Ryan Keown got his dream come true at this year’s Josie Music Awards, as he got to deliver his acceptance and thank you speech on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry Circle...

A pair of Dauphin defenders push a Virden player out of bounds in the Murray Black Cup, Saturday.

The Clippers overcame the cold, snowy conditions to score a 31-18 victory, to win the Murray Black Cup.

The Doug Steeves Cup will be played, Saturday, featuring the top two teams in the league, the second-place Interlake Thunder facing the number-one ranked St. Vital Mustangs in Winnipeg.

After seeing their four-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Niverville Nighthawks during the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s annual Showcase, the Dauphin Kings have started another winning streak, this one reaching three games going into this week.

The Kings rebounded from last Monday’s loss to Niverville with a come-from-behind 3-2 shootout win over the previously unbeaten Winkler Flyers.

Dauphin then made it two wins in a row with a 7-2 win over the Waywayseecappo Wolverines, Friday in Dauphin and made it three straight wins with a 7-2 win over the Winnipeg Freeze, Sunday in Winnipeg.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley felt the players were a bit nervous heading into the Showcase, which resulted in the loss to the Nighthawks.

“The guys want to get to the next level. We’ve been playing outstanding and we’ve been playing as a team. And we just got caught up in a little bit of the atmosphere there and the talk about schools coming up to watch,” he said. “I think we just got onto an individual page a little bit. We started doing things that we weren’t accustomed to doing all year, making an extra move before we pass the puck up, trying to beat guys with toe drags. And our rush defence wasn’t very good.”

Austin Seibel got the start in goal and played well, according to Hedley.

“He made some big saves. You can only give up so many odd man rushes before it kills you. And I thought we learned from it. We had a really good third period,” he said.

Dauphin fell behind Winkler, 2-0 after the first period and tied the game in the second with a couple of power-play goals.

“We sure never quit and the guys stuck together and found a way to get it done. It was a huge win for us,” Hedley said.

The Kings carried the momentum of that win into Friday’s contest against the Wolverines, building a 5-1 lead before the game was 10 minutes old.

“The way we started the game tonight was a direct result of that game in Winnipeg. We were on our toes and we set the pace right off the hop against Wayway,” Hedley said.

Dauphin’s power play, which struggled early on, is on fire as of late. In the last five games, the Kings have scored 13 times in 30 tries with the man advantage, a 43.3 per cent clip.

As a result they now have the best power play in the league, with a 31.4 per cent success rate.

Hedley noted all four goals at the Showcase came on the power play.

“Guys are starting to move pucks and we’re starting to get some breaks in front of the net,” he said. “The guy that’s in the right spot a lot of times net front is Walks (Logan Walker). He’s making a big difference and he’s getting some big goals for us.”

The Kings will look to extend their winning streak when they host the Wolverines, Friday, at 7:30 p.m., before heading south to take on the division-leading Virden Oil Capitals, Saturday.

Kings court:

The Kings moved up two spots in the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s Top 10, coming in at no. 10. After two weeks at no. 1, the Winkler Flyers dropped to no. 5 this week, while the Steinbach Pistons come in at no. 8.

Dauphin’s Countryfest, has announced its first round of performers for 2024.

And with some of the biggest acts from throughout country music history set to take the stage, organizers say the 35th anniversary festival will take those in attendance on a nostalgic journey back to the roots of Countryfest, featuring “an incredible honky-tonk, two-steppin’ lineup that will have country fans reminiscing about the good ol’ days in Dauphin.”

“Join us in Dauphin as we put the Country back in Countryfest, and we celebrate 35 years of incredible music, unforgettable moments, and community spirit,” said Countryfest promoter Rob Waloschuk. The June 28 to 30, 2024, festival takes place at Selo Ukraina and has been dubbed “35 and Still Alive.”

Confirmed for the main stage at this point are Alabama, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Jo Dee Messina, Mark Chesnutt, and Diamond Rio, along with the Great Canadian Roadtrip package featuring Michelle Wright, Jason McCoy and Doc Walker.

Another main stage surprise for festivalgoers is the super group The Frontmen, featuring Larry Stewart of Restless Heart, Richie McDonald, formerly of Lonestar, and Tim Rushlow, formerly of Little Texas. The three will come together to perform decades of chart-topping hits.

And Waloschuk said it wouldn’t be a proper throwback without some ‘90s queens of Canadian country music such as Patricia Conroy, Lisa Brokop, and Beverley Mahood, all of whom are confirmed for the main stage to deliver “some powerful performances that will keep you dancin’ all day long.”

Weekend passes, VIP packages, camping and reserved seating go on sale, Nov. 13, at 10 a.m., and can be purchased online at www.countryfest.ca or by calling toll-free to 1-800-361-7300.

A new payment plan lets customers reserve their ticket packages for only $100 down.

A presale for Countryfest members started, Oct. 23, and runs until Nov. 3.

Dauphin RCMP would like to have a conversation with the community.

And to begin the dialogue, a Community Policing Town Hall has been scheduled for the Aspen Lodge in the Parkland Recreation Complex, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m.

“The detachment has not been able to actually just have a discussion with the town, the residents in the community about what we do,” Sgt. Scott Linklater of the Dauphin RCMP detachment said, adding the event was originally scheduled for this past June, but was cancelled following the Carberry bus crash. “Policing has changed over the years and I’m not sure if people get that. So we want to be able to say what we’re doing, who we are, how many members we have here, what the state of detachment is and the services that we’re doing.”

On top of discussions about area crime trends and policing priorities, Linklater said they will be sharing some crime reduction strategies and will set aside some time for a question and answer period.

“I want to make some time for that so I can hear what they have to say,” he said. “I’m not going to talk about specific investigations, but if they want to know about issues that we’re dealing with or what’s going on.”

A key message Linklater wants to share is that community safety is an issue which requires a response from the entire community.

“I want to be able to explain that there’s a lot of things that are put on our plate that are more of a community issue that we all have to work together on, he said. “Finding resources for the homelessness and the mental health in the community and addiction, so there’s more resources for people to keep them out of the justice system.”

There is a perception that the justice system will not hold people to account, he said.

“So if we can do more programs outside (the justice system), I know there’s a lot of good people out there doing some different things,” Linklater said, adding supporting existing social services organizations and groups will go a long way to improving the situation for everyone. “Hopefully, employ the community to help these people out so that they’re not doing it alone and getting burned out, so that we do it all as a community. We’re all here for the safety of the community, the betterment of Dauphin.”

Ultimately, Linklater wants the public to be aware of issues in the community so they can make some informed decisions about getting involved and the role they might play.

RCMP members, he added are doing a good job in their role and he hopes being open about issues will help people to realize that.

“I think our members here do a great job. We’re not perfect, we’re human. We have members with two months service all the way up to 20 and 25 years service,” Linklater said. “I just don’t think the community is aware of what we’re doing, so I think this is a good opportunity to say what we’re doing, how we’re doing things, what’s changed, some of the trends that are going on and how they can help. At the end of it, I think it’s just going to be a good conversation. Hopefully some people see that we are doing something. Hopefully, they realize that they can help out, as well, and policing isn’t just the members of detachment, it’s a community thing to make everyone safe. That’s my hope anyway, just engage them at least. I don’t think it’s been done in a while and it’s kind of good to hear.”

A Rivers entrepreneur was declared the winner of Fusion Credit Union’s third annual Community Infusion live event held Oct. 18 in Brandon.

Danielle Pilatic of Danielle’s Studio 12 was declared the winner, receiving $20,000 in grant monies to help expand her business ideas.

Read all about it in this week’s issue.

Goose Lake High’s Junior Varsity Angels and Raiders volleyball teams, both ranked #2 in the province, hosted their home tournaments Friday and Saturday and despite some weather-related delays, the tourney went off without a hitch.

The boys side featured teams from Warren, Russell, Swan Valley, Hamiota, Virden, Ebb & Flow and The Pas while girls teams from Swan Valley, Warren, Hamiota, Gilbert Plains and Killarney battled it out.

Check out some actions shots and find out how the home teams fared in this issue.

Another well-deserving community member from The Pas has been presented with the Sovereign’s Volunteer Medal. Bev MacTavish was also presented with the prestigious award for her volunteerism with a few different entities in the community.
“I received the Sovereign’s Volunteer Medal for my involvement with the choir, Sam Waller Museum and my work at the hospital,” said MacTavish.
“I got involved with the Sam Waller Museum in 1978, when I first came to The Pas to teach at the high school. I really love history, so that made me get involved. I got on the board and have been on it ever since.
“I knew Sam Waller and he was such a unique and interesting person,” said MacTavish. “He collected all of the stuff in his school house at Opaskwayak Cree Nation. When he retired, he had nowhere to put it. Then The Pas Rotary Club built him a bigger building and then outgrew that, because there were donations from all over the world to add to the collection.”

With the success of finalizing the build of the boardwalk for the Boreal Trail, the Opasquia Trails held a planning meeting last week, to determine what the board and trail’s needs would be for the foreseeable future.
“We wanted to have a planning meeting, because we haven’t had one since inception,” said Opasquia Trails Board Member Al McLauchlan. “The board thought it was time to get together as a board and with organizations in the community, to make sure that we still had community support and were on the track we had anticipated. We were pleasantly surprised and the ideas that came from the planning meeting were consistent with what the board had wanted.
“There is still a huge interest in trails and unbelievable support for what our board is doing. That is evident from what we saw at this meeting and in terms of the number of people using the trail. Our visitation numbers are outstanding and it’s great to see how many people are actually using the trail. This summer we estimated around 14,000 people walked the boardwalk, and that’s a very conservative low estimate. We’re still seeing high numbers of people using the trail during the fall months.”

The litter of discarded sharps in the tri-community has been a long-standing issue that has yet to be properly addressed. While there is a great need for harm reduction in the tri-community, there is also a great need for more public sharp disposal containers to be put out.
There has been some earlier dialogue about this issue, but what it ultimately boils down to is the severe lack of sharps disposal containers in public places and no one wanting to seem to take ownership of that responsibility.
The Pas Bear Clan Patrol has been busy once again picking up discovered discarded sharps in various places throughout the tri-community. Just this month alone, The Pas Bear Clan Patrol has received an overwhelming number of calls about discarded sharps. They were notified of sharps found at Margaret Barbour Collegiate and behind North of 53 Industrial.