ronge Ice Wolves

After writing that I decided to go and see who the actual winners were and I must say I was fairly close.

Player - Dion Campbell - Melville Millionaires
Defense - Miller
Goal - Jobin

I did disagree with the fact that Kyle McConnell did not even receive an honarable mention for his performance this weekend after going 2-0 and looking exceptionally strong in a 2-1 win on Saturday.

Next action for the Wings is Tuesday night as they head out to Humboldt to face the Broncos. The Wings will be in Melfort on Wednesday night. Unfortunately due to the fact that the local radio station carries Blue Jays baseball (which is okay but sucks once the Jays are out of contention), the games will not be on the radio.

The Wings are off to Saskatoon next weekend where they face the Flin Flon Bombers and Battlefords North Stars at the Showcase tournament before returning home for a game against Nipawin on September 25.