The Dauphin Kings are one point away from clinching the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s MGEU West Division title entering the final week of the regular season.

After dropping a 1-0 decision to the Northern Manitoba Blizzard, last Tuesday, the Kings won both games over the weekend, beating the Portage Terriers, 2-1, Friday in Dauphin, before handing the Swan Valley Stampeders a 3-1 loss in Swan River.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley is pleased with the team’s defensive play of late, noting that is to be expected come playoff time.

“We’re trying to be consistent. We talk about the process, not really the result. We want to get those consistent habits going into the last part of the regular season and into the playoff stretch,” he said.

“So it’s good to see. The D side of the puck battles in the low D zone are getting good. Guys are coming back hard. Guys are working hard. Stick battles, 50-50 stick battles, we’re winning. Faceoffs are getting better. So it’s definitely a process going in the right direction.”

The Kings have three games remaining and all three are meaningful games as two are with the Waywayseecappo Wolverines, who are trying to lock down the final playoff spot in the West Division, sitting three points ahead of the Virden Oil Capitals.

Dauphin is in Waywayseecappo tonight at 7:30 p.m.

On Friday, the Kings make their final trip to Neepawa to face the Titans at 7:30 p.m. And on Saturday, the Kings host the Wolverines, also at 7:30 p.m.

Those meaningful games will benefit the Kings as they prepare for playoffs.

“Playing teams that are in the same position as we are and getting ready for playoffs is a good thing,” Hedley said.

“Sheff (goalie Cole Sheffield) is locked in right now. It’s his 20th year, obviously, and he wants to play at the next level. Everybody we’re playing now is a good thing to get pushed, so we can push back and just find out what we’re about. The only way to get experience like this is through games and our young guys are getting some good experience right now.”

Hedley noted Ethan Stewart and Declan Hoad have their own playoff experience they can lean on, having won a championship with the U18  Brandon Wheat Kings, last season.

“They’ve been in games like that. They can rely on their experience on what it takes to get the job done. And with the vets, Gloves, (Cayden Glover), Willi (Ethan Williment), Hofe (Naaman Hofer), Sheff, and then you put Hauner (Matthew Haun) in there that is playing well, the 20 year olds lead and the rest  of the guys follow,” he said.

Kings court: Defenceman Naaman Hofer was named the winner of the Brian Kozak Memorial Award as Top Defenceman. Connor Paranuzzi of the Steinbach Pistons won the Steve “Boomer” Hawrysh Award as MVP, while Winkler’s Liam Ernst won the Ed Belfour Award as Top Goaltender. Portage netminder Mitchell Kathler won the Kim Davis Award as Top Rookie. Brody Beauchemin of Winkler won the Frank McKinnon Memorial Award for Hockey Ability and Sportsmanship and Matt Melo of Winkler was named the winner of the Muzz McPherson Memorial Award as Coach of the Year. Hofer and teammate Cayden Glover were selected to the first all-star team along with Northern Manitoba’s Miguel Bouvier and Paranuzzi, Winkler defenceman Isaiah Peters and Ernst. Cole Sheffield was selected to the second all-star team along with Grandview’s Jayce Legaarden of Winkler, Cam Bullinger of Portage, Adam Vigfusson of the Niverville Nighthawks and defencemen Noah Szabo of Steinbach and Parker Scherr of Portage. The rookie all-star team consists of Kathler, defencemen Maxime Lavoie of Winkler and Reece Gault of Steinbach and forwards Koy Funk of Portage, Rohan Guevarra of the Selkirk Steelers and Kam Thomas of Winkler.

The Dauphin Clippers varsity boys basketball team punched its ticket to AAA provincials, this past weekend as they finished second in a AAA provincial qualifying tournament on their homecourt.

The Clippers opened the eight-team tournament with a 79-51 win over the St. Maurice Patriots, Friday evening.

Dauphin then defeated the Elmwood Giants, 86-54 in the semifinals to clinch a berth at provincials as the top three teams advance to championship tournament.

In the final, the Clippers dropped an 85-66 decision to the Neelin Spartans. Elmwood went on to beat the St. James Jimmies, 120-72, to claim the third spot at provincials.

Clippers coach Steven Hudyma was pleased with the team’s play over the course of the weekend.

“We came together and showed a lot of grit. We really played well as a team and our attitude was spot on,” he said.

The team entered the tournament confident they would qualify for provincials, which was a key to their success.

“We had some work we’ve been putting in at practices and it translated to the court,” Hudyma said.

Hudyma expects to be ranked in the top four entering provincials, which will lead to high expectations entering the championship.

“Expectation is that we’re going to work hard these next two weeks so that we can be very successful at provincials,” he said, adding the team appreciates the support of their fans during the tournament.

The provincial championships will be held, Mar. 20 to 22, in Winnipeg, hosted by Westwood Collegiate.

The Parkland Chamber of Commerce is looking for a new executive director after it was announced Stephen Chychota would be stepping down from that position.

Chychota’s wife Nicole, was recently hired as the city manager in Portage la Prairie and he will be joining her there.

“I gave the board up to May 2. But it could be sooner if they find someone,” Chychota said.

Chychota joined what was then known as the Dauphin and District Chamber of Commerce about 10-1/2 years ago.

Among the highlights for Chychota is the rebranding of the organization to what is now the Parkland Chamber of Commerce.

“And that transition was a big moment for myself, for the board, for the business community in the region. It really meant a lot for many different things,” he said.

“That was a big transition that we went through and it’s really exciting to see where that leads us.”

Year after year, there are different events that need planning, such as the Dauphin Street Fair, which he said is really special.

“We had the fortunate luck of having great weather and the ability to pull that event off and make it bigger and better every year. It’s one of those community events that everyone looks after and looks forward to. So I’m really honoured that I could be a part of that and make that event happen. That means a lot.”

Another highlight for Chychota was the implementation of the State of the District to the Chamber’s lunch series, allowing community groups from across the region to share their message and bring awareness of what is happening throughout the region.

“To try and bridge those gaps and represent that we are stronger together as a region,” he said.

From a personal aspect, Chychota has been part of several boards and he’s been involved in a lot of projects outside of the chamber.

“You don’t expect to be as busy or working that hard, but opportunities present themselves and you keep working towards our goal. These boards and organizations and things that I’ve been a part of outside of the chamber that complement it all has been a lot of fun,” he said.

The milestone awards, which recognizes businesses membership within the chamber, as well as the chamber awards were an opportunity to make more of a flagship event with more regional recognition.

“We wanted to make things a little bit more fun and exciting, especially for the nominated awards and get the community really involved and aware of more of that process and understand that there’s some fantastic organizations and individuals out there that are doing some really hard work and we’ve got to showcase those,” he said.

“We have that coming up and we’re really looking forward to pulling that event off.”

Chychota said it is not easy to leave.

“But there’s an end that has to come once in a while. I think leaving the Chamber in good shape and someone incredibly talented can come along and take it and make it even better,” he said.

Chychota is not leaving the chambers world, however, as he is involved with the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.

“I’m looking forward to supporting this chamber and others across the network in that capacity,” he said.

The first ever Dauphin Lake Walleye Dash was a tremendous success, with 68 fishers trying their luck just offshore at Ochre Beach, Saturday.

The event was hosted by the Kin Club of Dauphin and Toba Outdoors.

Prize winners were Fred Boychuk, $2,550; Orville Brown, $1,190; Kashtin Wilson, $850; Nathan Sichewski, $340; and Nathan Bassingwaite, $170.

The walleye dash is one of several events the Kin Club of Dauphin will be involved in after stepping away from the Parkland Business Expo.

“We had wanted to do a few different things just this year, after we put our Kin Clubs together. So we’ve melded with the men and the women. So we wanted to try some new fund-raisers. So we thought that putting on a fishing derby would be the way to go,” said Kin Club of Dauphin president and event chair Becky McGregor.

Considering it was the first time for this event, McGregor was pleased with the response, adding  it was a learning experience for everyone involved in organizing the derby.

“I’m pleased with the amount of people out here and everyone is happy,” she said.

More than 40 fish were caught during the six-hour event, including 27 walleye. McGregor added the first 10 fish were caught within the first 20 minutes.

The Kin Club of Dauphin has stepped away from organizing the Parkland Business Expo because of a lack of volunteers to get them through the planning stages.

“And the event stage, we felt. It was just time to try something new and fund-raise in the community in a different manner,” McGregor said.

At this point, the amount raised, or where the proceeds will go, has yet to be determined.

Overall, McGregor was pleased with the event.

“It was a great day. The weather is great. Everyone is happy. Organizers are happy. The food tastes good. Fish are caught,” she said.

Twenty-five teams took to the ice at the Parkland Recreation Complex curling rink, this past weekend for the Dauphin Curling Club’s annual men’s bonspiel.

Nick Ogryzlo’s rink with Glenn Toews skipping, won the first event, sponsored by Embroidery by Design, beating Brad Edwards. Ogryzlo’s team includes Nick Solomon and Reid Procyshyn.

Darcy Todoruk was third and Paul Scinocca was fourth.

Doug Fisher and his team of Lorne Orpin, Mike Zazuliak and Ryan Zazuliak needed an extra end to beat Jared Nimegeers in the second event, sponsored by McMunn and Yates Building Supplies.

Regan Hedley was third and Glenn Rozak was fourth.

Chad Sahulka won the third event, sponsored by Parkland Source for Sports.

Sahulka’s team includes Terron Stykalo, Tyson Gillis and Tere Stykalo.

They defeated Ken Levandoski in the final, while Morley Bourns was third and Jeff Campbell was fourth.

The fourth event, sponsored by Baker Computers, was won by the team of Brian Freiheit, Dan Hudson, Keegan Freiheit and Kai Schettler.

They defeated Logan Devos in the final, while Greg Thompson was third and Kyle Forsyth was fourth.

This weekend will see the Royal Canadian Legion Dauphin Branch No. 20’s annual mixed bonspiel, Mar. 7 to 9.

The Dauphin Clippers varsity boys basketball team moved one step closer to provincials after completing a sweep in the zone playoffs against the Swan River Tigers, Feb. 24, with a 101-50 win in Swan River.

Clippers coach Steven Hudyma said the team played well despite missing one of their key players due to illness.

“And some other players stepped up, so it was a good win for us,” he said.

“The key to that victory was our tenacious defence and sharing the ball on offence.”

After a loss in game one, the varsity girls forced a third and deciding game with a 74-50 win in game two, Feb. 24.

But their season came to an end, Wednesday, when they lost 52-44.

The varsity boys will now host a provincial qualifer tournament this weekend, with their first game, Friday, against the St. Maurice Patriots.

Playing on their home court in the provincial qualifier should give the Clippers confidence heading into the tournament.

“The boys are very excited about that. To have a little more support from your crowd and just to do things at home and sleep in your own bed at night will make a big difference,” Hudyma said.

Eight teams will take part in the qualifier, with the top three teams advancing to provincials, in Winnipeg, Mar. 20 to 22, hosted by Westgate Collegiate.

Hudyma likes his team’s chances, with the way they have been playing of late.

“The mindset of the players has been where it needs to be,” he said.

The Dauphin Clippers varsity boys are one win away from a berth to a  provincial qualifying tournament after a lopsided 109-36 win over the Swan Valley Tigers in game one of the zone playoffs, Thursday in Dauphin.

Originally scheduled for Swan River, Feb. 17, the games featuring both the varsity boys and varsity girls were postponed due to the extreme cold and moved to Thursday in Dauphin.

Clippers boys coach Steven Hudyma liked what he saw from his team on the court.

“I really liked the way we played as a team today. And continuing going forward that’s what we’re going to have to do to be successful,” he said.

The Clippers used their pressure defence to continuously steal the ball resulting in the lopsided score. That pressure defence, Hudyma said, is one of the team’s strengths to create easy baskets.

“We started off a little slow with making some of our three-point shots. But then we were back to normal within the second quarter,” he said.

The Clippers, Hudyma added, like to mix it up with the defence to create easy layups and they rely on three-point shots when they are in their half-court set.

The Clippers advanced to the provincial qualifier with a 101-50 victory in game two, Monday in Swan River.

Prior to that, the Clippers have an exhibition game with Yorkton this Tuesday.

In the girls game, Swan River led for most of the contest, but the Clippers hung around and took the lead thanks to a late push only to see the Tigers sink a three-pointer with 31 seconds left to seal a 62-60 victory.

Clippers coach Natasha Nepinak has been telling the team all season to push through the fatigue.

“We went from having injuries to have not very many players. So we tell them to keep pushing and keep fighting to the very end,” she said.

Nepinak  is confident the Clippers can even the best-of-three series, Monday in Swan River.

“I think we have a good chance against them. I think that this was an off-game. I don’t know what was going on. I feel like we were kind of a little bit scrambled, but I feel like closer to the end we played how we usually play. So I have a good feeling in Swan next week,” she said.

Nepinak wishes they had a fan bus going to Swan River with them to cheer the team on. The fans in attendance on Thursday were loud and raucous as the Clippers made their late push to take a lead in the last minute.

“The fans are amazing. The energy in here was amazing. They help us all the time,” she said.

The key to winning Monday’s game is simple.

“Knowing that it’s do or die. If they want to continue practices, if they want to continue playing games, then they know what they have to do and that’s win.

The girls got the job done, forcing a third and deciding game with a 74-50 victory, Monday in Swan River.

Game three will go in Swan River on Wednesday.

The Dauphin Kings U15 hockey team won the provincial gold on home ice, this past weekend.

Hosting the Co-ed U15 A provincials, Dauphin opened the tournament with a 6-4 win over Virden.

Drayson Demeria led the way with three goals and Kellan Shtykalo added a pair. Carter Smigelsky had a single as Carter Porath earned the win in goal.

In Dauphin’s second game, Brayden Abrams scored twice and had an assist and Kenai Mouck scored once and added two assists in leading the Kings to a 7-2 win over Morden.

Demeria also scored twice, with Samson Bourgouin and Rossi Puchailo adding singles. Kaysi Sliworsky was in goal for the win.

The final game of the round-robin was a showdown for first place in the pool against Carman.

Smigelsky had a goal and two assists and Puchailo scored twice to lead Dauphin to a 6-3 victory.

Shtykalo, Abrams and Demeria had Dauphin’s other goals, while Porath was in goal for the win.

In the semifinals against Brandon, Shtykalo scored three times to lead Dauphin to an 8-4 triumph.

Bourgouin, Abrams, Mouck, Weston Rank and Puchailo also scored for Dauphin in support of Porath, who picked up the win in goal.

Dauphin got off to a quick start in the gold medal game against Swan Valley as Shtykalo opened the scoring just 15 seconds into the game.

Swan Valley tied the game with four seconds left in the second period and it stayed that way until Demeria netted the gold-medal winning goal with just 10 seconds remaining.

Shtykalo added an empty-net goal with five seconds left to seal the victory for Dauphin.

Porath was in net for the win and Rank chipped in with two assists.

Carman beat Brandon, 4-3 to win the bronze medal, while Virden won the consolation with a 5-1 win over Winkler.

The Swan Valley Stampeders U15 squad came within a hair of capturing provincial gold this past weekend in Dauphin. In the gold medal game, Dauphin broke a 1-1 deadlock with just 10 seconds remaining on the clock, then added an empty net goal immediately after to relegate the young Stamps to the silver medal finish. The 3-1 loss was a tough pill to swallow. Here, Stamps forward Jake Nykolaishen heads up ice in search of a goal. See next week’s Star and Times for the full story.

The Parkland Rangers have their fate in their own hands entering the final week of the regular season in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League.

The Rangers make their final trip to Winnipeg on the weekend, dropping both games to the Winnipeg Wild.

Reid McIntyre scored twice and added an assist and Declan Siwicki also scored twice to lead the Wild to a 6-0 win, Saturday.

Gino Cotroneo and Tyson Nimetz also scored for Winnipeg and Dawson Groen made 22 saves to record the shutout, while Kyle Pelletier made 30 saves in taking the loss.

On Sunday, Luca Pura’s goal midway through the second period stood up as the winner in a 2-1 Winnipeg win.

McIntyre had Winnipeg’s other goal, while Brayden Budolowski replied for Parkland.

Justin Perreault made 15 saves to earn the win in goal for the Wild. Piet Mierau had a busier afternoon, making 40 saves.

Parkland maintains its hold on sixth place in the standings, with a 23-20-1-1 record for 48 points. They are tied with the Pembina Valley Hawks, but have the advantage with 23 wins compared to 20 for the Hawks.

The Interlake Lightning and Eastman Selects are tied with 47 points entering the final week.

Parkland will be in tough when they face the Brandon Wheat Kings, Wednesday in Brandon.

But Parkland’s future will be decided on the weekend when they travel to Beausejour for a twinbill with Eastman, Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.