The Winkler Royals found themselves on the losing end of an 8-4 rout over the weekend.
The SEMHL team welcomed the Notre Dame Hawks to town Sunday night.
Despite Colton Harder opening scoring midway through the first period, the Royals quickly found themselves down 3-1 before the buzzer and then 5-1 in the middle frame before Aaron Lewadniuk and Braden Hildebrand added Winkler’s second and third goals. Notre Dame then managed a sixth one with a little over a minute to go on the clock.
The third period saw the home team’s Adam Henry score shorthanded 10 minutes in, but two more goals from the Hawks—including an empty-netter—bookended the period to give them the win 8-4.
Matthew Thiessen made 36 saves in net for Winkler. The Royals won the shots-on-net battle 48-43.
The Red River Wild suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Warren Mercs the night before.
Red River lit up the board in each period thanks to goals from Jonah Wasylak, Geordie Keane, and Tj Matuszewski, but Warren’s six in response gave them the win.
The Wild’s Jayden Catellier made 41 saves off 47 shots. His teammates sent 36 the other way.
The Morden Bombers, meanwhile, had a much better weekend, defeating Portage 7-4 Saturday and then Warren 6-2 on Sunday.
Mike Rey and Collin Shirley led the night in scoring against the Islanders with a hat trick and a double, respectively, while additional goals from Michael Hlady and Derek Wiebe and a 35-save performance from netminder Reed Peters rounded out the win.
The next night, the Bombers were up 4-0 before the Mercs managed even one goal. Tyler Peers and Hlady scored in the first and Shirley and Keane Boucher scored within seconds of each other early in the second. Shirley then got his second of the night at 19:52 to send Morden into the final period up 5-1.
There, Derek Wiebe made it 6-1. Warren managed just one more goal, giving Morden the win 6-2.
Peters made 44 saves in net as the Mercs outshot the Bombers 46-31.
Ste. Anne (20 points), Springfield (17 points), and Notre Dame (16 points) are currently at the top of the SEMHL standings followed by Red River in fourth place (7-4-1, 15 points), Winkler in fifth (7-4-0-1, 15 points), and Morden in sixth (7-4, 14 points).
Coming up, Morden hosts Ste. Anne Thursday and then plays in Portage Saturday, Red River is in Carman Friday and then hosts Ile des Chenes Sunday, Winkler hosts Springfield Sunday
