Flyers show no mercy

Prairie River’s Janelle Carlson dribbles the basketball around Valleyview’s Kyra Plontke during action Jan. 28. PRJH won the game 26-16 after building a 12-0 lead and cruising to victory. Behind both players is PRJH’s Susue Ajaleh.

Chris Clegg
South Peace News

There is still hope for the High Prairie Regals to place first in the North Peace Hockey League’s East Division. But they will need some divine intervention to help them pull off the feat and avoid a NPHL Quarter-Final match against the defending champion Spirit River Rangers or surging Grande Prairie Athletics. The Regals took a skeleton crew to Fort St. John Jan. 31 and were pounded 14-0. The club took two goaltenders who shared duties and only nine other players, including David Martinson, Jarrod Gauchier and Blake Myatt, who all played their first game of the season. Credit the players who were able to make the trip but the result was predictable. Fort St. John, probably very pretty snarly after having their 21-game winning streak snapped by Grande Prairie two nights earlier, were in no mood for mercy. They outshot the Regals 56-7 including 21-1 in the first period. On a brighter note, at least the game was clean. The Regals took two minors, the Flyers three. The Flyers led by period scores of 3-0 and 9-0. Ian Munro had three goals and two assists while Kip Noble had two goals and six assists. Mike Shipton and Matt Shuya each had two goals and one assist while Adam Loncan, Todd Alexander, David Alexander, Arlo Hadland and Luke Middleton added one goal each. The Regals were scheduled to play in Valleyview Jan. 29 but the storm which blitzed the area forced the game to be played Feb. 2, too late for press. The Regals (8-14-1-0) can still place first but need several things to fall their way. They must sweep the home-and-home series Feb. 6 in Peace River (8-11-5-0) and back home Feb. 7. That would tie them with Peace River. A win in overtime or a shootout in one of the games keeps their hopes alive but only if they won in Valleyview Feb. 2. And, if they finish the regular season tied with only Peace River, the Regals win the tiebreaker based on wins. However, Falher (8-14-1-0) lurks on the outside. Falher hosts Fairview Feb. 4 before playing at home against Valleyview Feb. 6 and finishing the season Feb. 7 in Valleyview. Falher wins any tiebreaker with Peace River or High Prairie, or Peace River and High Prairie should the clubs all tie for first. If High Prairie sweeps their last three games, they need Falher to lose two of their last three games to place first. Fourth place Valleyview can still win the division but need a bizarre occurrence of events to happen. Fifth place Lakeland will place either fourth or fifth. Trivia It is a rare feat for any team to shut out the High Prairie Regals. In fact, it has occurred only four times in 20 years since 1989-90 when records were kept. The last time the Regals were blanked Robert Olansky performed the feat. The Valleyview Jets arrived in town to finish the season Feb. 12, 2000 and had no goaltender. The Regals lent Olansky to the Jets, who promptly blanked the Regals 5-0 and even recorded an assist. Olansky was 0-7 for the Regals that season but perfect for the Jets, no doubt leading to some interesting conversations in the Regals’ dressing room and at Oldtimers games. Andrey Zhidkikh of the Dawson Creek Canucks blanked the Regals 8-0 in the opening game of the 1999-2000 season Oct. 30, also in High Prairie. Before that, Earl Boman blanked the Regals twice. The first was Nov. 19, 1996 during a 3-0 win at Valleyview. Boman also shutout the Regals 4-0 Dec. 30, 1993, also in Valleyview. Sandford Lamouche was the last Regals goaltender to record a shutout when he blanked visiting Manning 4-0 Dec. 9, 2006. There have only been 78 shutouts in NPHL regular season play since the start of the 1989-90 season.

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