The Dauphin Clippers are riding a four-game winning streak after posting three wins last week.

After scoring a 6-2 win over the Roblin/Grandview/Gilbert Plains Raiders, Tuesday in Dauphin, Hayden Shtykalo scored both goals in a 2-1 overtime victory over the Sandy Bay Badgers, Wednesday in Sandy Bay.

On Saturday, Dauphin made it four straight wins with an 8-3 triumph over the Crocus Plains Plainsmen.

Sunday’s home game against Sandy Bay was postponed due to poor travel conditions and has been rescheduled to Feb. 1 at 12:30 p.m.

The Clippers now sit in fourth place in the Westman High School Hockey League, with an 11-5-0-1 record for 23 points. They trail the third-place Virden Golden Bears by one point, with three games in hand.

Clippers head coach Drew Kulcheski said the players got their confidence back after struggling coming out of the Christmas break and it showed on the ice.

“We’re all kind of gelling together right now and I’m pleased with how we’re playing. We’re playing as a five-man unit every time we’re our on the ice and it’s bringing us some success,” he said.

The offence produced 14 goals in two of the games, and won a close game against Sandy Bay. Being able to win playing any style of game is something that pleases Kulcheski.

“It’s really nice to know that no matter what the situation we’re in, we either have a chance to come back and win one late or tie one up late or take the lead late or we can start the offence off early,” he said.

“There’s not a lot of quit in this group. It’s quite the resilient group we have here. So it’s very comfortable knowing my team can play any style of hockey throughout 60 minutes.”

The Clippers have two home games this week, hosting the Birtle Falcons, Friday at 7:30 p.m., before the Minnedosa/Erickson Chancellors visit Credit Union Place, Sunday at 7 p.m.

Kulcheski is confident the Clippers can continue it’s strong play of late.

“Hopefully we can keep playing confident. When we’re playing with confidence, we seem to have our success. So just trying to let the boys know to play our game, play with confidence and we’ll be alright,” he said.

The Rural Municipality of Dauphin council held its first regular meeting of the new year, Jan. 13.

Accounts and finances

Council approved 37 cheques, including a voided cheque which had the wrong amount, as well as payroll and online payments in the amount of $256,518.03.

CAO report

CAO Grady Stephenson told council he met with Environment and Climate Change staff, where some concerns were expressed. Some improvements are coming for some things, he said, along with clarifications on other issues.

Stephenson added staff is starting to work on some budget items.

Transportation

Public works foreman Ryan Jenkins informed council graders have been busy keeping roads open during the recent snowfalls and in between plowing, they have been out ridging to protect against winds.

The municipality, Jenkins added, is currently training seasonal staff to plow snow in keeping with succession planning.

Public works staff has been planning projects for the upcoming construction season.

Staff are also currently monitoring and dealing with a natural spring run that is starting to flood a ditch in the south and threatening to go over the road making for dangerous driving conditions.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.

The Dauphin Clippers JV girls basketball team used home court to their advantage, winning the Clipper Classic this past weekend.

After opening the tournament with a 69-9 win over the Swan Valley Tigers, the Clippers defeated the Neelin Spartans, 52-21, in the semifinals, before beating Brandon’s Vincent Massey Vikings, 29-28 in the championship game.

Neelin went on to place third, beating Yorkton, 52-18. Gladstone beat Swan River to win the consolation.

Clippers coach John Marshall said the players showed a lot of grit and determination, especially in the final.

“The first two games, as indicated by the scores, we didn’t have a very difficult time defeating those teams. And that’s no offence to them. But they couldn’t match us.”

Dauphin’s next tournament will be the Nighthawks Invitational, Jan. 30 and 31, in Winkler.

Until then, the Clippers will work on offence.

“Our offence is inconsistent. We need to be much sharper executing and not panicking so much under man-to-man defence,” Marshall said.

Marshall wishes to thank everyone who helped to organize the tournament and run things behind the scenes. He also thanked teacher Don Sheldon, who spearheaded the construction of the announcer’s table, which adds to the atmosphere at Clippers’ home tournaments.

“It really helps to support school spirit. I look at that and I’m so proud of what they did. It just makes our tournaments so much better,” he said.

The JV boys were in Winkler for the Nighthawks Invitational, where they went 1-2, losing out in the consolation final.

Read the full story in this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.

It was a weekend to forget for the Parkland Rangers.

The Rangers dropped a pair of games to the Winnipeg Bruins, 7-1, on Saturday, and 8-1 on Sunday.

Both games were in Dauphin.

Rangers head coach Rick Freese said penalties were costly as the Bruins scored six power-play goals in 19 chances.

“You’re not going to beat the best team in the league when you’re shorthanded for 26 minutes. You’ve got to stay out of the penalty box,” he said.

“Five-on-five, we’re right there with them. But we’ve got to be unselfish and stay out of the box. Our penalty killers can only do so much.”

Now riding a three-game losing streak, Parkland sits in eighth place with a 16-11-4-0 record, but they are one point behind the Pembina Valley Hawks and three back of the Southwest Cougars.

The Rangers embark on an important week, where they face teams around them in the standings, beginning Tuesday in Shoal Lake against the Yellowhead Chiefs.

On Friday, the Rangers host the Interlake Lightning at 7:30 p.m. Then they hit the road for a pair of games against Pembina Valley in Morden, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

Freese said this is a big week coming up for the Rangers against teams they need to play well against.

For the full story, read this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.

The Coldest Night of the Year is set for Feb. 28, so there is plenty of time for people to put together teams to take part in the fund-raiser for the Dauphin Friendship Centre’s Food for Thought program.

According to Jarri Thompson, DFC events co-ordinator, there are currently more than 800 students registered for Food For Thought across the Dauphin school catchment, with approximately 750 students accessing meals consistently each week. Each participating student receives two meals per week, resulting in roughly 1,500 meals served weekly.

As a result, the average grocery cost is approximately $5,000 per week. Thanks to the dedicated volunteers making these meals from scratch that works out to about $3.33 per meal, per child.

As of Sunday afternoon, there are six teams registered, involving 16 walkers, which have raised $7,630 or 30 per cent of the walk’s goal of $25,000.

“We would like to see at least 10 teams of five. And then that way, they don’t have to raise as much,” Thompson said, adding the number of teams so far is about on par with what they usually have.

“Because of the rise in food costs, if we can get more teams registered sooner, that would be ideal,” she added.

To register, people can go to the DFC to see Thompson and she will walk them through the process, or they can log on to cnoy.org/location/dauphin.

Thompson said the walk is one of the bigger fund-raisers for the Food for Thought program, adding there is no deadline to register.

“You can actually register all the way up until the day that you walk and we actually collect donations all the way up until March. But again, the sooner you register, the better for us to know where we’re at and to prepare for the meal and the welcoming,” she said.

Participants will gather at the Dauphin Friendship Centre between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., where organizers will make sure all the forms are properly filled out, as well as collect money raised.

“We will do a little thank you, a presentation as to where the money will be going and how the community has helped,” Thompson explained.

The event will begin at 4 p.m., with two options for participants, either a two-kilometre or five-kilometre route.

“Once walkers are finished with their walk, they come back to the friendship centre and we have a meal,” Thompson said.

Thompson said anyone who wishes can make a donation to the Food for Thought program, adding it doesn’t have to be monetary.

“We take in-kind donations. We take food donations. And we always take new volunteers,” she said.

For the second straight year, Dauphin’s Julien Lopez was named Junior Male Athlete of the Year by Rugby Manitoba.

Lopez was just as surprised and grateful this time around as he was last year.

“It’s always an honour to win that,” he said.

Winning the award means a lot to Lopez, who noted rugby is a growing community in the province.

“So it’s cool to win that and, hopefully, it will push other kids to try and win that, as well,” he said.

Lopez recently played for the British Columbia-based MacDowell Rugby Academy at the Global Youth 7s in Auckland, New Zealand.

Lopez said the tournament went pretty well, though he ended up with an injury.

“I still learned a lot with that team as the coaches know what they’re doing and everyone there just helps each other,” he said.

Lopez feels his game has significantly improved over the course of the past year.

“Not just the body growing part, but the smarts, as well. After playing with so many good athletes, you just pick up their skills along the way,” he said, adding he hopes to play college rugby in Victoria.

Lopez thanks all of the teammates he has had and is looking forward to his final year of high school rugby with the Dauphin Clippers.

The Dauphin Lady Mavericks were the recipients of the 2025 Dave Barnes Spirit of the Game Award.

Awarded annually by the Manitoba Association of Rugby Referees, this award recognizes the commitment to the values of rugby and fair play both on and off the pitch.

Cassandra Kostelnyk, who spearheaded the return of the Lady Mavericks learned of the award in early December.

“I was surprised. Not because I didn’t think we deserved the award by any means, but because we played the least amount of games of any league in Manitoba, between women’s, men’s first and men’s second divisions,” she said.

Noting it was voted on by the referees, Kostelnyk felt that made winning the award pretty special.

“And showed how we worked together well as a team on the field. For us to have only played five games and the refs picked us out of everybody,” she said.

The award will boost the team’s confidence as they prepare for next season.

“All of the girls were super, super excited that we won this award,” Kostelnyk.

“It’s going to give us good momentum for years going forward.”

2025 was a busy year for sports in Dauphin and the Parkland.

The Dauphin Kings ended the 2024-25 regular season in first place in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s MGEU West Division with a record of 37-18-2-1 for 77 points, fourth best overall.

Dauphin dispatched the fourth place Waywayseecappo Wolverines in five games, before eliminating the Portage Terriers in six games.

The Kings then faced the Northern Manitoba Blizzard in the final.

The Blizzard, which finished in second place, six points behind the Kings in the regular season, had beaten the Neepawa Titans and swept the defending league champion Winkler Flyers to earn their berth in the championship round.

After the Blizzard took a three-games-to-one lead, the Kings won games five and six, forcing a seventh and deciding game on home ice.

In an epic battle, Quincy Supprien scored off a faceoff at 14:03 of the third overtime period to give the Blizzard their first league championship since 2003 in front of 2,246 fans at Credit Union Place.

Goaltenders Taye Timmerman of the Blizzard and Cole Sheffield of the Kings shared the Playoff MVP Award, the first time that happened in league history.

Naaman Hofer won the Brian Kozak Memorial Award as Top Defenceman, while Hofer and teammate Cayden Glover were both selected to the first all-star team. Sheffield was named to the second all-star team along with Grandview’s Jayce Legaarden of the Winkler Flyers.

Dauphin’s Breken Brezden finished fifth overall at the Skate Canada National Championships, Jan. 14 to 19, in Laval, Que.

Read the full story in this weeks Dauphin Herald.

The Parkland Rangers earned three of a possible four points last week to stay in the race in the Manitoba AAA U18 Hockey League.

Nolan Kozak’s second goal of the game 2:17 into overtime lifted the Yellowhead Chiefs to a 4-3 win over Parkland, Nov. 25 in Dauphin.

On Friday in Dauphin, Noah Smigelsky scored once and added a pair of assists to lead the Rangers to a 5-2 win over the Interlake Lightning.

Rangers head coach Rick Freese felt the Rangers played well at times on Friday, but feels they have to be better in the defensive zone.

“Our neutral zone steer got better today. Those two teams are indicative of the whole league. There’s four points between third and eighth, so we have to make sure we’re on every night,” he said.

“And we have to hate getting scored on more than we like scoring goals. We’ve got the fire power. We’ve got nothing but fire power here. But we have to make sure we’re defensively sound.”

The third period, Freese said, was a perfect example of how well the Rangers can play defensively, as they sealed the wall against Interlake, limiting the Lightning to just six shots.

“Twenty minutes of sealing the wall is one thing. But we’ve got to do it for 60. So we’re getting there. We’re getting better, but we’ve got some work to do, for sure,” he said.

The work ethic has gotten better since the start of the season.

“Holding players accountable is the only thing coaches can do. We control their ice time. That’s the only thing we can control. But, yeah, I think work ethic has gotten better in the last two months,” Freese said.

“But we’re in the dog days now and you’ve got to find ways to be a contributor, especially the bottom six guys. Sometimes those top six guys start to get worn out a bit in the dog days. So we want those bottom six guys to step up a little bit.”

The Rangers won’t get much practice time in this week as they are on the road, Tuesday and Wednesday.

They face the Chiefs in a rematch, Tuesday in Shoal Lake before heading to Brandon on Wednesday to play the Wheat Kings.

At 11-5-4-0 for 26 points, Parkland trails Brandon by five points and will look to close that gap.

On Friday, the Pembina Valley Hawks will provide the opposition at Credit Union Place in Dauphin at 7:30 p.m.

When the Rangers do hit the ice for practice, the focus will continue to be improving their defensive play.

“Offensively, we’re talented and we can do things down low, but we have to support our teammates a little better in how we enter the offensive zone as a unit, so we’ll work on that this week,” Freese said.

The Dauphin Kings extended their winning streak to six games before seeing it come to an end, this past weekend.

Havryil Simchuk scored the winner with 6:47 remaining in the third period to lift Dauphin to a 2-1 victory over the Selkirk Steelers, Saturday in Dauphin.

On Sunday, the Winkler Flyers scored a 4-0 win over the Kings to snap Dauphin’s winning streak.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley felt the Kings played well against the Steelers, playing with energy and creating some opportunities.

“I think we left them hanging around too long. If there’s one thing we could have done better, it could have been 3-1 or 4-1,” he said.

“We had a lot of opportunities. We still need to bear down around the net when we get opportunities and make teams pay for the mistakes they make.”

The important thing, Hedley added, is the players found a way to get things done and earn the two points.

The Kings started slow against Winkler, which was playing its third game in as many days after sweeping a pair in The Pas against the Blizzard.

The second half of the second period was penalty filled with Winkler getting four power plays.

“When you’re on your heels it’s tough to keep the bench in. It’s tough to get some momentum the other way,” Hedley said, adding if the Kings had scored on a five-on-three man advantage late in the second period with Winkler leading 3-0, they could have made it interesting in the third period.

“Our guys just didn’t bear down. They’re an aggressive team. You’ve got to give them credit. They’re playing hard. They’re fighting for their lives for a playoff spot with Selkirk right now in their division. But they’ve gotten a lot better,” he said.

“It’s too bad with two good teams on the ice like that they weren’t allowed to play.”

As frustrating as it was, Hedley said discipline starts with the coaches.

“We can’t control what the referees do. The players have got to play within the parameters they set, shut their mouth and play hockey,” he added.

Dauphin’s seven-game home stand continues Wednesday when they host the Virden Oil Capitals at 7 p.m.

Dauphin is seven points ahead of Virden in the standings, with the Oil Capitals having two games in hand by puck drop, after Virden hosts Selkirk on Tuesday.

On Saturday, the Winnipeg Blues are in town for a 7 p.m. date.

Ethan Stewart, who missed Sunday’s game as a precaution, left the team on Sunday to join Team Canada West at the Junior A World Challenge in Trois-Rivières, Que., Dec. 7 to 13.

Defenceman Ty Pratte has been cleared and should return to the lineup on Wednesday.

The Parkland Rangers learned a valuable lesson in a 5-4 loss to the Pembina Valley Hawks, Saturday in Dauphin.

The two teams traded goals through the first 40 minutes and the Rangers pressed for the equalizer in the final frame, but could not bury their chances.

Noting the Hawks are committed to defence, Rangers head coach Rick Freese said his team has to play the same way.

“For us to win against a team like that, we’ve got to keep it to two or less and we’ve got to be committed to D. And we had moments tonight where we weren’t committed to D,” he said.

Freese said the Rangers have the fire power to compete with any team in the league, but it is the commitment to defence that the teams needs to work on to compete with the best teams in the league.

“Our game is not fire fighting. We don’t want to be in a fire fight. We want to be in a defensively sound game. We don’t want to handcuff guys offensively. But if we’re going to cheat, we’ve got to cheat on the D-side every time. We can’t be cheating on the O-side,” he said.

Pembina Valley took advantage of some breaks, which led to goals. But with four goals on the board, Freese feels that should be enough to win games.

“There’s no reason we shouldn’t have won that game, 4-1. They didn’t get anything that we didn’t give them to a certain extent. They’re a hard working team, no doubt. And they put pucks to the net and they’re physical down low, but so are we,” he said.

“It’s like playing ourselves, almost a mirror image. We just have to be a little more committed to D.”

Freese is looking for a better defensive effort when they host the Yellowhead Chiefs, Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.

“We’ve got some of the best fire power in the league. But when you score four goals, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t win the game. If you can hold a team to two or less and be committed to D, there’s no reason, with four goals, you shouldn’t win.”

Freese feels the players have to learn to trust in their teammates and not try to do too much on the ice.

“So when we retreat, we have to make sure, we have to have it behind us that our teammate is doing their job, too. I think that’s the biggest thing, for sure,” he said.

Parkland’s only game this weekend is Friday, when they host the Interlake Lightning at 7:30 p.m.