After a spirited effort led to a 4-3 victory over the Portage Terriers, Nov. 22, the Dauphin Kings stumbled in a home-and-home with the Neepawa Titans.

Neepawa scored a 5-1 win over the Kings, Friday in Neepawa, before scoring a 2-1 win in Dauphin on Saturday.

As a result the Kings find themselves in third place in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s MGEU West Division, two points back of the Swan Valley Stampeders and one up on the Waywayseecappo Wolverines.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said the Kings were not very good in Friday’s game against Neepawa.

“We were terrible. We weren’t very good. Had no jump,” he said.

Special teams played a role in all three games, last week. Dauphin did not have a single power play against Portage, which scored twice on five chances with the man advantage. On Friday, the Titans scored three times in five chances, including a five-on-three late in the second period when the Kings were called for three minor penalties three seconds apart.

On Saturday, Neepawa had a goal in four power plays, while the Kings only had two chances with an extra man.

Hedley said the calls on Friday changed the game.

“We chased the game the whole time. It was a bad goal the first one. He (Marko Belak) just missed it. Missed a wrist shot from the blueline. The second one bounced off two sticks and bounced in,” he said. “We had come back and were all over them in the second and they gave us three penalties, two different guys on the same stoppage.”

Hedley hopes this is the kind of adversity the team can learn from. The Kings, he felt, were the better team on Saturday.

“We deserved better. I thought our guys worked hard. It’s just we’re not crashing, we’re not going to the paint hard enough. We’re not getting traffic, we’re not getting in front of his eyes and taking his eyes away,” he said, adding some players had outstanding games, among them Jonathan Wong, who returned to the lineup after missing several games.

“I think our energy was better. Shift after shift in the second period, they never got out of their zone. We had all kinds of chances. Pucks didn’t bounce our way. Sometimes you go through it. But (Neepawa goalie Mason) Lobreau definitely stole the game for them,” Hedley said.

The game was Teddy Bear Toss Night for the Kings. After a scoreless first period, fans finally got to throw their stuffed toys onto the ice when Myles Yearwood scored at the 10 minute mark.

The weekend marked the debuts of forwards Aaron Neal, who was acquired from the British Columbia Hockey League’s Powell River Kings, and Roblin’s Jakob Brook, who was released by the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats.

While it will take time for the newcomers to get used to the systems, Hedley feels the Kings will get better as time goes on.

“We’ve got a good hockey club. Now it’s a matter of finding ways to score and keep pucks out of our net,” he said.

The Kings are expected to make more roster moves this week, as Dec. 1 is the deadline to get down to 25 players.

The Kings will play the Winkler Flyers in a home-and-home this weekend. Friday’s game is in Winkler, with the rematch in Dauphin on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

The Kin Aquatic Centre was a busy place, Saturday, as Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy sponsored a free swim as part of the parade day activities.

The day also featured Christmas at the Fort and the return of the Christmas Parade of Lights.

The Grinch, along with some citizens of Whoville made the trip to Dauphin to take part in the city’s Christmas Parade of Lights, Saturday.

The parade was well attended with the streets lined all the way along the route to watch the more than 50 floats taking part.

A 6-4 victory over the Winnipeg Freeze, Friday in Dauphin allowed the Dauphin Kings to maintain their hold on second place in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s MGEU West Division.

Sunday’s game in Winnipeg was postponed due to the Grey Cup and will be rescheduled to a later date.

Winnipeg took a 3-2 lead into the first intermission and the Kings tied it in the second period. Dauphin took the lead with two goals in the first five minutes of the third and the teams traded goals to round out the scoring.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said it was not one of his team’s best games they’ve played this season.

“But at the same time, we found a way to get two points. Any win is a big win in this league. It’s not easy to do and any time you end up on the right end of the score is a good thing,” he said, adding there are still areas of the game the team has to work on.

“Including our work ethic. But you find a way to get it done and you move on,” he said.

The Freeze only have two wins on the season and are last overall with only five points. But they gave the Kings all they could handle, Friday.

“You have to give the Freeze credit, they played hard. They capitalized on some mistakes we made,” Hedley said.

“But we were on the wrong side of pucks a lot. We were on the wrong side of battles a lot. The back pressure that we’ve been doing consistently lately wasn’t there. Just the hard on pucks and stick battles. We weren’t at our best, but we found way to get it done.”

The first-ever Top Prospects Showcase was held in Portage, last Tuesday and Wednesday, with 12 players from the Kings taking part.

Hedley said all 12 players represented the team well.

“I thought all of guys showed real well and deserved to be there,” he said.

The Kings lineup will be bolstered by the addition of a pair of players from Ukraine, 20-year-old goaltender Dmytro Kubritskyi and forward Havryil Simchuk, who turns 16, Dec. 17.

Simchuk’s older brother Mikhail currently plays for the Brooks Bandits of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

Hedley said once their paper work with Hockey Manitoba and Hockey Canada is done, they can start playing, which he hopes will be done by the end of the week.

The Kings were contacted last year by a representative of Canadian Friends of Hockey in Ukraine about Ukrainian-born players joining the team.

“They’re trying to place national team members in North America to play hockey somewhere, because of what’s going on there,” Hedley said.

The Kings will get a good test on Tuesday when the Portage Terriers pay their first visit to Credit Union Place at 7:30 p.m.

On the weekend, Dauphin plays the Neepawa Titans in a home-and-home, beginning Friday in Neepawa, with the rematch in Dauphin on Saturday. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m.

The Dauphin Clippers hockey team remain in first place in the Westman High School Hockey League, winning two of three games, last week.

The week began, Tuesday, with a 9-0 home ice win over the defending Westman High School Hockey League champion Major Pratt Trojans of Russell.

Norman Lacquette and William Miner each scored twice to lead the Clippers, while Logan Chapman, Jaxon Bodnar, Boston Karlson, Dixon Flett and Ethan Carnegie added singles.

Owen Chubka made 30 saves to record the shutout. Josh Chipelski made 21 saves in the loss.

On Friday, the Clippers fell 8-3 to the Birtle/Shoal Lake/Rossburn Falcons in Birtle.

Ethan Hunter led the Falcons with two goals and three assists, while Colby Asselstine scored three times and added on assist. Noah Street also scored twice and Dylan Couvier had a single.

Tyron Sweetman, Liam Chartrand and Chapman replied for Dauphin.

Dane Pearson had 26 saves to his credit in picking up the win, while Cody Coombs had 27 stops in the loss.

On Sunday in Souris, Chubka stopped all 19 shots he faced in backstopping the Clippers to a 2-0 win over the Boissevain/Souris Broncos.

Miner netted the only goal Dauphin would need when he tallied a shorthanded marker with 3:10 left in the opening period. Jaymen Fee netted an insurance goal with 5:36 remaining in the third.

Colten Challner took the loss after making 33 saves.

Dauphin will look to improve their 8-2-0-0 record when they host the Minnedosa/Erickson Chancellors, Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

On Sunday, they travel to Brandon where they will faceoff against the Crocus Plains Plainsmen at 7:15 p.m.

The Parkland Rangers earned a point over the weekend in Kenora.

Parkland’s week began with a heart-breaking 3-2 loss to the Southwest Cougars, Tuesday in Dauphin.

The Rangers carried a 2-1 lead into the third period on goals from Bo Eisner and Luke Myhre, while Nate Robson replied for Southwest.

The Cougars pulled even when Regan Anderson scored 8:27 into the third. Then, with 5.6 seconds left to play, the Rangers were called for icing. Off the ensuing faceoff, the Cougars won it back to the point and a shot eluded Parkland goalie Kyler Swanton with 0.1 left on the clock. Nicholas Cullen was credited with the goal.

Evan Svoboda made 44 saves for Southwest, while Swanton stopped 24 shots for Parkland.

On Saturday in Kenora, Landon Lowes scored with 30 seconds left in overtime to lift the Thistles to a 5-4 win. The goal came one second after a Rangers penalty expired.

Nickolas Fagnilli scored twice for Kenora, with Lane Van De Wetering and Carson Maffey adding singles. Cade Legaarden scored twice for Parkland and Dru Mushumanski and Eisner had singles.

James Sinclair made 20 saves for Kenora and Chase Glover stopped 32 for Parkland.

Van De Wetering scored twice to lead Kenora to a 6-3 win over the Rangers, Sunday.

Reidar Paquette, Lowes, Emerson Evans and Fagnilli also scored for the Thistles, while Madden Murray with two and Myhre replied for the Rangers. Patrick Forsythe had 34 saves to his credit for Kenora. Swanton made 36 stops for Parkland.

The Rangers will face the Yellowhead Chiefs in a home-and-home this weekend, beginning, Friday in Shoal Lake with the rematch Saturday in Dauphin at 7:30 p.m.

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s MGEU West Division is getting tighter with each passing week.

The Dauphin Kings find themselves in a tie for second place with the Swan Valley Stampeders, with 26 points each, five behind the division-leading OCN Blizzard, one ahead of the Waywayseecappo Wolverines and two up on the Virden Oil Capitals. The Neepawa Titans bring up the rear with 18 points, six back of Virden.

The Kings earned a split in a pair of home games over the weekend, dropping a 5-2 decision to Virden on Saturday, before scoring a 3-2 overtime victory over the Winkler Flyers, Sunday.

Virden led 1-0 entering the third period and scored four times to break the game open.

On Sunday, after killing off a Winkler power play in overtime, Owen Wareham scored on a Kings power play to lift Dauphin to the victory.

Considering Saturday’s contest was a four-point game against a divisional opponent, it was a disappointing result, said Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley.

Since a 5-0 win over the Wolverines, Oct. 31, Hedley feels the Kings have gotten away from their game.

“And started doing more individual stuff and it carried over into Virden’s game. I don’t think we had the jump. We might have thought it was going to be easier than it was. We didn’t really play fast,” he said.

The Flyers are a big club and have some speed, Hedley stated.

“They can play,” he said.

The Kings were set back on their heels in the first period, thanks in part to four minor penalties. The Flyers controlled the second period, but the Kings, Hedley said, didn’t break.

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The Dauphin Kings agriculture project proved to be another success this year.

Project co-ordinator Rae Csversko said a field of 78 acres in the Keld area was donated to the project last year, but because of the wet spring, it could not be seeded this year, leaving the local junior A hockey club with only the land rented in the Industrial Park.

“We just got in the field in the Industrial Park area at the very last date you can to seed land. But it was unfortunate, because we did really well with that land in the Keld area last year,” he said. “So we just had the roughly 126 acres that we leased from the RM and City of Dauphin.”

The canola crop was harvested, Oct. 3, with the help of the three local farm equipment dealerships.

The ag. project, Csversko said, is a group effort with everything that goes into it being donated so the club can maximize its profits.

“Gary and Cory Sydor are the key players with respect to getting things going, as well as Jeremy Knutson,” he added. “These people do an immense amount of work and the input. It’s one thing to harvest the crop, but there’s a lot of people involved in getting the crop in.”

Csversko reported about five to 10 acres were lost due to wet field conditions, but they still managed to harvest 4,606 bushels, which were hauled straight to Cargill elevators. Because of the high commodity prices, the Kings were able to raise about $83,000 through the project this year.

“And that’s because of the extraordinarily high commodity prices and the fact that it costs nothing. All the seed, all the chemical that we use, it’s all donated. And that really makes a difference. It really does,” he said.

With the Kings paying off its debt last season, this money will go a long way to keeping the team financially viable.

Csversko credits all the volunteers and local businesses who contribute their products, time and effort to making the project a success year after year.

“If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be doing it,” he said.

The Dauphin and District Allied Arts Council presented its annual Christmas craft sale at the Watson Arts Centre, Saturday.

Various vendors offered their wares to those getting a little early Christmas shopping done.

The Tea Room also offered warm beverages, as well as soup and desserts.