Friday, January 7, 2011

A Big Month For Local SJHL Teams

Happy New Year Everyone,
It’s been a good Christmas it was nice to be home with the family again and visiting friends, wish I could have stayed home longer but thats how the cookie crumbles.
Let’s talk SJHL in December and early January 2011. The Nipawin Hawks were the second hottest team in the league in December winning 6 of 8 and putting pressure on the Battlefords North Stars yes with their losses to Melfort this past weekend it makes it a little harder but Doug Johnson’s crew has a chance to get into that 5th and final playoff spot in the Bauer Conference. 


The Hawks were offensive juggernauts before the break it all came from their first line of Tyler Pawslawski, Matt Spafford and Jonathon Ceci getting the majority of points. During their span of points Spafford jumped to the top 10 in scoring (Currently 11th now) while Ceci moved to 15th. Ceci had a good month and that got him the RBC player of the month award 22 points in 9 games winning against some tough teams in Humboldt,  La Ronge and Yorkton. Congrats to him. 


Also Stephen Klein the 17 year old from Saskatoon Klein was 4-1 in December with a goals against average of 3.69 and a save percentage of .907. One of Klein’s four wins was one of the goaltending performances of the year in the SJHL as he stopped 52 of 54 shots in a victory over La Ronge. I was there unreal performence from him great kid and wants to get better all the time great future for him and is a good student too so wouldn’t be suprisied if we saw his name on a commitment list to a Ivy League School in the future.
Melfort Mustangs have been a powerhouse of late and have gt some more fire power. They acquired Brenden Wall from the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL a SOLID d-man for Darrell Mann’s crew going forward, they also acquired Nick Angelo who was outstanding in his debut on New Year’s Eve sniping his first as a Mustang  just adds another dynamic to the roster shooting on Brody Hoffman and wiring it is no easy task. 


Angelo was playing along side Jesse Mireau and Sean Aschim might the fit for that line. Also it’s been great goaltending by Charles Corsi but also of Jesse Ehnisz who is getting more starts which is trouble for anyone in a playoff match-up as a healthy Charles Corsi is a goaltender that can go far in the playoffs.  Darrell Mann will be looking for one more player come the January 10th trade deadline who that is remains to be seen lot of rumors going out there.
As it looks right now in the Bauer Conference
1. La Ronge
2. Melfort
3. Humboldt
4. Flin Flon
5. North Battleford
6. Nipawin
It’s going to be tight near the top I think the amount of games the Stars have played may haunt them if Nipawin can shake off the Melfort sweep they can make that survivor series spot it won’t be easy but thats the way the Hawks roll these days and its worked.


 The Mustangs will make a run at the top spot in the Bauer it will come to who goes on a mini slide first because La Ronge and Melfort have been good and Melfort is getting better by the hour. Humboldt is in that third spot for now but they could end up anywhere from there they can jump with their talents or if they sell they might fall into the survior series spot or even out depending on how things go. RBC is on the mind of Dean Brockman at least for the next 7.5 days.
I will keep everyone up to date on deadline day as teams make moves as the best I can its tough to hear official words on things I’m sure we’ll be on the phones alot that day.
That’s gonna do it for this post e-mail me at gino.depaoli@cjvr.com or Tweet Me @gdp74 guess what the 74 in my name stands for??? Until then enjoy Take Er Easy and The Toronto Maple Leafs really do suck. Don’t believe me look at the standings.
GDP

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