The Parkland Rangers remain in the hunt for a playoff spot as the Christmas break looms.

The Rangers split a pair of games with the Pembina Valley Hawks, this past weekend on home ice.

Ryzlie Nepinak’s goal with 9:18 remaining in the third period lifted Parkland to a 4-3 win, Saturday night.

Alex Campbell, Cam Sarna and Hayden Seib also scored for the Rangers, while Kam Thomas with two and Sam Delaquis replied for the Hawks.

Chase Glover had 34 saves to pick up the win in goal. Bryson Yaschyshyn made 28 saves in a losing cause.

On Sunday afternoon, Liam Goertzen scored twice to lead the Hawks to a 7-2 win.

Acoyen Fehr, Haiden Friesen, Charlie Hill, Thomas and Brett Lesage had Pembina Valley’s other goals, while Maddox Shindle and Cash McCallum scored for Parkland.

Ryler Gates had 21 saves in the win, while Ethan Myhre stopped 16 shots in taking the loss.

Parkland’s record now sits at 9-11-2-1 for 21 points. They are in 10th place, but sit just one point out of a playoff spot and are two points out of seventh and five back of thew sixth-place Winnipeg Thrashers.

Following Sunday’s loss, a frustrated Rangers head coach Tyler Carefoot was not pleased with the team’s play in either game.

“We greased one out (Saturday). Found a way to win. If you look back at the last seven games, we got points in five of the last seven games. The standard of accountability changes as you win more and as you earn points,” he said. “So (Saturday) we found a way to win, we greased one out. But overall, collectively, I didn’t like a lot of things about (Saturday’s) game. But we got the two points.”

Sunday’s game, Carefoot said, was “super discouraging”, adding the game was emphasized for its importance.

“And right from puck drop, lack of urgency, lack of puck management, lack of game management. We were flat. Everything was flat. Pretty much from top to bottom, it was flat.”

In a league where there is so much parity and every game is important with playoff implications on the line, Carefoot feels the Rangers are in a position to write their own ticket when it comes to the postseason.

“Did we think we would be in a playoff spot right now? We’re battling for playoff position. So now to have a result like today in very discouraging,” he said. “But the Parkland Rangers, we’re resilient, we’re going to persevere and Tuesday is now the most important game of the season.”

That Tuesday game Carefoot spoke of is the final game before the Christmas break, a tilt in Shoal Lake against the Yellowhead Chiefs, who trail Parkland by five points.

Carefoot said the team has to overcome its lackluster play to beat the Chiefs, even though some players are playing sick.

“But we can’t use that as an excuse. There’s guys that have to step up. We have to simplify our game. The more urgent we play with all the little details that teams talk about that brings success, everything just gets a little bit easier. But this weekend, lackluster,” he said. “It’s a choice. It’s hard to work hard, but Tuesday is massive for our group. Because we have an opportunity to have to 10 wins. I’d be lying to you. Did I think we were going to have 10 wins this season? No, I didn’t. We can have 10 wins before Christmas. That’s pretty awesome. But we laid an egg this weekend.”

NOTE: Tuesday's game has now been postponed as players on both sides continue to fight illnesses.

Dauphin skips Tiffany Armstrong and Greg Todoruk track incoming shots during the regional playdowns, Saturday afternoon in Dauphin.

Armstrong and her team of Morgan Kropelnicki, Stacy Sime and Tamara Kolida defeated Terry Ursel of Arden-Lansdowne twice to earn a berth to the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, presented by RME, Jan. 23 to 28 in Morden.

Todoruk and his team of Darcy Todoruk, Rob Fisher and Terron Stykalo were one of three teams to qualify for the Viterra Championships, Feb. 6 to 11 in Stonewall.

Also qualifying were Jeff Stewart of Gladstone and his team of Eric Zamrykut, Jason Vinnell and Geoff Trimble and Dauphin’s Glenn Toews, Nick Ogryzlo, Cory Toews and Logan Devos.

The Dauphin Kings are showing signs of coming out of their slump, but they are not getting the results.

The Kings lost two of three games, last week, including a pair of home ice losses to the division-leading Virden Oil Capitals.

Virden scored a 2-1 win, Dec. 5, and a 4-3 triumph, Sunday.

In between was a 4-1 Kings victory over the Winnipeg Blues, Saturday.

In their last 11 games, Dauphin has a 3-7-1-0 record and have scored just 24 times in that span, while allowing 32 goals against.

With a 16-9-1-0 overall record, the Kings now sit in third place, one point behind the OCN Blizzard and they now trail Virden by nine points. Dauphin has two games in hand on both teams.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley, who is serving a 10-game suspension for a gross misconduct assessed in a 5-1 loss to Steinbach, Nov. 24, said the Kings have gone through a stretch where the work ethic wasn’t good.

“And prior to that, we were winning games, but finding ways to win. We got away from our what our strengths were and doing little things well. It finally caught up to us in certain games where we lost one-goal games,” he said. “We got away from being patient. We got away from playing on the right side of pucks and managing pucks. Basically, right now, we’re finding ways to give games away instead of finding ways to win.”

Sunday was an example of that.

After Virden built a 3-0 first-period lead, the Kings slowly chipped away and tied it in the second.

But the Oil Capitals took advantage of some sloppy play on the first shift of the third period and scored what proved to be the winning goal.

“It starts from goaltending out. You have to have goaltending. You have to have guys buying in and getting into shooting lanes and making smart plays and reading off teammates,” Hedley said. “The last two weeks there’s been some individual play rather than team play. We’ve just got to figure it out and get better.”

Among the positives the team can take from Sunday’s loss is the comeback from that early 3-0 deficit.

“There’s a lot of little things we can get better at. We know we’ve got a good hockey club. It’s just a matter of staying on course and thinking about the process it’s going to take,” Hedley said. “The league is getting better and we’ve got to get better.”

The Kings have relied on balanced scoring all season, with Jordan Bax, Logan Walker and Blake Boudreau leading the way.

But they got offensive contributions from Gavin Nemis and Madden Murray on Sunday, and Rylan Gibbs and Alex Senf on Saturday.

“We knew coming in that the back end was going to run (things) and help us win games. But right now we’re at a point where the forwards have to start contributing regularly,” Hedley said. “We have done a lot of experimenting, moving guys in and out and different line combinations. And the last few games, we’ve been creating opportunities. For a while there we weren’t.”

The great start the Kings had at the beginning of the season, Hedley said, allows the team to go through some adversity.

“But we’ve got to find our way here, soon,” he added.

The Kings have two games left before the Christmas break.

They are in Selkirk, Friday, before visiting the Flyers in Winkler on Sunday.

Both games will be tough.

“Selkirk is playing really well. They’re beating some good teams lately. And they always play us tough at home,” Hedley said. “We’ve got to get hungry on the road. It’s the Christmas break, guys have other things on their mind. But at the same time, it sure would be a good way to finish with two road wins.”

William Miner looks to make a play from behind the net in Friday’s 3-2 Clippers win over the Vincent Massey Vikings. Ronin Mouck, Liam Chartrand and Cody Zurba scored for Dauphin, while Owen Chubka made 18 saves to earn the win in goal.

The two teams met again, Sunday in Brandon, where a four-goal second period lifted the Vikings to a 7-4 win.

Tyron Sweetman, Zurba, Mouck and Jesse Hockridge had Dauphin’s goals and Chubka made 41 saves in the loss. The Clippers remain in first place with an 8-2-1-0 record, one point ahead of Vincent Massey.

Hockey fans who like a lot of goals would have been happy with the two games this weekend between the Parkland Rangers and Winnipeg Thrashers.

The two teams combined for 24 goals as the Thrashers scored a 10-5 win on Saturday at Credit Union Place, with the Rangers winning Sunday’s contect, 5-4.

The Rangers had a 4-2 lead after the first period on Saturday.

But Winnipeg scored in the opening minute of the second period to open the flood gates as they would score six times in the frame en route to the victory.

On Sunday, Parkland held a 4-2 lead going into the third period only to see the Thrashers tie the game by the 8:39 mark.

Unlike Saturday, the Rangers were able to rebound, netting the go-ahead goal with 2:14 left to play on a goal from Quentin Fisk and they hung on for the victory.

Rangers head coach Tyler Carefoot said Sunday’s win was a nice way to rebound from the loss the night before.

“Take away the second period of (Saturday’s game) and I think we deserved to win five out of six periods. So for that, I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the fellas,” he said.

The team has been focusing on keeping things simple, not forcing passes and being aware of where they are on the ice.

“And I think our execution to the details for the last five games has been tremendous. So all credit to the boys right now,” Carefoot said.

Read more in this week's Herald!

Above, Colton McLeod, 13, performs his rendition of Steve Earle’s Copperhead Road to open Bruce-a-Palooza, Sunday at the Watson Arts Centre.

The event was a musical tribute and fund-raiser for Bruce Leperre, top, whose support of grassroots music is well known throughout the music industry.

Leperre was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and the funds will go towards covering mounting costs not covered by the health system, as well as allowing him to live in his home for as long as possible.