The Dauphin Kings are in sole possession of first place in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s MGEU West Division after a stretch which saw the local junior team win five of six contests.

That stretch includes a 2-1 win over the division-leading OCN Blizzard, Oct. 25, in OCN and a 5-1 triumph over the Neepawa Titans, Friday in Dauphin.

The successful string of games came to an end with a 6-4 loss on home ice to the Waywayseecappo Wolverines, Saturday.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said the team has been playing well all month.

“Coming into this game we were playing pretty well. Wayway, you have to give them credit tonight, they skated hard. They had some good speed. We made some mistakes at the wrong times,” he said. “I don’t think Marko (Belak, the Kings goaltender) was as strong as he was in his first two games.”

The Kings had been playing pretty well defensively, allowing just three goals in their previous three games.

“We expected a little bit of a different score tonight (Saturday). I thought we were using our speed tonight. We created a lot of chances. We didn’t get to second shots, didn’t get to the paint a lot. But at the same time, we still had some good speed and created some good two-on-ones,” he said.

The Wolverines scored what proved to be the winning goal just 15 seconds into the third period, which did not make Hedley a happy camper.

“Giving up a goal in the first minute of a period is ridiculous after you talk about winning a period. You’re 4-4 at home, you win 20 minutes and you win the game. We’ve just got to get better,” he said.

The two teams met in Waywayseecappo, last night. Hedley hoped for a better effort and planned to start Cole Sheffield in goal.

“We’ll basically go with the hot hand and he played really well on Friday, so we’ll go back to him on Monday,” he said.

The Kings scored a 5-0 victory, Monday, with Sheffield making 21 saves for the shutout.

Saturday was the first meeting between the Kings and Wolverines and it was pretty much what Hedley expected.

“We knew they had speed. Their forwards have some speed. They work hard in the offensive zone,” he said. “They cycle the puck well, so you really have to be committed to stick-on-puck and controlling hips and get stick independent. Just make sure the battles go to the corners. Whenever they get around the net like that, we lost them a couple of times and didn’t put pucks into the corners where we want battles to take place and they got some good opportunities in front of the net. So we’ve just got to get smarter and stronger on our sticks.”

The Kings are getting healthier as defenceman Anthony Bax returned to the lineup, Friday and rearguard Thomas Stewart is ready to return, while forward Riley Borody is about a week away from returning. Garrett Hrechka is close to returning, as well.

At 9-6-2-0, Dauphin’s 20 points has them seven behind OCN and two up on Virden and Swan Valley.

On the weekend, the Kings will look to sweep the season series with the Selkirk Steelers. The two teams hook up, Friday, in Dauphin, with the rematch, Saturday in Selkirk.

Dauphin won the first two meetings, Oct. 14, 3-2 in Selkirk, and Oct. 15, 7-3 in Dauphin.

Kings court:

A moment of silence was held prior to Saturday’s game in honour of the late Bob Buchy, who died, Oct. 22. Buchy helped the Kings win the MJHL championships in 1969 and 1970 . . . Former Kings defenceman Scott Gillingham was elected mayor of Winnipeg in last week’s municipal election, with 27.5 per cent of the vote. Gillingham played for the Kings in the 1987-88 season, scoring five goals and 39 points in 45 games, while compiling 157 penalty minutes.

The tough schedule for the Parkland Rangers continued over the weekend with a pair of home games against the Winnipeg Thrashers.

Anytime you play a Winnipeg team, said assistant coach Chris Belhumeur, you know you’re in for a tough weekend.

That proved to be the case as the Thrashers scored a 6-2 win over the Rangers on Saturday and beat them, 4-3, Sunday afternoon.

Belhumeur felt the Rangers struggled in Saturday’s game.

“Saturday’s game was a little bit tough. We weren’t really in the fight. We had a lot of things we could work on,” he said.

It was a different story on Sunday as the Rangers played well and pulled to within a goal after falling behind 4-1 early in the third period.

“We were pretty happy and proud of the guys with their effort. and the compete level and just showing that, if we play the right way, we can play with some of these other teams,” he said.

The team’s play is getting more consistent, Belhumeur said, but there are times when the consistency is lacking.

“But we like what we see in most of our games. But with these kids, there’s going to be some lapses and we’re trying to just make sure that we’re focusing on playing as close to a 60-minute game as we can,” he said.

Some of the young players are still adjusting to the speed of the league.

“But overall, I think the young guys have adapted pretty well,” Belhumeur said.

The 2-10-0-0 Rangers host the 7-2-2-0 Pembina Valley Hawks, Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

“Getting back (to playing) some rural teams should be nice and, hopefully, we can get a couple of points on the board,” he said.

The Bayer Crop Science Parkland Super League of Curling got under way, Sunday, with all six teams in action.

Turko Fertilizer’s Kyle Forsyth beat Dauphion Co-op Agro’s Chad Sahulka, 9-4, Jim Todoruk of Oil Depot needed an extra end to get past Glenn Toews of Nutrient Ag Solutions, 7-6 and Greg Clark of Cross-Town Motors beat defending champion Greg Todoruk of Richardson Pioneer, 5-4.

With Tim Horton’s Restaurant sponsoring the game, local Timbits players hit the ice during the first intermission of the Dauphin Kings game, Friday, at Credit Union Place.

Prior to the game, Tim Horton’s owner Greg Crisanti presented Stacey Penner, co-chair of the Maamawi Park committee, with a cheque for $49,122, which was raised during the store’s Smile Cookie campaign.

The Rural Manitoba Football League season came to a disappointing end for the Dauphin Clippers, Saturday, with a 26-14 loss to the Interlake Thunder in the league semifinal.

Matthew Zurba had one of Dauphin’s touchdowns, as did Joseph Lopez on a 60-yard interception return. Louis Prevot was good on both converts.

Lopez finished with 120 yards on 10 carries, while Oliver Dandeneau had 49 yards on nine carries.

Defensively, Lopez had seven tackles, one interception and a forced fumble, while Will Miner and Sully Fox each recorded a sack.

Clippers coach Jason Zurba said Interlake played well defensively, shutting down the Clippers offence.

“We just couldn’t move the ball on offence. They were solid on defence. They had big bodies and plugged the holes. They were the better team today,” he said.

Defensively, the Clippers had trouble containing some of the Interlake’s running backs, missing a lot of tackles.

“The boys were trying too hard to make the perfect play,” Zurba said. “That was basics on how to tackle. That was a big contributing factor on a couple of their touchdowns.”

Interlake also took advantage of some key penalties on high tackles, which contributed to their victory. But Zurba pointed out two good teams were playing each other and the better team won.

“I’m not disappointed in the season we had. We played well all year. We just couldn’t move the ball on offence today,” he said.

Although the Clippers will lose a number of players to graduation, they will also have a solid nucleus of returning players back next season. Looking back on the season, Zurba was most pleased with how the team played as a family.

“Everyone played together. You can see right now, the emotion everybody has. They were playing as a family, as one unit,” he said.

Interlake will now face the Moosomin Generals in the league final after the Generals beat the Swan Valley Tigers, 33-26.

The consolation final will pit the Neepawa Tigers against the Southwest Sabres after Neepawa defeated the ParkWest Outlaws, 51-28, and the Sabres beat the Virden Golden Bears, 34-26.

Ernie Sirski is the new Reeve for the Rural Municipality of Dauphin.

Sirski beat Tom Gibbs in last Wednesday’s election, with 458 votes, compared to 383 for Gibbs. In terms of percentages, Sirski won with 54.46 per cent to 45.54 for Gibbs.

Sirski admitted he is both excited and apprehensive about his election win.

“As most people know, I’ve never been involved in municipal politics, but I’ve been involved in a lot of organizations over my somewhat long tenure in farm politics,” he said. “So I’m excited. I’m looking forward to dealing with our residents.”

Sirski is also looking forward to working with the new council.

“I’m excited to dealing with our new council. We have a great council going forward. We’ve got youth. We’ve got experience. We’ve got incumbents. And they’ve got a leader who’s probably older than most of them put together,” he said. “I’m looking forward to being part of this rural municipality and, hopefully, contributing something in a positive manner.”

It does not matter if you win by one vote or 100, Sirski said, winning an election makes you feel good about yourself. And he was expecting a close race with Gibbs.

“I’ve known Tom a long time. I’ve known Tom for probably 30 years. I have a great deal of respect for him. He’s put his time in on the rural council. So I wasn’t the least bit surprised that it was this close,” he said.

Running in this year’s election was a good learning experience, Sirski said, adding he is looking forward to dealing with surrounding municipalities and the City of Dauphin, as well.

“So that we have mutual benefit for all our citizens,” he said.

Sirski expects he and the new council will be sworn in within the next couple of weeks.

Elected to council were Tammy Koshowski (596 votes), Todd Boguski (546), Midge Sametz (540), Ron Ryz (516), Ken Shewchuk (431) and Ken Plustwa (426). Also running, but not elected were Jack Bremner (413), David Johnson, (349), Darrell Inkster (134) and Wilf Kachurowski (130).

Dauphin Church of Christ is doing its part to help with affordable housing in the city, with the construction of the first of four four-plexes at Parkland Crossing.

Even though it is a small church, Pastor Wayne Olson said they love the community and want to see it do better.

One of the issues they hope to deal with involves food poverty for children. According to Olson, Dauphin is fifth worst in Canada for food poverty for children.

“Our church helps with some of the schools in doing meals and helping support some of the programs at Whitmore and the middle school. That’s a big concern in our community,” he said.

Another issue, Olson said, is affordable housing.

“We haven’t built affordable housing. So we’ve been thinking about doing affordable housing for a long, long time. It’s probably been on our hearts for 10 years. But to build anything, everything takes a lot of money,” he said.

Last year, the Church received a grant from the City, which got the money from Manitoba Housing.

Get the full story in this week's Dauphin Herald!

The streets of Dauphin were invaded by a group of ghouls, goblins and other strange creatures, early Friday evening as the Dauphin Friendship Centre hosted its annual zombie walk.

All participants received a treat bag and prizes were awarded for youth dressed in a costume.

Petric took to the stage at the Watson Arts Centre, Saturday, as part of their Turn the Night Up tour.

Jerry Sereda and Jason Kirkness opened the show for the Winnipeg band in front of a small, but appreciative audience.