The Nipawin Hawks are off to a great start in the UPL Division with a pair of wins last week to move into first place.
As of Oct. 12, the Hawks and Flin Flon Bombers each have 12 points. The Hawks are in first place with a better record of 6-1-0-0. The Melfort Mustangs are in third place with a record of 4-3-0-1 with nine points and the La Ronge Ice Wolves are in fourth place with a record of 2-5-2-1 with seven points.
Nipawin became the first team from the UPL Division to play the new Warman Wolverines franchise on Friday, Oct. 10.
The Hawks skated away with a 6-1 win in Warman. Nipawin led 1-0 after the first period and 4-0 after the second period.
Konnor Watson had a hat trick for the Hawks. Will Whitter, Carter Anderson and Ashton Tait added the other Nipawin goals. Whitter’s goal came on a penalty shot in the third period. Cam Sarna scored the lone goal for the Wolverines.
Gage Roberts made 31 saves for Nipawin; Taye Timmerman made 37 saves for Warman.
The Hawks opened their week with a 4-3 win in a shootout over the Ice Wolves in Nipawin on Tuesday, Oct. 7. Eric Hoiness scored the winner for the Hawks in the shootout.
The Hawks led 1-0 after the first period, and the game was tied 1-1 after the second period.
Whitter, Watson and Jack Janzen scored for Nipawin in regulation time.
Evan Cook had a pair of goals for La Ronge in regulation time and Connor Hoemson added the other Ice Wolves goal. Colten Scott made 32 saves for Nipawin; Riley Zezel made 31 saves for La Ronge.
The Bombers were in Nipawin to play the Hawks on Tuesday, Oct. 14, results were not available by press time.
Melfort finished their two-game southern road swing winless after a 5-2 loss to the Estevan Bruins in Estevan on Saturday, Oct. 11. Estevan led 1-0 after the first period and 2-0 after the second period.
Ewan Rennie had a pair of goals for the Bruins with Colton Getzlaff, Carter Onrait and Chase Holt adding the other Estevan goals. Danton Cox and Zayden Sadlemeyer responded for the Mustangs.
The Mustangs’ Kason Kobelka made 14 saves; Dylan Adams made 31 saves for Estevan.
The Mustangs opened their southern road swing with a 5-4 loss to the Red Wings in Weyburn on Friday, Oct. 10. The Red Wings led 1-0 after the first period and 2-1 after the second period.
Bryson Aikens, Logan Peskett, Bo Eisner and Sadlemeyer scored for the Mustangs. The latter three goals came in the third period as Melfort attempted to mount a comeback. Drew Molde had a pair of goals for Weyburn; other Red Wings goals came from Lucas Schmid, Roan Burgess and Simon Martin.
Madden Mulawka made 27 saves for Melfort; Ty Matonovich made 26 saves for Weyburn.
The Ice Wolves lost the second game of their two-game set in Kindersley 3-2 to the Klippers on Saturday, Oct. 11.
Trevor Oishi and Evan Cook scored for La Ronge. Avery Johnson, Ethan Sauter and Brock Evans responded for Kindersley.
Riley Zezel made 24 saves for La Ronge; Mattias Radke made 34 saves for the Klippers.
The Ice Wolves opened their two-game set in Kindersley with a 4-3 overtime win on Friday, Oct. 10. Zane Normand scored the winner four minutes into the extra frame for La Ronge.
The game was tied 1-1 after the first period and the Ice Wolves led 3-2 after the second period. Oishi, Graden Perozni and Waylon Gardipy scored for La Ronge in regulation. Wil Christian had a pair for Kindersley in regulation and Braydon Vandenbilche added the other Klippers goal.
Graham Brown made 45 saves for La Ronge; Brett O’Halloran made 26 saves for Kindersley.
The Wolverines were in La Ronge to play the Ice Wolves on Tuesday, Oct. 14, results were not available by press time.
The Yorkton Terriers are in Melfort to play the Mustangs on Friday, Oct. 17 and the Mustangs are in Yorkton to play the Terriers on Saturday, Oct. 18. The Ice Wolves are in Humboldt to play the Broncos on Friday, Oct, 17. The Hawks are in Weyburn to play the Red Wings on Saturday, Oct. 18.
