Well That's Better!

After they all lost on Friday night, the Melville Millionaires, Swan Valley Stampeders and Wayway Wolverines all picked up Saturday night wins.

Things didn't exactly look promising for the Millionaires, the way they played for most of Friday's game in Battleford, going into the second game road game in as many nights, against a Klippers team that had 8 straight wins.

The Mils stormed out to a 4-0 lead, but by boxscore, it looks like if the game lasted another minute or so they might have lost! Kindersley scored three times in the third, forcing the Mils to hang on for a 5-4 win.

Connor Lowe-Wylde got bumped up to the first line, and the rookie didn't disappoint, scoring a goal and adding one assist for a second straight night. In a matter of 48 hours, his season stats have gone from 2g-1a, to 4g-3a. The guy he replaced in that role, Michael Desjarlais, also scored on Saturday, while Lowe-Wylde's old linemates, Godric Tham (1g) and Andre Parker (2a) still provided offense. Maybe Feez has something with this lineup... looks like some good balance. Roger Tagoona scored his 10th of the year, while Ian McNulty added his 2nd.

Shots were 51-36 Kindersley. Sirard played goal for the MM.

One roster change of note... Cody Hanson was a scratch, while Bob Pond checked back into the lineup. I'm in Saskatoon at the moment so I'm not sure if a trade is done or not. Cody was at breakfast this morning in Battleford, but him being traded seems like a matter of when, not if. Last night it sounded like it wouldn't happen until at least Sunday though.

Kindersley got Spencer Braaten from Humboldt today. The Klippers have arguably the top line in the Sherwood with Dommett-Calkins-Adamyk, throw in King, Duzan, McGrath, now Braaten... that's a dangerous group. Mysiorek's been scoring this year too. The KK's could certainly make some noise. I'm off to Manitoba on Tuesday and have to miss the Klippers/Terriers game, but I'm sure it'll be a dandy.

The Mils are now 9 points up on ND, 4 behind Estevan.

- Brayden Metz is already paying dividends in Melfort. He's got 4 pts in 3 games since his arrival, including 1g-1a in a 3-1 win in Estevan on Saturday. If you haven't already, listen to his interview with Darryl Skender on the SJHL website... he had some classy comments about Melville and the Millionaires. I can't help but pull for him and the Mustangs in the north now.

- Rumour has it Spafford and Ceci are on the block in Nipawin, but SHEESH... the just beat Flin Flon, and are now four points out of 5th with a game in hand.

- Weyburn jumped into 2nd in the Sherwood, beating La Ronge 3-2. The Wings are also rolling, with wins over the 'Stangs and Wolves in back to back nights. They're 6 pts back of Yorkton, Kindersley's 7 back, and they both have 1 game in hand.

- Travis Eggum scored his 38th goal in 38 games for La Ronge. Does he score 50 in 50?

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The Wayway Wolverines suffered a tough 6-4 loss to Neepawa, the team they're desperately trying to track down, on Friday night, but responded in a big way on Saturday, downing the Saints 6-2.

Shane Goodrunning and Dave Williams scored twice each, while Ashley Howie and Tyler Posch had the others.

That gets the Wolverines back to 4 points out of a playoff spot.

I sometimes forget there ARE still 20 games left... but I still don't think they want to be getting any more than 6 or so points out of it.

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Swan Valley tied their game with the Winnipeg Blues at 2, on a third period goal from Brad McDonald, and then won it 3-2 in a shootout.

Nick Keller opened the scoring for Swan, and the newcomer now has 1g-1a in 2 games since arriving.

There were four cross-divisional games in the MJ on Saturday, and the Sherwood team won them all. OCN also beat Winkler, while Dauphin defeated Steinbach.

OCN's in 2nd place, Swan's one back, and Dauphin's one back of Swan. The Kings have also played the fewest amount of games.

- And I shouldn't say this, and feel bad saying it...... but 'Thumbs Down' to the new MJHL Website.

It looks GREAT... but the navigation is not good at all.

The old site was simpler, and when you clicked on boxscores, you could see all the night's games, and all the goal scorers on the same page.

Now, you don't get the goal scorers until you click on each individual game... and once you're there, it's REALLY not good. You have to scroll a tonne, which is just inconvenient on a computer, but annoying as all hell on a BlackBerry. On my phone I have to scroll half a mile left-right, and back to see the roster/stats at the bottom. And I THINK it lists goals in each period from last to first, rather than in order of when they were scored. It's the same stats program the Sask AAA Midget League uses. You also can't click on players to see their season stats while viewing game summaries.

Maybe for the average fan it's fine, but for my purposes, doing out-of-town scoreboards, etc, the old format was better.

Maybe I'll used to it!

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And how 'bout the Saints and Colts both losing on NFL Wildcard Saturday. Wow! The Jets and the 7-and-9 Seahawks stay alive!

Couple beauties lined up for Sunday too, with Baltimore @ KC, and Green Bay @ Philly.

I've got some money riding on Pittsburgh winning the Super Bowl at work. Bet $55 on them to win around $350 in a calcutta aution we did.

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Talk to you on Deadline Eve!