Famous, Run That Ish

Yeah, had to clean up that sentence. For those who listen to the Tim and Sid: Uncut podcast available through thescore.com, you'll know how it really runs.

The Wilkie Minor Hockey Association are holding their annual end of year Banquet on March 16th at 6pm. There will be games as well as presentations made by each Minor hockey team.

I am honoured to be invited to this event, and will definitely be there.

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Play-offs are finally beginning in the Bantam division of the Hiway 14 Hockey League. Game 1 begins tomorrow night at 6:30pm at the SaskCan Community Centre vs Kyle.

Midget Provincials vs St. Brieux are still up in the air, so I'm unsure when anything is getting done.

See you tomorrow night at the rink.

Don't Get Caught By The Rambler.

Tonight's the night. Provincial C play-offs invade the SaskCan Community Centre as the Eston Ramblers bring their 6-3 lead in to face the Wilkie Outlaws.

Keys for Wilkie:

• D-Fence: You have to tighten up on your zone defence and not allow scoring chances.
• Cool your Jets: Speeding by the the Rambler D simply won't do, making the smart pass and getting the feet moving will allow for a better success rate of gaining the blue line properly.

Keys for Eston:

• One Goal: You're up by 3 goals, potting one or two will drive the dagger in
• Volcanoe!: You have a few rough and tumble guys, use them to your advantage.

Puck drop is 8pm.

Onions... Baby Onions!

Ok, so its three days past when I should have posted about the Outlaws losing in Eston 6-3, but that gives me 3 extra days to Tee up Game 2 Saturday night.

Playoffs?!?

Bantams: Everyone's asking the question; when the heck is Hi-way 14 Bantam league play-offs going to start? My answer: They play Kyle. I don't know anything else.

Midgets: Out of league play-offs but they will kick off their Northern Finals series against St. Brieux. Unsure of dates yet, but they will be posted when I learn them

Seniors: Eston on Saturday. You win by 4 goals or you pack up your gear. Sounds like a tough task, but to put the 6-3 loss into perspective, the Outlaws only had 8 forewards dressed due to vaction and injuries. Eston had a full line-up plus 3 healthy scratches.

Provincial tee-up to follow soon

Respect in Hockey

The headline says it all.

No matter who you are in an organization; Star player, bench warmer, stick boy, fan/volunteer, music guy, It really truly doesn't matter. Respect is the most important thing in a hockey locker room. You dis-respect someone in the organization, you instantly have thrown stones at the organization.

It sounds rather cliche, but it rings true everytime; No one person is bigger then the organization. It doesn't work in any professional league, why should it work here? Give me a break! Whether you are a player, coach, manager or what have you inside a sports organization, you try and be bigger then it, you do not belong there. You represent the organization, and more importantly, Yourself. You make a ass out of you, you make an ass out of the organization you represent.

Simple logic.

Outlaws try to shoot down Stars.

Hey, you right my headlines then!

Anyways, the Outlaws start the Flyers comeback tonight against the Edam 3 Stars in NSRHL quarter final play-off action. Edam is up 2-0 in the best of 5 series. So shall we kick the tires on tonight's game?

Wilkie:

• More energy: The Outlaws have come out in the last 2 games with less eneergy then a sack of potatoes. A fast, hard-hitting start is required to beat the older Edam team.
• Gun is loaded: Finally, a full line-up tonight. They say a team is only as good as their star(s), and I think the best will show tonight.

Edam:

• Defense is key: Their defense is critcial is stopping the speed of the Outlaws.
• Roberto Luongo: Quinton Gauthier has been looking like the Canucks all-star netminder this series. he needs to keep his ridiculous streak going if the Stars want to have a chance.

In other news:

The Midgets are officially out of Hiway 14 league quarter final play-offs, Losing in Kerrobert the other night. This leaves them only in Midget B Provincials. They draw St. Brieux in the Northern Final, stay tuned for dates.

Still no word from the Bantams on when their league play-offs start. A few teams have gone over the somewhat soft deadline and the last couple of games only finished up this past monday.

Senior Outlaws play Eston in Senior C Northen Semi-Finals, with Eston insisting they allow Wilkie to have home-ice advantage in the 2 game, total goal series. Game 1 goes in Eston tomorrow night, 8pm start. There is a player/fan bus going, with a tentative leave time of 4pm.

Playoffs?!?

'Tis play-off season. All three major/minor hockey teams are officially in play-offs and provincials, so let's take a look.

Bantam Outlaws:

Unfortunately, they were eliminated from the Provincial C play-offs earlier in January, however, they are sitting 5th in the standings, and will play the North Battleford team, who sit in 4th, in the 1st round of their Hi-way 14 league play-offs.

Midget Outlaws:

They deked a massive bullet in Meadow Lake last night, losing 5-2. However, they won the first game of their Provincial B Northern Semi-Final 5-1, thus ensuring a 7-6 series win. They move onto the Northern Final, playing the winner of Tisdale and St. Brieux. As for Hi-way 14 league play-offs, A quirk in the rules state that the top 4 teams can choose any of the bottom 4 teams to play. Kerrobert chose Wilkie in the unofficial fantasy draft, therefore, these two teams play their 1st round against each other. According to the website, game one in Wilkie goes tonight, however, after talking to Head coach John S. Fenrich, he said the operator of the website can get trigger-happy with posting said games. So we sit and wait.

Senior Outlaws:

Celebrating their first Provincial series win since 1993 (I highly doubt I'm wrong), The road to the final four now runs through Eston. According to Head Coach Bruce Yockey, Game 1 is to be played Saturday night in Eston. The Ramblers originally had the home-ice advantage in the 2-game, total goal series, but were willing to give it up for reasons unknown. Play-offs: They drew Edam in the 2 vs 7 match-up, Game 1 was last night. The combination of playing like a sack of potatoes and officiating that the CNIB would be proud of, led to a 5-3 win in favour of the 3 Stars.

*Disclaimer: What is about to be typed in simply my opinion, and in way is the opinion of anyone else*

The referee, who shall remain nameless, called, by far, the worst game I've seen in 8 years of watching hockey. Yes, a referee does miss things. It's part of the game. Having said that, missing in upwards of 5 calls which developed right in front of him, and only calling the blatant penalties on the home team, is just acinine. Call me biased, but I'd be making the same rant had it been in the other direction. I expect the game to be called fairly in both directions.

Outlaws/3 Stars game 2 of the best of 5 series goes Wednesday Night in the Igloo in Edam.

Colts/Outlaws ramblings

Tomorrow night is Provincial night at the Saskcan Community Centre, as first, the Midget Outlaws take on the Meadow Lake Colts in Game 1 of the Northern Semi-Finals, followed by the Senior Outlaws taking on the Kerrobert Tigers in Game 2 of their 1st round. The Outlaws lead that series 3-0.

First, we'll kind of, sort of, Tee up the Midget action.

According to sources, the Colts are a hybrid team containing players from the S.T.E.P. (St. Walburg, Turtleford, Edam, Paradise Hill) league team and the Centre Four AA league. The Centre Four league team is sitting near the bottom of the league with a 5-13-1 record through 19 games. However, the STEP league team is sitting on top of the table through 20 games, with a 11-5-4 record. Again, according to sources, (because the SHA site is not updated!) Meadow Lake beat Warman 10-1 in game 1. Having said that, Warman is a sub-.500 team with hardly any goaltending, so we sit and wait.

Outlaw rambling to follow tomorrow sometime soon.

Outlaws tame the Tiger(s)

Last night at a very cold Kerrobert Memorial Arena, the Wilkie Outlaws cruised to a 3-0 win over the Kerrobert Tigers.

Outlaw goals were potted by: Mark Lorenz, Mike Sittler, and Ryan Schaefer. All three goals were pretty efforts, and the result of hard work.

In all honesty, the Tigers were a rough and tumble team, making you work for everything you get. However, there were a couple questionable hits on Outlaw players, to which there was no call on the play. IMO, I believe that these blindside hits are what the NHL, or for that matter, any league anywhere, is trying to get rid of. I realize that you need to keep your head up kid, but unfortuntaly, our heads can't swivel 360 degrees, so I think that the responsibility is not entirely on the guy who is hitting, however, he does have the majority of it.

Don't like what I said? Sound off.

Facebook me, or email heilzy18@gmail.com

Pre-game ramblings for both the Midgets and Seniors coming soon.

Busy weekend is done

The weekend of hockey is finally complete at the SaskCan Community Centre, with the finale being the Battlefords Pee Wee Sharks playing a home vs the Dodsland Stars. The Stars have two Wilkie products on the roster, Rachel Cey and Rayne Delainey. The Stars boost a formiable line-up and they easily handled the Sharks 9-5. None of the Wilkie players had points however.

Saturday Night was the marquee match-up night for Farmers Days. The Wilkie Outlaws hosted the top team in the NSRHL, the Maidstone Jets. The Jets came short-handed, missing top scorer Ryan Johnston, and also getting his first start of the season was Scott Carsen for the Jets, while Dustin MacDonald was sitting on the pine. The Outlaws played a hard, physical game, and they were able to hold Roberts and Harrison to just 2 assists combined in a 5-1 win. Wilkie converted on 2/10 powerplays and also piled on a Short-handed goal.

The Outlaws now sit at 15-5 on the year, good for sole possession of 2nd place, trailing the Jets by 4 points, and lead the St. Walburg Eagles by 2 points.

In other news, The Wilkie Midgets are on their way to the 3rd Round of Provincials, and will likely play the Meadow Lake Colts, after they trounced Warman 10-1 in game 1. Stay tuned for more information.

Busy Weekend.

I am in the midst of a busy weekend of music and writing. Yesterday, the Midgets pulled together and gutted out a 7-2 win vs the Outlook Hawks. (The score says otherwise, but the score doesn't indicate how close the game actually was.) More of a re-cap to come on Monday.

Today, however, I'll be the "Rink Rat", starting at 5pm when the Novice Outlaws take on North Battleford in a game deemed the Challenge Cup. Following that, the Senior Outlaws take to the SaskCan ice against the Winnipeg..... er.. I mean, the Maidstone Jets. The broadcasting face of the North Stars, Dan O'Connor, will be on hand to broadcast the game. Puck drops at 8pm

Quick Keys to the game for both teams:

Maidstone:

• Stop the All-Stars: Wilkie has three stars including Barrett Penner. You can try and shut down the top line, however, your defense will need to be up to the task all night. Wilkie can run three legit lines, and they can score on a regular basis.
• Stop the "run": The best puck handling goalie in this league is Nick Pernitsky. Dump the puck in smartly so Pernitsky doesn't have time to play it. That way, you can set up your attack with less difficulty.

Wilkie:

• Rattle the Cage: Maidstone is 8-0 on the road this season. The Outlaw grinders need to get into MacDonald's grill early and often. He's started all the games this year as well, and he may be starting to wear down a bit.
• Defense Wins Championships: As I understand it, Wilkie be missing a D-man tonight, so Defense must come first against the high flying Jets top line. After Ryan Johnston (21 G), Jason Roberts (16 G), and Brett Harrison (26 G), the next top scorers only has 7 goals. You contain the top line, and chances are that you can pull the rug out off a possible Jets take-off.

Outlaws outdraw the Marauders

Last night, the crowd at the SaskCan Community Centre was treated to a real shoot-out. At the end of the day, it was Yosemite Sam out-shooting Black Jacque Shelaque to the tune of a 11-7 win.

Outlaw scorers were: Zach Wangler, Chris Pennell (2), Colby Fulton (2), Jaymon Sander, Rylan Petterson (3), Dustin Glackin, and Sheldon McKenzie. Assists were credited to: Sean Fenrich (3), Fulton (2), Petterson (2), Wangler, Keaton Nodwell (2), Cody Thomas (2), Glackin (2), and McKenzie.

Marauders goals were scored by: Matthew Day, Griffyn Dutka, Shayne Hayward, Breyden Cheyne, Morgan Upton, Riley Bloodworth, and another unnamed goal scorer. Assists were given to: Daegan Banga, Keenan Strelau, Cheyne, Mitchell Riley (2), Steven Nagy, Dutka, and Hayward.

The scoring started quickly, as Zach Wangler potted a weak forehand shot past Marauders starting goaltender Michael Schwebius just 9 seconds into the game. That would set the tone as Wilkie build a 3 goal lead only 8 minutes in, leading to the first goalie swap. Out was Schwebius and in was back up Tyler Peakman. He wouldn't fair any better, but the switch did spark the Clan of Thieves for a bit. The broke the goose-egg at the 14:05 mark with Day taking advantage of Outlaws keeper Keegan Bryan's 5-hole. The Outlaws would regain the 3 goal lead and then some, as they converted on the 3rd of 3 PP oppourtunities in the period, and a little over 2 minutes later, Pennell converted breakaway meant that after 20, Wilkie had a 5-1 lead.

The second frame was much quieter compared to the first, with only 3 goals combined. The Outlaws scored 30 some seconds a part roughly 2 minutes in, an only a minute after that, the Marauders answered back with the 2nd goal.

The third period resembled the first a lot, with both teams scoring 8 goals combined. Schwebius was seen skating to his net for the third, meaning he was the plywood of choice to attempt to stop the Outlaw shooting gallery Petterson finished off his hattrick with the Outlaws last goal with roughly 2 minutes remaining in the game. Martensville slimed a buzzer beating goal in to finally end the barrage of shots all three goaltenders faced.

Overall, It was a very fast paced game, with the Marauders not exactly living up to my expectations. Their defence could have been much better, as they allowed their Outlaw rushers too much open space, and that is that team's strong point.

Game 2 goes Saturday night in Martensville. Before that, they have a regular season date with Outlook on Friday, at 8pm.

Marauders/Outlaws pre-game ramblings

Tomorrow night, Provincials fever hits the SaskCan Community Centre once again, as the Outlaws welcome the Martensville Marauders for Game 1 of their 2nd Round, 2 game/total goal series.

The Marauders squad is actually a AA tier II team, which is on the same level as the Unity and North Battleford AA Midget teams. Martensville is a member of the Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association's (SMHA) Midget AA Tier II league. In their 13 team league, consisting of 10 Saskatoon teams, Clavet, Delisle and themselves, they sit 7th with a 10-9-1 record through 20 games, good for 21 pts. No individual stats are supplied on the website. I spoke briefly with the Manager of the Marauders, Janine Hayward (who I would like to thank for pointing me in the right direction). I asked her to, in her words, sum up the Midget team's year. She mentioned that they attended both the annual Swift Current tournament, winning the "A" side, and the Prince Albert tournament, winning the "B" side. She said they had a great showing at both tournaments.

On the other side of the coin, you have the Outlaws. For those who don't know, they play in the Hi-Way 14 League's Midget Division. The 10 team league holds Dodsland/Luseland, Kerrobert, 2 Rosetown teams, Eatonia/Eston/Leader (EEL), Elrose, Kindersley, Outlook, Unity and themselves. Wilkie sits 5th with a 8-8-0 record, good for 16 pts, through 16 games. The highest scoring Outlaw is Chris Pennell, who, through 15 games played, has 13 goals and 7 assists, good for 20pts. Watching these kids play on a regular basis, you can see their strengths and weaknesses. The goaltending tandem can definitely steal you games, but I tend to compare them to the goaltending tandem in Philly and in SJ. Both have great goalies, however, both suffer simply because they aren't played every day, and confidence can be your best friend or it can be your biggest enemy. To whoever starts, you have my vote of confidence.

The game should be a fun one no matter what the score is. It's provincials!

Puck drops at 8pm, be sure to get there early, the seats fill up quick.