Category Archives: Sports

Sports

Cyclones advance to provincial final

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team is heading to the provincial finals this weekend with the opportunity to create a four-year provincial champion dynasty.

The Cyclones will face off against the Hudson Bay Hunters (14-6 in the Fishing Lake Hockey League this season) in Hudson Bay this Friday with game two going March 30 at the Davidson Rink. If necessary, game three will be played a day later back in Hudson Bay.

The Cyclones made their way to the finals by sweeping the Radville Nationals two games to nothing in South “C” Finals action by winning their second game 6-4 in come-from-behind fashion March 8 at the Radville Rink. The Cyclones won the first game 4-3 in Davidson March 2.

Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones, said the second game was a “hard-working win” for the team against a skilled Radville club that played tough until the end. He said it was a smaller rink in Radville than the Cyclones are used to which made it especially hard for his team to eke out a win.

“Radville were ahead 4-3 in the third and (Derek Allan) scored our fourth one with about eight minutes left,” said Shaw. “That was a big goal and he then got another one to put us ahead. They had some pressure at the end, but we got an empty netter to seal the deal. It was close right till that sixth goal.”

Shaw said the team were missing a few players for the game and had to go with four defencemen after Zach Sim went down with an injury late in the game, but the players that were there had a “good game” enabling them to make it to the finals.

To read more please see the March 18 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Raiders junior boys basketball team win Sun West district championship

The Davidson Raiders junior boys basketball team are the 2013 Sun West district champions after dominating a two-game round-robin tournament against the Biggar Blazers and Kindersley Kobras March 2 at Biggar.

Raiders head coach Kim Rettger said their first game of the tournament came against the Blazers and his team didn’t have any trouble against them beating Biggar by over 30 points. He said the whole bench played a lot in that game giving his starters a bit of a break before the much-tougher game against the Kobras coming up later in the day.

“We got off to a slow start against Kindersley, but we had an eight- or nine-point lead at the half,” said Rettger, noting he had to sit his starting point guard Huck Rettger for most of the first half after getting into foul trouble. “Then there was this really cool play at halftime.

“With about eight seconds left on the clock Kindersley had the ball, so we went ahead with this no-foul no-point defence where you find your man and stay in his face as close as you can and make sure he doesn’t get any points. Somehow this kid gets away from his defender and went for a layup and (Raiders centre Ben Nykiforuk) came from behind and stuffed the basketball against the backboard.”

The second half saw Huck get back into the game and take a hard foul right off the tip making him “mad” and he took the game over.

“Within about four minutes we had a 30-point lead,” said Rettger. “Huck scored about 12 to 14 points in a row, but was responsible for some really nice assists too doing some fast breaks. We had the press on then and they turned the ball over a lot and we capitalized a lot and he and Ben made quite a few points, but the real key in the game was our defence.”

James Morrison, Killian McDonnell and Huck took the Kobras’ guards out of the play by pressuring them the whole game and forcing them to take weak outside shots or turn the ball over. At the end of the game the Raiders would have a 40-point win to secure the district championship.

To read more please see the March 11 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson, Sports

Cyclones knocked out of LLHL playoffs

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team are out of the Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) playoffs, but still have a chance to advance to the provincial final.

The Cyclones lost their third straight game in a best-of-five LLHL semi-final series 6-4 to the LeRoy Braves last Tuesday at the LeRoy Rink nullifying their opportunity to repeat as league champions this year. The Cyclones still are the defending LLHL champions, for another few weeks at least, until the new crown is handed to either LeRoy, Watrous or Lanigan later this month.

“We got off to a bad start and got down early (to the Braves),” said Cyclones head coach Jason Shaw. “Then we worked our way back and had a lot of chances to score, but just couldn’t.”

The Braves stepped up the pressure early on the Cyclones jumping up to a 4-0 lead by the 14-minute mark of the first period, but Davidson clawed back. At the end of the first, the score was 5-1. At the end of the second, it was 5-3, but once again this season a short bench for Davidson sealed their doom in the third.

“We only had 12 guys, eight forwards and four defence,” said Shaw. “For what we had, we played well. They had a full lineup. That’s pretty tough in playoffs. You can get away with a short bench in league games the odd time, but in playoffs it’s a lot tougher.”

The lack of a full lineup was not the case in the Cyclones first game of their provincial “C” south final against the Radville Nationals March 2 at the Davidson Rink. Davidson matched the swift-skating Nats throughout the match-up coming out on top with a 4-3 win.

Shaw said the Nats caught them off guard scoring in the first minute of the opening period, but the Cyclones stood up and “worked hard” to gut out the win.

“It was a tough game,” he said. “They’re a good team. When you get down to the last four teams in provincials, they are all going to be decent.”

Davidson had to win another this past weekend either March 8 in Radville or March 10 at Davidson to take the best-of-three provincial series and move on to the provincial finals to be played later this month against Hudson Bay.

Results of Friday and Sunday night’s games against the Nats were unavailable at press time.

Davidson, Sports

Cyclones head to south final with win over Elks

Playoff hockey is not for the weak.

It is physical, demanding, gutsy and flawed.

Last week, the Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team put on display all four of those characteristics in an outstanding 7-0 provincial “C” quarter-final win over the Kyle Elks Feb. 23 and a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to the LeRoy Braves last Wednesday in semi-final Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) playoff competition.

Both games featured hard-hitting end-to-end action where all players involved gave their best, but in the end it was a goalpost that stopped the Cyclones from completing a perfect playoff week.

“We played well enough to win, but we never got the bounces our own way,” said Cyclones forward Brett Siroski on the Braves game.

One of those bounces was a shot by Davidson defenceman Zack Sim that rang off the post with 25 seconds left in the third and would have tied the game at fives. That post stopped a comeback tie for the Cyclones, which would have forced the game into extra frames and given Davidson a chance at tying the series at one game apiece.

With the loss, the Cyclones fall to 0-2 in the best of five LLHL series.

Leading up to that post, the Cyclones were dominating the Braves continually pushing the play into the LeRoy defensive zone and peppering Braves goaltender Blair Miskolczi with shots.

“He made a lot of good saves,” said Siroski, adding Miskolcki also did the same thing to them in game one, a 9-1 Braves victory Feb. 22 at the LeRoy Rink.

Carter Smith, scoring his second of the night at the 11-minute mark of the third and Cyclones captain Derek Allan potting one with 1:38 left to go in the game made it close, but Miskolczi and his post made sure that would be all.

“It was a good game,” said Cyclones head coach Jason Shaw. “We had lots of chances to score, but we just hit posts and crossbars. LeRoy is a good team and I thought we were right there to the end.”

To read more please see the March 4 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson, Sports

Raider boys step up play in advance of conferences

March madness is here for the Davidson Raiders senior boys basketball team as they head to conferences in Outlook this weekend in their bid to make a run at a provincial championship.

The Raiders have been playing better of late and sit at “about .500” as their regular season wrapped up last week with a back and forth 61-55 loss to the Watrous Wildcats Feb. 26 at the Davidson Gym.

“We played really well (despite the loss),” said Raiders head coach Jeremy Murphy. “We played a little bit more consistently, but it happens. It was a good game, really close and very intense.”

Davidson started off slowly against the Wildcats going down 17-14 by the end of the first quarter and 32-26 by the half, but stayed in the game throughout with strong defensive play resulting in numerous Watrous turnovers. On offence, Raiders forward Kurri Reich led the charge continually pushing the Wildcats defence by setting up drives to the basket instead of settling for outside shots.

After the half, Davidson came out strong and thanks to a couple choice threes by Raiders forward Matthias McCreary and a strong inside game by guard Patrick Nordmarken, who continually found himself at the free-throw line, the team moved ahead 45-41 heading into the fourth. In the last frame, Watrous forward Colby McGregor led a press against the Raiders pushing his team to a strong finish and a resulting 61-55 win.

“We turned the ball over a lot, but it was the first game after the break for us and I knew we would be rusty,” said Wildcats head coach Doug Thomas. “The boys continue to impress me as the season goes on. They continue to play together and encourage each other and not worry about the officials. We were missing a few players, so I’m proud they came out and played well.”

Murphy said the boys have showed a lot of progress as the season wore on and the players have developed more of a team game over time. He said as they head into conferences this weekend he feels good that the team can win the necessary two games in Outlook to advance to regionals.

“We’re going to play hard and try to win some games.”

Sports

Cyclones fall to Elks in first game of second-round at provincials

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team needed a four-goal victory in Saturday night’s game against the Kyle Elks to stay alive in provincial “C” hockey action and keep their three-year provincial championship dynasty intact.

The Cyclones lost 4-1 to the Elks at the Kyle Arena Feb. 15 in the first game of their two-game total goals wins series not for a lack of effort, but more to the fact the team was short skaters compared to the full lineup iced by the Elks.

“We’re not happy losing 4-1, but we lost (leading scorer) Steve DaSilva in the middle of the second period,” said Cyclones head coach Jason Shaw. “He took a puck to the face and ended up with seven stitches, so starting with 12 (skaters) and ending up with 11, 4-1 isn’t that bad.”

Shaw said DaSilva, who scored the Cyclones lone goal on the night at the five-minute mark of the first period, headed to Swift Current for medical attention as soon as he was knocked out of the game and is expected back in the lineup for the next game. The team was also without forwards Pat Cey and Kevin Johnson, who are serving suspensions, and captain Derek Allan, who is out long-term with a knee injury and is not expected back.

The DaSilva goal gave Davidson their only lead of the night and it was short-lived. Four minutes after the Cyclones goal, Kyle tied it up courtesy of Elks captain Danny Williams. Six minutes later the Elks would go up for good off a shot from Jeff Marshall. Two more goals in the second period by the Elks wound up being the game.

“They’re a good team, probably as good as last year,” said Shaw, referring to the Cyclones championship winning match-up with the Elks last March that saw Davidson take home its third provincial championship. “We knew we were going to have to play well to beat them and it just worked out that we could only get 12 guys there. Even with the 12 we had, there were guys that had to take off work or change stuff around. The guys that were there played hard and I thought (Cyclones goaltender) Mark Zoerb played really good.”

The next home game for the Cyclones is this Wednesday. Davidson is playing their second game of a five-game second round series against the LeRoy Braves in the Long Lake Hockey League playoffs.

“It should be a good series,” said Shaw. “We won two, lost two in league (against the Braves). We have a decent chance of beating them, but we’ll have to play well. With them having home ice, we’re going to have to win at least one in their rink and that’s always tough. They also haven’t played for a while, so they’ll be rested.”

Results of Saturday night’s game against the Elks were unavailable at press time.