Weekend sports wrap: Natives wrap up MJHL season; Krzyzaniak, UND off to next round of playoffs
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- Published on Monday, March 3, 2014
myWestman.ca
The following is a recap of what transpired in local sports over the weekend . . .
MJHL season comes to a close for Natives; club wins last home game
The Neepawa Natives wrapped up their season in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League over the weekend.
On Friday, the Natives gave their fans a nice farewell present after the junior 'A' club edged the Dauphin Kings 3-2 in a shootout in what was Neepawa's last home game of the year at the Yellowhead Centre.
Jaret Smith scored the shootout winner for the Natives, who received a 38 save performance from netminder Matthieu Verreault en route to the victory.
Former Native Brayden Cuthbert opened the scoring late in the first period to give the Kings a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.
The second period saw Sam Houston tie the game for Neepawa before Cuthbert scored his second goal of the game to give the Kings a one goal lead once again.
The Natives would respond in the third on the power play as Brady Bouchard would find the back of the net at the 14:15 mark.
Jordan Piccolino made 26 saves between the pipes for Dauphin in the loss.
Check out this video below of Natives netminder Matthieu Verreault making a glove save in first period of game against Kings.
On Sunday, the Natives played their last game of the season on the road in OCN against the Blizzard and wound up falling 6-3.
Ty Webber, Sam Briscoe and Kyle McDonald scored for the Natives, who finished the season in last place in the Sher-Wood Division with a 14-41-5 record.
Rhett Law scored twice, while Darien Cardinal, Tyler Grove, Camacho Lathlin and Colton Robak scored the other tallies for the Blizzard in the win.
For the rest of the scores from around the MJHL over the weekend, click here.
The MJHL playoffs begin on Tuesday night with the two survivor series best-of-three matchups getting underway.
In the Sher-Wood Division, the Waywayseecappo Wolverines will take on the OCN Blizzard, while in the Addison, the Winkler Flyers will battle the Winnipeg Blues.
Krzyzaniak, UND advance to WCHA Final Face-off
Neepawa's Halli Krzyzaniak and the University of North Dakota women's hockey team is headed to the WCHA Final Face-Off.
UND defeated Bemidji State 4-1 on Friday night and followed that up with a 3-2 overtime win over the Beavers on Saturday, sweeping the best-of-three quarter-final series.
"Bemidji is a very hard working team," said Krzyzaniak. "They'll keep coming at you no matter what the score is and are tough to play against in the offensive zone. We did a really good job of pressuring their defence and were hard on the forecheck."
Krzyzaniak scored a key goal in Game 2 of the series on Saturday, as her power play marker tied the game at 2-2 before Meghan Dufault netted the game winner in overtime for UND.
"It happened pretty quick off of a face-off," said Krzyzaniak, describing the goal. "Our centre won it back and my defence partner on the power play pushed it back to me up top. I walked the blueline, saw a lane and fired it.
"I think it went five hole," she continued with a smile. "It was great to be able to directly contribute like that when we needed it. I haven't been getting great bounces offensively, hitting a lot of posts lately, so it was nice to put one in finally."
UND will now advance to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association semifinals (Final Face-Off) next weekend where they will take on the Wisconsin Badgers. The winner of that contest will battle the winner of the game between Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota in the WCHA final.
The WCHA champion will then head to the NCAA quarter-finals with an opportunity to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four.
Neepawa midget girls hockey team wins bronze
The Neepawa midget girls hockey team came away with a bronze medal at the rural female midget C/D provincial championship in Steinbach over the weekend.
Neepawa defeated Parkland 3-1 in the third place game on Sunday.
Brandon defeated the host Steinbach team 3-1 in the championship final.
Meanwhile, the Neepawa peewee girls squad ended up with a silver medal after dropping a tightly-contested contest 2-1 in overtime to St. Adolphe in the championship final of the female peewee rural C/D provincial championship in Warren.
Lastly, Neepawa took home a silver medal at the male atom rural B provincial championship in Ile Des Chenes, falling to Souris 5-2 in the championship final.
Armour playing in masters semifinal
Doug Armour of Souris is playing in a semifinal at the Manitoba master men's provincial curling championship in Winnipeg on Monday morning.
Armour, who is also a third on Kelly Robertson's senior provincial champion rink, will take on Pat Carson of Fort Rouge.
The winner will take on Ron Westcott in the final.
The winner of the event will advance to represent Manitoba at the Canadian masters curling championship in Coaldale, Alta., March 31-April 6.
Update: Monday afternoon
Armour defeated Carson 6-4 in the semifinal and will now take on Ron Westcott in the championship final, slated to take place at 1:30 p.m.
Lisoway scores as Wheat Kings take down Blades; fall to Broncos in shootout
Neepawa's Quintin Lisoway scored a goal, helping the Brandon Wheat Kings defeat the host Saskatoon Blades 8-5 on Saturday night.
Other Brandon goal scorers included Jayce Hawryluk, who picked up a pair of tallies (five points in total), while John Quenneville, Richard Nejezchleb, Minnedosa's Chad Robinson, Ryan Pulock and Tim McGauley also scored for the Wheat Kings in the win.
On Sunday, the Wheat Kings lost 4-3 to the host Swift Current Broncos in a shootout.
For the second night in a row, Jayce Hawryluk scored twice for the Wheat Kings, who now sit in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with a 31-26-6-3 record.
The Wheat Kings host the Calgary Hitmen on Tuesday.
Roberts transferring to BU
Brandon product Courtney Roberts is returning to her hometown and will be suiting up for the Brandon University Bobcats women's volleyball team beginning this fall.
After spending the past two years at South Dakota State University as a member of the Jackrabbits women’s volleyball team, Roberts, a former member of the Crocus Plains high school volleyball program, will be transferring to BU at the conclusion of this school year.
Roberts will be coming into her sophomore year after red-shirting two seasons ago, and playing her rookie season this past year. Playing her freshman season this year at right-side, left-side and middle, she was third on the Jackrabbits in kills (147) and hitting percentage (.083).
AAA Wheat Kings, Selects tied 1-1
The Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League best-of-five semifinal series between the Brandon AAA Wheat Kings and Eastman Selects is currently tied at one game apiece.
After the Wheat Kings doubled up the Selects 6-3 in Game 1 on Friday night at the Sportsplex, the Selects were able to squeak out a 4-3 win on Sunday afternoon in Beausejour.
Calvert remains alive at Worlds
Carberry product Braden Calvert remains alive and kicking at the World junior men's curling championship in Switzerland.
Calvert and his Canadian squad, who ended up third in the standings with a 6-3 record, will be taking part in the 3-versus-4 page playoff on Tuesday morning.
To stay up-to-date on that event, click here.
Stoughton remains undefeated
Jeff Stoughton remains the only undefeated curling rink at the Tim Horton's Brier national men's curling championship in Kamloops.
Stoughton's Manitoba rink currently sits with a 4-0 record, while B.C.'s John Morris sits in second place with a 3-1 mark.
Female midget Chiefs moving on
The Yellowhead Chiefs are moving on to the next round of the playoffs in the Manitoba Female Midget Hockey League.
The Chiefs edged the Central Plains Capitals 2-1 in the fifth and deciding game of their quarter-final and will now advance to a semifinal matchup against the defending league champion Pembina Valley Hawks.
Tiger Hills Hockey League update: Lakers, Royals, Elks move on
The divisional finals are set in the Tiger Hills Hockey League playoffs.
The Gladstone Lakers defeated the Cartwright Clippers in a Eastern Division best-of-five semifinal in four games and will now take on the Carberry Plainsmen in the Eastern Division final.
Meanwhile, the Deloraine Royals swept the Boissevain Border Kings in three straight games and will now take on the Souris Elks in the Western Division final.
The Elks defeated the Hartney Blues 8-2 in the fifth and deciding game of their Western Division semifinal.
Jets defeat Predators
Ondrej Pavelec made 39 saves to help the Winnipeg Jets defeat the Nashville Predators 3-1 in NHL action on Saturday night.
Olli Jokinen, Andrew Ladd and Devin Setoguchi scored for the Jets, who now sit with a 30-26-6 record and are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games and are 11-3-1 since hiring Paul Maurice as head coach.
Photo: Halli Krzyzaniak
Photo courtesy of UND athletics
With files from BU Bobcats release
