This week's early game saw the Hawks beat the Stars by the score of 5-2. The Stars were able to keep it a close game through two periods. Dave VanOostveen's second goal of the game gave the Hawks a little breathing room half-way through the third period. When the Hawks took two late penalties in the third, the Stars pulled Risser for the extra attacker to give them a six on three advantage. They had some chances, but Dave VanOostveen was able to pick up a loose puck and got his hat-trick goal into the empty net.
Dave is making it hard not to pick him for a third straight week for Player of the Week, but I'll resist and give him honourable mention this week instead. I don't want Dave to get the reputation of being a Player of the Week hog.

The headline of the middle game between the Omegas & Ice Dogs was the number of penalties taken. The Omegas were able to capitalize twice on the powerplay and beat the Ice Dogs 5-3. This was another game that stayed close until the end of the second period. At this point, the game was tied at three. The Omegas scored an early goal in the third and sealed their victory with an empty netter.

For the most part, the referees put away their whistles in the late game between the Flyers & Cougars. The Flyers were able to come away with the win in this entertaining game by beating the Cougars 6-4. Halfway throught the second period, Ryan Cross had already scored twice for the Flyers, but he was not to be out-done by Billy Sipkens of the Cougars who scored twice in the second period. The Flyers' Matt VanMarum was the one who stole the show and is this week's Player of the Week by scoring two sweet goals of his own and adding two helpers.

The early game this week saw the Ice Dogs sporting their brand new "digs". Lookin' good, fellas. The short-staffed Flyers spoiled the show for the Ice Dogs by beating them 4-2. It was a very close game until Joel VanVeller sealed the deal with a highlight reel goal in the last few minutes of the third period. Joel led the way for the Flyers with his two goals and earns honourable mention for the Player of the Week.

The middle game saw the Hawks come back and beat the Cougars 6-3. Jason Korvemaker's first goal in our League gave the Cougars an early lead. When Chris Sipkens scored another quick goal for the Cougars, the Hawks found themselves down 2-0 before you could say "Jordan, do up your chinstrap". Dave VanOostveen's two goals in the first period tied the game up and the Hawks never looked back. Dave added a third goal and an assist and once again has earned the Player of the Week honours.

The Omegas beat the Stars in the late game 6-2. It was a fairly close game through two periods with the Omegas up 3-1. The Omegas took control of the game in the third and cruised to victory. Jeff VanderSlagt scored twice in the Omegas' win. Karsten Berg scored a goal and got two helpers. Omegas' goaltender Pete Linthoud got his first win in his first game.

Well, week one is in the books.

The early game saw a rematch of last season's two finalists. The Omegas were able to come out on top of the defending champions and beat the Flyers 5-4. Darryl Poort of the Flyers got the first goal of the season to give the Flyers the lead until Mark Zylstra scored two quick goals for the Omegas in the second period. The teams traded goals in the third period, but Herb Zylstra Jr.'s goal half way through the third proved to be the game winner.

The middle game saw the first game of the newly renamed "Ice Dogs" since February 21, 2003. Unfortunately for the Ice Dogs, the Hawks spoiled the party by winning the game 5-4. The Hawks got off to a 2-0 lead with goals by Doug Boelens & Dave VanOostveen. The Ice Dogs answered back half way through the second period with a goal by Matt DeBoer. Matt scored the first goal by an "Ice Dog" player since Valentine's Day 2003 by a "Sweetheart" named Rob Nutma. The game looked like it was going to go to overtime until that very same Rob Nutma scored the game winner for the Hawks with 20 seconds to go in the third period. We'll give the nod for Player of the Week to Dave VanOostveen. He scored twice for the Hawks and added two assists including one on the Robfather's game winning goal.

The Cougars beat the Stars in the late game by the score of 7-3. The Stars led the game 3-2 by the end of the first period, but their short bench couldn't handle the comeback by the Cougars. Too many penalties proved costly for the Stars. Jeff Vanderdeen scored twice and added an assist in the Cougars win. Greg Wierenga also scored twice and got one assist for the Stars. This game saw two players score their first goals in our League. Jason Cowell did so for the Cougars in his first game. Darryl Fraser of the Stars did likewise.

I hope everyone's ready to go. We start our first games this Friday. Here's a few of the issues that we discussed at last week's league meeting:

We will not need to play any regular season games on Saturdays this year because Christmas & New Years will not affect Friday night hockey. We will, however have some playoff games on Saturdays again this year. The Saturdays that we will be having games on are March 10 & March 17. There is a possibility that we may play on Saturday, March 31 as well.

We will now be having the ice flooded in the second intermission of the early game. The middle game will not have a flood before the game, but in the first intermission. The late game will have a flood before the game only. The Point Edward Arena staff insisted on adding the floods for the sake of keeping the ice in better shape.
This will not change the times that we start our games, but we have cut down the warm-ups to five minutes instead of ten minutes. This means that everyone needs to be there on time.

Cost for this season is going to be $3700.00 / team. Please pay your dues to your team rep ASAP because the first payment to the League is due on Friday.

These are the new players that were approved to play this season:
Ice Dogs: Brady DeBoer, & Wesley DeBoer (returning player).
Hawks: Owen Veenendaal.
Stars: Darryl Fraser, Simeon Wallace, & Scotty Maidmen.
Flyers: no additions
Omegas: Pete Linthout
Cougars: Brad Clark, Andrew Noorloos, & Jason Cowell.

Jamie Feenstra has moved on from the Hawks and will play for the Stars this season.

Speaking of Jamie (just kidding), there was no carried over suspensions from last year, so everyone has a "clean slate" to start this season.

We will have new scorekeepers this season. They happen to be my kids, Bryanna & Brady. They will be learning as they go, so please be patient with them. On a personal note, because these are my kids, I would really appreciate it more than ever if everyone could watch their language and keep control of their actions. I trust that this won't be a problem anyways since we're in a Christian Hockey League.

A change that was made in the off-season is that the Crusaders are going back to their roots and will once again be known as the "Ice Dogs". I think that by now most people already knew about this change, but now it's official. Matt DeBoer has taken over the role as the team rep.

If anybody knows of any business that would be interested in sponsoring this website, please contact me about it. We would charge $50.00 for the full year to any sponsor that meets our League's approval. The money would go into the League's account and it would be used to keep the costs down for future seasons.

Thanks
Terry

Before we get started with the 2011-12 season, I thought that I would take a few minutes to mention some of the players from last season who I feel deserve some credit. I am only using my own judgement here and I know that I'm probably overlooking some guys, so I apologize in advance.

First of all, congratulations to the guys who came out on top of the stats. Seth Hellinga of the Omegas was tops in all goaltender catagories. He led the league in goals against average, wins, & shutouts. Ryan Cross of the Flyers led the league in assists & tied the Omegas' Lance Ross for the lead in points. Dave VanOostveen of the Hawks was tops in goals.

For the Top Goaltender Overall -I would have to say that it would be between Seth Hellinga of the Omegas & Mike Ward of the Hawks.
I narrowed down the list for the Top Rookies to four names. They are: Karsten Berg of the Omegas, Trevor Benjamins of the Crusaders, Dallas Fraser of the Stars, and Ryan Cross of the Flyers.
The Most Sportsmanlike Players was a hard one to narrow down, so I'll just run through the list I had: Tony Noorloos & Billy Sipkens from the Cougars, Greg Bork, Ryan Benjamins, & Adrian Roelands from the Crusaders, Kev Karelsen from the Flyers, Jack Huizinga from the Hawks, Jeff VanderSlagt from the Omegas, and Terry Moesker from the Stars. I realize that it's kind've smug to add the last name to this list, but this is probably the only list you'll ever see that name on anyways.
I felt that the Most Improved Players in the league were: both Hellinga brothers (Kalen & Seth) from the Omegas, Hawks goaltender Mike Ward, and fellow Hawk Jordan Nydam.
The Best Defensemen is a hard one to narrow down without offending anybody that gets left out. The list I came up with is: Matt Tamminga of the Crusaders, Fred VanReenen Jr. of the Omegas, & Chad VanReenen of the Omegas.
The MVP of the regular season is a list that I'm not even going to attempt to name names for. All I can say is that it is probably somebody who has already been mentioned above.
However, the MVP for the Playoffs is something that I do feel comfortable enough in to make a judgement. I think that honourable mention should go to Omegas goaltender Seth Hellinga, and to Flyers forward Dan VanReenen, but Flyers goaltender Rick Jones was definately the MVP of the playoffs.