Credit Union Place in Dauphin was home to the first-ever Shane Allard Memorial Goalie Development Camp, Feb. 28.

Shane Allard was a goalie with the Dauphin Kings of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League when he died in a car accident, Dec. 1, 2002, at the age of 19.

His father Noel said he was contacted by Dauphin and District Community Foundation executive director Kit Daley regarding the Shane Allard Memorial Fund.

“And we decided, since we’re helping goalies, why not hold a hockey camp for goalies in Dauphin. Because usually kids wanting hockey schools, especially goalies, they have to go far, travel all over the country to find these schools,” he said. “And it was nice to have that option available right in Dauphin. So it was a lot of work with Kit Daley from the foundation.”

The camp attracted 25 young goalies ages nine and up. Instructors included Andy Kollar of IceLab, Dan Keeping, assistant coach with the Dauphin Kings and Parkland Rangers, Kings goalies Carson Cherepak and Keaton Woolsey and Rangers goalie Kyler Swanton.

Although the camp was limited to just 25 participants, Allard noted there were more than 200 young players interested in taking part.

“So it looks good for next year. It’s an annual thing now,” he said, adding it will be held around the same time next year, depending on rink availability.

Shane’s jersey and photo hangs on the sound room wall at Credit Union Place. Every time he comes through Dauphin, Allard stops in to view them.

“It’s very nice to see that he’s still recognized and still talked about. We always say, ‘gone but never forgotten’, and this is an example of it,” he said.

Allard’s other son, who lives in Yorkton helped to design a t-shirt, which was given to camp participants.

Tiffany Armstrong, background, and Kyle Forsyth lay their brooms as a target for their teammates during the Nature’s Bounty West 1 Curling Club Regional Qualifiers, Saturday.

Armstrong and her team of Morgan Kropelnicki, Stacy Sime and Tamara Kolida beat Minnedosa’s Morghan Wark twice to earn a spot at provincials, while Forsyth’s team, which includes Jarvis Whyte, Cody Hill, Darius Vendramin and fifth Trent Hill beat Darcy Todoruk in the final. Provincials will be held in Winnipeg in the fall.

Not many people get a chance to live their childhood dream, let alone succeed at it, but Dauphin’s Steven Stashko is doing just that.

Stashko began training as a professional wrestler in 2020, making his in-ring debut in August of that year.

Less than two years later, the 27-year-old, who wrestles under the name Bryce Bentley, teamed up with Sammy Peppers to win the Canadian Wrestling Elite tag team championships, Feb. 4, in Stonewall.

Wrestling professionally was a childhood dream for Stashko.

“Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to do professional wrestling. I’ve always been a huge die hard fan ever since I was really young. I finally got the opportunity to start training with A.J. Sanchez and the rest has been history so far,” he said.

Training to be a wrestler was some of the most gruelling days Stashko ever experienced, from having to set up and then tear down the ring to actually getting in the ring to “get beat up when I was in the ring.”

Among his childhood idols were Christopher Daniels, Chris Jericho, Elix Skipper and Jeff Hardy, and he has patterned his style of wrestling after Jericho and Hardy, especially.

“Those are two of the top guys that I definitely try to do my style closer to,” he said.

Besides CWE, Stashko has also wrestled for Real Canadian Wrestling out of Calgary, as well as Premier Championship Wrestling, another Winnipeg-based company.

Because of the pandemic, Stashko has not had the opportunity to wrestle in his hometown yet, but he hopes that will become a reality this year.

“With restrictions opening up, we have a good chance of doing a tour in Manitoba, so I’m hoping to hit up Dauphin,” he said.

Collectively known as Red Hot Summer, Stashko and his tag team partner and best friend Peppers, who hails from Portage, won the tag team titles from CWE veterans Sanchez and The Boston Bruiser Kevin Doyle. Becoming a champion was a dream come true.

“You idolize watching these wrestlers and then one day seeing it be you, it’s crazy to know that I was able to achieve a childhood dream of mine, becoming a tag team champion,” Stashko said.

Stashko has always been more interested in tag team wrestling than singles.

“I’ve always more enjoyed watching tag team wrestling as opposed to singles wrestling. So I’m really just living my dream of being in a tag team,” he said.

The Bryce Bentley moniker came about when he and fellow trainees were throwing names around.

“It turns out Bryce Bentley was what kind of stuck. I like having Bentley as the last name and then we just found a first name going back and forth with the rest of the trainees and that’s the name we came up with,” he said.

One of Stashko’s goals as a wrestler is to compete in as many places as possible. While WWE is widely regarded as the ultimate destination for young wrestlers, for Stashko, he dreams of some day making it to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which he feels is a better fit for his style of wrestling than WWE.

Stashko is also open to some day wrestling overseas.

Entertaining people while he is in the ring is what Stashko enjoys most about what he does.

“Being in front of a large audience and getting people to cheer and them knowing that I’m providing a form of entertainment, it’s just a real good thrill that I get knowing that people are having fun and getting to cheer me on,” he said, adding he enjoys interacting with the crowd during his matches. “That’s one of my favourite parts,” he said.

Stashko is continually training to be in the best physical shape possible.

“It’s something I work very hard on is just strict diets, having to do intense training. I go to Iron Age Strength, which is one of the best gyms in Winnipeg, I’d say, because it’s ran by one of the strongest men in Manitoba, Tyler Colton,” he said. “Tyler Colton, he’s really helped change me as a person and really helped me start hitting my goals in the gym and really changed the physical side of my life.”

Riley Durston loses the puck as he enters the offensive zone against the Stonewall Blues in the gold medal game at the U13 A1 provincials in Dauphin, Sunday.

Stonewall scored 1:16 into the second overtime to skate away with the gold medal. The final was 5-4. 

MacDonald beat Thompson, 5-0, to win the bronze medal, while Brandon won the consolation with a 5-1 win over Springfield.

After years of struggling financially, the Dauphin Kings are finally debt free.

Prior to Friday’s game against the Swan Valley Stampeders, Kings president Ashley Shaw presented a cheque for $42,031.27 to Dauphin Recreation Services general manager Ryan Vanderheyden, as the team’s final payment for the ice rental.

The biggest contributors to eliminating the debt, Shaw said, were the tractor lotto and the team’s growing project.

“Our ag project this year was huge for us. But we also can’t forget the other fund-raisers like the golf tournament, 50 for 50, our bingos, all the fund-raisers,” she said.

The cheque presented to Vanderheyden represented the last of the team’s debt.

“That cheque covers everything and we are now officially debt free,” Shaw said.

With the team now free of debt, the Kings can start planning for its financial future.

“It’s huge because we’re not having to put money into debt now and pay off loans and things like that,” Shaw said. “But it also means that we’re able to take some of the money and put it into reserves and plan for the future. We’re really excited.”

Shaw added the team will continue to hold fund-raisers in the future.

“But it definitely means that we can plan more for the future now,” she said.

For the first time in two years, the Dauphin Kings hosted their Ukrainian Night game to celebrate Dauphin’s Ukrainian heritage and culture, which included the presentation of salt and bread to the visiting Swan Valley Stampeders.

The opening ceremonies also included longtime Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival volunteer Natalie Sklepowich joining Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker Shayne Gauthier in dropping the puck from the Grey Cup for the ‘ceremonial faceoff’.

Progress is being made in regards to the proposed toboggan hill on the DMCC grounds.

The organizing committee has entered into agreements with the Northwest Métis Council, Dauphin Friendship Centre and the Government of Treaty 2 Territory, who will all have representation on the committee.

Committee member Stacey Penner was at home watching YouTube videos with her children on National Reconciliation Day, last year, explaining what the day was about.

“And there was a common theme that circulated through those YouTube videos, that non-Indigenous people need to do the work to educate themselves and understand better what happened,” she said. “And the idea of putting this together as a collaboration is me doing my work as a way to honour the land which this sits on, the history of our large Indigenous population that is in Dauphin and within the Parkland.”

To the best of the committee’s knowledge, the three Indigenous organizations have never worked together before this. So the committee talked about how getting those three groups involved in the project could help to grow the park as an Indigenous tribute.

“Because they’re the experts. So what would they like to possibly see come from this idea of ours,” Penner said. “And again, that’s a piece that’s been snowballing, as well, talking about having language signs from the Indigenous culture. The name of the park might be reflective of the Indigenous language, having Indigenous artists and art pieces represented there. So we’re in the works, figuring out what we want to do to reflect that.”

The committee has also worked with the Dauphin Agricultural Society, which has the rights to the land.

“We knew in order to tap into that land we needed to work with them to not impede on their activities and festivities when the ag. fair comes around, but how we can compliment what they do and add to it,” Penner said. “It could be a draw for the ag society, as well.”\

The park, which will ultimately be an all-season facility, will be located on the senior baseball diamond on the DMCC grounds.

One of the committee’s goals in regards to the facility is to provide no-cost recreation, which will allow all families to enjoy it regardless of their financial situation.

“We want people outside, gaining the mental and physical benefits of fresh air and the outdoors and finding community spirit again,” Penner said, adding they have also partnered with Northgate Trails to promote Dauphin as a recreation hub of tourism and exploration within Manitoba.

Penner said there have been discussions surrounding other organizations utilizing the space, as well.

“Whether there’s pow wows or physical education classes or field trips within Mountain View School Division coming and using the space. That’s our hope, that other organizations will come on over and utilize the space,” she said.

The City of Dauphin has also partnered with the committee, granting them the land and agreeing to maintain it.

Something the committee is currently working on is a way to get businesses and individuals involved through financial contributions, which Penner said will take place soon.

“And that contribution can be large. That contribution can be five or 10 dollars,” Penner said, adding they hope to create a way to recognize everyone who contributes towards the project.

“There will be a donor wall, where we will have a gold, silver and bronze donor sponsor wall. The major donors, as well, will have the proper signage. And we’ve also talked about having ‘Friends of the Park’ for the smaller donees,” she said.

There are also plans to make the facility accessible for all.

“We want our project to be exemplary with regard to making recreation opportunities accessible,” Penner said, adding Scatliff+Miller+Murray, the company hired to design the facility, told the committee it was important to find ways to make the project as accessible as possible, which they wholeheartedly agreed with.

“So we had talked about making an accessible path that has an appropriate slope for somebody in a wheelchair or somebody who has a physical disability. So it won’t be a super steep incline, unless they want to take the direct approach. But we are building an accessible path that will be maintained on a regular basis,” she said.

A tender package has been put together and will be released soon. Once a company is hired, construction is expected to begin once the snow melts.

“As soon the ground starts to thaw and the snow melts, we’re ready to get building,” Penner said, adding Vermillion Growers has agreed to donate the fill, an in-kind donation Penner estimates to be worth about $150,000.

The committee, Penner said, anticipates the project will span a few different phases over the course of as many of five years.

“Phase one is the hill, the accessible path, the summer slide and winter sliding,” she said, adding phase two will be gradual. "As soon as we continue to have money roll in, we’ll decide in order of sequence what’s important to us and we’ll go from there. But right now we’re focused on phase one,” she said, adding the number of phases will depend on funding.

To make the facility all-season, the committee has discussed various options, such as a climbing wall, a playground, greenery, landscaping, picnic tables and a fire pit.

“We also talked about a skating oval in the winter at some point and a retention pond. All possibilities, but again, things are going to be unfolding in phases for us,” Penner said.

Penner, and committee member Larry Budzinski, have been working on some grant options. They have received a $40,000 from the Fusion Full Circle Fund, as well as other grants.

The project has also secured $272,000 from the federal government and there is a pending provincial grant for as much as $300,000.

The first phase of the facility is expected to be in the neighbourhood of $500,000.

“But we have major goals that we want to do above and beyond the hill,” Penner said.

Dauphin and District Community Foundation (DDCF) has donated $20,000 to the project and Penner said there is a second application they are waiting on from DDCF. The Thomas Sill Foundation of Winnipeg has donated $20,000, specifically for a pump track for cycling.

While there are those who do not believe climate change is real, there are others who deal with the changing climate every year, such as those in the agriculture industry.

Young farmers such as Steven Cruise, 38, have been dealing with it for a number of years.

When Cruise, who farms with his father Jim at Cruise Farms, thinks of climate change, he goes back to 2010, when he and his father had just finished seeding their wheat crop.

“That was the year Dauphin hosted the RBC Cup. So we spent the next couple days in the rink waiting for things to warm up enough to continue on with our oil seeds such as canolas and whatnot. And it just started to rain and it would not stop,” he said.

That year saw record rainfalls and Cruise remembers some saying they would never see rainfall like that again.

“And then, here we are, in 2011, it was just as bad. So I think that really opened my eyes as a young farmer to maybe the potential of some sort of climate change,” he said.

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The Dauphin Clippers ended the Westman High School Hockey League regular season in seventh place after winning two of three over the weekend.

The Clippers began the weekend with a 12-0 route over the Deloraine/Hartney Colts, Thursday in Dauphin.

Matthew Zurba led the way with two goals and two assists and Cole Delamare also had a four-point effort with a goal and three assists. Logan Chapman, Jaymen Fee and Linden Smigelsky also scored twice, while Austyn Roos, Liam Chartrand and Jake Kuzmiak added singles.

Owen Chubka stopped all 12 shots he faced to record the shutout. Colts goalie Ethan Williams was a bit busier, finishing with 52 saves.

On Friday in Minnedosa, Zurba and Braydyn Paskaruk each scored once and added an assist to lead the Clippers to a 3-1 win over the Chancellors.

Landon Brown had the other Dauphin goal, while Victor Lamb scored for Minnedosa. Cody Coombs stopped 25 shots to record the win, while Minnedosa’s Daylan Hunter made 37 saves.

On Sunday in Brandon, the Vincent Massey Vikings scored a 2-1 win in the season finale for both teams.

Porter Ewert and Hudson Brosseau scored for the Vikings, while Logan Chapman tallied for Dauphin. Matt Stephens had 38 saves for Vincent Massey and Chubka made 28 saves for Dauphin.

The Clippers finish the regular season with a 20-10-2-2 record for 44 points, good for seventh place.

Clippers manager Jason Alf was pleased with the team’s season. He admits he and the coaching staff did not realize until the last few days that the Clippers had a chance to finish with the fewest goals allowed.

“We only had a couple games that we lost by more than a goal. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with how things went,” he said, adding he did not realize how young the Clippers are with only two Grade 12 players. “I like how things have gone this year and I really like how we’re set up for the next couple of years.”

Dauphin will face Russell’s Major Pratt Trojans in the quarterfinals, which will begin, Mar 14, in Dauphin at 7:30 p.m., with game two in Russell, Mar. 16. Game three, if necessary, has yet to be scheduled.

The Clippers will have their work cut out for them. The Trojans finished with a league-high 233 goals, led by Luke Decorby’s 53 goals and 109 points.

Major Pratt had eight players finish at more than a point-per-game pace and had six players with more than 20 goals and three with more than 30.

“We’ve got to keep playing our defensive game. But we’ve got to try and convert some more offence. If we had a point that we need to work on it’s offence,” Alf said. “We’ve outshot a lot of teams. Even last night in Vincent Massey, against that high-powered team, we outshot them and lost 2-1. But we’re going to have to play well defensively and really limit mistakes, because they’re a team that can really take advantage of your mistakes.”