NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE SJHL
1. Canada West Camp Roster Is Out – Hockey Canada released the 44 names Tuesday for Dec 1-3’s Team Canada West Selection Camp, ahead of the 2019 World Junior A Challenge in Dawson Creek, B.C. Only two Saskatchewan Junior Hockey Leaguers got the call, down from the four that were invited a year ago. The Melville Millionaire’s goal-scoring leader Nic Porterfield, and Humboldt Broncos 16-year-old phenom Karter McNarland were the two picked from the SJ to try to make the team, and as both are mostly offensive guys, and the selection camp roster is stacked with highly-touted, NCAA committed scoring punch, it will be a bit of a long shot for either of them. The good news is that Humboldt head coach Scott Barney will assist head coach, and Alberni Valley (BCHL) bench boss Joe Martin, while former SJ coach (Kindersley) Clayton Jardine is also on the staff; so the bias against the Sask league might not be as big as you might be sitting there thinking! One would think Regina native and Penticton Vees sniper Lukas Sillinger has one foot in the door to represent Saskatchewan on the squad, while Notre Dame Hounds Telus Cup champ Stanley Cooley, who is doing really well with Spruce Grove in the AJHL, has a great chance to make the team as well. Will keep an eye on the event for sure. Please go to https://anchor.fm/neugsiesportscast for my interview with Scott Barney on the camp roster and more!
2. Petruic is a Cheat Code – Back to SJ matters, last week’s No. 1 team in Canada, the Battlefords North Stars, lost again to the Yorkton Terriers, the only squad to beat them this year in fact. In those games, Yorkton captain Chantz Petruic has a combined 10 points (yes, in two games). At time of writing, the 20-year-old Petruic, out of Moose Jaw, leads the SJHL in points by 12, and goals by nine. I’ve written about him a lot this year, but I just personally haven’t seen as individually dominant a player offensively in a Junior A hockey league, probably ever in my life. He’s one-man magic, his shot is electric, he’s hard on the puck, and his skating is quick as lightning. Watch out as Yorkton keeps adding depth, but more on that later.
3. Battlefords’ Bugaboo – It seems like the defending champs have just one bugaboo: those Terriers. That the Stars only outshot Yorkton 33-25 in North Battlefords on the 14th is actually really impressive by the dogs: teams have been routinely blown out of the water this year at the North Battlefords Civic Centre. Ryan Ouellette is also 6-1 since returning from the North American Hockey League, with a save percentage of .950, so…that’s not bad…
4. Goalie Overhaul – But the goalie picture is a little bit all over the place in the league right now. Kindersley has two brand new tenders from the start of the year, as the Klips have added former goalie of the week Ethan Slobodzian from Nipawin, and Matthew Sankner from Flin Flon; the Hawks have a new No. 1 in Dalton Dosch, whom they added from Virdin in the Manitoba league; and Melville seems to be running with Berk Berkeliev and Ethan Lahmon, among other moves. Almost every team has made a goalie move this year, which is not something you always see by mid-November!
5. Hawks Get Skill From Kindo – More on Nipawin, as they picked up two of Kindersley’s most skilled veteran players over the past couple weeks in nabbing 1999 birth years Caden Benson, and Dawson McKenzie, who automatically became the Hawks’ top scorer. Between McKenzie, captain Jake Tremblay, Michael Makarenko, Carson Erhardt, Austen Flaman, Benson, Jordan Simoneau, and long-time WHLer Zach Cox the Hawks have loads of experienced skill and ability up front, maybe as much as anyone, so it’s curious why they are struggling to score goals. I’m sure Doug Johnson is wondering just as much as I am.
6. The Taphorns Land – One team that was looking for secondary scoring, even if their primary scoring source is the best in the league, were the Yorkton Terriers. In WHL vets Keenan and Kaeden Taporn, head coach and GM Matt Hehr hopes they have found the ticket to take some pressure off Petruic. The Yorkton natives reportedly refused to report on a trade from their WHL club the Moose Jaw Warriors, and had not played a game since Oct. 12. A refusal to report in a trade brings an automatic 30-day suspension, which expired in time for the 19-year-old twins to make their debut for their hometown team on Nov. 16 in Weyburn. Kaeden played in exactly 200 games between the Kootenay Ice and the Warriors, while Keenan has 10 more than that. With a Top 6 that now includes four WHL veterans (Petruic, and Alec Zawatski included), Hehr certainly isn’t short on options!
7. Resetting Klippers – It’s hard to call the Klippers a rebuilder, given that they still have a pretty veteran roster, with five 1999 birth-years, and plenty of 2000s as well. That being said, they have dealt capable 20-year olds in Zach Johnson, Caden Benson, Dawson McKenzie, and Zach Ziegler, so it’ll be interesting to see which direction Larry Wintoneak and the 11th-placed Klips go up to, and at, the trade deadline in January. With the corps of very good players led by Tyler Traptow, Austin Nault, and Kyle Bosch still in tact, they are still dangerous every night, so it’s a situation that I’ll definitely keep an eye on.
8. ND’s Robinson Finally Lands – I got a lot of messages asking me what happened to Notre Dame’s talented 2000-born Newfoundlander Kyle Robinson, after he played seven games then seemed to disappear. Well, I can say that Kyle is happily playing in the Ontario Junior Hockey League with the always-superb Trenton Golden Hawks, and doing well. So good for him.
9. Penner Heating Up – Speaking of those Hounds, I am thrilled to see that their goal-scoring phenom Jarrett Penner is continuing to prove that his 22-goal rookie season was no fluke: he is for real. He’s a hard-working, big-bodied kid who understands very well where to go on the ice if you want to score. He has 12 now, and has tallies in five of his last seven. ND has 10 wins on the year, and he has four game-winners, so do the math concerning how important he is to the club right now. If he isn’t an all-star for a second year in a row, menacing the Manitobans at the January showcase, I’d be positively stunned. Great to see hard work pay off for a really good guy.
10. My Two Cents on the Riders’ Loss (bonus) – Finally, I know everyone has chimed in on the Riders loss so far on this website, and others, but this is my column so I’ll write about it if I want to! Yeah, I think it was brutal play-calling in the critical moments, that is, in the red zone, but I’d rather focus on the incredible performance of Cody Fajardo given how much pain he must have been in. That guy is a competitor and a half, and this team will be back next year! Nick Marshall, the former Auburn quarterback, has to score on that trick punt return, though it’s easy for me to say given he just spent a long series covering Winnipeg receivers. Isn’t there someone fresher you can throw out for that trick punt return? Like, any Saskatchewan running back for example, who might have talent, but we’d never know. 😉
(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)
