Fans may be surprised the Dauphin Kings have dropped in the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) Top 20 rankings.
Spending last week as the 11th-ranked team in Canada, Dauphin has dropped to 13th this week. Dauphin opened last week with a solid road win over the Northern Manitoba Blizzard and they followed that up with a 5-2 win over the Steinbach Pistons.
Steinbach was ranked sixth last week and they couldn't handle what the Kings had to offer. Cole Sheffield made 34 saves in the game as Dauphin won their fifth straight contest to jump eight points ahead of the Blizzard for first place in the West Division. Dauphin also has two games in hand on the Blizzard and will play them twice before the Christmas break.
The Kings have points in 14 of their last 16 games and are tied with Steinbach for first place in the league. Steinbach also dropped in the weekly rankings, however, they're still eighth.
The Winkler Flyers, who were honourable mentions last week, are ranked 20th this week.
The 'Sheff' Is Cooking:
After two marvellous performances, Cole Sheffield was named one of the MJHL's Stars of the Week.
The 20-year-old from London, who leads the league with 16 wins, sparkled in two performances against the Blizzard and Steinbach. In a 4-2 win against Norman, Sheffield turned away 33 shots. He then made 34 saves in a 5-2 win against Steinbach.
Cole is near the top of the league in every major statistical category and his 1377 minutes played are far more than anyone else. Jase Wareham (1133) has played the second-most. Wareham and the Wolverines come to Dauphin on Tuesday.
Sheffield is 16-5-1 this season with a .925 save percentage to go along with a 2.31 goals-against average.
