NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE SJHL
BY: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds
1. Chantz Petruic is Good – Yes, I did just get my promotion from Lieutenant to Captain Obvious, but after watching the Yorkton Terriers captain for the fourth time already this season last Friday, I am certain he is the most dangerous individual offensive player in the SJHL. He put on a show in Wilcox Friday night, scoring two goals and setting up two more in a 4-1 Terriers victory. I said it a couple columns ago: he will put this team on his back offensively plenty of times to make Yorkton a tough out anytime, anywhere. At time of writing he has 17 goals and 32 points in 17 games (1.88 points-per-game), is on a 15-game point-scoring streak, and has only been held pointless in one contest so far. Yorkton head coach Matt Hehr took him off the line with the Terriers’ second-most dynamic player Alec Zawatsky a couple games ago…did it matter? Not at all. Petruic also has 10 points in his last four, and boy is he fun to watch.
2. More for Matt Hehr to Smile About – If Petruic didn’t have Hehr smiling wide, then the play of his goaltender Ryan Ouellette, recently returned from the NAHL, will for sure. In his two games back from the Minnesota Wilderness, last year’s Terriers playoff MVP has allowed only three goals on 83 shots, in two victories in which Yorkton was outshot and out-chanced. I also think the Terriers’ D-corps is taking steps forward, with their No. 1 guy Tyson Janzen back from injury, Ryan Granville and Kurri Woodford playing well; so with more reinforcements on the way (I hear), and in a Viterra Division that all is up for grabs, there are lots of reasons for Yorkton fans to get excited.
3. Haygarths on Fire – The Flin Flon Bombers have done a nice job since the Warman Showcase of proving that they are more than just their Top 3 forwards (as dominant as those three are), and a big part of that has been the consistent play of the Lloydminster, AB-born twins Chase and Easton Haygarth. Easton, who had a fantastic year in Whitecourt of the Alberta Junior league a season ago, is on a seven-game point-scoring streak, posting two-points-per-game over that span, while Chase has eight assists over his last four contests. They are both hard-working kids too, well accustomed to penalty killing and the trenches, so I was correct in writing a couple months ago that they would be nice pickups and fit well into the SJHL and the Bombers.
4. Wolves Coming Back to Earth? – Four losses on the trot might have some thinking that the La Ronge Ice Wolves are coming back to earth, but I say that is bunk! They haven’t been at home in five games, with two of the four losses coming in North Battlefords, where literally nobody has been able to win a game this year. The Wolves start November with six of seven at home, against manageable opposition, so this is the time to prove without a shadow of the doubt that La Ronge is for real this year.
5. Wings Like What They Have – Clearly, Weyburn head coach and GM Rich Pilon likes what he has in defending SJHL goaltender of the week Noah Decottignies, and the Calgary native is proving him right after three-straight performances with a save percentage north of .958. Two Wings wins in a row over Estevan will get any Weyburnite excited, and especially Saturday night at Affinity Place he was magnificent. Some argue that it’s going to be a timeshare with 18-year-old Joseph Young in the Wings’ net, but I have to think that for now it’s Decottignies’ job to lose.
6. No 2. Stars – Sent Battlefords head coach and GM Braydon Klimosko a text congratulating him on his club’s No. 2 ranking in the National Junior A rankings this past week, and his response was, lightheartedly, that while he’s definitely proud of his guys, they don’t hand out any trophies in October. As someone who works for ND, I replied that I was also happy they don’t set the playoff standings in stone in October either…so there you go…
7. A Coincidence From a Good Trade – It gave me a little chuckle to look at the points leaders at time of writing, and see that Humboldt’s Logan Foster and Melville’s Luke Spadafora are tied on goals, assists, and points exactly after 16 games each. The two were traded for each other around this time last year, and while Spadafora went on to be the SJHL Rookie of the Year, Foster has turned out to be a dynamic player for Scott Barney and the Broncos as well, killing penalties as effectively as putting the puck in the net. You have to think both clubs are happy on their return in that trade right now, as much as it raised some eyebrows that Humboldt was giving up a young player with that much potential at the time.
8. Guiney on the Dot – More Yorkton talk as I have to be impressed with the face-off ability of big Terriers’ centreman Jordan Guiney. One area that the Hounds of Notre Dame have been very consistent at all year has been winning faceoffs, but in Friday night’s 4-1 Terriers win in Wilcox, Guiney dominated what is an excellent group of ND pivots on the dot. He’s also a 20-year-old with over 100 games of BCHL experience, for whatever that is worth. Either way, he’s an impressive centreman and you have to think that almost every big Terriers faceoff in the D-zone will be his to win the rest of the year.
9. Stevie Gaining Confidence – One of those excellent Notre Dame centremen is Cole Stevenson, who at 6-foot-4, and 205 pounds, is really starting to find his mojo offensively. He has been an outstanding penalty killer and faceoff guy all year, often alongside his long-time friend Qaritaq Kusugak; but his outstanding set-up of Curtis Wiebe in the third period Friday, among many other plays that night and earlier that week in Humboldt, shows me that he’s ready to be a real threat consistently in this league. He’s also a great kid, and was very entertaining in this week’s edition of the ND Quiz video, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqupkvoc7PM&t=
10. What’s Up With the Huskies? (bonus) – What is up with the University of Saskatchewan Men’s Hockey Team? I honestly have no idea, but they are 3-3 after six games; and those three losses equal their season total from a year ago. The roster turnover isn’t that considerable as far as I can see, so it has to be at least a bit frustrating for a program so used to going from success to success. Still, it’s early with plenty of time for them to figure it out!
(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)
