Wolverines (22-20-3-5) @ Kings (35-14-1-2)

First off... there's no way the special teams stats are right on the MJHL site. I think they used to be, or at least close, but now everyone's powerplay percentages are WAY down, and everyone's penalty kills look outstanding. I checked it out when I saw the scouting report say Wayway's powerplay is 11.3%. Thought that seemed low... and Dauphin's is listed at 14.3%, and they've been well over 20% all year. So, I clicked on league powerplays, and see the Winnipeg Saints are leading the league at 16.4%. Again, no way. The Saints and Portage are both in the neighbourhood of 25%. So I don't think I'll give PP and PK stats tonight.

Regardless of special teams stats, it's always a good matchup when the Wolverines and Kings hook up. Because of a meeting at the Showcase, they're actually going to meet 9 times in total this season, and tonight marks the 8th. Dauphin's won 4, with a record of 4-2-1. The Wovlerines are 3-3-1, and have out-scored the Kings 24-23.

In the standings, Dauphin's still got a shot at top spot. They're 9 points back of Portage with a game in hand, and 10 remaining including tonight's. They've also got a 9 point lead on the third place OCN Blizzard, also with a game in hand. Wayway now sits 12 points back of OCN for third, and have just a 2 point lead over fifth place Neepawa. The Wolverines have 3 games in hand on OCN and 2 on Neepawa. Wayway let one slip away in OCN on Saturday. As Barry Butler said, and you can hear on the Coach's Show page (top right corner), they played a great 40 minutes, led 3-1 after 2 periods, and then forgot to show up for the third, and lost 5-4 in regulation. OCN's now 12 points up on them, and it could have, and maybe should have been just 8. It now appears hanging on to 4th will be Wayway's immediate objective, rather than trying to track down the Blizzard.

Niko Grose is red-hot for Wayway. He's on a 5 game point streak with 5 goals, 4 assists totalling 9 points. For Dauphin, defenseman Kevin Falloon rides a 6 game point streak into this one with 4-4-8. Shane Luke and Cam McGeough each have 5 points in 3 games. Dauphin goalie Brett Willows has a 0.83 GAA and a .975% since coming over from Estevan.

Talk to you tonight... 7:20/7:30 on GX94.

P.S. Congrats to the Preeceville Pee Wee Pats, winners of our second DQ Minor Hockey Broadcast on GX94. We're hoping to lineup their game this Saturday afternoon when they're in Yorkton, but a few details still need to be worked out. We picked Dylan Smorodin's name out of the box today during the 12:00 Sports at Dairy Queen.