The Parkland Rangers are doing what they can to stay in the playoff hunt, but they need some help if they are to reach the postseason.

The Rangers won two of three games in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League, last week.

Tavyn Boychuk’s goal 1:35 into overtime lifted Parkland to a 4-3 win over the Yellowhead Chiefs, Tuesday in Dauphin.

On Saturday, in front of a crowd of 1,462 on Ukrainian Night at Credit Union Place, the Rangers erased three one-goal deficits and went on to beat the Interlake Lightning, 5-4.

Get the full weekend recap in this week's Herald!

Kyle Forsyth of Turko Fertilizer and Glenn Toews of Nutrien Ag. Solutions track an incoming shot during the final of the Bayer Crop Science Parkland Super League of Curling, Sunday.

After Forsyth clinched first place with a 6-3 win over Toews in a makeup game, Jan. 29, the playoffs took place, Sunday. In the quarterfinals, Greg Todoruk of Richardson Pioneer beat Chad Sahulka of South Fork Ag Services, 7-5, and Rob Fisher of Hrychuk Yard Solutions beat Jim Todoruk of Oil Depot, 8-3.

In the semifinals, Toews beat Greg Todoruk, 8-4 and Forsyth beat Fisher, 7-4. Forsyth and his team of Jarvis Whyte, Trent Hill and Cody Hill then clinched the $1,500 first prize with a 9-5 win over Toews in the final. Toews took home $750, while Fisher and Greg Todoruk each received $500.

Dauphin’s Julien Lopez (13) and Raiders goalie Jordan Svaboda watch the puck slide past the goal post in high school hockey action, Saturday at Credit Union Place.

The Dauphin Clippers hockey team lost two of three games over the weekend. With 15 players dressed, the Clippers beat the Birtle Falcons, 9-1, Friday in Birtle.

William Miner led the Clippers with a goal and three assists,while Ronin Mouck had two goals and an assist.

Sully Fox, Jaxon Bodnar, Jackson Buchanan, Josh Yakielshek, Ethan Everett and Tyron Sweetman also scored for Dauphin and Joe Tabin made 41 saves to pick up the win.

On Saturday, with just 13 players dressed, the Clippers fell 8-3 to the Killarney/Wawanesa Raiders. Sweetman scored once and assisted on both of Everett’s goals, while Owen Chubka and Tabin combined to make 31 saves in goal.

Things did not get any better on Sunday as the shorthanded Clippers lost 9-3 to the Neepawa Tigers in Dauphin.

Sweetman again had a goal and two assists to lead the Clippers. Julien Lopez and Mouck had the other goals. Chubka stopped 42 shots in taking the loss.

The Parkland Rangers are falling out of the playoff picture in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League after three straight losses, last week.

The Brandon Wheat Kings scored a 4-2 win over the Rangers, Jan. 23 in Dauphin.

On the weekend in Thompson, Parkland lost 8-1 to the Norman North Stars, Saturday, and on Sunday, Norman skated to a 6-0 victory.

Last week was one of mixed results for the Dauphin Kings.

Six different players had two points each in a 6-2 win over the Swan Valley Stampeders, Jan. 23, in Swan River, extending Dauphin’s winning streak to seven games.

The streak came to an end, Friday at Credit Union Place when the visiting Blizzard scored a 4-2 victory.

Dauphin rebounded with a solid effort in a 5-2 win over the league-leading Steinbach Pistons, Saturday in front of 1,943 fans on Ukrainian Night.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said good teams find a way to rebound from tough losses and that is what the Kings did.

“Resilience is part of our covenant. We were fast tonight. We played fast tonight. We were relentless on pucks. We stopped on pucks. We won stick battles. Took hits to make plays. It’s just something we didn’t do enough of (Friday) night to start,” he said. “We weren’t on our toes. We weren’t using our speed. We weren’t playing fast. So we got what we deserved.”

Hedley felt the Kings played well in the third period, but failed to play for a full 60 minutes.

The Blizzard, to their credit, played a strong road game and were the better team for most of the night.

“They worked their butt off, just like they did last time, only we found a way to win. This time, I thought their goaltender was really solid. He made some big saves, because we had some pretty good looks there at the end, when it was 4-2 and we got some power plays and had some good looks and some chances and he made some good saves,” Hedley said.

The Kings power play was clicking, scoring three times against the Stampeders and twice against Steinbach.

With changes to the roster at the trade deadline, it meant changes to the power play, with new players stepping into the roles of players no longer with the team.

“When you have changes like that, you’ve got different guys on the power play, you’re trying to get some chemistry. I think we can still get a lot better, especially our top unit. We can get some speed going and we’ll find different ways,” Hedley said. “Steinbach is a good hockey team. They really put pressure on you on the PK and sometimes we didn’t get set up quick enough. But we’ll get better.”

After a tough December, goalie Cole Sheffield made some highlight reel saves against the Pistons and has been a big reason for the Kings success in the new year.

The win against the top team in the league gives a big confidence boost to the Kings. Hedley said Saturday’s game was the best the team has played on Ukrainian Night since his return to the team.

“It was one of our best efforts,” he said.

The league will take a break for the annual MJHL-SJHL Showcase, Jan. 30 and 31, before games resume on Friday.

The Kings will be in Winkler, Friday, to take on the Flyers, before heading to Winnipeg to face the Freeze, Saturday.

Kings court:

Saturday’s win evens Dauphin’s record on Ukrainian Nights at 4-4 and they have won the last three Ukrainian Nights in a row. . . The Kings remain in third place in the MGEU West Division, with a 24-12-1-0 record for 49 points. They sit three back of the Blizzard, with three games in hand.

The Parkland Rangers are doing what they can to stay in the playoff race, earning a split with the second-place Southwest Cougars, this past weekend.

Cam Sarna had two goals and an assist and Maddox Shindle also scored twice to lead Parkland to a 7-4 win, Friday in Dauphin.

On Saturday in Souris, the Cougars got two goals late in the last five minutes of the game to escape with a 3-1 win, despite a 44 save effort from Rangers netminder Chase Glover.

Rangers head coach Tyler Carefoot said it was a real good weekend for his squad. He said Friday’s game was the best overall team game that they have played all season.

“One of the things that we’ve been working on the last two weeks in practice is zone entries and just trying to get pucks to the net. And all of the work in practice paid off and we were able to put up seven against a team of Southwest’s caliber. So I was very pleased with Friday’s performance,” he said.

The Rangers were competitive in Saturday’s game despite having to kill off seven Southwest power plays through the first 40 minutes.

Although they did give up the opening goal on a power play four minutes into the game, Parkland was able to tie it less than three minutes later.

Spending so much time in the penalty box meant the Rangers were unable to get any momentum going.

“Gaining some serious opportunities because we felt like we were killing the whole (second) period,” Carefoot said. “One thing Southwest does so good is they put pucks on net and get second and third chances. They do a really good job of that and that’s how they got the second one.” Glover, Carefoot said, was outstanding on Saturday, adding it was probably his best performance as a Parkland Ranger.

“Obviously, he kept us in the game when we were going through all the penalty trouble and gave us a chance,” he said.

Things won’t get any easier for the Rangers as they host the league-leading Brandon Wheat Kings, tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Brandon enters the contest having won 31 of their 32 games with the only blemish being an overtime loss to Southwest, Nov. 10.

Parkland then makes the long trip north to face the Norman North Stars, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

Carefoot feels this weekend could seal Parkland’s fate when it comes to the playoffs.

“Norman has been playing well. The way we’ve been putting everything together, all the stuff that we talk about on a game-by-game basis, if we bring that focus for the weekend, I think we’re going to be a tough out,” he said. “For us, the playoffs start in January, not February and we need to have that mentality. I think we’re up for the challenge. So I’m expecting us to be ready and make a big push.”

The Dauphin Kings have started the new year red hot, having won six games in a row to move to within three points of second place.

Newcomer Ashton Paul paid immediate dividends in his first game, scoring the game winner on a power play with less than two minutes remaining in a 4-2 win over the Swan Valley Stampeders, Jan. 16 in Dauphin.

Then, after scoring in regulation, Paul netted the winner in the shootout, lifting the Kings to a 4-3 win over the MGEU West Division-leading Virden Oil Capitals, Friday in Virden.

On Saturday in Dauphin, Madden Murray scored twice including the game winner just 2:44 into the game as the Kings beat the Niverville Nighthawks, 6-0, with Cole Sheffield making 28 saves for his third shutout in the new year.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said the team is positive and working hard during the current win streak.

“I don’t think we’ve had any better back-to-back efforts. The game in Virden was outstanding. The puck pressure, our forecheck, our back pressure coming back in the D zone, guys are on their toes and they’re working hard. The dressing room is really good right now,” he said.

The game against Swan Valley saw Dauphin outshoot the Stampeders, 69-33.

“We had the puck a lot. A lot of shots at the net. And that’s what we’re starting to do is we’re driving the net. We’re getting second shots, we’re going low to high, we’re getting some pucks through from the point. Yeah, we put a lot of pucks through on the net,” Hedley said, adding the Kings used their speed to create a lot of opportunities against Virden on Friday.

Hedley thinks the struggles the team experienced in December may be attributed to the Christmas break.

“Maybe with the Christmas break, guys were thinking about Christmas. The focus, the attention to detail wasn’t there. You just see the difference now,” he said. “In December, some of our players, they didn’t know if we had the team. We were trying to get better. But when that doubt enters the room it’s tough and you really have to battle hard. And it takes a special group to battle through it. The group we have in the room now, they believe in each other, they work for each other and go to war. That’s the difference.”

As well as they are playing now, Hedley would like to see things tighten up in the defensive zone.

“Sometimes we break down and give up real good chances. Sheff made some good saves when he had to tonight. In tight, there were a couple guys all alone a couple times. We’ve just got to clean up the D zone a little bit,” he said. “I really like our neutral zone right now. We’re controlling team’s speed, we’re getting pressure on the forecheck and we’re making some smart reads. But the D zone is going to have to get a little bit cleaner and getting tougher on pucks.”

Dauphin trails the second-place OCN Blizzard by three points with four games in hand.

The Kings are in Swan Valley tonight at 7 p.m.

On Friday, they host the Blizzard at 7:30 p.m., while Saturday is Ukrainian Night with the Steinbach Pistons in town for a 7:30 p.m. game.

Kings court: For the second straight week, Kings goalie Cole Sheffield was named one of the Original 16 Stars of the Week, after posting a 3-0 record with a .1.62 GAA and .950 save percentage . . . The British Columbia Hockey League announced over the weekend that five teams from Alberta - the Blackfaulds Bulldogs, Brooks Bandits, Okotoks Oilers, Sherwood Park Crusaders and Spruce Grove Saints - will join that league next season. As a result, the Alberta Junior Hockey League cancelled this weekend’s games involving those teams.

Valerie McInnes and Travis Senecal offered a few words in an online video inviting the public to the grand opening of The Bloom ‘n Bean, Saturday.

The public was invited to stop in for some coffee and cake as they celebrated their grand opening.

The Parkland Rangers are slowly falling out of the playoff race in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League after a pair of losses over the weekend.

The Rangers dropped a 5-3 decision to the Winnipeg Wild, Saturday in Winnipeg, before losing 7-1 to the Interlake Lightning, Sunday in Teulon.

As a result, Parkland’s record falls to 10-15-2-1 for 23 points, five back of the eighth-place Norman North Stars.

Rangers head coach Tyler Carefoot was pleased with the team’s play against Winnipeg.

“I thought, for the most part, we were in that game right from pretty much start to end,” he said.

Twice the Rangers trailed by three goals, but they pulled to within one with 2:41 remaining.

“We didn’t quit. We had good structure. We had good work ethic and we found a way to keep the game close,” Carefoot stated, adding he wondered to himself whether to pull the goalie or not. “One of my veteran players heard that and said, ‘what have we got to lose?’ So we did (pull the goalie) and tried to make a push and in the end, they got the empty netter to make it 5-3. But overall, it was a good game,” he said.

Sunday’s game was a result of a lack of self-discipline on the part of some of the Parkland players, who had a late night despite getting back to their hotel by 10 p.m.

As a result, one player slept in and missed the team breakfast at 9 a.m., which did not please the coaching staff, while others were not attentive during a video session prior to leaving for Teulon.

During the pregame warmup, the Rangers did not leave the ice in time, resulting in a delay of game penalty to start the contest. Interlake, subsequently, opened the scoring on that power play to start the game and things went down hill from there.

“Everybody was off. Guys that we lean on to perform really well, those guys were all off. We didn’t have our routine. Everything about our routine was off,” he said. “And it goes back to the night before and it goes back to the morning. And then we can’t expect these players, you can’t sleep in and then go on the ice and be a high-performance athlete and perform at a high level when you’ve only been up for three hours.”

Carefoot admitted to being angry at the situation and felt it was a lack of self-discipline that resulted in Sunday’s loss.

“At some point there has to be some self-accountability,” he said, adding the Rangers have proven they can play with any team in the league, with the exception of the Brandon Wheat Kings. “But in order to do that, our structure has to be good and our work ethic has to be good. It’s just all those little things that we talk about. We have the capabilities of doing all that,” Carefoot said. “But the moment we choose to either take a shift off or a game off, or in this case, some guys chose to basically not want to show up at all, it’s very frustrating.”

Having said that, Carefoot recognizes that Interlake is one of the top teams in the league, currently sitting in third place.

“Interlake is for real. They’ve got a nice roster there. It’s not a fluke or an accident that they’re a top four team this year. I think that’s great to see. The last several years, they’ve been battling at the bottom end, so I think that’s great for their program,” he said.

The Rangers will look to right the ship this weekend when they face the second-place Southwest Cougars in a home-and-home, beginning, Friday in Dauphin at 7:30 p.m., with the rematch in Souris on Saturday.

The teams split a home-and-home, Jan. 6 and 7.

Southwest is another team the Rangers can compete with.

“They’re very structured. They don’t have any flashy players that pull you out of your seats, but they have non-negotiables that play within their structure. Hopefully, we can match that and we can be ready, because every point now going forward is just so important,” Carefoot said. “The game results over the weekend, the teams that we’re battling with, they either split or they found a way to get four points. So we need points. And so we need to be ready to execute and, hopefully, that’s the case.”