Again not a lot of movement this week as the top teams for the most part won a majority of their games and the bottom teams doing the usual and losing.
1. Humboldt Broncos (35-8-0-1) LR: 1 The Broncos have won 15 games in a row as they continue to be unstoppable. The one team that has played tight games with the Broncos as of late is the La Ronge Ice Wolves but the Broncos have still found a way to pull out those games as well. The Broncos got offensive contributions as usual from everywhere in the lineup but to note a few that had good weeks - Matt Kirzinger, Edward Gale, Tanner Vandesype and Dane Lindskog. The Broncos look to continue the streak this week as they host the North Stars on Tuesday night before heading to La Ronge and Flin Flon for games Thursday and Friday respectively. The Broncos will have six players competing in the All Star game in Yorkton on Sunday. They are goaltender Taylor Nelson, defenseman Tanner Vandesype, Russ Nielsen and Matt Rintoul and forwards Jordan Schindel and Laurent Benjamin along with the coaching staff led by Dean Brockman.
The Mustangs get the slight edge over the Red Wings for #2 this week due to the Wings 10-1 loss on Friday night. The Mustangs picked up seven out of eight points this week as they won both ends of a home and home with Nipawin, defeated Estevan and lost in overtime to Weyburn. Taylor Watt continues to post big offensive numbers for the Mustangs who get plenty of offense from the back end with guys like Riley Clark, Brady Gordon and Tommy Brown providing the offense. Ilia Ejov has been outstanding and has to be considered one of the front-runners for the SJHL goaltender of the year. The Mustangs host Melville and Battlefords this week. Ejov, Clark and Watt will represent the Mustangs at the all star game this weekend.
Overall the Wings had a good week with victories over the Mustangs, North Stars and Klippers. The 10-1 loss to Kindersley on Friday night did sting a bit but this team ends the weekend with a wider point gap between them and the competition from when the weekend started to that is all that really matters. The line of Torrey Lindsay, Rhett Bly and Preston Shupe had a superb road trip this weekend as did newcomer Erick Ruud and defenseman Stephen Simms. The Red Wings will have a much lighter schedule this week as their only game is a home date Friday night versus the Notre Dame Hounds. The Wings will send Dwight McMillan and the entire coaching staff and support crew to the all star game along with defenseman Kyle Haines and forwards Torrey Lindsay, Preston Shupe and Brayden Nargang.
The Ice Wolves had a light schedule as their only game was a 2-1 loss to Humboldt. Jonathan Jobin was sensational in the game but the Ice Wolves had trouble getting shots through on Broncos goaltender Taylor Nelson. Jordie Johnston is currently the SJHL's leading scorer while Jarrid Dowhay is also in the top five scorers. The Ice Wolves have a tough schedule this week as they travel to Flin Flon on Tuesday night and then host Humboldt on Friday. The Ice Wolves top line of Johnston, Dowhay and Bruno-Pier Gosselin will represent them at the all star game.
Overall it was not a bad week for the Millionaires as they went 2-1. They posted wins over the North Stars and Bruins while losing to the Bombers. Dion Campbell and Brad Johnston both had good weeks offensively for the Mils playing alongside Scott Hennings. The Millionaires added some depth on deadline day acquiring Chris Shudo from the Westside Warriors of the BCHL. Melville has a good test this week as they play three road games - in Nipawin, Melfort and Yorkton. Derek Edwards will start for the Sherwood Conference all stars on defense. Also joining Edwards at the all star game will be Dion Campbell and Kale Dolinski.
It was a mixed bag of results this week for Kindersley as they had the huge win over the Red Wings but lost to Weyburn on Sunday night and took a tough loss to Yorkton earlier in the week. The Klippers had a lot of players pad their stats offensively this week. Some of them included Brett Leedahl, Matt Sawa, Kirk Pearce and newcomer Jordan Braid. The one issue heading down the stretch for the Klippers may be the play of goaltender Ryan Nieszner who has been very inconsistent this season. Matt Weninger may see more time if Nieszner continues to struggle. The Klippers look to get back in the race for first this week as they host Estevan twice (Wednesday and Friday night). The Klippers top line of Ryan Sawka, Brett Leedahl and Johnathan Redlick will comprise the starting forward line for the all star game on Sunday afternoon. They will be joined by Nieszner and defenseman Scott Linnell at the game in Yorkton.
The Bombers also had a mixed bag of results this week as they won a big game in Melville but then lost the following two nights in Yorkton and then Humboldt. The big three for Flin Flon have slowed down a little from their early season pace but Dennis Kubat did have a good week offensively for Flin Flon. The Bombers addressed a need with veteran additions to the defense corps with the additions of Matt Restoule from the North Stars and Darcy Holfeld from the AJHL (a former Kindersley Klipper). The Bombers host La Ronge and Humboldt this weekend which is a good chance to prove to those two teams that they mean business come playoff time. The Bombers will be represented in Yorkton by forwards Kubat, Reid MacLeod and Pierre-Luc Boucher along with defenseman Myles Masse.
I must admit I considered moving the Terriers even higher in the rankings this week and probably would have if they defeated Estevan on Sunday night. However, for the time being I could not justify ranking them higher than the teams ahead of them. Kudos to Ed Zawatsky and crew for going 3-1 for the week including a couple of tough wins over Kindersley and Flin Flon. The Terriers got good contributions from the likes of Derek Serdachny, Bryan Hull and Kevin Stringfellow this past week. Lynden Sammartino and Joel Danyluk both were respectable in the games they played this past week. The Terriers look to improve on their position this week as they have home games with Notre Dame and Melville. If the Terriers can go 2-0, they have a good shot of challenging for the top three spots in the Sherwood which eliminates having to play in the Survivor Series. The all star game host team will be represented by Sherwood conference starting goaltender Lynden Sammartino and defensemen Michael Trebish and Jordan Pawelec.
The Bruins finally stopped their skid on Sunday night with a 4-2 win over the Terriers. They have not had a good record since Christmas and stayed relatively quiet at the deadline. They welcomed Nick Colliton back to the fold and brought in a defenseman from the AJHL. They shipped out forwards Tyler Murray and Trent Rumpel. Kealin Wong continues to be the Bruins best player on most nights. The Bruins look to gain ground on the rest of the Sherwood Conference this week but it will not be easy as they head out on a road trip that sees them in Kindersley Wednesday, North Battleford Thursday and back in Kindersley on Friday. The Bruins will be represented in the all star game by starting defenseman Kealin Wong and forwards Kyle Stroh, Payden Benning and Kyle Ermel.
The Hawks had a bad week going 0-4 but for the time being I will not drop them below Notre Dame due to their loss to the North Stars. The four losses included two losses to Melfort and losses to Notre Dame and Humboldt. Some good news for the Hawks was that forward Brent Ottmann elected to stay with the team rather then report to the WHL when his rights were traded from the Prince Albert Raiders to the Kelowna Rockets. The WHL rescinded the trade after Ottmann made it be known he would be staying put in Nipawin. The Hawks look to snap the slide this week as they have home games versus Melville and Battlefords.
The positive is the Hounds got three out of a four possible points this past week. The problem is the team they lost that other point to was the only team ranked lower than them - the North Stars. Rylan Schwartz and Kyle Ireland had big offensive weeks for the Hounds. Mark Currie was also fairly strong between the pipes. The Hounds have a chance to play spoiler this week as they play division rivals Yorkton and Weyburn. The Hounds lone representative in the all star game will be rookie Rylan Schwartz.
12. Battlefords North Stars (5-33-2-3) LW: 12 The Stars had a tough start to the week as they were shutout twice in two nights in Melville and Yorkton. They then won a shootout over Notre Dame on Friday before falling on home ice to Weyburn on Saturday. The young team has picked up their play as of late - particularly Shawn McNulty, Colton Graf and Joel Budd to name a few. The Stars have tough road games in Humboldt and Melfort this week as well as a home date against Estevan. McNulty will represent the Stars in Yorkton at the all star game.
That's all for now. Hope everyone has a great week!
- Brad M.
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