Every week, the Manitoba High School Athletic Association releases its Manitoba Hydro Weekly High School Power Rankings. When it comes to hockey, the AAA/AAAA rankings are primarily dominated by teams from the city.
River East is the top-ranked team and seven other teams are within the City of Winnipeg. Two teams are from just outside (Selkirk and Steinbach) and then one other team is sitting in the Top-10.
It's a team that is 12-1-1-1 in the Westman High School Hockey League and they lead the North Division. It's a team that calls Credit Union Place their home and they have gone 8-0 on home ice this season. The 10th ranked team in the province is none other than the Dauphin Clippers.
Dauphin was also previously ranked as the ninth-best team in the province. Besides going 12-1-1-1 in league play, Dauphin also won a bronze medal at the highly competitive Vic Inn Tournament last month. They also played a very close game with the Garden City Fighting Gophers who are ranked as the second-best team in the province.
"Yeah, that's a pretty big thing for us. It shows that the hard work is paying off for us," said Rick Freese, Head Coach. "Everything we're doing here is for something. Being ranked so high really is an honour for us."
Although it's very rare that rural teams get ranked in the Top-10, it's a spot that Dauphin has become used to over the past couple of seasons. As mentioned above, Dauphin was ranked ninth earlier this season. They also cracked the Top-8 last year en route to playing in the league final.
This year's team has shown signs of brilliance, so such an accolade isn't one that has Rick surprised.
"I can say with this group that we have here, it doesn't come as a surprise," added Freese. "We have a really skilled group here and we're pushing to be better every day. We can be happy, but we can't be satisfied with what's going on yet. If we keep going with that, we can accomplish something here."
Dauphin is back in regular season action on Monday when they play the McCreary Mountaineers in Ste. Rose at 7:00 p.m. Back on December 21, Dauphin dispatched of the Mountaineers, 8-2.
Next up for the Clippers, however, is the Piper Classic in Winnipeg this weekend. That tournament features most of the best teams in Manitoba.
"We've had a couple of practices already. It was important to get right back into the swing of things after Christmas," concluded Freese. "We have to realize that nothing comes easy in this league. The top teams really separate themselves in the second half of the season and that's our goal here."
Dauphin's first home game is next Thursday at 7:30 at Credit Union Place against Roblin.
