M.L. Stampeders need to keep focus for playoffs

The Meadow Lake Stampeders midget ‘AA’ hockey club is still clinging to the eleventh spot in Centre Four Hockey League (CFHL) standings after splitting this weekend’s games.

The Stamps were in Saskatoon on Jan. 21 and Prince Albert Jan. 22 to take on the Screaming Eagles and DQ Chill resulting in a 6-5 win and 6-3 loss respectively.

The Screaming Eagles, who sit sixth in the league, were a tough opponent for the Stampeders. But in need of the win, the Stamps pulled up their socks and had a strong start scoring four goals in the first period.

Meadow Lake added another marker in both the second and third period and held off a late period push by Saskatoon to secure the win.

Scoring two goals for the Stampeders was Kaleb Bull who had 17 points in 23 games. Captain Owen Dancy had a goal and an assist to bring his point total up to 17 as well.

Missing Girl

UPDATE: Have you seen Savannah?

21h ago

Missing person

Spiritwood RCMP searching for missing woman

23h ago

Riding boundaries changing

MP Gary Vidal announces he won't seek re-election

Apr 23, 2024

Also on the point sheet were Easton Neufeldt and Jay Cantre.

The Stampeders second game of the weekend, again versus a middle-of-the-pack team in P.A. DQ Chill, wasn’t quite the same effort as the night prior as the green and white fell 6-3.

The first period was evenly played, P.A.’s Kaleb Charko scored first with Tanner Hendricks adding another to extend the lead to 2-0.

For the remainder of the period, Meadow Lake’s defence shut down the DQ Chill which allowed the offence to score two goals and tie the game.

Dalton Bill had the first marker for the Stamps with Spencer Morninchild netting the tying goal.

The second period, for the first half, was again evenly played with both teams netting a goal.

First was Brennon Parenteau for P.A. and not even 15 seconds later it was Ostin Fontaine again tying the game for the Stampeders.

Fontaine’s goal however would be Meadow Lake’s last of the game as the DQ Chill went on to score three more en-route to their 6-3 win.

With the weekend split, the Stampeders have four games remaining in the regular season. The top 12 teams make playoffs at the end of February. As of publishing, Meadow Lake is two points ahead of Midwest for the final playoff position and four points ahead of Martensville.

None of the games will be easy as all remaining opponents are above the Stampeders in the standings with two of the teams at or near the top of the league.

Meadow Lake’s next game, on Feb. 10 will be against the Warman Wildcats who hold a record of 16-1-1-3 and sit in first place with 36 points.

On Feb. 11 the Stampeders will face the 15-6-0 Humboldt Broncos, the team which knocked Meadow Lake out of the playoffs last season.

The remaining two games will take place on Feb. 18 and Feb. 19.

Meadow Lake must win the Feb. 10 and 11 games to make playoffs against the Saskatoon Steel and Saskatoon Sabercats.

Colton Swiderski is a news and sports reporter for meadowlakeNOW, paNOW and battlefordsNOW.com. He can be reached at cswiderski@jpbg.ca or tweet him @coltonswiderski.