Wings Stop Hounds Streak!

The Notre Dame Hounds were riding a three game winning streak coming into Weyburn on Tuesday night but the Wings had no plans of sending them home with another win as they took care of business and dropped the Hounds 4-2. The Wings led 2-0 after the first period on goals from Stephen Simms and Eric Calibaba. Simms picked up his second of the game just over two minutes into the second period on a pretty tic tac toe type play that caught Hounds goaltender Andre Guay out of position. Roy Farrer cut the deficit to two for the Hounds a bit later in the period as he slid a puck under the pads of Wings goalie AJ Whiffen. Travis Janke made things interesting as he brought the Hounds within a goal at the 2:31 mark of the third period. However the Wings added the insurance marker at the 13:48 mark of the third after Torrey Lindsay failed on a wraparound chance but the puck came out to the stick of Preston Shupe and he converted. Shupe and Lindsay each ended the night with three points as Shupe had a goal and two assists and Lindsay added three assists and in my opinion was the best player on the ice tonight. Stephen Simms also had a strong game with the two goals. Luke Johnson, Kyle Haines and Michael Seib also added assists for the Wings. The Houds got assists from Dieter Gillanders, Shane Gray, Chris Bratina and Tommy Williams. Whiffen made 28 saves in the Weyburn goal while his coounterpart, Guay stopped 36 shots at the other end. Darcy Pindus picks up the coaching win tonight as Dwight McMillan has left for the World Junior A Challenge in Vernon, BC where he is one of the assistant coaches. The Red Wings improve to 11-7-1-1 and have regained second place in the Sherwood, one point ahead of the idle Yorkton Terriers. The Hounds are now 5-15-1-0. The Hounds are 8 points back of fifth place Kindersley in the Sherwood.

In La Ronge, two struggling teams faced off with the Ice Wolves emerging as 5-3 winners over the Nipawin Hawks. Jordie Johnston had two goals and an assist to lead the way for La Ronge. Ryan Desjarlais added a goal and an assist while defenseman Kenny Neufeld contributed three assists in the win. Joel Belair and Tyler Karst, with the game winner, also scored for the Ice Wolves. Blair Toms, Derek Holenski and Graham Dyck socred for the Hawks. Torrie Dyck had two assists in the losing cause. Final shots were not available at the time of writing but I can tell you Brian Kaval picked up the win for La Ronge and Derek Kleinsteuber suffers the loss for the Hawks. La Ronge moves back to the .500 mark with a record of 9-9-1-0. The Hawks drop to 7-8-0-1.

In North Battleford, a depleted North Stars roster fought hard, byt were blanked by the red hot Melfort Mustangs 3-0. The Mustangs have yet to lose since the arrival of goaltender Ilia Ejov who had a light night saving 15 shots for the shutout. Clint Olson and Taylor Watt each had a goal and an assist for the Mustangs. John Payne had the other Mustang goal. Cameron Larson, Brendan Baumgartner, Brady Gordon and Riley Clark all added assists for the Mustangs. Ryan Kerpan got the start for the Stars and stopped 30 of 33 shots. The Stars were playing without Barrett Penner, Trent Lizee, Scott Day and Cory Demko, all who are rumored to have been traded. I will bring you details on these moves once they are released by the SJHL. The Mustangs, with their fourth straight win, move to 11-7-0-0 and have moved past Flin Flon into second in the Itech. The Stars are stuck at 2 wins as they drop to 2-15-1-1.

Tonights Three Stars:

* Torrey Lindsay - Weyburn Red Wings (3 assists, Wings best player)
** Jordie Johnston - La Ronge Ice Wolves (2 goals and an assist)
*** Stephen Simms - (2 goal effort for Wings veteran d-man - will have to receive consideration for SJHL d-man of the month for October, along with teammate Kyle Haines

Wednesday in the SJHL: Melville will look for more breathing room atop the Sherwood Conference as they head to Wilcox to face the Hounds; The Melfort Mustangs and Ilia Ejov will look to extend the winning streak as they head to Kindersley to meet the Klippers; and a big Sherwood Conference battle in Yorkton tomorrow night as the Terriers welcome the Estevan Bruins to town.

SJHL Notes:

The Yorkton Terriers will be without the services of forward Bryan Hull for at least a month as he suffered a broken bone in his hand in a recent game. The Terriers acquired Hull last month from the Notre Dame Hounds in a deal that saw Chris Bratina and Mark Currie shipped to Notre Dame.

In the Battlefords, the Stars look to be about to make a major roster overhaul. If anything occurs, we will let you know.

Trade rumors are flying around the league right now with just about every team at one time or another being mentioned. It will be interesting to see how things shake down in the next few weeks.

- Brad M.