INSIDE THE SJHL

By: Dan O’Connor – Voice of the North Stars

The past seven days of the SJHL have been very intriguing. I returned vacation last Friday only to see that the Mellville Millionaires were beaten 14-0 by the Estevan Bruins. Three weeks ago the Mil's were the easy favourite to win the Sherwood Conference, and now this team is in all sorts of trouble.

I've always been a fan of the Estevan Bruins, and I feel that they are much better than a fifth place team, but 14-0? Seriously? The Mil's have since fallen into second place, and the Weyburn Red Wings are now running away with the Sherwood Conference division. Melville will likely finish second now as they currently have a seven point lead on third place Kindersley. Kindersley, Yorkton and Estevan are all competing for postioning at the bottom of the Sherwood Conference. The Notre Dame Hounds are still technically alive, but won't be for much longer.

On the Itech side, the Melfort Mustangs are heating up. Stang's coach Darrell Mann was so close to trading away his veterans at the deadline, and his decision to hold-back might earn him "Coach of the Year" consideraiton. This week Melfort goaltender Jordan Washburn posted two shutouts, leaving the goaltending situation completely up in the air. At one point David Tetrault was the clear number one, but thanks to Washburn's surge as of late, the Stang's are platooning the two tenders.

Friday night will be interesting as the Battlefords North Stars battle the Nipawin Hawks at the N.B. Civic Center. If the regular season were to end today, the Stars and Hawks would meet in the SJHL Survivor Series, so a playoff-type atmosphere is expected. The Hawks and Stars still have three more games against one another before all is said and done.

Until next week....