For the first time since the 2005-06 season, the Parkland Rangers are moving on in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League playoffs.

The Rangers beat the Yellowhead Chiefs, three-games-to-one in their best-of-five quarterfinal series and will now face the league-leading Brandon Wheat Kings in the semifinals.

Parkland took a one-game advantage in the series with a 5-2 win in Shoal Lake, Friday.

Will Munro led the way with three goals, with Jayce Legaarden and Kyan Grouette adding singles.

Ben Roulette and Owen Riffel scored for Yellowhead.

Brenden Birch-Hayden stopped 28 shots in the win, while Nathan Braun had 26 saves for Yellowhead.

The Rangers clinched the series with a 3-1 win in game four, Sunday in Dauphin.

Rylan Gibbs opened the scoring with 1:03 left in the first period and Grouette made it 2-0 just over four minutes into the second.

Foxx McColl pulled the Chiefs to within a goal when he scored on a power play at 12:28, but Legaarden sealed the win with an empty-net marker with 16 seconds remaining.

Rangers head coach Tyler Carefoot said it was a team effort that led to the series victory.

“All credit to the fellas. We dug down deep and I thought the last two games to go into their barn and steal one there kind of set the tone,” he said. “At the end of the day, we thought we were a little deeper than them. But it came down to just as simple as we had to out work them. And I thought the last two games we did that. I’m so proud of the boys.”

The last time the Rangers won a playoff series was in 2005-06 when they beat the Chiefs two-game-to-none in a best-of-three preliminary series, before losing to the Pembina Valley Hawks in the quarterfinals.

For a program which has struggled for success, winning a playoff series will give a boost.

In a moment of reflection, Carefoot looked back at the time, commitment and dedication put in by every single one of the players.

“It’s just a grind and to be able to win a round is very special for the program. And it just proves that there’s some hockey players in our region that want to play hockey at the highest level possible and want to get better. Right now, we’re just getting better every day. So it’s just sweet and I’m very proud,” he said.

The series with Brandon is set to begin, Mar. 20, in Brandon at 4:30 p.m. Game two will be back in Dauphin, Mar. 25, at 7:30 p.m., with game three back in Brandon, Mar. 27, at 1:30 p.m.

Game four, if necessary, will be Apr. 1 in Swan River, with game five, if needed, back in Brandon, Apr. 3.

The Rangers will prepare for the series with a ‘why not us?’ attitude.

“We went into their barn and shocked, really, the entire league,” Carefoot said. “Obviously, they’ve got next-level firepower, for sure. But we’re going to enjoy tonight and maybe tomorrow and we’ll re-evaluate for next week and beyond.”

The team appreciates the support it is getting from fans across the region.

“You can go anywhere uptown and it’s exciting. People are talking Kings and they’re talking Rangers. You just look up into the stands and there’s support for both teams. It’s exciting and we’re feeling the energy,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s the fellas and they deserve everything they’re getting right now.”

The Rangers, Carefoot said, will have to be more physical than the Wheat Kings.

“We can have more work ethic than them and manage the puck a little bit better, slow their guys down, stay away from penalties, because those guys are lethal on the power play,” he said. “Time will tell, but will beats skill when skill has no will, so we’ll see.”

After years of struggling financially, the Dauphin Kings are finally debt free.

Prior to Friday’s game against the Swan Valley Stampeders, Kings president Ashley Shaw presented a cheque for $42,031.27 to Dauphin Recreation Services general manager Ryan Vanderheyden, as the team’s final payment for the ice rental.

The biggest contributors to eliminating the debt, Shaw said, were the tractor lotto and the team’s growing project.

“Our ag project this year was huge for us. But we also can’t forget the other fund-raisers like the golf tournament, 50 for 50, our bingos, all the fund-raisers,” she said.

The cheque presented to Vanderheyden represented the last of the team’s debt.

“That cheque covers everything and we are now officially debt free,” Shaw said.

With the team now free of debt, the Kings can start planning for its financial future.

“It’s huge because we’re not having to put money into debt now and pay off loans and things like that,” Shaw said. “But it also means that we’re able to take some of the money and put it into reserves and plan for the future. We’re really excited.”

Shaw added the team will continue to hold fund-raisers in the future.

“But it definitely means that we can plan more for the future now,” she said.

Online fraud is increasing as more people rely on the Internet and social media as a way of doing business and transactions. The more information that gets put online by people, the easier it is for scammers to commit fraud.

Fusion Credit Union is focusing on financial fraud this month as part of Fraud Prevention Month activities.

Find out more in this week’s issue.

Getting old is something no one looks forward to in life. The loss of being able to do certain things that one used to be able to when they were younger can be a difficult thing to accept. Then there are those who seem to age gracefully and maintain overall good shape.

Butch Fleury recently put his athletic abilities and physical condition to the test when he laced up his skates and took to the ice alongside his nephew, Theo Fleury, and other former NHL hockey players a couple weeks ago.

Read all about it in this week’s Review.

Members of the Expanding Community Cancer Care (ECCC) committee met recently for a celebratory meeting. 

It was the first gathering for the group since receiving word that the expansion to the Manitoba Cancer Care chemo unit in Russell had been approved, thanks to the efforts and tenacity of everyone who worked diligently over the last seven years to bring the project to fruition. 

Find out more in this week’s issue.

People who have been protesting mask mandates and other Covid restrictions don’t have anything to complain about as of 12:01 this morning.

While some health experts have warned against it, the province’s requirement to mask up in all public spaces came to an end today, March 15.

Read more in this week’s Review.

If you’re searching for a picture of Madison Haliuk, it’s probably safe to say that what you’ll find will have something to do with hockey.

That’s because, hockey has been a huge part of Madison’s life for just about as far back as she can remember.

She first donned hockey gear at the age of five - taking on a love of the game after watching her older brother Carson on ice.

Recently, her years of hard work have paid off in a big way as Madison has committed to the Assiniboine Community College Cougar women’s hockey team for the 2022-23 season. Not that it was her first offer.

Despite having numerous other universities and colleges from down south reach out to her, Haliuk who is daughter of Brian Haliuk and Estha Baseley, chose to stay a little closer to her hometown of Binscarth.

Read more about this story in this week's paper!

The Swan Valley Snowmobile Association (SVSA) picked the perfect day for their annual Vintage Ride, taking off from the Westwood Inn Saturday morning (Feb. 26), heading to the Wellman Lake Trail Shelter on their club trails, before heading back in the afternoon.

A total of 57 vintage snowmobiles participated in the day, with sleds as old as 1974.

A rider heads down the trail on their vintage sleds up to the Duck Mountains. Snowmobiles from decades past were parked at the Westwood Inn before departing. A record number of riders and their sleds gathered at the Wellman Lake Trail Shelter for refreshments while visiting with their fellow snowmobile enthusiasts.

Check this week's paper for lots more!

A dream became reality with the grand opening of the Binscarth Tobaggan Slide.

The Binscarth and Friends committee worked for more than a year - during a pandemic- to raise an astounding $27,190.00 for the Binscarth slide.

It was time to celebrate at Binscarth Vision 20/20’s first annual Family Winter Festival held over the February long weekend honoring Louis Riel Day.

There were fire pits, hot chocolate and cake to stave off the cold.

Vinora Bennett and all of her family members  spent hours sculpting a wonderful tobogganing bear in honor of the day, Kevin Bridgeman brought down his team and stone boat for family fun and Ron and Patty Robinson from the skating rink committee made sure there was time for a free skate session.  

By Derek Holtom

Some youth have a pool or a playground structure in their backyard for entertainment when the snow’s off the ground.

For the Tweet family, it was a batting cage.

“When we moved to Russell, my Auntie bought us a batting cage,” says Dawson Tweet, a former area resident now living in the United States. “My brother, my dad, my sister and I would spend countless hours up in the batting cage in the backyard.”

Looking back, hitting the curveball all summer long in Russell helped develop skills that would open up doors for all three siblings.

Tweet, 20, recently signed with William Jewel College in Liberty, Missouri, a NCAA school. He did so after spending two years at Mesabi Range College (a two-year junior college), located in Virginia, Minn., and he hopes to study Physical Therapy next fall. His sister, Savanna, played collegiate softball herself at Minnesota State University Moorhead, while younger brother Wyatt just signed on with Bismarck State University, a junior school where he hopes to follow in his older brother’s footsteps and also make the NCAA ranks.

“This is huge – it will allow me to continue to go to school and play NCAA Division II baseball,” says Tweet. “It’s been a long-time goal of mine to play NCAA baseball. Parents always prioritize school, so this means I can continue to get an education and I can play a game that I love.”

Born in Fargo, N.D., Tweet and his family relocated to Russell in 2009 (when he was seven years old) to work at and eventually take over a bed and breakfast owned by his parents. That didn’t work out, but it did bring Tweet to the Russell area, where he honed his skills in not just baseball, but just about every   sport he could play.

“I played lots of different sports,” he said. “I played hockey, volleyball, badminton, and baseball, all in high school.”

His father Blair (the Canadian) and his mother Amy (the American) helped expose all their children to all sorts of interests. But it was baseball that really spoke to Tweet as time went   on.

“We were living in Fargo, my father worked at the baseball field there, so I was already around it,” says Tweet. “All the time the focus was really on baseball, but I did love playing all those other sports. It keeps you busy in the off season.

“And that’s my whole family – they love playing other sports as well,” he said. “And you learn so much more about being an athlete by playing different games and working out different parts (of your body). It all benefits you.”

After the signing, which was announced in part on Twitter (which is sort of ironic given his last name), Tweet was inundated with congratulations from friends and family.

“Everyone was over the moon,” he said. “I got so much feedback from my friends on how proud they were of me.

“And especially from my family – they were all so happy for me, and they knew how much work I put into this.”

The collegiate baseball season is much different than that of a say a football or hockey player. Tweet says they try to get in a short fall season before the snow falls, then start up as early as possible in the spring.     And while snow is not uncommon in Missouri, spring comes there a lot sooner than it does in Manitoba or Minnesota.

“We do a lot of work in the gym in the winter, and actually (my school team) is about to take a trip to Florida for some training,” says Tweet, referencing a state famous for winter baseball. “We will have a lot more time to be outside in Missouri, where it isn’t as cold.”

Four years from now Tweet will be close to graduating, have four years of college baseball under his belt, and still only be 24 years old. So, is professional baseball – at any level – in his future?

“It’s always been a dream of mine,” he said.    “Baseball is a competitive world, and if I’m given an opportunity to further my career, I absolutely want to pursue it.

“It is a long ways down the road, so I just have to keep working and keep focused, and make sure I take care of my school  training.”