In this week's early game, the Ice Dogs took advantage of a goaltender-less Hawks team in the first period and skated to a 7-0 win. Hawks goaltender, Mike Ward thought that they played a late game. When he found out it was an early game, he rushed out, but was not ready to play until the start of the second period. By this point, the Ice Dogs already built themselves a 4-0 lead. We'll give the nod for Player of the Week honours to share between three Ice Dogs players. Josh Tamminga deserves it for getting our league's first shutout of the season. His brother, Matt Tamminga deserves to share the honours for once again playing strong defensively while adding a goal and an assist. The third Ice Dog sharing the honours is Joe DeBoer. Joe scored a hat-trick and added two assists. Normally he might get the honours all to himself with a five-point night, but three of his points were while the Hawks were playing without a goalie.
A shout-out goes to Rob Nutma of the Hawks who was brave enough to stand in the net while they were without a goalie.

The middle game saw our league's first tie game of the season. The Cougars and Stars traded goals and leads throughout the game, but fittingly skated to a 6-6 tie. O.J. Deelstra scored a hat-trick while Curt Moesker scored twice for their respective teams.

The late game between the Flyers & Omegas also ended in a tie game. The score of this game was 3-3. Ryan Cross led the way for the Flyers with a goal & an assist. Karsten Berg played another game with his hot stick by scoring one of the Omegas' goals and assisting on the other two.

The early game saw the Omegas beat the Cougars 6-1. Mark Zylstra scored two goals to lead the way for the Omegas. His cousin, Matt helped out with three assists in the game. Zach VanReenen also had a three point night with a goal and two assists. Pete Linthoud stood tall in the Omegas' net once again. He has yet to lose a game in our league.

The Hawks rebounded from losing their first game of the year last week by beating the Flyers in this week's middle game with the score of 4-1. Dave VanOostveen continued on his role by scoring twice for the Hawks and adding an assist. We'll give this week's Player of the Week honours to Dave's teammate, Nick DeBoer. Nick matched Dave by scoring twice, including the game winner, and added an assist. Hawks goalie, Mike Ward also continues to be strong in net this season.

The Ice Dogs were able to beat the Stars in the late game by the score of 4-1. Josh Tamminga was solid in net for the Ice Dogs when he was needed. This was another close game, until Adrian Roelands sealed the victory for the Ice Dogs with just under five minutes to go in the third.

Well, we're already done a quarter of the season. The unbeaten Omegas are looking to be tough to beat this season, but the Hawks only sit two points behind them in second place. Only two points separate third place through sixth. The Flyers & Ice Dogs are tied for third place with four points each, while the Cougars & Stars are only two points behind them with two points each.

This week's games saw three players ejected for receiving three minors each.

Corey Moesker of the Stars received three minors in the early game against the Flyers. This is the second time that this has occurred for Corey this season. He is okay to play in the next game, but if he is ejected for receiving three minors in a game the rest of the season, he will be suspended for two games.

Pete Greydanus of the Ice Dogs & Jeff Vanderdeen of the Cougars each received three minor penalties in the late game. This is the first time that this has occurred for both of these players this season, so they are both okay to play in their next games.

This week's early game saw the Stars win their first game of the season by beating the Flyers 8-6. This was a close game all the way through as the teams traded goals. The Stars were the first team to have a two goal lead when Curt Moesker scored his fourth goal of the game early in the third period. The Flyers scored another goal half-way through the third to make it a one-goal game once again. The Stars were able to survive after a slew of penalties in the second half of the third period. Curt clinched the game by scoring his fifth goal of the game into an empty net while short-handed. Curt earns this week's Player of the Week honours for his five goal performance. Greg Wierenga of the Stars got a goal of his own and assisted on three of Curt's goals. Ryan Cross & Matt VanMarum each had a three-point night for the Flyers.

The middle game was a battle between the two undefeated teams so far this season. The Omegas now remain the only undefeated team by beating the Hawks 4-1. Last week's Player of the Week, Karsten Berg, once again led the way for the Omegas with a goal and two assists.

In the late game, the Ice Dogs were able to get their first win of the season by beating the Cougars 7-2. Trevor Benjamins of the Ice Dogs had a three point night with two goals and an assist, while his teammates, Jordan & Joe DeBoer, each scored a goal and got three assists.

As mentioned in the last posting, the game between the Omegas & Ice Dogs was filled with penalties. After sorting things out, here are the things to take note of:

1) Duncan Vanderwal was given a "10 minute" misconduct with 11:24 to go in the third period. The referees mistakenly thought that he was supposed to leave the game immediately because he had received two minor penalties prior to this call. This was the wrong call by the refs, because the rule is that he would only be ejected if he had gotten a third "minor" penalty. I spoke with the refs after the game and made them aware of this, but they suggested that we change this rule.
Anyways - since Duncan received the "10 minute" misconduct with only 11:24 to go in the third period, he would've been in the box serving this penalty for the remainder of the game anyhow. This is because the "10 minute" misconducts are actually served for 13 minutes in running time.
Because this was Duncan's first "10 minute" misconduct this season, he is okay to play in this week's game. If he receives another "10 minute" misconduct this season, he will be suspended for one game.

2) Brett DeBoer of the Ice Dogs received three minor penalties in this game. This is the first time that this has occurred for Brett this season, so he is okay to play in this week's game.