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.

Another busy week in the Westman High School Hockey League saw the Dauphin Clippers earn seven of a possible eight points, solidifying their hold on second place.

The week began with a 9-3 win over the Roblin/Grandview/Gilbert Plains Raiders, Tuesday in Dauphin, with Ronin Mouck leading the way with three goals and an assist.

On Wednesday in Russell, Mouck had two goals and two assists to lead the Clippers to a 5-2 win over the Major Pratt Trojans.

The only blemish came, Saturday in Dauphin as the Swan Valley Tigers scored a 4-3 shootout victory over the Clippers, with Mouck adding another pair of goals.

In the team’s final home game of the regular season, the Clippers beat the Reston/Melita/Hartney/Souris Renegades, 3-0, with Ethan Myhre stopping all 24 shots he faced to record the shutout.

Clippers coach Josh Yaschyshyn was pleased the team’s play, noting they are banged up right now.

“We’re getting contributions up and down the lineup. Guys are battling through injuries, sicknesses. A couple of APs have taken time out of their busy schedule to come help us out, as well,” he said.

“We won three games and lost in a shootout against a good Swan team. So I’m real pleased with the effort this week.”

The Clippers end the regular season with a pair of game son the road.

Thursday, the Clippers make their way north to face Swan Valley in a rematch, which could determine which team finishes in second place.

Dauphin currently holds down that spot with a 24-4-0-2 record for 50 points, five ahead of the Tigers, who have four games in hand.

Dauphin ends the regular season, Feb. 25, in Sandy Bay against the Badgers.

Yaschyshyn hopes the team can keep the momentum going as they prepare for the postseason.

“You’re always building towards the playoffs. Two games left, one against Swan, one against Sandy Bay. Hopefully, we can put out best foot forward going into the playoffs,” he said.

A chance in the playoff format will see the top eight teams select who they want to face in the first round of the playoffs.

At this point, Yaschyshyn said they have talked a bit about what they want to do, taking into consideration factors such as travel distance and how they match up with their possible opponents.

“We won’t decide on that until everything is all finished and everything is finalized,” he said.

Varsity boys win

consolation

The Clippers varsity boys basketball team won the consolation at a tournament in Neepawa, this past weekend.

After losing, 79-65 to the Souris Sabres, Dauphin beat Gilbert Plains/Grandview Co-op team, 111-44 in the consolation semifinals.

Dauphin then defeated the Boissevain Broncos, 104-24 to win the consolation.

Dauphin will host a JV girls provincial qualifying tournament, Feb. 28 and Mar. 1, and a varsity boys provincial qualifier, Mar. 7 and 8.

Dauphin will then host the AAA JV girls provincials, Mar. 13 to 15.

A Dauphin football player will be in Florida next week as part of the Manitoba Selects football team.

Brenden Higgins, 17, was selected to play for the Selects at a tournament in Miami and Orlando, Fla., Feb. 14 to 23.

Higgins attended three tryout practices in Winnipeg, which weren’t grueling.

“They weren’t hard practices. They were easy practices,” he said, adding he was excited when he made the team.

“I was ready to travel.”

Higgins has played several different positions for the Selects, starting as a defensive tackle. That changed after a trip to Minneapolis.

“We decided that wasn’t the best spot, because those big boys were throwing me around. So I went to linebacker and these past couple of practices, they put me back at linebacker and at guard,” he said.

Higgins began playing football just last year. His favourite part of the game is hitting people. The Grade 12 student hopes to catch the eye of some scouts as he looks to land a scholarship.

Despite one of their worst games of the season, the Dauphin Kings managed to extend their lead over the Northern Manitoba Blizzard and Neepawa Titans in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s MGEU West Division.

Just six days after spoiling the party on Ukrainian Night with a 4-2 win over the Kings, the Virden Oil Capitals scored three times in a span of 1:21 midway through the first period of Friday’s game in Virden en route to an 8-0 shutout victory.

The Kings had little time to dwell on that loss as they faced the Blizzard on home ice for the first time this season, scoring a 3-1 victory, moving eight points ahead of the Blizzard and Titans.

Neepawa lost to Winkler, 3-2, Saturday, blowing a 2-0 lead.

The Kings came out flying, scoring on the first shift of the game just seconds in when Rylan Gage blasted a slap shot past Blizzard netminder Taye Timmerman.

Havryil Simchuk would get credit for a goal on a goalmouth scramble to give the Kings a 2-0 lead and Gabriel Bugeaud made it 3-0 before the period break.

It would stay that way until Miguel Bouvier put the Blizzard on the board with 4:08 remaining.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said the team didn’t play that bad in Friday’s game in Virden.

“It’s that just everything went in. Yash (goalie Bryson Yaschyshyn) had one of the toughest nights. We didn’t help him. At times we didn’t play well defensively, we didn’t help out. We didn’t compete like we did tonight,” he said.

“We were hard on pucks tonight. We were battling. It was a great rebound game.”

Friday’s loss was a costly one for the Kings as they also lost forward Cayden Glover for four to six weeks with a broken wrist, as well as defenceman Aiden Murray for a couple of weeks with a rib injury.

On top of that, the team’s best defenceman Naaman Hofer was hit with a two-game suspension for a cross checking major in Friday’s game. He will be able to return this weekend.

Playing the next day was huge for the Kings, Hedley said, especially after losing those three players.

The line of Joshua Schmidt, Gage and Sheldon Shyiak was fantastic, Hedley said.

“They’re a heavy line. They can play against some good top lines and they were very good tonight,” he said.

Getting off to such a good start was also key as was the team’s defensive play.

“When you’re not chasing the game, you can play totally different. I thought our D-zone tonight, the defencemen kept it simple. We did a lot of reverses, going D to D and up. But we never screwed around. We never tried to beat guys, never tried to go through the middle,” Hedley said.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of The Dauphin Herald.

The Dauphin Clippers varsity girls basketball team won its home tournament, this weekend, going 3-0 in the process.

Dauphin opened the tournament with a 52-30 win over the Virden Golden Bears, Friday, then defeated the Steinbach Christian Flames, 57-43.

Saturday morning’s contest with the Neepawa Tigers was for first place after the Tigers also beat Virden and Steinbach.

In a close contest, the Clippers pulled away to win the tournament with a 45-36 victory.

Clippers head coach Natasha Nepinak said the team was able to overcome a short bench.

“So we knew that we were going to have to play through the fatigue. I just told them that we were on a bit of a winning streak and once we won our first game just to keep the streak going and play through the fatigue,” she said.

The Clippers originally had 12 players and one dropped out during tryouts. They lost another player for the season to injury in the first tournament of the year.

Another player was an exchange student who was only in Dauphin for the first semester and has since returned home, leaving the Clippers with just nine players.

Dauphin will be in Beausejour for a tournament this weekend.

Nepinak said she is still trying to assess everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.

“And who plays well together. We’re looking forward to zones against Swan River. That’s our goal right now, is to figure out how we’re going to beat them to extend to provincial qualifiers,” she said, adding they have never seen any of the teams they will face in Beausejour.

“So we’ll practice and keep trying to get better,” she added.

The varsity boys were in Winnipeg, taking part in a tournament hosted by Pembina Trails Collegiate.

In their opening match against the Springfield Sabres, the Clippers scored an 88-34 win to advance to the semifinals, where they fell, 80-62 to the Elmwood Giants.

The third-place game against the St. Maurice Patriots saw Dauphin come away with a 71-45 victory.

Ryder Waggoner was Player of the Game against Springfield, while Nick Hudyma was Player of the Game against both Elmwood and St. Maurice.

Clippers coach Steven Hudyma said the boys played well despite missing two key players.

“We were led by Nick, our captain, and put a great effort out there,” he added.

Hudyma is pleased with the progress the team has made since the start of the season.

“We were fighting through a few injuries. And a couple of our players couldn’t be there this weekend. That being said, they have been progressing very well,” he said.

The Clippers will host the Clipper Classic this weekend, with the first game, Friday at 2:30 p.m., when the Clippers face the Swan Valley Tigers.

Hudyma is looking forward to playing their first games at home this season. A home game against Yorkton was postponed and rescheduled to late February.

The Clippers JV girls team was in Winkler for a tournament hosted by Northlands Parkway Collegiate, where they finished in second place.

Dauphin opened with a 63-27 win over the Garden Valley Zodiaks on Friday.

On Saturday morning, they clinched first place in their pool with a 77-44 win over the Morden Thunder, which is ranked third in the province behind the Clippers.

This put Dauphin in the championship game, where they dropped a 53-36 decision to the host Nighthawks.

Clippers coach John Marshall said the team had a great tournament.

“They were very strong. It really showed how much they’ve progressed this season,” he said.

The Clippers came out slow against Garden Valley.

“But then we gradually got our legs. It’s a four-hour trip to Winkler, so I think that showed in the first half,” he said.

“In the second half, they got their legs. Better rebounding. Better movement on the ball. The press looked better.”

The Clippers knew the game against Morden was an important one, with the Thunder ranked right behind Dauphin in the top 10 rankings.

“The girls came out flying and, really, the game was never close at all. We basically dominated from first quarter to fourth quarter,” Marshall said.

The final against the Nighthawks was Dauphin’s second of the day and the host’s first after playing twice on Friday.

“I think that kind of showed. We didn’t quite have our legs. We weren’t really rebounding as well as we could. Our press wasn’t as effective as hoped for. But in saying those things, we only lost by seven. So we know that when we’re on, when our legs are there, when we’re rebounding, when our press is working, we’re a really hard team to beat,” Marshall said.

The Clippers will travel west to take part in a tournament in Yorkton, this weekend, where they will face some new competition.

The JV boys were at a tournament in Neepawa, losing their first game, 88-18 to Brandon’s Vincent Massey Vikings.

In the consolation semifinals, Dauphin lost, 70-23 to the Virden Golden Bears.

In the seventh-place game, Dauphin lost, 61-40.

Three of the Dauphin Clippers basketball teams were in action this past weekend with varying levels of success.

The varsity girls were in Powerview for a tournament, where they finished first, winning all three games.

Dauphin was awarded a 1-0 win over the St. Laurent/Aurele-Lemoine co-op team, which failed to arrive in time for the game on Friday.

Later on Friday, the Clippers beat the Sagkeeng Anicinabe Wolves, 69-14.

On Saturday, Dauphin defeated the Fisher Branch Cougars, 39-24, and clinched first place with a 45-13 win over the host Powerview Wild.

Clippers coach Natasha Nepinak was pleased with the team’s play on the weekend.

“(Assistant coach) Amber (Fidierchuk) and I are always expressing to the girls how important it is for them to work as a team and to be selfless. We saw a lot of assists this weekend and everyone on our team scored a basket. We were missing a couple players so we can’t wait to have a full roster at our home tournament,” she said.

Nepinak saw an improvement in the team’s play over the course of the weekend.

“Our first game it took a while for us to get going. I think the girls were still a little groggy from such a long bus ride. Once everyone started to wake up it was all gas and no brakes,” she said.

“After the first game, we all agreed that was the standard for the rest of the weekend and that we wanted the winning to continue, so they knew with only eight players they needed to push through fatigue to make that happen.”

Nepinak feels the team has improved since the start of the season.

“At the beginning of the season, everyone was still shaking the rust off. Commitment is very important, the more practices everyone attends, the more they can play together and everyone can get into a groove,” she said.

The Clippers will host the Clipper Classic this weekend, with games Friday and Saturday.

The JV girls and boys were in Brandon for the Crocus Plains Invitational Tournament, Friday and Saturday.

The Clippers girls started the event with a 52-45 loss to the Portage Collegiate Saints, dropping them to the consolation side of the bracket.

In the semifinals, Dauphin beat the Neelin Spartans, 65-38, before beating the Crocus Plains Plainsmen Grade 9 unit, 65-8, to win the consolation.

Clippers coach John Marshall noted the loss to open the tournament was against a AAAA school, whereas the Clippers are a AAA team.

“I don’t think they had lost a game all year up to this point,” he said.

“It was a close game. And when I talked to the Portage girls after, they had said it was their best game so far that they played against us. It was a very competitive game.”

The Clippers knew what they would be facing against Neelin, having played them before. And Marshall said it was important to beat another AAA team to, hopefully, hold on to their ranking.

As of Jan. 20, the Clippers were ranked second in the province behind the Linden Christian Wings.

The game against the Crocus Plains Grade 9 team gave the Clippers a chance to give every player some playing time.

“We had a chance to play our bench players. They had a chance to play a lot of the game. That was real exciting to see them play and do very well,” Marshall said.

Marshall said the team is executing its plays a lot better from the start of the season and they are communicating a lot better, as well.

“As a team, they are working for each other and all around, they are playing the game at a higher level than when they started at the beginning,” he added.

The Clippers JV boys opened their tournament with a 69-48 loss to the Virden Golden Bears and were knocked out of contention for the consolation title with a 72-39 loss to the Minnedosa Chancellors.

Dauphin beat the Crocus Plains Grade 9 team, 62-34 to finish seventh in the tournament.

Despite seeing their four-game winning streak snapped on home ice Saturday, the Dauphin Kings didn’t lose ground in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s MGEU West Division.

Cayden Glover had a goal and two assists to lead the Kings to a 4-1 win over the Swan Valley Stampeders, Jan. 21 in Swan River.

It was Dauphin’s fourth win in a row.

On Saturday, in front of a capacity crowd of 2,112 for Ukrainian Night, Bryce Bryant scored twice to lead the Virden Oil Capitals to a 4-2 win, snapping Dauphin’s winning streak.

Dauphin’s record now sits at 26-10-1-0 for 53 points, six ahead of the Northern Manitoba Blizzard and Neepawa Titans. Neepawa pulled into a tie with the Blizzard over the weekend, with the Blizzard maintaining its hold on second place by virtue of having two more wins than the Titans.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley, who returned behind the bench against the Winnipeg Blues, Jan. 18, is happy to be back from his eight-game suspension.

“I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward down the stretch. We’ve got a real good group of kids that are going to work hard,” he said.

“It was a tough one tonight, but we’ll get better.”

Hedley said the team has played really well in the four wins prior to Saturday’s loss.

“We played with speed. We played north-south, we made some plays at the blueline. We made some great plays in small spaces and came through with some big goals. We scored a lot of goals this segment,” he said.

“But unfortunately tonight, we had a lot of shots and a lot of opportunities, we just didn’t get in front of his (Virden goalie Loic Morin) eyes. We didn’t take any eyes away at all.”

Virden did a good job of getting sticks into lanes, often deflecting passes or shots. But the Kings still managed to direct 39 shots at Morin, who finished the night with 37 saves, while limiting the Oil Capitals to just eight shots through 40 minutes.

Virden grabbed a 2-0 lead after the first period and Glover scored twice in the second period to tie the game entering the third.

Virden’s Adler Johnston took advantage of a miscue to score the go-ahead goal at 7:44 when Kings defenceman Aiden Murray skated the puck in front of the Kings net and collided with a teammate, presenting Johnston with an opportunity he did not miss.

The Oil Capitals added an insurance marker with 3:17 remaining.

Hedley said Virden was just waiting for the Kings to make a mistake.

“And we made a mistake with about eight minutes left. All of a sudden it’s 3-2 and they can just frustrate the hell out of you,” he added.

Hedley would like to see more players adopt and shoot first mentality.

“We’ve got to get better finishing. Gabriel Bugeaud is one of our best shooters on the team and he passed the puck off twice when he was right in the slot to shoot,” he said.

“We’ve got to start thinking that we want to score goals. It’s okay to share the puck, but when you can shoot like he can and when you’re in the slot, there’s no sense  passing it over to somebody.”

Hedley added the Kings did not do a good job of stopping on pucks, doing a fly-by instead, while Virden was stopping on pucks in the last 10 minutes.

Hedley also feels the special teams can improve. The Kings were just one-for-six on the power play, Saturday.

“We have great movement, great possession. But we’re not taking eyes away, we’re not getting a net front presence and we’re not getting rebounds. We’ve got to find a way to get into those tough spaces, those tough areas to get second shots and rebounds,” he said.

The Kings will look for better results when they are in Virden, for a rematch on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, the Kings return to Credit Union Place to face the Blizzard, also at 7:30 p.m.

Kings court: Dauphin’s record on Ukrainian Night falls to 4-5. They won in each of the last three years before Saturday’s loss to Virden. . . .With two goals on Saturday, Cayden Glover now leads the MJHL with 33 goals and 10 power-play markers. And he has also moved into a second place tie in league scoring with Niverville’s Adam Vigfuson, each with 52 points. They trail Steinbach’s Connor Paronuzzi, who leads with 61. With 44 points, Naaman Hofer continues to lead all defencemen in scoring . . . defenceman Matt Haun announced his commitment to play at College of St. Scholastica, next season. The Saints play NCAA Division 3 hockey in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) . . . Glover and Hofer will be joined at the MJHL/SJHL Showcase this week by defenceman Matthew Thomas and goaltender Cole Sheffield on the 20U Black team for the MJHL/SJHL Showcase, which takes place this week. Forward Gavin Nemis will suit up for the 18U squad.

The Dauphin Clippers have fallen to eight place in the Westman High School Hockey League.

The Clippers split a pair of games last week, beginning with a 6-2 win over the Minnedosa/Erickson Chancellors, Jan. 14, in Minnedosa.

Josh Yakielashek scored twice to lead the Clippers offence.

Layne Wolfenden, Julien Lopez, Noah Hanneson and Norman Lacquette also scored, while Chase Glover made 28 saves to earn the win in goal.

William Melvin and Colby Pentecost replied for the Chancellors and Parker Soltys stopped 37 shots.

After Friday’s game against the Crocus Plains Plainsmen was postponed due to weather, the Clippers faced the league-leading Vincent Massey Vikings, Saturday, falling 5-0.

Tate Bercier, Theron McGregor, Josh Romanik, Joey Leblanc and Tyler Rogers scored for the Vikings and Hunter Gregory stopped all 38 shots he faced to earned the shutout in goal.

Glover made 15 saves through 40 minutes before giving way to Ethan Myrhe after he was ejected from the game at the end of the second period. Myrhe made 12 stops in the final period.

Clippers head coach Josh Yaschyshyn said the game against the Chancellors was a full 60-minute effort, with balanced scoring.

The game against the Vikings has a different story, however.

“There’s a reason they haven’t lost yet,” Yaschyshyn said.

“They work well as a team. Their top line is phenomenal. I think the lowest scorer on that line has 60 points. They do all the little things right.”

But Yaschyshyn felt the Clippers played well at times.

“For stretches of the game we controlled the play. We just didn’t get any bounces. But overall, I’m not upset or mad or anything like that,” he said.

The game was chippy at times. Glover was ejected with a five-minute major for attempt to injure at the end of the second period. That is an indication of the rivalry that has developed between the two teams.

“This is a little bit of a rivalry that goes back a number of years. The boys always looks forward to playing Massey. It was nice to see a little feistiness, for sure. It shows the boys care,” Yaschyshyn said.

The good news is the Clippers have games in hand on everyone above them in the standings.

And with a busy week ahead, they will make up some of those games.

On Wednesday, the Clippers are in Sandy Bay to face the Badgers at 7 p.m.

Dauphin will play their makeup game against Crocus Plains on Friday in Dauphin at 8:30 p.m., and they will host the Glenboro/Carberry/Baldur Wildcats, Saturday at 4 p.m.

On Sunday, the Birtle/Shoal Lake/Rossburn/Birdtail Falcons visit Credit Union Place for a 6 p.m. date with the Clippers.