That's how we roll!

While I was at work a had a photo op at the Family Place here and I noticed Luke Johnson's car outside covered in shaving cream (I think).

At least he scraped the gunk off of the driver side window so he could see out of it. I noticed a few more Red Wing vehicles got the Halloween special last night too but I had to get a picture of Luke's ride since it was still a mess this morning.

Those crazy kids.

- Troy K

Mils "Spooked" by Hounds on Halloween Night!

The Notre Dame Hounds have been playing much better hockey as of late and that was proven again tonight as they shutout Sherwood division leading Melville by a score of 3-0. Mark Currie was the player of the game as he turned aside all 30 Millionaire shots. Chris Bratina also had a big game for the Hounds as he had two goals and an assist. Thomas Williams also scored for the Hounds. Eddie Gale, Rylan Schwartz, Travis Janke, Blake Peake and Marc Andre Nadeau also had assists. Kyle Cantlon got the start for Melville and made a respectable 30 saves. Contrary to what the SJHL website states, the Hounds improve to 6-15-1-0. The Millionaires drop to 13-4-0-1 with the loss.

In Yorkton, the Terriers completed the home and home sweep of the Estevan Bruins as they downed them 5-1. Scott Jackson had a big game for the Terriers as he had two goals and an assist to help pick up the slack for the injured Bryan Hull. Greg Coburn, Cody Zubko and Cam Hopkins also scored for the Terriers. Carter Smith added two assists for Yorkton. Bruins captain Kyle Garagan had the lone Estevan goal. Bruins defenseman Kealin Wong was ejected in the third period after receiving a double fighting major and a game misconduct. He was responding to a checking from behind penalty call on the Terriers Evan Neibrandt. Lynden Sammartino kept up his strong play allowing only one goal on 26 shots. Karsten Felske was chased from the Bruins goal after allowing three goals on only 7 shots in the first period. Guillaume Perusse went the rest of the way stopping 19 of 21 shots. The Terriers leap frog back into second place as they improve to 11-7-1-2 for 25 points. They are one point ahead of the Red Wings and now only two back of the Millionaires for first. The Bruins fall to 10-8-2-0 with the loss.

Meanwhile, they had a good old fashioned shootout in Kindersley which saw the Klippers pull out a 6-5 shootout victory. Ryan Sawka scored the shootout winner. Jonathan Redlick scored twice for the Klippers. Scott Linnell had a goal and an assist. Matt Sawa and Jeremy Beller were the other Kindersley goal scorers. Clint Olson led the way for the Mustangs with three assists. Taylor Watt and Brady Gordon each had a goal and an assist for the Mustangs. John Payne and Donovan Chow also scored for Melfort. Matt Hill returned to the lineup after serving a four game suspension and picked up an assist on Watt's goal. Ryan Nieszner picked up the win as he made 27 saves. Ilia Ejov did not hit the win column for the first time as the Mustangs starting goaltender as he will have to settle for the shootout loss. The Klippers have tightened the Sherwood Conference standings as they improve to 10-8-0-1 and are now just a point back of fourth place Estevan. The Mustangs, despite the loss gain a point up on Flin Flon as they now have a two point advantage over the Bombers as they go to 11-7-0-1.

There is a rare Thursday night game in the SJHL tomorrow night as the Humboldt Broncos visit the Estevan Bruins. Those same Broncos hit Colosseum ice on Friday night to battle the Wings. Game time Friday is the usual 7:30.

Tonight's Three Stars:
* Mark Currie - Notre Dame Hounds (30 save shutout performance over talented Melville club)
** Scott Jackson - Yorkton Terriers (3 point performance leads Terriers to victory over Estevan)
*** Chris Bratina - Notre Dame Hounds (Bratina continues to impress in a Hounds uniform as he has a goal and two assists.)

- Brad M.

What the Hell is Wrong with the SJ website!

I know sometimes people complain about how the Yorkton Terriers get a bit of extra coverage and such on the SJHL website and of course there is always talk to Laury Ryan's Notre Dame Hounds - how about this. Check out the latest SJHL standings from http://www.sjhl.ca/. Hurry fast before the mistake is noticed Ha Ha.

Apparently the Terriers had a 6 point victory tonight. Meanwhile, the Notre Dame Hounds have improved by an incredible 14 points tonight. Nice to see the league's statistics program working at its best yet again.

- Brad M.

SJHL News Update!

The Flin Flon Bombers have finalized a pair of deals.

The biggest is a trade with the Battlefords North Stars as they have acquired 20 year old forward Barrett Penner (pictured) in exchange for 19 year old forward Shaun McNulty, 18 year old defenseman Kirk Moore and list player Jason Spafford. Penner was the Stars leading scorer at the time of the deal with 5 goals and 9 assists for 14 points in 16 games. Penner, known for his tough and gritty style of play, also was amongst the league leaders in penalty minutes with 90. McNulty, from Campbell River, BC, has struggled somewhat this season as he has only 2 goals and 2 assists in 18 games. McNulty should benefit from increased ice time with the Stars. Moore is a young defenseman with a good upside. The Saskatoon product has 2 assists in 15 games. Spafford is playing midget with the Saskatoon Blazers.

Meanwhile, the Bombers have also acquired forward David Dykstra from the Nipawin Hawks for futures. Dykstra had one assist in limited action this season for the Hawks.

Meanwhile, the Yorkton Terriers and Humboldt Broncos have been disciplined for events that occurred in a game in Yorkton last Friday night. Travis Coghill and Corey Silverson of the Terriers and Thomas Frasz and Taylor Pillar of the Broncos have each been suspended three games for there actions which resulted in a multi-fight situation. Meanwhile, the Terriers were also fined $500 for failing to keep their team on the bench at the end of the game.

- Brad M.

We hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween. Make sure you stop by the Tribigers to see their Grim Reaper if your not too scared!

I will be looking for someone to set up a Red Wings Christmas picture in a couple months now, It's not too far away so let me know who's turn it is for that and we will make sure to have a Red Wing Christmas but until then best of luck boys and keep on winning!

-Troy K

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.

Catching up with the coach!

Troy Kramm: First off in the game versus Flin Flon on Friday, the team played a defensively sound game and shut down the leagues top scoring unit of Reid MacLeod, Pierre-Luc Boucher and Dennis Kubat. What were the boys doing right in that game?

Dwight McMillan: I think the guys did a great job of shutting them down. I give credit to Calibaba who plays on the left side for shutting them down and I think Haines also did a superb job of shutting them down on left defense. The entire line of Calibaba, Bly and Needham shut down their big line and didn’t allow them much room on the ice, they were great for us out there.

TK: With Whiffen getting the shutout versus Flin Flon do you think you might go with him for the next few games rather than rotating him and Erickson?

McMillan: Oh you never know, but there is no doubt that he will be getting the start versus Notre Dame tomorrow.

TK: I am keeping this once nice and simple, I just want to know what went wrong versus Notre Dame on Saturday?

McMillan: We weren’t ready defensively. Notre Dame’s first three or four goals were ones that shouldn't have gone in, we just didn’t play very well in front of our goalie. We were only down 4-3 after the first then they scored two more in the second to take the wind out of our sails. The boys began to work hard but not smart which led to more scoring chances that they capitalized on. Overall I would have to say everyone from our goalie out just didn’t play well.

TK: Do you feel that nerves played a big role in Tanner Erickson’s performance as it was only his third SJHL start and with the trade of McConnell he may have felt pretty secure in his position?

McMillan: He wanted to prove himself and he did a good job at times, we didn’t play well in front of him on many of the goals he allowed and then there were some goals that he should have had. There are some things that we are going to work on in practice because we just let them get to our net way too much.

We got tied up in front and we can’t afford to tie ourselves up because you will get penalties that way, you just have to make sure you play from out in front.

TL: Speaking of penalties, do you feel the boys played undisciplined hockey in the third period or did they get unfair calls?

McMillan: Well I gotta say I think some of that was my doing, I told the ref that he was getting paid to screw up the game so I think he gave us a few more after that, but that’s how the game went.

TK: Are we going to see a completely different Red Wings team versus the Hounds on Tuesday?

McMillan: I hope so, I won’t be around to see it, I am leaving in the morning to Trail, BC for the World Junior A Challenge so Darcy (Pindus) will be running things here.

TK: How does the Team Canada West team look this year?

McMillan: It looks strong, we have a lot of great talent on the team but the Americans look strong as well. They have a lot of players from their major junior league this year and the Europeans are always tough as well.

TK: Are you looking forward to getting the chance to help coach in the Junior A Challenge again?

McMillan: It’s always a challenge when your playing world teams, I just hope I can learn some things and see what other teams are doing and bring some of what I learned back to the team.

-Troy Kramm

CJAHL Rankings

CJAHL TOP 15 as of October 27th, 2007

Team League Last Week
1. Camrose Kodiaks (AJHL) 1
2. Salmon Arm Silverbacks (BCHL) 2
3. Woodstock Slammers (MJAHL) 5
4. Newmarket Hurricanes (OPJHL) 3
5. Portage Terriers (MJHL) 6
6. Markham Waxes (OPJHL) 4
7. Melville Millionaires (SJHL) 8
8. Humboldt Broncos (SJHL) 7
9. Nanaimo Clippers (BCHL) 10
10. Fort William North Stars (SIJHL) 11
11. Yarmouth Mariners (MJAHL) 9
12. Selkirk Steelers (MJHL) 13
13. Pembroke Lumber Kings (CJHL) 14
14. North Bay Skyhawks (NOJHL) 15
15. Les Inouk de Granby (LHJAAAQ) NR

Honorable mention goes to the Penticton Vees (BCHL), Olds Grizzlys (AJHL), Fort McMurray Oil Barons (AJHL), Estevan Bruins (SJHL), Dauphin Kings (MJHL), Dryden Ice Dogs (SIJHL), St. Michael's Buzzers (OPJHL), Vaughan Vipers (OPJHL), Smiths Falls Bears (CJHL), Brockville Braves (CJHL), Les Condors de Kahnawake (LHJAAAQ), and the Truro Bearcats (MJAHL).

Weekly Stats Pack!

Weyburn Red Wings Top 5:

1. Josh Bray (10G - 9A - 19P)
2. Preston Shupe (6G - 13A - 19P)
3. Torrey Lindsay (10G - 8A - 18P)
4. Brayden Nargang (9G - 7A - 16P)
5. Stephen Simms (3G - 11A - 14P)

SJHL Top 10 Scorers:

1. Reid MacLeod (Flin Flon) 22G - 18A - 40P
2. Pierre-Luc Boucher (Flin Flon) 10G - 22A - 32P
3. Dennis Kubat (Flin Flon) 13G - 18A- 31P
4. Rylan Schwartz (Notre Dame) 11G - 14A - 25P
5. Laurent Benjamin (Humboldt) 10G - 15A - 25P
6. Bryan Hull (Yorkton) 8G - 16A - 24P
7. Dion Campbell (Melville) 12G - 11A - 23P
8. Eddie Gale (Notre Dame) 11G - 11A - 22P
9. Clint Olson (Melfort) 10G- 12A - 22P
10. Payden Benning (Estevan) 7G - 15A - 22P

Top Five Defenseman Scoring:

1. Tanner Vandesype (Notre Dame) 7G - 12A - 19P
2. (tie) Brady Gordon (Melfort) 4G - 10A - 14P
Russ Nielsen (Humboldt) 4G - 10A - 14P
4. Stephen Simms (Weyburn) 3G - 11A - 14P
5. Kyle Haines (Weyburn) 1G - 13A - 14P

Top Five Rookie Scoring:

1. Rylan Schwartz (Notre Dame) 11G - 14A - 25P
2. Luke Johnson (Weyburn) 6G - 7A - 13P
3. Michael Young (Flin Flon) 2G - 10A - 12P
4. Steve Mason (Nipawin) 6G - 5A - 11P
5. Gary Childerhose (Melfort) 5G - 6A - 11P

Top Five Penalty Minutes:

1. Eric Calibaba (Weyburn) - 98 PIM
2. Cam Oliphant (Melfort) - 91 PIM
3. Barrett Penner (Battlefords) - 90 PIM
4. Michael Seib (Weyburn) - 84 PIM
5. Scott Day (Battlefords) - 69 PIM

Top Five GAA: (min. 7 starts):

1. Taylor Nelson (Humboldt) 1.64
2. Kyle Cantlon (Melville) 1.69
3. AJ Whiffen (Weyburn) 1.95
4. Lynden Sammartino (Yorkton) 2.64
5. Travis Bosch (Melville) 2.85

Top Five Save %: (min. 7 starts):

1. Kyle Cantlon (Melville) .942
2. AJ Whiffen (Weyburn) .938
3. Taylor Nelson (Humboldt) .925
4. Travis Bosch (Melville) .923
5. Jonathan Jobin (La Ronge) .920

Shutouts:
1. Cantlon, Jobin, Nelson, Sammartino (2 each)
2. Karsten Felske (Estevan), Carsen Chubak (Flin Flon), Whiffen (1 each)


- Brad M.