It wasn’t pretty or rough or very interesting, but a win is a win.

The Davidson Cyclones came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Nokomis Chiefs 8-6 Dec. 14 at the Davidson Rink in a game that featured back-and-forth action with little attention paid to the physical or defensive aspects of hockey.

“It’s actually kind of tough to get into the game (against Nokomis),” said Cyclones captain Derek Allan. “It’s more like a (recreational) game to be honest when we play those guys. It’s not much hitting and everyone is just out there trying to score goals and not prevent them. It’s not like the other teams in the league. The games are quite a bit different.”

The first period started off agonizingly slow with both teams creating few scoring opportunities. Davidson (5-5-1) would pot the first goal of the night on a power play marker from Pat Cey that saw him roof the puck glove side on Nokomis goaltender Adam Isherwood with 4:32 left in the opening frame.

The Chiefs (2-9) line of Brett Leedahl, Chad Murton and Kirk Belyk responded quickly at the beginning of the second period with Murton trickling a backhand shot five-hole on Cyclones goalie Brady Willner at the 4:02 mark. Twenty-seven seconds later Belyk also found space in front of the Davidson net and jammed home the second goal of the game, which he followed with another a little over two minutes later.

“After they went up 3-1 in the second I think the boys realized we’re in a game here,” said Willner, who stopped 30 shots in the win. “The boys dug deep and we came back. That was nice to see.”

The comeback saw Davidson bring the score to within one off a backhand by Cody Danberg with 11:37 left in the second. On a delayed penalty call to Nokomis with a little over six minutes to go Kyle Bortis rifled a shot blocker side over Isherwood’s shoulder tying up the game at 3-3 and setting the stage for a wide open third.

“It was a bit of a fire drill (in the third),” said Cyclones forward Carter Smith, who started off the period with a goal 21 seconds in. “We came out the way we wanted to, (but) it wasn’t our best game. As long as we score more goals than them I guess all is well.”

Davidson went up by two at the 2:37 mark when John Adam snuck a shot past the Chiefs goaltender from the blue-line. The ice resembled a see-saw during the seventh minute of the final frame when Danberg scored at 7:28 followed by Murton at 7:34, which Davidson got right back on Smith’s second goal at 7:58. The Chiefs then brought the score back to within two less than a minute and a half later when Belyk registered the hat-trick making it 7-5 in Davidson’s favour.

After Allan and Murton scored within 30 seconds of each other with a little over a minute left, the period and game mercifully came to an end for the two goaltenders.

To read more please see the December 23 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Davidson Raiders senior girls basketball team’s 43-33 win over the Hanley Sabers at home last Wednesday never appeared to be in doubt during the first three quarters, but then the Sabers started showing their strong athleticism in the final minutes of the game.

Down 39-16 heading into the fourth the Sabers finally started breaking through the Raiders defence thanks to strong drives by point guard Megan Fairbairn to get the ball in close to the Davidson basket where forwards Jill Kroeger and Taylor Shpyth were waiting to drain a few shots. In those last 10 minutes Hanley put up more points than they did in the first 30, but just didn’t have enough time to complete the comeback.

“It was our first game of the season and we’ve had several practices already cancelled because of weather, so we’re pretty raw,” said Sabers coach Kelly Graham. “That’s about what I expected (is) to come out there and make some mistakes, but by the end of the game we were starting to learn and play together. As the game got going we got better. We lost, but I still feel pretty good about it.”

Both the Raiders (3-1) and Sabers (0-1) got off to a slow start in the game with each team firing bricks on their scoring opportunities during the opening minutes. The Raiders were the first team to wake up halfway through the first leaning on strong defensive play from guard Tina Stone who swatted a number of Hanley attempts and post Kim Baldwin who wasn’t afraid to put herself at risk by fighting hard defensively against the Sabers.

Leading 14-6 after one, the Sabers started making a charge, but Davidson matched them along the way bringing the score to 21-14 at the half. The third quarter is when the Raiders put the game away thanks to point guard Sydney Booker and her prowess moving the ball down the court and making plays and centre Cheyanne Nordmarken who made good on a number of shots staking the home side to a comfortable 39-16 lead.

“It was a really good practise game because we have been working on things like press and a couple of plays and we had a really good opportunity there to get to practise them,” said Raiders coach Karielle Willner. “That was excellent. It was really good for that. It’s always good to play Hanley because they have such raw excellent athletes. They are just going to give you a good game no matter what because they have such raw talent in terms of athleticism. It’s fun to play them.”

To read more please see the December 16 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Davidson Raiders senior boys basketball team jumped out of the gate last Tuesday beating the Central Butte Bulldogs 71-33 before a big crowd at home in their first game of the 2013-2014 season.

Kim Rettger, head coach of the Raiders, said the team did a good job moving the ball quickly up the court and staying wide until they reached the three-point line resulting in good penetration on the Bulldogs defence. He said they have a small team with a deep bench, so that is going to be their “bread and butter” this season and it worked well against the bigger Central Butte team that seemed to run out of gas in the third and fourth quarter.

“I was really pleased how they stuck to the game plan,” said Rettger. “From the big guys we got some inside plays and some real nice passes from our guards, some screens and some guys were working pretty well together. We tried a couple different defences, man-to-man in the first half and then we went to zone in the second half, and both seemed to work pretty well. With the defences mixed up no one can find us very predictable, which is a nice thing.”

The Raiders were led by centre/forwards Travis Bublish and Kirby Manz who controlled the backboards while also dominating the inside, which gave point guards Huck Rettger and James Morrison the means to send in passes. Davidson forward Vanner McDonnell helped set the tone for the game playing a strong first half that saw the Raiders jump out to a quick 20-8 lead after the first quarter and 35-18 advantage by halftime.

“It was good,” said Huck, who got his first taste of senior basketball action in the game. “It seems a lot faster than junior is, but it was a good game. We had pretty good contributions from everyone. Vanner and a whole bunch of kids played great. James, Gabe (Ebenal) and Ben (Nykiforuk), all those guys played good. It was just a good all-around team game.”

Rettger said he has lined up a busy season for the team where they would play some strong opponents that they normally wouldn’t see, while also developing some good rivalries with opponents in their own conference. He said they’ll be heading to a few “big schools” for tournaments this year giving the Raiders a chance to see some tougher competition while also providing them with a couple clues on what they need to do to keep improving.

“We’re going to be playing uphill most of this season, but I’ve found over the years we play much better by challenging ourselves versus playing teams that you have an easier chance to beat,” said Rettger, noting better play and staying healthy are their keys to a successful season. “With this deep a team we can take a fairly good run at the playoffs and see how far we can go. Going out of conferences is a real strong possibility and after that who knows.”

The Davidson Cyclones senior hockey team lit the lamp three times in the second period while on their way to a 6-1 road win last Wednesday against the Nokomis Chiefs.

Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones, said they dominated the play during the middle frame, which was book-ended by an even first and a quiet third. He said Nokomis doesn’t play a physical style, so that makes for a bit of a different game for them, but the most important thing is they still got the win.

“We were short staffed, but we played pretty good. The guys that were there played well. Brady Willner played pretty good in net,” said Shaw. Chad “Manz had a breakaway goal (4:43 into the second to put the Cyclones up 2-1), which was pretty good and then Carter (Smith) had a nice shorthanded goal. I guess with guys gone it gives different guys a chance to play a little bit more.”

The penalty kill goal by Smith, who also picked up two assists, came after Zach Sim scored his first of two on the night on the power play. Colton Allan and Rance Anderson also figured into the scoring with Allan potting the opening goal for the Cyclones to even up the score at 1-1 less than a minute after Tyler Hartmann gave the Chiefs their only lead of the game and Anderson scored the final goal with a little over five minutes left in the third. Davidson forward Cody Danberg didn’t find the back of the net against Nokomis, but he did add to his league leading point total that now sits at 24 after he picked up three assists during the game.

Shaw said it was especially nice to see Smith back on the ice and helping them out on special teams after suffering through an injury earlier in the year. He said the improved power play and penalty kill has also come around just through players chatting amongst themselves about what works and what doesn’t.

“During games (players are) talking about what we want to do power play wise (and) where we want to set up,” he said. “The first part of the season, especially on the power play, we had some chances (and) we just couldn’t score. Then on the penalty kill we’ve cut our penalties down quite a bit, but we’ve just as we’ve gone along change it up how we want to defend against their team’s power play and it seems to be working.”

After a slow start to the season the Cyclones (3-3-1) seem to have found their stride going two-and-two over the past four games, but keeping each of them fairly close with the big win against the Chiefs being the lone exception.

“For the rest of the year anybody can beat anybody,” said Shaw. “Nokomis had two wins and they’re on the bottom (of the standings) and Watrous is on the top with five, so we got to come every night to play well. As long as we can get three lines and four or five (defencemen) it gives us a chance every night.”

An errant trip by Cyclones defenceman Orrin Gryba with 7:54 left in the second period against the Drake Canucks proved the turning point in Davidson’s second-straight loss last Wednesday.

Gryba wasn’t sent to the penalty box on the play that saw the defenceman swipe his opponent’s feet with his stick on a diving attempt to stop a breakaway chance. The referee on the call instead decided to award the Canucks, who were losing 2-1 at the time despite playing the majority of the game in close quarters with Cyclones goalie Mark Zoerb, a penalty shot.

During the free attempt Canucks forward Doug McLeod raced down the centre of the ice shifting the puck from backhand to forward and again to backhand before slipping it low through the pad and glove of Zoerb who had went down to try and slide sideways to stop an expected shot to his blocker side.

“You just try and make him do the first move and then react to it,” said Zoerb, noting a goalie doesn’t usually face many penalty shots during the season, but they do happen.

“A call like that is a referee’s discretion,” said Cyclones coach Jason Shaw. “I could see why he’d call it, but maybe I didn’t think it could be a penalty shot. There is no changing his mind once he’s made that call.”

Canucks forward Derek Eberle struck 4:56 later at the tail end of a power play when he stuffed in a rebound off a Nick Kalnicki shot through Zoerb’s legs from in close giving Drake a lead they would not relinquish. A seeing-eye wrist shot from the point that somehow found the high glove side on Zoerb courtesy of Canucks defenceman Matt Rintoul 14:59 into a defence-first third period for Drake held up as the insurance marker.

Davidson would make it close 3:01 later when assistant captain Brett Siroski tapped in a behind-the-goal-line pass from Chad Manz bringing the score to 4-3 with their goalie pulled, but that would be the closest the Cyclones would come to a second home ice win this season.

“It was a really good game,” said Shaw. “We’re kind of short staffed a little bit right now, but the guys that were there played well. Drake is a good hockey team. We would have liked to win, but we were right there to the end. A couple breaks either way, a bounce here or a bounce there, and it might have been different.”

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Loreburn Aztecs and Imperial Cougars senior girls volleyball teams didn’t take home any medals from the 2013 SHSAA Provincial 1A Girls Volleyball Championships played at Mankota and Glentworth Nov. 15 and 16, but they can still take pride in their strong play at the tournament.

Aztecs coach Coralee Vollmer said the Loreburn girls’ bronze medal game at provincials against the Elrose Eagles was a close affair with both teams having a chance to walk away with a win. She said the two teams have similar strengths and both played well, but the Eagles were a little more “on” than they were.

“We’ve played them before and we’ve beaten Elrose before and they’ve beaten us,” said Vollmer, noting the Aztecs defeated Elrose 2-1 on their way to a gold medal finish at the North Regional Championship held a week earlier at Loreburn. “It’s a back-and-forth deal between the teams. Our girls can go out and compete and every other team at provincials can go out and compete. Whoever (plays) the strongest (that day) is going to come out on top.”

Loreburn won the first set 25-18 against Elrose, but lost the final two by scores of 25-17 and 25-16 despite determined play by middle Gillian Wankel and power Ashley Norrish. Gillian and Ashley both had a number of brilliant hits leading to scores for the Aztecs during the game.

Vollmer said the two players are Grade 12 students, so the Elrose game would be their last as Aztecs. She said both were invaluable for the leadership and good attitude they brought to the team all season and the experience they brought to provincials considering they’ve been there a few times before.

“They try to make (their teammates) laugh and calm them down and yet play serious,” she said adding this was the seventh year in a row Loreburn has competed at provincials. “They are both very strong players. They kept the team up.”

The Aztecs made it to the bronze medal game after a semifinal 2-0 loss to the Fox Valley Legends, which came on the heels of a thrilling three-set victory over the Imperial Cougars.

The first set saw Imperial battle back from an early deficit only to eventually fall 25-18 to Loreburn in the quarterfinal match. The second set proved much closer with both teams trading points throughout the game. After going down early Imperial tied up the score at sevens during the second set and both teams then fought point-by-point throughout the rest of the action eventually coming to a 28-28 deadlock in extra time. Imperial would pull through scoring two big points to take the second set with a 30-28 score. The Aztecs offence proved the difference in the third set winning 25-13.

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.