Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a good summer.
Well - it's that time of year again. We're just about to get the new 2016-17 season rolling. The team reps will be getting together for our pre-season league meeting on Thursday, September 22nd. At the meeting we'll approve the team rosters and finalize the schedule.

In the mean-time, I've had a bunch of people ask me when we start. Here is the schedule for the first couple of weeks:

September 30 @ Pt. Edward Arena
7:00pm - Cattle Barons vs. Hawks
8:20pm - Flyers vs. Omegas
9:40pm - Ice Dogs vs. Stars
Albinos sit out.

October 7 @ Pt. Edward Arena
7:00pm - Albinos vs. Stars
8:20pm - Flyers vs. Cattle Barons
9:40pm - Hawks vs. Ice Dogs
Omegas sit out.

Well folks - she's all over. Congratulations goes out to the Stars, who won the League Championship for the second time in the team's history.
Also - the Cattle Barons deserve a lot of credit. In the first round, they beat out the top seeded (and defending champion) Hawks. In the finals, they pushed the Stars to the limit, and made it one of the closest finals series that I can remember for a long time. They have a good core group of guys there, and will be a team to reckon with for years to come.

The game started out with the Stars storming out of the gates. They scored twice in the first minute and a half of the game. This could've easily taken the wind out of the sails of the Cattle Barons, but they didn't give up. The Cattle Barons really turned it on after that and (more or less) took control of the rest of the period. Thanks to outstanding goaltending by Dave Noorloos, the Stars were fortunate that they still held a 2-1 lead going into the second period.
The second period was quite exciting , with both teams getting plenty of chances. Going into the third, the Stars held a 3-2 lead.
The third period was more of the same. Both teams had a lot of chances, but the Cattle Barons really poured on the pressure at the end. When all said and done, the Stars held on to it with a 3-2 win.

There were a couple of players that stood out, but none more than the Stars goaltender, Dave Noorloos. He was amazing in the playoffs, and is the Playoff MVP. Here's a few Dave Noorloos fun facts for the playoffs:
- he went "4 & 0" in the playoffs
- he had a goals against average of 1.68
- he stopped 4 out of 5 in the shootout in Game 1 of the finals
- he played 107.5 minutes in the playoffs before he allowed a goal against
- he allowed a total of only one goal against in the semi-finals
- he played a total of 13 periods in the playoffs and did not allow a goal in nine of those 13 periods

As mentioned before, the Stars won the Championship for the second time in the team's history. The other time that they won it was in the 2005-06 season (ten years ago). The remaining players from that team ten years ago (that stuck it out through some pretty lean years) are: Dale Moesker, Curt Moesker, Risser Wierenga, Brandon Wiplstra, Corey Moesker, Greg Wierenga, and Tyler Poort. All of the remaining players on their roster for this season have all just won their first championship in our league. These players are: Jason Hotke, Chris Helps, Jeff Sit, Colin Timmermans, Kelly Saul, Brandon Wierenga, and Dave Noorloos.

Have a great summer, everyone! We'll see you all next season.
Terry Moesker

The game started out with both teams playing cautiously. The Cattle Barons got on the scoreboard first about seven minutes into the first period. Even though the game was still back-and-forth to this point, the Cattle Barons managed to go up 2-0 four minutes later on a power-play goal. Two minutes later, they had scored two more goals and went into the second period with a convincing 4-0 lead.

Mid-way into the second period, the Cattle Barons got into a little penalty trouble, and the Stars took advantage by scoring on one of the power-plays. Going into the third period, the Cattle Barons still held what looked to be a comfortable 4-1 lead.

In the first minute of the third period, the Stars scored to bring the score to 4-2 in favour of the Cattle Barons. Six minutes later, the Stars scored again to find themselves within a goal of tying the game up. Half-way through the third period, the Stars did just that by scoring yet again.

The second half of the third period saw a lot of chances for both teams, but both goaltenders held their ground, and the game was sent to a ten minute overtime period. Although there were a lot of chances in overtime for both teams (including a Cattle Barons' power-play), overtime solved nothing. This meant that we had to go to a shootout.

The shootout was a best-of-five format. The Stars were the home team, and chose to shoot first. The worn down ice was a factor in the shootout and the first two shooters on each team were unsuccessful. J.P. Minten was the third shooter for the Cattle Barons and was the first player to score in the shootout for either team. So after three shooters, the Cattle Barons were up 1-0 in the shootout.
Dale Moesker scored on the fourth shot for the Stars. The Cattle Barons were unsuccessful on their fourth attempt, so after four shooters, it was tied at one goal apiece.
Jeff Sit scored on the fifth shot for the Stars, so the Cattle Barons needed to score on their fifth shot to stay alive. Dave Noorloos stood tall in net for the Stars, and turned aside the fifth Cattle Barons' shot to win the game for the Stars.

Game 2 goes tonight (Saturday, March 12) at 6:30pm @ Clearwater Arena (blue).
Will the Cattle Barons be able to bounce back and tie the series up at one game each? Or will the Stars win the Championship for the second time in team history?
Come on out tonight, and check it out. Should be a good one!

In Saturday's game, Mark Groendyk (Flyers) received three minor penalties and was ejected from the game for doing so. This was the first time that this occurred this season for Mark, so he was not suspended for it.

On the last week of the regular season, we had a couple of players that reached 30 penalty minutes for the season.
Dan VanReenen (Flyers) & Chris Helps (Stars) both reached 30 minutes. Both players will be suspended from playing in the first game of next season, but they are both okay to play in their playoff game this coming Friday. (The accumulative penalty rule does not affect playoff games.)