Hawks pick up win over Klippers

Posted By Melissa Mangelsen/Nipawin Journal

The Nipawin Hawks were in action at The Cage last night to face off against the Kindersley Klippers. With the team undergoing a facelift, the new Hawks team took to the ice looking for a win at home and they did just that, picking up the 6-2 dominating win over the Klippers.

It was the Klippers who found the back of the net first, scoring about three minutes into the game, but the Hawks answered back about a minute later when newcomer David Skagen gave the Hawks the 1-1 tie. His goal was assisted by Patrick Howey and Jeff Lorenz.

The Hawks took the 2-1 lead with 15 minutes played with Lorenz notching a goal assisted by Skagen and Jonathan Ceci on the power play. With two minutes left of the first period the Hawks took the 3-1 lead with a goal from Alexandre Leclerc, assisted by Matthew Spafford and Tanner Dusyk.

The Klippers picked up the lone goal of the second period to cut the Hawks lead to two, and giving themselves a chance to work their way back into the game in the third period.

With the 3-2 lead going into the third the Hawks weren't willing to take any chances, they netted their fourth of the game midway through the period with a goal from Leclerc on the power play, assisted by Spafford. Ceci scored for the Hawks assisted by Skagen to give them the 5-2 lead and Lorenz picked up the sixth goal for the Hawks, assisted by Ceci and Skagen.

Ryan Kerpan was backstopping for the Hawks, turning aside 34 shots he faced to help the Hawks to victory.

The first star of the game was Skagen who picked up one goal and three assists on the night. Second star was Lorenz who had two goals and one assist and the third star went to Ceci who had one goal and two assists.

The Hawks remain last in the Bauer Conference with a record of 30-13-14-3 and 29 points. They're currently four points behind the Melfort Mustangs. They currently sit eleventh in the 12-man league.

The Hawks will be back in action Dec. 11 at The Cage, facing off against the Estevan Bruins, who are the only team under the Hawks with 26 points. Game time will be at 7:30.

SJHL trade rumour heats up

The situation with Regina born Drew George is getting interesting.

As was mentioned last week on the blog, George, who was dealt from Vernon to Cowichan Valley of the BCHL has decided not to report and is back home in Regina awaiting a trade. He has skated with the Regina Pats of the WHL and they badly want him to sign a WHL contract and play with his hometown team.

However, George wants to retain his NCAA eligibility and won't sign a contract. From the blog of Regina Pats' voice Rod Pedersen this morning:

For those who don't know of Drew, well, in a Pats uniform at practice last week he, Jordan Eberle and Jordan Weal looked like a set of triplets.

Pedersen is reporting that the Weyburn Red Wings are trying to work out a deal with Cowichan Valley but if they don't, rumour is that he could be headed to the La Ronge Ice Wolves via a trade.

It seems as though this is a day to day thing and something could go down anytime.

Game night: Estevan

The Kindersley Klippers will try to snap a mini 2 game losing streak tonight when they visit the Estevan Bruins. Game time is 7:30pm and available on Classic Hits radio via Klippershockey.com.

Road Woes

The Klippers are 1-1-1 after three games in their current six game road swing albeit they do have a couple days of practice back home before wrapping up the trip in Nipawin and La Ronge on Tuesday and Wednesday. While the team dominates at home with a record of 11-3-1 they are only 5-8-2 on the road this season.

Streaking

Andrew Dommett continues his strong play as of late. The SJHL's player of the month has 13 goals in his last 10 games. He also picked up 3 goals in the Klippers only meeting with the Bruins, a game in which they won 4-0.

Taylor Duzan is playing some good hockey as of late as well and has a 4 game goal scoring streak to show for it.

Dec. 1st

The Klippers made a goaltender swap. Josh Baker went to the SIJHL while Scott Hellyer was brought in from the MJHL. Both deals were for future considerations.

The Estevan Bruins were much busier at deadline time and acquired a superstar in the process. The Bruins dealt '90 Brody Haygarth to the Flin Flon Bombers for the SJHL's #2 ranked scorer in Devin Mitzner. The Bruins also acquired 1991 D Brett Rock from Melfort for '89 F Brant Harris. '89 F Anthony Collins was sent to Winkler in the MJHL for '90 F Joel Becker. The Bruins went even younger by sending '89 D Davis Brown to Weyburn for '90 F Kyle Johnson.

Basement Dwellers

The Bruins have been in the basement of the Sherwood Conference all season and can see the light. They are just 2 points back of Melville although the Mills have 3 games in hand. Estevan will need to turn things around as they have just 2 wins in their last 8 games.

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Listen online with Kris Hussey tonight by using the link on Klippershockey.com or tuning in to 1330/1210. I'll post scoring updates as well at Twitter.com/darrendupont.

SJHL trade rumour

Drew George is apparently on his way to the SJHL.

The following was taken earlier today from the blog of Regina Pats' voice Rod Pedersen:

The Regina product and Telus Cup champ from the Notre Dame Hounds was at practice with the Pats Wednesday. He's in limbo after electing not to report to Cowichan Valley after his recent BCHL trade from Vernon.

Team officials tell me George isn't expected to play in this weekend's home games (Saturday against Brandon and Sunday against P.A.), however they're hopeful they can convince him to. For now, he's just practicing with his hometown team.

The '91 born George has 17 points (10g 7a) in 24 games in the BCHL.

Though he continues to practise with the Pats today, Pedersen did a 1 on 1 interview where he said he won't be playing in this weekend's games because he doesn't want to ruin his NCAA eligibility.

Talks are said to be ongoing to get a deal worked out with a team in the SJHL. One could speculate that it could be Weyburn (leading the conference) or Notre Dame (where George played midget hockey) which are both close to Regina.

Being a '91 with loads of upside, I would seem him fitting in really well in Kindersley. This team, as I mentioned earlier, is loaded with young talent and the future looks bright for the next few years.

We'll find our more as the days progress. He won't want to be out of game action for long.

Nominate your coach today

Think your coach deserves this award? Nominate your coach today for the Chunky Most Valuable Coach.

The winning coach will receive $25,000 in prizing for their athletes and community. Nominations will be accepted until January 6th. Full details are available at http://www.chunkymvc.ca.

Kindersley Kobras fooball coach Al Neufeld has already been nominated for his hard work and dedications. You can find him listed under nominees. While you browse, is there anyone else who has been nominated from the area?

New goalie?

1990 born goaltender Scott Hellyer is listed on the Klippers' roster at www.klippershockey.com.

A little searching shows that he comes from the Winkler Flyers of the MJHL. He played 458 minutes with a record of 1-4-1 a 485 GAA and a Sv % of 0.875.

Seems as though Thorimbert will carry the mail through the second half of the season.

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An interesting observation while browsing the Klipper roster just now: the team has just two 20 year old forwards and only four 20 year olds in total. This team will continue to be scary good for the foreseeable future.

Klipper deal coming soon

Twitter.com/sjhlnews is reporting that there are a few deals that still need to be announced from Tuesday's deadline. The deal is that no trade can be formally announced until all players are notified. It makes sense.

The Klippers traded G Josh Baker and there is one more deal involving the Klippers that still has not been announced. It is thought to be for a veteran goaltender.

Details when it is announced.

Klippers shuffle goaltenders

The Kindersley Klippers were somewhat active on the trade front at the December 1st deadline. The Klippers dealt 1989 born goaltender Joshua Baker to the Dryden Ice Dogs of the SIJHL for future considerations.

In a separate deal for futures, the Klippers acquired a veteran netminder from out of province who's name has not been released at this time. I'll try to get more details in the morning.

For a full list of the days activity check out the transactions tab on www.sjhl.ca or check out twitter.com/sjhlnews.

BLOCKBUSTER TRADE

It's cutdown day in junior hockey as teams try to free up a few cards. Each team must be down to 25 cards but most teams will want to keep a card or two open so that they can make a move at the January 10th deadline.

The biggest move of the day involves the SJHL's 2nd leading scorer.

F Devin Mitzner ('90) has been traded from the Bombers to the Bruins for F Brody Haygarth ('90). Mitzner has put up 38 points (23g 15a) thus far while Haygarth has put up 27 points (13g 14a).

I don't really understand this deal from the Bombers perspective. They are the top team in the Bauer Conference and, before this trade, boasted the leagues top 2 leading scorers. Did Mitzner not like playing or living in Flin Flon? We'll see if something comes out in the coming days.

Prospects roster announced

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League has placed four players on the Canada West squad that will play in the CJHL Top Prospects Game, which takes place December 7-9 in Winkler, Manitoba.

1992 F Trevor Cameron (Mission BC) of the Notre Dame Hounds, 1991 Clarke Breitkreuz (Springside SK) of the Yorkton Terriers, 1991 D Lee Christensen (Winnipeg MB) of the Melfort Mustangs, and 1991 F Andrew Johnston (Saskatoon SK) of the Flin Flon Bombers have been selected as part of a twenty man roster that will suit up against the top prospects from Canada East.

The Klippers' Josh Thorimbert has been left off the roster for the prospects game. Thorimbert was the Klippers' best shot at making the roster and in this blogger's opinion should have.

I understand Pentiction Vees goaltender Sean Bonar making the squad. He has a 12-4-0 record with 2 shutouts a 2.51 GAA and a Sv % of 0.916.

Canmore Eagles goaltender Sam Brittain is the other goaltender and I'm not so convinced. Brittain has a 13-9-2 record with 1 shutout, a GAA of 3.05 and a 0.905 Sv %. Very good numbers but I'd go with Thorimbert.

Josh has a 13-5-1 record with one shutout, a 2.83 GAA and a 0.912 Sv %. I think it's a shame that the young Klippers' netminder will not be in the game. I hope this does not affect the young goaltender and he continues to play the amazing hockey he has so far with the Jr. K's. If he does, he has a very bright future in this game.