Stretch run

Swan Valley Stampeders head coach Dwayne Kirkup said early in the season that he saw a lot of parity in the MJHL this year.
He wasn’t kidding.
Recent results have shown there are no easy games in this league anymore.
Take a look at the Sher-Wood Division. The sixth-place Waywayseecappo Wolverines recently won eight of 12 games. They’re too far back to realistically catch teams for a playoff spot, but they’re playing the role of spoiler perfectly. Those wins have come against teams such as Dauphin, Selkirk, Portage and most recently, the OCN Blizzard.
The Sher-Wood has proven to be extremely tight down the stretch. In the span of a little more than a week, the Wolverines defeated the OCN Blizzard, the Blizzard defeated the Neepawa Natives, the Natives beat the Portage Terriers, the Terriers beat the Stampeders, and the Stampeders beat the Wolverines. And the top team in the division, the Dauphin Kings, well they set a team record for wins after being shutout by the top team in the Addison Division.
Speaking of the Addison Division, after the Steelers spanked the Saints in a battle for first place, they trailed off a bit while the Saints started winning again, leaving top spot in the division up for grabs.
The Saints and Steelers entered February two points apart, and this battle might come down to the final game of the regular season when they face each other.
Of course, first place might mean facing the OCN Blizzard in the opening round. The Blizzard have a slight lead on the Winnipeg South Blues for a potential crossover. Both teams schedules’ are similar to one another, so this could be a real photo finish.
If I had to guess, I would predict the following first-round matchups.
In the Sher-Wood, Neepawa vs. Dauphin, and Portage vs. Swan Valley.
In the Addison, OCN versus Selkirk and Winkler vs. the Winnipeg Saints.
• There are other races to follow this month as well.
Dauphin’s Ryan Dreger entered the month with 85 points, tops in the MJHL. Linemate Shane Luke and Selkirk’s Taylor Dickin were close behind at 80 points, with Dauphin’s Bryce Lamb is fourth with 79 points. One of these four will win the league’s scoring race.
Dreger should be a lock for the goal-scoring title, though, as he has 42 this year, best in the MJHL. Dickin is second with 36, followed by Swan Valley’s Ryan Marshall with 35. If anyone can catch him, it might be Dickin, but he would need to get hot and have Dreger cool off.
Luke leads the MJHL with 55 helpers, six better than Swan Valley’s Myles Stevens and seven better than Blake Chartier from the Winnipeg Saints.
The top MJHL players are posting strong numbers, but we’re not seeing players with over 100 points already or multiple 50-goal scorers, which is a good indicator the MJHL is of a better quality this year. The last-place teams are not rolling over and allowing 10 goals against a game, something which was all too frequent in past years.
Tim Hayduk from the Winnipeg Saints is the top penalty man with one month to play. He had 192 compared to 187 for Swan Valley’s Cody Straker. Portage’s Luke MacInnis is third with 176.
The top scoring defenceman is Dauphin’s Steven Shamanski with 54. Swan Valley’s Brent Wilson remained in second place despite missing all of January with an injury. He has 40, while Swan Valley’s Paul Bonar is third with 37.
The rookie scoring title is between Brendan O’Donnell from the Winnipeg South Blues (50 points), Eric Coulombe from the Steinbach Pistons (47) and Seth Ronsberg (46) from the Winkler Flyers.
Justin Leclerc from the Winnipeg Saints had the best GAA at 2.25, slightly better than Swan Valley’s Caden Unger who has a 2.35 GAA.
A more telling statistic for some goalie observers is save percentage. Both of those netminders lead this category as well .931 for Leclerc and .920 for Unger.
Of course, the best goaltender statistic is wins, and Selkirk’s Joey Rewucki had 27 wins entering February, three better than Dauphin’s Joe Caligiuri.
• Speaking of Leclerc, his 4-0 shutout victory over the Dauphin Kings helped him earn the MJHL Potters Distillers Player of the Week award.
Leclerc, 20, had a 0.50 GAA and a .983 save percentage in two games to earn the award.
Also considered for this award was Waywayseecappo Wolverines’ goaltender Brett Gagnon, 19, and Swan Valley Stampeders forward Shelby Gray, 19.