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Since 2013 when Bradyn Smelski began his AAA career with the Parkland Bantam Rangers, he played all of his home games here in the Parkland. After playing four games in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 season with his hometown junior team, the Dauphin Kings, Bradyn played a ton in the 2017-18 season. 

He played 46 games during that season and he played another 34 last season. Now, Bradyn is starting fresh in another community for his 20-year-old season. Smelski was traded to the Virden Oil Capitals late last month in exchange for Future Considerations coming back to Dauphin.

That means instead of calling Credit Union Place his home, he now calls Tundra Oil & Gas Place his home.

"Things are going really good.  We've been winning some games since I been here," said Smelski. "We're looking good right now."

After arriving in Virden late last month, Smelski has now played in four straight games. Previous to this season, the most games he played as a junior player was 46. With 53 games left this season, Smelski could be well on his way to playing a career-high in games, based on him already playing four straight.

"It feels awesome every day to be given a chance, it allows me to show what I have," he added. "I work hard every game and I just do what I can to help this team win games. I'm really appreciative of the opportunity."

"Getting traded gave me a boost because I want to be better," he continued. "I'll give it my all every time I'm on the ice."

Since making his Oil Capital debut on September 27 against Neepawa, the team has made a good run. They're 2-1-0-1 in their last four games. The team this season is 4-1-1-1 which has them in a tie for third in the MJHL. 

"Everyone's mindset in this room is to go deep in the playoffs," Smelski continued. "We've had a good start and we're all in it to win it."

Although every game is extremely important, Bradyn does have a few circled on his calendar. He will play his hometown team six times in the regular season. The first meeting is 26 days from now when Virden and Dauphin go toe-to-toe at Credit Union Place. The game will be the first time Bradyn has played on an opposing team in Dauphin.

The other two games in Dauphin are on December 8 and January 7. The three games in Virden are on January 12, January 31, and March 1.

"I'm really looking forward to that first game on October 29 for sure," Smelski concluded. "It's going to be a bit of an adjustment because I've played in Dauphin my whole life."

"With that said, I'm with a new team now and the job is to win with Virden," he added. "I'll play my hardest and I'm really looking forward to that game."

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Oct 3, 2019 - 12:12 pm

Jose Lacquette has played in big events before and he's set to do it again next year.

The Russell native will play in the 2020 North American Indigenous Games in Halifax. Jose qualified for the event back in August by shooting a 78 at the Players Course in Winnipeg. The 78 was one of the lowest scores at the qualifying event.

"I'm really excited to be a part of Team Manitoba and I can't wait to go," said Lacquette. "It was pretty important that I kept the ball in play during qualifying and up the middle. I just kept it simple, I made one error but I played pretty solid golf overall."

Jose won't be a rookie at the event. He also played at the 2017 North American Indigenous Games. The 15-year-old plays a ton during the summer at the Gilbert Plains Country Club and his practice certainly paid off at the 2017 event. In the first two rounds, he went 81,79. The third round was a nine-hole format and Jose shot a 42.

The 202 total was good enough for a fifth-place finish. The field included 22 golfers from across North America. Ryan Blair of Winnipeg shot 180 over the three rounds to win.

"There's always pressure in tournaments, but I think I can use what I learned in 2017 to have success next year," he continued. "I feel like it's going to be a lot easier this time."

The event will take place from July 12-18, 2020. When it's his turn to tee it up, Jose knows the key to success.

"I just need to control my nerves out there, it's just another golf tournament," concluded Lacquette. 

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Oct 3, 2019 - 9:43 am

At the end of each summer, the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour presents several players with an award that represents a player's solid play throughout the entire golf season.

Just because you play one or two good tournaments doesn't mean you'll end the season near the top of the Order of Merit rankings. However, winning two tournaments and placing second in another certainly will and that's why Swan River's Crystal Zamzow finished on top.

Zamzow won the U15 Girls Manitoba Order of Merit. She finished with 1,025 points. That was nearly 300 points more than her second place competitor.

"It's nice to get recognized for playing consistently well," said Zamzow. "I felt I did a really good job of keeping my emotions under control to avoid any really bad holes or rounds."

In the three tournaments, Crystal only had one round that was higher than 100. She also had an 84 in the season-ending Bieber Classic PGA of Manitoba Junior Championship at the Breezy Bend Country Club.

The Swan River native also put up rounds of 90.85 in the Canadian Junior Girls Championship in Lethbridge back in early August. In another big event this past summer, Crystal finished in the Top 10. Playing in the Western Canada Summer Games ladies golf event, Zamzow shot rounds of 90-80-88.

"My scoring improved a lot this year and I really reduced my poor shots," said Zamzow. "I feel the Canadian Junior and Western Canada Games experiences helped me see and learn where the more experienced girls save strokes."

With the golf season coming to a close, Crystal will play a few more rounds before the sticks are put away for the winter. Come next summer, she will be back on the Maple Leaf Junior Tour. 

"One big thing I want to improve is getting ready for faster greens at big events so I can adjust quicker," she concluded.

Come this weekend, Crystal will be playing in another big event, but it's not golf. She's on the Parkland Bantam Rangers team as they play in their first Showcase.

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Oct 2, 2019 - 3:48 pm

One season removed from making the Manitoba Junior Hockey League finals, the Swan Valley Stampeders have pretty much picked up where they left off last season.

With several new players on the roster and a new coaching staff, the team hasn't really missed a beat. They're 5-1 and are in a tie for second in the league. Their only loss came earlier this season against their Parkland rival, Dauphin Kings. 

The team also took part in the league-wide Showcase the past couple of days in Winnipeg and they came back home with a perfect 2-0 record. They beat Dauphin on Monday and they followed that up with a win against Winnipeg on Tuesday.

Swan Valley has won four straight games dating back to their loss on September 21.

"I thought our first game against Dauphin went very well. We've seen them a couple of times so guys were prepared for it and they really showed up," said Suneil Karod, associate coach/general manager. "I don't think we had quite the same energy against Winnipeg as when we played Dauphin, but Winnipeg never really goes away. I think that was an eye-opener for us that you're not guaranteed to win against any team in this league."

"We have to be the most improved team every day. We have a whole turnover of guys minus five or six guys," he added. "It's important that we work harder and get everyone on the same page. We're trying to build a new culture. We have to know there's no such thing as a day off. We're getting better and I think it's all a work in progress."

Despite losing their core from last year's title contending club, it's an experience that especially the veterans are using to their advantage.

"I think the guys have that internal expectation that they want to get back to the finals," added Karod. "The returning guys definitely want to get back there and they're definitely pushing themselves and they're leading the guys that didn't go through that whole playoff run and experience."

After starting the week on the road, Swan Valley will play a couple of home games this weekend. On Friday they'll welcome Neepawa and Winnipeg will pay a visit to the Centennial Arena on Sunday. 

Neepawa and Winnipeg are a combined 1-12 this season. Neepawa has yet to win a contest while Winnipeg is 1-6. Despite the heavy struggles, Karod and the rest of the Stamps aren't taking anything for granted.

"It doesn't matter who we're playing and that's something we've been preaching all year. When you look ahead, that's when you get burnt," added Karod. "We need to put our best foot forward and work extremely hard. Friday is our main goal right now and that's what we're focused on. Neepawa is coached well and they're going to upset somebody and we don't want to be them."

Friday's game will be Karod's seventh game in the MJHL. He was brought on to join Geoff Grimwood in the offseason. The Champion in both the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League and British Columbia Junior Hockey League is enjoying the ride.

"The coaching has been great, the board has been great and we've been well received in town," he concluded. "It's a different style than some of the returning guys were used to last year, but they're accepting of that. The town has been great as well."

Swan Valley next plays Dauphin on October 30 at the Centennial Arena.

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Oct 2, 2019 - 1:22 pm

The Parkland Bantam Women's Rangers have finalized their roster for the upcoming 2019-20 season.

Caitlin Fillion and Chey Nykoliation will be the goaltenders. 

The team will carry four defecemen. Tereza Roulette, Emily Malchuk, Reese Boguski, and Crystal Zamzow fill up the spots.

Nine forwards are on the roster, eight of which are from the Parkland. They include Alexis Campbell, Skyla Burns, Raylyn Koshowski, Tristyn Hanneson, Maddison Andrew, McKenna Gray, Hailey Hojnocki, Allee Hrechka, and Sammy Jo Moshenko. 

Three players from the Parkland are also on the team's affiliated player list. They include Grace Kirk, Adel Wiebe, and Montana Jubenvill.

"We have great team speed and a great core of defensive players," said Cary Fillion, coach. "We have good goaltending and we have some girls that can really put the puck in the net. We have two forward lines that can score and one line that I like to call our checking line. We're really looking forward to getting down to it."

Parkland is off to Winnipeg this weekend for Showcase #1. They will play in three different Showcase's throughout the winter. 

"Going into the weekend we're hoping to come out with three wins," he added. "More than that, we're looking for the girls to develop and we're seeing that at practice already. Our practices have been high pace and intense for sure."

The team already started their season off with a bang. Playing in the Wawanesa prep tournament, the team went 3-1. They beat Interlake twice and Yellowhead once. The one defeat they had was against Westman and they will play them again this weekend.

Stay tuned all season long to keep up to date with how the team does.

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Oct 2, 2019 - 10:46 am

Another slow start was the downfall for the Dauphin Kings tonight, as the club lost to the Selkirk Steelers, 5-0 in the final game of the MJHL Showcase.

When the game was less than 10 minutes old, Selkirk had a 2-0 lead and they were outshooting Dauphin 8-0.

After 20, Selkirk led 2-0.

Selkirk came out scoring in the second as they put their lead up to 4-0.

Brett Namaka scored his fourth goal of the season early in the third to give Selkirk a 5-0 win.

Dauphin dropped to 1-4 on the season. The loss saw them drop to ninth in the standings.

Dauphin will practice tomorrow and Thursday before they return to game action on Friday. The Portage Terriers are in town.

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Oct 1, 2019 - 8:43 pm

The Brandon Wheat Kings are slowly preparing for their busiest weekend of the season so far. The team will play three games in three nights this upcoming weekend. Two of them will come on home ice at Westoba Place, and the weekend finale comes at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

So far this season, the team has played two home-and-home sets with the Winnipeg ICE and Moose Jaw Warriors. The Wheat Kings started the season with a split against Winnipeg.

Over the weekend against Moose Jaw, Brandon wasn’t able to get anything going in a 5-0 loss on Friday night. On Saturday night, the club gave up a goal with just 44 seconds left as Moose Jaw completed the weekend sweep.

Jiri Patera has played in three of the team’s games, and he’s got a 3.35 GAA to go along with a .908 save percentage. He’s made 99 saves in all.

“We’re doing a lot of good things, but unfortunately, we’ve been on the wrong side of the scoreboard in three of the games,” said Darren Ritchie, general manager. “I think we’re really encouraged with how we’re playing and how we’re trying to play. We’re doing a lot of things the right way, and we just need to keep working on it.”

“I think it’s all about playing a full 60 minutes and being prepared at the very start,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter what the score is. We just need to play a full game and the rest will sort itself out.”

Prior to their first game against Winnipeg, the team announced that Connor Gutenberg is their 63rd captain in franchise history. The Brandonite is the last remaining Wheat King from their 2016 championship team. He’s playing his fifth and final WHL season.

Brandon’s assistant captains this season are Braden Schneider, Zach Wytinck, Luza Burzan, and Cole Reinhardt.

The five players have combined to play 931 games for Brandon during their careers.

“It’s a really good group. They bring a lot of years of experience to our team that will help the younger group follow in behind them,” added Ritchie. “They all work very hard day in and day out. They’re all very worthy of being in our leadership group, and I think they’ll do a great job.”

Four rookies remain on Brandon’s roster. Bode Hagan, Riley Ginnell, Jake Chiasson, and Nolan Ritchie have combined to go -8 so far. Ritchie is sixth on the team with eight shots. Neither player has managed to put up a point yet in their first full WHL season.

With only four games under their belt, Ritchie knows that will change.

“Our league is hard. Those guys are trying to find their way through everything, and I think that’s where our older guys will step up and help them a lot,” said Ritchie. “Every game is hard. These guys need to be well prepared, and they need to understand what the coaches want from them.”

As mentioned before, a very tough weekend is coming up for Brandon. On Friday, they’re on home ice against the Vancouver Giants. Many have Vancouver going deep in the WHL playoffs already, especially with the return of Bowen Byram. On Saturday, the very capable Edmonton Oil Kings pay a visit to Westoba Place.

On Sunday, the team makes the very rare Sunday night trip to Saskatoon which is about a six-hour drive. With still 64 games on their schedule, Ritchie sees this upcoming weekend as a beneficial one.

“Absolutely, I think the more games you play, the more you to get in a rhythm, and I believe that helps the players,” said Ritchie. “We have a tough weekend. It’s going to be a real challenge. It’s going to be really nice to play some games real close together so our players are challenged to be better than they were against Moose Jaw.”

“In junior hockey, you always want to get better week-to-week, and we are, but we’re just not seeing the victories,” he added. “We’re excited about the weekend and pushing forward.”

Luka Burzan leads the way offensively for Brandon which isn’t much of a surprise. After starting his season at NHL training camp, Burzan has racked up five points (3G) in four games. One of the goals came on Saturday night in the tight loss against Moose Jaw.

We all know that Luka will put up points and a lot of them at that, but are the Wheat Kings perhaps looking for something more from him?

“I think you’re always looking for more from everyone, and I know Luka is always wanting more,” said Ritchie. “We need Luka to be a leader and for him to be consistent. The same thing goes for our whole group. We’re happy with what Luka does for us every single night, and he’s going to be big in us winning games.”

Make sure you come back every Monday morning as I take a look at what’s coming up for the Brandon Wheat Kings. For now, it’s a few practices before a three-in-three, their first of the season.

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Oct 1, 2019 - 2:06 pm

The curling season is right around the corner and that means the Dauphin Curling Club Men's League will soon startup.

The league begins on October 16 and a roughly 20-game schedule will take you through mid-March. Playoffs are also included.

"You should get involved in the league if you can because it's a lot of fun," said Chris Todoruk. "You don't need to be an all-star, there are players of all skill levels. You can meet some new people and have some good times with your friends, it makes for a fun winter."

You can join as a team of four. If you're looking to play with a team, the league will try to pair you up with one.

If you want more information including fees and to register, give Chris a call at 648-7989.

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Oct 1, 2019 - 9:32 am

After splitting the first two games, the third Parkland battle of the season has gone to the Swan Valley Stampeders. 

Thanks to two goals 14 seconds a part, the Stampeders earned a 3-2 win over their Parkland rival as the MJHL Showcase continued in Winnipeg at the 7Oaks Arena.

2:33 in, Luke Beerman scored his third of the season as he beat Bryan Landsberger. Carter Cockburn and Leyson Coleman earned the assists. Swan Valley struck again just 14 seconds later. This time it was Callum Fortin as he scored his first ever MJHL regular season goal. Parker Johnson and Tanner Glasrud notched the helpers.

Down 2-0 in the second, Cole DeKoninck quickly trimmed the deficit. On a beautiful back door pass from Nakodan Greyeyes, Cole scored his second of the season. Returning from an illness was Baron Thompson and he had the secondary assist on the power play marker.

Swan Valley scored on the power play of their own a short time later. At 9:59 into the second, Trevor Schroder banged in a puck from the front of the net to give them a 3-1 lead. Tommy Cardinal and Frazer Dodd had the assists.

Fast forward to the third with a 3-1 Swan Valley scoreline, the Kings got back in it again. Parker Fofonoff scored his first as member of the team with Braeden Young and Jaxon Heeney getting the assists.

Dauphin was relentless with their pressure the rest of the way, but they couldn't beat Michael Davis. In the end, the Stamps' skated off with a 3-2 win.

Dauphin dropped to 1-3 on the season while Swan Valley is 4-1. Dauphin plays Selkirk on Tuesday at six while Swan Valley plays Winnipeg at five.

Other Showcase Scores:

Virden beat OCN, 4-2. Portage got past Winkler, 5-2. Waywayseecappo doubled Winnipeg, 6-3 and Selkirk beat Steinbach, 4-1.

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Sep 30, 2019 - 9:07 pm

Former Dauphin Clipper Braden Paterson is back playing the game he loves this season. The Dauphinite will be suiting up for the River East Royal Knights once again. He played seven games with them last season.

He started his junior hockey career in the Greater Metro Hockey League in the 2017-18 season where he played nine games. 

"It was kind of a late decision to come back here and play another year," said Paterson. "Everything just sort of opened up for the opportunity and I was excited to take it."

"I'm looking forward to giving it another shot and hopefully, we'll have a strong year," he concluded.

Being a 19-year-old, Braden will be right in the middle as far as experience comes. You can be 21-years-old and still play in the league and some 17-year-olds also play as well. As he looks to help the team win games, he talks about a few of his goals.

"I think just trying to be a leader around the dressing room and showing the way to some of the young guys," he added. "We have the skill here and we have a great group of guys. I don't think it'll be hard for me to help the guys out, we all want one thing and that's to win games."

Braden had a great preseason this year with the team. In five games, the Dauphinite scored twice. Only two other players had more preseason goals than him on his team and a few others had the same amount.

"We have a lot of guys on this team that can put the puck in the net. With me being here, I think I can most definitely continue to help with that as well," he continues.

His hockey career included time with the Clippers, the Meaford (GMHL) and now the Royal Knights. Add it all up and some great times have been had.

"Being on the ice playing hockey is fantastic, the game is one of my passions," he concluded. "When I'm on the ice, I don't think about anything else, it's all hockey and I love it." 

The regular season started over the weekend and it continues this weekend for Paterson and the rest of the club.

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Contributed by Darnell Duff

Published: Sep 30, 2019 - 2:00 pm