Kindersley-Yorkton series dates

The dates for this series are pretty much the usual SJHL playoff format, but I thought I should put it out there for anyone wondering.

All games start at 7:30 p.m., aside from Game 6 in Kindersley, which may be a 6 p.m. start - not decided yet.

UPDATE: Game 6 will indeed be a 6 pm start.

Game 1: Friday, March 18 in Yorkton
Game 2: Saturday, March 19 in Yorkton
Game 3: Tuesday, March 22 in Kindersley
Game 4: Wednesday, March 23 in Kindersley
x-Game 5: Friday, March 25 in Yorkton
x-Game 6: Sunday, March 27 in Kindersley - 6 pm
x-Game 7: Tuesday, March 29 in Yorkton

x-if necessary

Stay tuned for a series preview on Wednesday, and I'm still planning to put up interviews from Games 3-5 of the Weyburn series when time permits.

Klippers knock off Wings in 5 to set up rematch with Yorkton

It was a lot tighter in the end than many people expected, but the Klippers hung on in the dying minutes to hand the Weyburn Red Wings a 3-2 win Friday at the WCEC, taking the quarter-final series in five games.

Braeden Adamyk, Spencer Braaten and Wheaton King powered the Klippers to a 3-0 lead, which they held until late in the third period.

Drew George ruined Sean Cahill's shutout bid with 4:29 to play. Then, with 2:56 left, Kevin Morrison drew Weyburn to within a goal, and a lot of people in the building got worried. The Red Wings dominated most of the final three minutes, but the Klippers managed to hang on and avoid going back to Weyburn on Sunday.

With Yorkton defeating Estevan 6-1 on Friday, they swept that series and will now take on the Klippers in the Sherwood final for the second straight year. There are a lot of players in that Kindersley locker room who would love to avenge their Game 7 overtime loss last year and they'll get their chance.

The dates haven't been announced yet, but it appears the series will kick off Friday and Saturday in Yorkton.

More to come from the Game 5 win, including interviews with Andrew Dommett, Wheaton King and Rockie Zinger.

Red Wings pull out a win to send series back to Kindersley

The Weyburn Red Wings were a desperate hockey club tonight and they made the most of their chances to hand the Klippers a 4-1 defeat in Weyburn.

The Klippers now lead the series 3-1 heading back to Kindersley for Game 5 on Friday. None of the players wanted it to go back to the WCEC but I don't think anyone expected a sweep when the series started.

Weyburn led 2-0 after one on goals by Tanner McCall and Drew George, and built an insurmountable 4-0 lead after two when Scott Kirkham scored two goals 1:18 apart.

The Klippers struggled to generate quality chances despite firing 41 shots on Mitch Kilgore. They came close late in the second but didn't get on the board until three minutes into the third when Braeden Adamyk flew down the left side and fired a wrister past Kilgore. It was a shorty.

Kindersley had their chances after that but couldn't score more.

Kilgore was once again outstanding. Aside from that the Klippers got virtually no traffic in front - especially on a power play that looked anemic - and I thought they failed to match Weyburn's physical tempo.

The Klippers' board work was dominant on Tuesday; not so much tonight.

Give Weyburn credit. They needed this win and they came out and played with urgency.

Tanner Kissick left the game after being cut by a skate blade in the elbow area and getting stitched up.

Sean Cahill got the hook after the fourth goal and Justin McDonald was outstanding in relief, keeping his team in it.

That's enough blogging from my phone for now. See you Friday at the WCEC.

No. 14 ends it 14 seconds into double OT

Braeden Adamyk went forehand to backhand on a breakaway 14 seconds into double overtime to give the Klippers a 3-2 win and a 3-0 series lead tonight at Crescent Point Place in Weyburn.

It was Adamyk's second of the night for the Klippers, who tied the game 2-2 on a Ryan Elliot goal in the second period. After a scoreless third, the Klippers got the better of the chances in the first overtime period and gradually wore the Wings down, but weren't able to solve a brilliant Mitch Kilgore.

After another break, the Klippers won the face-off to start the second OT, went D to D and, in Adamyk's words, he tipped the puck forward. He then blew past the Weyburn defence and caught up to the puck for a breakaway, where he deked Kilgore inside the right post to take the wind out of the Wings' sails.

Blake Kirkham and Keegan Bruce scored Weyburn's goals, both in the first period and both on the power play.

This was a huge swing game in the series and the Klippers were able to take a stranglehold. Had the Wings won, they would have gotten new life and tons of momentum going into Game 4 tomorrow.

It was a very clean game, with no extracurricular stuff. Weyburn knew they had to win this game and with Wees and Ulmer out, there was little chance of the Klippers starting anything.

I'll put up interviews with Adamyk and Andrew Dommett when we get back to Kindersley.

Comments on the Game 2 incidents

Well, the extracurricular stuff from Game 2 on Saturday is garnering a lot of attention, from today's Sports Cage with Rod Pedersen to various twitter and blog postings to the 25+ comments on this blog.

There are good arguments to be made on both sides and no one is necessarily wrong. I welcome debate on here, as long as people keep their emotions in check. Some of the comments are starting to include personal attacks and name calling toward players and coaches on both sides, and I can't allow that, especially when they come from anonymous commenters.

It's unfortunate because most of those comments made some good and well-written points, but people lose credibility when they start to throw around attacks on teenaged hockey players and their coaches.

By all means, continue to weigh in, but stay away from the attacks or your comment may not be published.

As for the incidents themselves, the SJHL was still reviewing game tape today and investigating the alleged incident involving Dwight McMillan. It sounds like further disciplinary action may be announced in the morning.

If there's any way you can get to Weyburn tomorrow, I'd strongly advise it as this will be a game you don't want to miss.

Bad blood spills over as Klippers take 2-0 series lead

I'm not sure where to start with this one. The Klippers drubbed the Weyburn Red Wings 9-2 tonight to take a 2-0 series lead in a game that ended with some very ugly incidents, on the ice, on the benches and off the ice.

Tensions had been building up throughout the third period, and the Klippers had a 8-2 lead when everything rose to the surface.

With 1:27 left in the third, Wings defenceman T.J. Wees lined up Jesse Mysiorek in the corner with a brutal hit. He took several strides toward Mysiorek (only playing his second game back from a groin injury), who was facing the boards the entire time trying to win the puck, and plastered him from behind. Mysiorek's face may have hit the dasher on the way down. I couldn't tell for sure, but his head was awfully close to it.

Jesse is spending the night in the hospital and I would expect he'll be out for some time. No firm update as of yet though. The good news is he was at least well enough to send out a couple of tweets from the hospital.

After the hit, Wees tried to go after Cody Lund and there was a fracas in front of the Weyburn net. In the middle of that, everyone's attention shifted to the benches where the sticks were flying. That went on for a good two minutes.

I couldn't tell from my angle, but upon watching the video after the game, Wings agitator Lucas Ulmer was the first to swing his stick, reaching around the glass to do so. His stick hit Klipper trainer Neal Bruetsch on the top of the head; fortunately he was okay.

Four or five Wings (including Blake Kirkham, who swung his stick well over his head and then brought it down) continued at this, swinging at Taylor Wasden and Riley Down, along with a couple other players who were on the ice. The Klipper players had their sticks up as well, but weren't rearing back to take big swings; it looked to me like they were merely protecting themselves.

It took probably 10 minutes to sort all this out. The upshot was Wees got 2, 5 and a game for roughing and charging. Ulmer got a gross misconduct (presumably from starting the stick war) and Jesse Ross got a 10. For the Klippers, Down was given a gross and Lund got two for roughing. 

Justin McDonald entered the game in the final minute because Rockie Zinger was worried the Wings might take a run at Cahill.

Wees racked up 23 PIMs tonight, including three minors before his hit on Mysiorek. Ulmer's gross was his third penalty of the night, and he also got away with punching Casey Rogers after the whistle early in the second. Both players will surely face suspensions.

As for the game that broke out in the middle of the violence (imagine that!), the Klippers led 2-1 after a dominant first period and the floodgates opened in the second, with the home side ahead 6-2 after two.

A charged-up Andrew Dommett led the way with two goals and an assist. If there were a bump of the game during the playoffs, he would have gotten that too for a massive hit he laid on his first shift. Dommett was a constant thorn in the Wings' side tonight.

Johnny Calkins had a goal and three assists, including perfect centering passes to set up both of Dommett's goals. Calkins' tally came when he tried to go cross-slot to Dommett but the puck went off a Weyburn skate and in.

The other goals came from Braeden Adamyk (1-2), Sanfred King, Ryan Elliot (1-1), Wheaton King (1-1), Mysiorek and John Sonntag (1-2). The goal credited to Sonntag looked like it was actually scored by Riley Down, who had a tremendous game tonight.

Sonntag, Leedahl and Flanagan were all on top of their game tonight in what was a very strong all-around effort from the Klipper blueline.

Drew George and Brock Appleyard had the Weyburn goals. George cut the Klipper lead to 2-1 late in the first when he tipped a power play point shot from Kevin Morrison. Appleyard scored on a man-advantage late in the second when he was given all kinds of space to snap a wrister past Sean Cahill from the high slot.

You have to believe the Wings were missing goalie Mitch Kilgore (flu) tonight. Riley Hengen did what he could, but he was powerless against the Klipper attack on all cylinders. Kilgore is the Wings' MVP, I think, and they need him back for Game 3 to have a shot at getting back in the series.

The shots tonight were a whopping 58-26 for the Klippers.

After the game (and this is what I was told by coaches and bystanders, as I missed the first part of it) there was a fracas in the hallway as Weyburn coach Dwight McMillan allegedly grabbed and/or hit Klippers volunteer Kim Leonard. When I arrived on the scene, local police were restraining McMillan and telling him that if he said another word, he'd be going to jail for the night.

Again, I didn't witness how it started, but if the reports are true, there's no place for that. This is the second time in the last month that Dwight has been involved in an incident in the WCEC hallway. On February 4, when the Wings beat the Klippers 5-4 in OT, someone spit on McMillan in the hallway following the game.

Still have any doubt that these teams hate each other?

Interviews

You'll want to hear these as Dommett and Zinger both had some harsh words for the shenanigans in the third period.

Andrew Dommett: two goals

Johnny Calkins: four points

Rockie Zinger

Game 1 victory for Klippers

It didn't look good early on, but the Klippers scored three times in the second period to top the Weyburn Red Wings 4-2 tonight in the opener of their conference semifinal.

Sanfred King, Andrew Dommett, Jordon Hoffman and John Sonntag had the Klipper goals, with Brock Appleyard and Keegan Bruce replying for the Wings.

It was a hard-fought game with a good physical tempo and solid goaltending at both ends, although it didn't seem like a high-intensity game aside from a stretch late in the first period.

The Klippers got contributions from all four lines tonight, which is always a good thing with a forward corps this deep. Each of the three scoring lines produced a goal, and the line of Down, Elliot and Wasden had a high-energy game and played a couple of shifts that really stood out where they banged bodies on the forecheck and turned the momentum.

There was no question that the Wings outplayed the Klippers in the first period. It went beyond scoring the only goal of the period. Weyburn established a strong forecheck whereas Kindersley didn't. The Klippers were also mediocre on the backcheck. Although the Klippers carried the shots in the period, they didn't generate many scoring chances and when they came close, Mitch Kilgore shut the door.

Brock Appleyard opened the scoring for the Red Wings 45 seconds into the game after a bad change by the Klippers. The Wings' leading scorer took a pass from Drew George (I think it was) and had all day to rip a shot from the top of the right circle, beating Sean Cahill over the glove.

Things got testy in the second half of the period, beginning with a semi-fight between T.J. Wees and Sanfred King (they only got roughing). A few minutes later, the Klippers found themselves on a 3-on-5 when, already killing a penalty to Cody Lund, an incredibly bad tripping call was made on Braeden Adamyk when he simply went into the corner with a Weyburn player trying to win the puck. There certainly was no trip or any other infraction on the play. 

The Klippers killed it off. Not long after Adamyk got out of the box, Taylor Desserre instigated a fight with him, for no reason that I could see. Needless to say, Desserre was the clear winner.

Kindersley came out much better in the second period, doing a better job on the forecheck and backcheck and moving the puck more efficiently. Sanfred King had his shot blocked, but he collected the rebound near the right side boards and snapped it past a surprised Kilgore to tie the game midway through the frame.

Only 1:31 later, Johnny Calkins hit Andrew Dommett with a perfect centering pass and the captain made no mistake to put the Klippers ahead for good. Late in the period, Dommett took a needless slashing penalty. The Klippers not only killed it off but scored a shorty when Jordon Hoffman took a slapper that Kilgore couldn't find, and the Major native tapped in his own rebound.

There were only two penalties in the second period. The Klippers took a 3-1 lead to the dressing room and led the shots 27-19 after two.

Keegan Bruce made it a one-goal game five minutes into the third, beating Cahill from the right circle after the Wings got him moving side to side on a series of shots. Aside from that, it was a pretty mild third period. Both teams got a couple of power plays, but there was no more scoring until John Sonntag added some insurance on a wrister from the point with 5:40 to go.

The Hoffman line was rolling tonight, in no small part due to the return of Jesse Mysiorek, who was very solid and physically engaged. Hoffman works hard all the time, but he was especially good tonight and his determination on the penalty kill led to the game winner, and that was enough to earn him the first star. Taylor Duzan also had his chances and played a strong physical game.

On the back end, Kurt Leedahl and John Sonntag both brought their A game. Leedahl was his usual collected self in his own end, saving the Klippers' bacon on more than one occasion and handling the puck with poise. Sonntag was very strong positionally, logged a ton of minutes as usual and looked confident at both ends.

Sean Cahill made a lot of big saves, especially in the third period, to preserve the win for the Klippers. Mitch Kilgore was also tremendous for the Wings, especially early on, but as the game rolled along the Klipper attack was too much for him.

There was a pretty strong crowd tonight - definitely not as many as the official 1399 figure, but probably the best crowd of the year.

Interviews

Sean Cahill - 36 saves

Rockie Zinger - first SJHL playoff win