Category Archives: Sports

Sports

Cyclones advance to second round

With the first round of the Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) and provincial “C” playoffs behind them, the Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team is set to face off with opponents much more difficult to handle.

The Cyclones recently made short work of the Nokomis Chiefs in the first round of the LLHL playoffs beating the club two games to nothing in a three-game series. The first round of provincials last week against the Loreburn 19ers wasn’t much different as Davidson crushed their neighbour to the west by a total of 17 goals to three in a two-game total goals wins series.

Now it gets interesting.

The Cyclones (13-9 during the regular season, finishing third in the LLHL standings) will face the LeRoy Braves (13-7-0-2, second in the LLHL) in the second round of the LLHL playoffs. In the second round of the provincial playoffs, Davidson is taking to the ice against the Kyle Elks (17-2-0-1 in the Sask. Valley Hockey League) in a rematch of the provincial “C” championships of last season.

“It’s going to be a tough series (against LeRoy),” said Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones. “They’re a good hockey team. Hopefully we get some guys back and give them a go. With playing them and Kyle, they are both good teams, so we’ll have to play well to beat them, but I think we have as good a chance as any.”

Shaw said the club would have to get some players back from injuries and suspensions as well as just ice a full lineup if they hope to have a chance against LeRoy and Kyle.

Davidson has failed so far throughout the season at times to dress the needed, at least, nine forwards and five defencemen to make a good showing in tough games.

Cyclones forward Pat Cey is expected back for the second game against the Elks Feb. 22 at the Davidson Rink, but Kevin Johnson’s status is still up in the air. Johnson received an indefinite suspension after a fight in the 19ers game and it is not known when he might be allowed back.

As for injuries, Cyclones captain and second leading scorer Derek Allan is still out with a knee injury and there is no timetable for his return.

“We’re had to move some defencemen up to forward (against Nokomis Feb. 12) because of injuries and suspensions,” said Shaw. “We’re just trying to put together the best lineup we can and see how it goes.”

The two-game provincial “C” total goals wins series against the Elks goes this week, while there is no schedule set for the Cyclones three-game series against the Braves as of yet.

Sports

Cyclones rout Chiefs and 19ers in first round of league and provincial playoffs

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team are 2-0 in playoff action, beating the Nokomis Chiefs 8-2 last Tuesday in their first Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) playoff game and the Loreburn 19ers 10-0 a day later in their first provincial “D” playoff match.

“It is what it is,” said Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones. “We won’t play the same style as we do against Nokomis and Loreburn as we do against LeRoy (the Cyclones next opponent if they beat the Chiefs) and probably Kyle (their likely competition in the next round of provincials). We just have to get through these games and hopefully we can get everybody back and healthy and make a good run.”

The Cyclones game against the Chiefs started slow and somehow seemed to get slower, but that’s expected when only the Chiefs can only dress 10 guys for the game and the Cyclones just 11. In a first period that saw the clubs exchange one goal apiece, everybody seemed tired–the players, the fans and the officials.

Davidson broke out for five more goals in the second to Nokomis’s one, bringing the score to an out-of-reach 6-2, but that had more to do with the sloppy play of the Chiefs than with any expertise on the Cyclones part. Missed pass after missed pass was the order of the night.

“Pretty much it’s been the same all year (for us),” said Chiefs head coach Adam Hendry. “We were short benched and didn’t really have a good start and their top line took control of the game. We probably just got tired of chasing them around all night.”

Full lineups were at hand for the Cyclones-19ers game and the game did have a faster pace than the night before, but the end result was pretty much the same.

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

Sports

Raiders revive basketball glory

Once a Raider, always a Raider.

The blue and white lives on after graduation from Davidson School with the Raiders senior men’s basketball team racking up win after win in the Saskatoon Senior Men’s Basketball League (SRML). The team is comprised of former Davidson high school players now plying their trade in Saskatoon, including two current coaches of the Davidson School junior and senior basketball teams.

“We’re a good team,” said Ian Kadlec, who helps coach the Davidson junior team and is a Raiders point guard, both then and now. “Every team has a couple good guys on it, but once we shut down on their guys, our team is more balanced. The level is not quite as good as we can play against.”

Sporting jerseys sponsored by Davidson Western Sales, the senior men’s Raiders have so far amassed an impressive 11-0 record with four games left to play. The club usually competes against other SRML teams at Walter Murray High on the south side of Saskatoon on Sundays with their next game coming up the morning of Feb. 17 against the team Make It Rain.

“The league is fairly competitive,” said Kattlyn Williams, former and current Raiders point guard, along with a being a coach of the school senior ball team. “Any higher and you’d start getting into Huskies players or college ball, so it’s a pretty competitive men’s league.”

Williams said the average age of players on the Raiders is 25 and the team is comprised of members of Craik, Outlook and Saskatoon as well. He said the team, which is currently in E division, is looking to win the championship this year moving them up a division and into better competition for next season.

“We have playoffs after the season ends (in late February),” he said. “We’re hoping to win in playoffs.”

Kadlec said the club is just “taking it one game at a time” and he doesn’t want to look too far ahead, but the team as it is gets the guys in some action and gets them back to their roots, which is a good thing.

“The team is pretty cool,” he said. “When we do our chant when we go on the court, we do our ‘Raiders on three’ chant from high school.”

Williams said anyone looking to come out and support the club could head down to the Walter Murray Gym to see them play. He said they currently get around 10 people from Davidson over for their games now and could always use more.

“When people find out we’re playing ball, they’re pretty excited because they used to watch us back in high school,” he said. “They could come watch us if they want.”

Davidson, Sports

Raiders girls win home tournament

The Davidson Raiders junior girls basketball team took their competition to school at the Davidson gym Jan. 25 and 26 winning all three games they played in their home tournament on route to taking the first place honours.
Sandra Baldwin, coach of the Raiders, said Davidson was “pretty strong” at the tournament, first beating the Outlook Blues 43-28 and the Eatonia Spartans 49-19 in pool A action before moving on to the first place game, a 61-35 win over the Eston Mustangs. She said the other teams at the tournament were pretty young, comprised of mostly grades 7 and 8 players, so her team that dresses four Grade 9s proved formidable to their opponents.
“They are good leaders on the court,” Baldwin said of Grade 9 players Tina Stone (guard), Kaitlyn Baldwin (post), Cheyanne Nordmarken (wing) and Sydney Booker (point guard).
Cheyanne was particularly strong on the offensive side against the Mustangs scoring a team high 18 points including a couple long threes. Sydney netted 13 points during the blowout that saw Davidson go up 19-3 in the first quarter and 35-9 by the half.
Tina was all over the court during the final game coming down with numerous rebounds and playing a quick transition game to get the ball back up to her wings, while Kaitlyn was solid on the defensive side wrestling for any balls that an opposing Mustang dared try advance into the key.
“My girls thought Davidson was going to be difficult to begin with and they were a little bit slow getting out of the gate,” said Mustangs coach Marea Olafson. “Finally, it was like ‘oh, we can play with Davidson so let’s play,’ but we started slow.”
The Mustangs dominated the third quarter scoring 18 points to Davidson’s 10, bringing the score to 45-27. The home side came back to form in the final 8 minutes, putting the game away for good and taking first place with the 26-point victory.
Olafson said the tournament as a whole was “great” for their club, as it let their younger players get in some game action and grow more as a team.
“We were able to win a few basketball games,” she said. “The Grade 7s are getting stronger and the Grade 9s are helping them. Our team building is really strong right now.”
Baldwin said her girls played extremely well together as a team even though she mixed her players up position-wise throughout the final game.
“They still went out and passed well to each other,” she said. “They made sure everybody touched the ball and they spread out the points.”
The Raiders coach said the junior girls have enjoyed a solid season so far and they look forward to playoff action come the beginning of March.
“I expect us to be at districts in the final game,” said Baldwin. “That’s our goal.”

Davidson, Sports

Braves wallop Cyclones in LLHL action

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team came within 20 minutes of giving themselves a good chance of securing a second place finish and first round bye in the Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) playoffs last Tuesday, but then the wind shifted dramatically their opponent’s way.
Leading 4-2 heading into the third against the LeRoy Braves in a must-win game, the Cyclones would give up seven goals in the third frame to eventually lose 9-7 to the team they are trying to leapfrog in the LLHL standings. After the game, Davidson sat tied with the Braves and the Lanigan Pirates for second place in the league, with LeRoy having a game in hand. The Cyclones regular season is finished while both Lanigan and LeRoy have makeup games scheduled for this week.
“We probably didn’t finish the way we wanted to (against LeRoy),” said Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones. “We worked hard to get up to 4-2, but then in the third period guys got tired and everything that (LeRoy) shot seemed to go in. It’s tough when you only have a limited number of players, but I thought our guys tried their best. It’s just that a few mistakes cost us.”
Shaw said the Cyclones “just ran out of bodies” against LeRoy. Forward Pat Cey, who is trying to make a comeback after suffering a wrist injury earlier in the month, had to shut it down after taking the warm-up and captain Derek Allan injured his knee in the first and couldn’t go in the second and third.
The Braves onslaught came early in the third and was prolonged. Braves forward Ryan McDonald scored his second of the game and first of three in the third at the 2:54 mark. Thirty-four seconds later the game would be tied at 4-4 on a shot by Pearce Gourley.
The Braves had all the momentum. They were hitting any Cyclone that dared touch the puck or enter their zone, but a meltdown on the power play could have cost them.
Cyclones forward Kevin Johnson wristed a nifty top glove side on Braves goaltender Nathan Unrau shorthanded once again giving the home side a lead at 5-4 just over five minutes into the third. This was short lived as the Braves continued to press and tied it up less than two minutes later on a weak shot past Cyclones goalie Brady Willner, who seemed to be fighting the puck all night.
Cyclones forward Steve DeSilva, despite struggling around the ice after taking a hard hit in the first period, scored his second of the game 20 seconds later on a nice bobbling puck play in front of the LeRoy net making the score 6-5 Davidson.
The Braves tied it up again just over two minutes later and took the lead for good three minutes after that, at the 13:49 mark of the third, on a power play goal by Devin Moore. The game could have easily been called here because the Cyclones were done. They couldn’t move up the ice without getting crunched by a Brave and when they did manage to get a shot towards goal LeRoy players sacrificing their body for the win blocked it.
To read more please see the January 28 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Cyclones blow into last week of season

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team is heading into the last week of their regular season schedule on a tear, but a slow start to the year may cost them a first round bye in league playoffs.

The club has won seven of their past nine, including a 15-5 devastation of the Nokomis Chiefs in Nokomis Jan. 12 after idling the Drake Canucks with a 5-4 shootout win a day earlier at the Davidson Rink, putting them within striking distance of a second place finish in the Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) standings and a first round bye.

The problem the Cyclones face is they’ll need to string a few wins together this week against the LeRoy Braves on Tuesday and the Chiefs on Friday at home along with the Watrous Winterhawks in Watrous a day later, and on the final night of the season no less, to make up for the poor start they had to the 2012-2013 season in order to get that bye.

Their 3-5 start to the year has them sitting solidly in third place in the six-team LLHL, which would give them a home-ice advantage in the first round of the league playoffs, but would create for a much more condensed schedule considering their first round provincial “C” match-up against the Loreburn 19ers will be taking place at the same time as the first round of those league playoffs.

“It would be nice if we could get up to second, but we’ve got some injuries right now,” said Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones. “Pat Cey (a leading forward with the Cyclones) is hurt and Zach Sim (their top defenceman) is hurt. Hopefully we could get up to second, but it’s not the end of the world either.”

Cey suffered a wrist injury against the Winterhawks during a Jan. 5 game and it is “not sure” if he can get back into action this week, while Sim should make the final three games after mucking up his ankle in that same game against the ‘Hawks.

“We need them back to make a good run in league and provincials,” said Shaw.

Whom the Cyclones will face in the league playoffs starting in early February won’t be decided until league play action ends this weekend, but their provincial rivals, at least in the first round, will be Loreburn. The 19ers have been blown away by the competition in the Saskatchewan Valley Hockey League (SVHL) this year, currently sitting with a 1-13 record.

“They have a lot of younger guys on their team,” said Cyclones captain Derek Allan. “I think we’ll be alright because we’re an older team, but it’s provincials and you never know.”

Shaw said Loreburn could pose a problem as they have young guys making a transition into the league, so they don’t know what they’re capable of. He said the last time the Cyclones played the 19ers was in the 2009-2010 provincial “D” finals, when Davidson won their first of the past three provincial championships, but this year things are a little different.

“Now the younger guys have come on (for the 19ers) and they’re trying their best,” said Shaw. “It’s tough to compete with some of those teams with just a bunch of local guys.”

The provincials start Feb. 6 in Davidson with game 2 going Feb. 9 in Loreburn.