The Dauphin Kings saw their six-game winning streak snapped on home ice, Sunday, when they fell 3-1 to the Winkler Flyers.

Prior to that, the Kings won their sixth straight contest, 5-2 over the Neepawa Titans, Saturday in Neepawa.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley didn’t think the Kings played well against Neepawa, stating they got away with some things.

“We got caught standing and watching a bit. Good teams find ways to win and we definitely did that. I think we could have been better. Neepawa pushed hard. They had some good opportunities and (goaltender Austin) Seibel played real well. He made some big saves when he had to. Otherwise, they would have been back in the game,” he said.

That game was a continuation of the way the team has played in recent games.

“The last little while, we’ve been getting away with some stuff and I think we’ve got to get back to doing those little things better,” Hedley said. “Whether it’s getting to the paint to get second shots. Whether it’s putting pucks in behind the D-men, not turning pucks over at their blueline. Last night, we turned pucks over, over and over again and gave them opportunities on the rush. Fortunately for us, Seibel made some big saves when he had to.”

It’s a good way to learn, Hedley added, knowing the team can play with any team in the league.

“The speed is there. When we start moving pucks up ice and we start attacking bluelines with speed, we create some opportunities,” he said.

Winkler, playing their third game in as many days, kept the Kings from generating much in the way of scoring chances, blocking a lot of shots.

“If we had 25 shots total in the game, we probably had 25 blocked,” Hedley said. “Sooner or later, we’ve got to figure out you can’t just bury your head and shoot the puck. You’ve got to get your eyes up, get your chest up and maybe step fake and go around the guy who is sliding at you. In the last seven or eight minutes, they were down before we even shot the puck and we didn’t one time go around them.”

The Kings played better in the third period, using their speed to create chances, but could not solve Winkler netminder Malachi Klassen.

Winkler controlled the play through the first 40 minutes, outshooting Dauphin 30-11, an indication of the slow start by the Kings.

“You’ve got to give them credit. Their goaltender played well and they played well,” Hedley said.

The Kings added defenceman Charlie Sandven, who played eight games with the Minnesota Wilderness of the North American Hockey League.

The Edina, Minn. native brings size to the Kings blueline at six-feet, three-inches and 190-pounds.

“I like him. I like his mobility. He makes good first passes. He doesn’t do too much. He gets pucks up ice and snaps the puck hard. I really liked him and Trey tonight. They both played real well,” Hedley said. “We think he’s going to help our hockey club. I think he’s a real good D-man, moves well and he’s just going to get better and better.”

Forward Gavin Nemis is close to returning from a shoulder injury he sustained at the Showcase.

The Kings have just one game this week, hosting the Portage Terriers, Friday on Ag Night, with more than $10,000 in raffle prizes. Following the game will be a Skate with the Kings, where fans can skate with their favourite player.

Kings notes:

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League still has three teams in the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s top 10. The red hot Steinbach Pistons, 11-0-1-0 in their last 12 games, moved up from no. 8 to no. 4, while the Winkler Flyers dropped two, spots to no. 5. The Kings also dropped in the rankings to no. 9. The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Flin Flon Bombers sit atop the rankings, with a 14-1-1-0 record.

Dauphin’s Breken Brezden won gold at the 2024 Manitoba Sectionals, this past weekend in Moose Jaw, Sask.

Brezden won the provincial title after posting a score of 46.48 in the short program and clinched her second straight provincial crown with a score of 87.37 in the long program, for an overall score of 133.85.

This result qualifies Brezden for the Skate Canada Challenge in Winnipeg in early December.

Canadians are familiar with the annual Tim Horton’s Smile Cookie Campaign, held each spring for the past 25 years or more.

And now they will be able to add a little smile to their holidays as the iconic Canadian restaurant is holding its first-ever Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign.

And locally, no one will be smiling more than the Dauphin and District Community Foundation (DDCF), which has been chosen as the local beneficiary of the campaign.

The Holiday Smile Cookies are white-chocolate sugar cookies with red and green sprinkles baked into them and each is hand-decorated with a white smile.

The cookies sell for $1.50 plus taxes and can be purchased at the local Tim Horton’s until Nov. 19, with 100 per cent of the proceeds of the cookies going to charity - 50 per cent to DDCF and 50 per cent to Tim Horton’s Foundation Camps.

“We are so pleased to have been selected by Tim Horton’s as the local charity to share in the proceeds of the Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign. We have no idea what to expect, but we are excited as to how this will help us increase what we can grant to the community,” DDCF executive director Kit Daley said. “We have had a tremendous response from local businesses and very quickly had sponsors for each day of the campaign. We are grateful to them for immediately coming onboard and to everyone who is so generously going to support this campaign through their purchase of cookies. A huge thank you to Tim Horton’s for selecting DDCF for this campaign.”

You can also place an order through any of Tim Horton’s delivery partners and get the cookies delivered.​

Fire protection is one of the most important services a municipality can provide to its residents. It is also one of the most expensive.

The City and RM of Dauphin recently approved the purchase of a new pumper truck for the Dauphin Fire Department, but the $828,447.90 price tag might not be as big a hit as it initially appears, said fire chief Cam Abrey.

“This is part of our capital replacement plan. We have a 10-year capital replacement plan so there’s no surprises to the taxpayers. The city and the RM make annual contributions towards the plan through their budgeting process and then we take a look at the age of our apparatus and the maintenance that’s been going into it as of late,” Abrey said. “One of the things that we did in order to lower the cost for the ratepayers is we’ve moved from a custom cabin chassis, which was the last pumper purchased in 2011, to a commercial cab and chassis, which lowers a price by $150,000 to $200,000.”

Three bids were received for supplying the truck with The Fort Garry Fire Trucks plan for a 2025 Freightliner cab and chassis top mount enclosed pumper being selected.

The truck will carry 1,000 imperial gallons of water which will be managed through a Darley 1,250 imperial gallon pump. The truck will also provide seating for six firefighters and has a delivery time of 24 to 32 months, Abrey said, adding the new truck is being built to address the department’s specific needs.

“We looked at maximizing the crew efficiency, so the 2002 pumper only carries two firefighters, which means that we’ve got to send multiple trucks to any call outside of the City of Dauphin into the RM because we need more than two firefighters for these fires,” he said. “The new (truck) will be carrying six firefighters and a higher volume of water. The 2011 only carries 500 gallons of water and the new one is designed to carry 1,000 gallons of water. So it’s multipurpose in that it could respond within city limits and the RM of Dauphin.”

The additional water capacity, Abrey said, makes the truck ideal when crews are smaller than desired, providing additional resources for the initial knockdown while hydrants are tapped and provides enough water for fighting vehicle fires, which usually require around 500 gallons.

Those are the kind of benefits that can come with planning 10 years in advance, Abrey said, stressing the department will not spend the maximum amount of money available, simply because it is available.

“Every member on this fire department is also a ratepayer of the community and we’re not out to hose our community and increase taxes. We want to do it as efficiently as possible,” he said, adding even emergency situations like when the department’s water tanker caught fire in 2012 or the ladder truck had an electrical fire in 2015. “It would be easy to say, ‘we need a new truck’ and go get one rather than putting in the work to get it done. But we fought with insurance to get the best proceeds we could.”

Once the new truck is delivered the department will make a decision as to how to dispose of the old apparatus.

“We’ll ask the manufacturer when we get closer to delivery date if they’ll assist us in selling it or if they’d consider it as a trade in,” he said. “We always look for the best efficiencies we can with that, too. Obviously that money is returned back into the capital replacement plan.”

Abrey said the new pumper has a life expectancy of 20 years according to the Fire Underwriters Survey, the organization which sets insurance rates across Canada.

Women in Roblin are now going to have the option of going to the Roblin Clinic to see a physician who can assist them strictly with women’s health issues only.

Dr. Jenilee Misko will be offering a Women’s Wellness Clinic in the community starting this month. Misko saw the need for the treatment of women’s health issues in a bigger urban centre, where she is currently working, and felt that rural female patients should have the same services.

Read all about it in this week’s issue.

There is more and more need for adequate housing and affordable food, not only in the tri-community, but in Canada as a whole. The Pas Friendship Centre is fully aware of the amount of people living on the streets and how many are going without food on a daily basis. This sparked the project of building a new soup kitchen in the community, to help those in need.
“There was an apparent need to build a new soup kitchen based on the fact that many of our street population had nowhere to go or get anything to eat during the day,” said The Pas Friendship Centre Executive Director Doug Bartlett. “Oscar’s Place is only open from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., and they would provide a quick meal in the evening. The people who spent the night there, would then have to leave in the morning and go all day with nothing else to eat.

A Public Hearing was held with regards to was held to create a public lane across part of SW ¼ 10-56-26 WPM known as 645 Hogan Avenue. There was no representation from the general public with concerns in regards to this by-law. By-Law No. 4638 was given a third reading, after the Public Hearing and passed.
A new student councillor has been appointed. Josh Santolaja was born in the Philippines, moved to The Pas in 2017, and attends MBCI. He has participated on the Kelsey School Division Board and is looking forward to being a part of town council.
A new Assistant Municipal Superintendent has been hired to work for the Town of The Pas. Tanvir Shahrier Mahmud has accepted the position and comes with six years of experience in civil engineering and overseen multiple municipal projects. The position had been vacant for a couple of years.

The 42nd annual Calico Corners Craft Show and Bazaar took place at the Veterans Community Hall on Friday (Nov. 3), helping raise money for the Association of Community Living, Swan River Branch, and providing an early Christmas shopping opportunity for area people to buy from local small businesses.

The Swan Valley Legacy Committee (SVLC) pulled off their first fundraiser for a new arena in Swan River, with a packed house at the Veterans Community Hall on Saturday night (Nov. 4). Twenty-four teams were signed up to play Family Feud and compete for a $1,000 grand prize or a $500 second place prize, and a crowd of hundreds to cheer them on. First place went to the Harvesters team and second place went to the We Drink and Know Things team, with the second place team donating their prize money back to the SVLC. 

Riding a three-game winning streak entering a weekend doubleheader with the Winnipeg Wild in Dauphin, the Parkland Rangers were hoping for big things.

Instead, they learned a painful lesson about consistent hard work and intensity.

Winnipeg skated to a 7-1 win on Saturday, followed by a 10-0 victory on Sunday afternoon.

When asked about the difference between Parkland’s overtime win over the Wild earlier in the season compared to these two games, Rangers coach Tyler Carefoot cited Winnipeg’s compete level, work ethic and intensity.

“Those are things that come to mind. They’re a little more polished than when we saw them a few weeks ago. But in saying that, they’re also, I think, the youngest team in the league,” he said.

More in this week's Dauphin Herald!