Pair of sweeps end West playoffs early in MJHL

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s quarterfinals may have lacked drama on the ice, but certainly delivered in terms of storylines.

The Virden Oil Capitals and Waywayseecappo Wolverines made short work of the Neepawa Titans and Dauphin Kings respectively, advancing in four-game sweeps.

For Waywayseecappo, it’s the franchise’s first playoff series victory since joining the league nearly three decades ago. The Wolverines will face fellow first-time series winners Niverville in the semi-finals. The lower-seeded team took out Dauphin in dramatic fashion, winning game one and three in overtime on the road.

St Jean’s Sebastien Hicks continued his strong play into the playoffs, nabbing the winner in game three. It looked like a Wolverines three-on-two rush had fizzled out, but Hicks stayed alert, banking in a shot from below the goal-line off Dauphin goaltender Bryson Yaschyshyn.

Niverville Nighthawks sweep Winkler for franchise’s 1st playoff series victory

The Niverville Nighthawks made some franchise history, as they swept past the Winkler Flyers for their first playoff series win as a team.

The Nighthawks were the best team in the MJHL this regular season, and showed it in the playoffs, making short work of a Winkler team which was considered by many one of the better teams in the league.

With divisional-based playoffs in the first round, the fourth-seeded Winkler, the second hottest team in the league, was taken out in convincing fashion by the Nighthawks.

“It bodes well for us to get that tough first round match-up,” head coach Dwight Hirst said, noting he was enjoying a rare relaxing weekend after the Nighthawks took care of business on Friday night.

Migrants charged, another convicted

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the RCMP issued a pair of press releases a week apart in March, one announcing the arrest of three migrants and another the conviction of a man court found was involved in human smuggling.

In a March 13 news release RCMP say it was thanks to community help that they tracked down three people who snuck into Canada from the U.S.

On March 10, the RCMP’s Integrated Border Enforcement Team (IBET) was notified at 8 a.m. that two possible migrants were travelling on foot along Highway 201 near Neuenberg, a village south of Winkler.

Police found the migrants at what they stated was “the hospital” though the closest hospital would be Boundary Trails Health Centre at 18 km away. They did not say how the men made it there but said it was confirmed they had crossed into Manitoba from the United States. They were both treated for minor cold-related injuries and released into custody.

CARILLON SPORTS SECOND SHOTS: March 26th edition

Featuring game two of the SEMHL finals in Ile des Chenes March 18, a U17 AAA championship game in Beausejour March 19, Games one and three of the MJHL series between Steinbach and Portage March 20/24, CRJHL semi-final a U15 AAA championship game in Landmark March 21, a U18 Manitoba Female Hockey League game in Niverville March 22.

COLUMN: Village News – Great communities: Built by volunteers

Not-for-profit organizations exist to meet a need in the community. Most of us have a job and we have obligations to look after our place of residence, whether an owned or a rented home. But a community requires more than that to thrive.

For many people, participating in their church or religious organization is one of the ways that they contribute to making our community better. The church has been the main way to address needs in the community for 2,000 years. But our modern society has changed and there are now many charities that have formed to serve the local community and the global village, in which we find ourselves.

Besides the goal or mission of each not-for-profit organization, and the donations of financial support that most charities depend on, what every organization requires is volunteers.

Mennonite Heritage Village has been around for nearly 62 years and it is a prime example of the many ways that volunteers have been crucial to its mission (preserving and exhibiting the history of Mennonites in southern Manitoba) and to its service to the community (valuing our heritage, celebrating our values and accomplishments, and providing a basis for generosity and care for our friends and neighbours).

Steinbach charities see rising demand as fuel prices spike

Steinbach food banks and charities are seeing extra demand and facing supply shortages as more families feel the squeeze from soaring fuel prices.

Fuel costs have been on the rise since Israel and The United States attacked Iran on Feb. 28, striking multiple targets throughout the middle eastern nation and killing its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Gas prices in Manitoba jumped from 122.7 cents per litre on Feb. 21 to 169.7 on March 24.

Ken Dyck, executive director of South East Helping Hands, said donations aren’t keeping up with the rising number of people. He lays blame on gas prices forcing more people to rely on charitable support.

”If you’re living sort of paycheck to paycheck, that changes things right away,” he said.

BLSD names new Shevchenko principal

Shevchenko School will have a new principal beginning next school year.

Border Land School Division said in a news release that Leanna Doig will take over the position.

An educator since 2006, Doig has taught in both middle and senior years a variety of subjects.

She has been the principal of Emerson School since September 2023 and has previously worked in Altona, Washington and Nebraska.

Hockey Manitoba announces initial Program of Excellence roster

The initial roster for Hockey Manitoba’s U16 Program of Excellence spring selection camp was announced March 20, with 12 players from the Eastman region named to the camp.

The spring selection camp will take place in Winnipeg at the Hockey for All Centre April 10-12. The Program of Excellence will once again be in Steinbach this May, as the province’s top-40 camp will be hosted at the Southeast Event Centre.

Brad Purdie, who is the director of operations and the U15 prep head coach at the Rink Hockey Academy will be heading up the U16 team this year. Two players from the region who suit up for Rink HA made the selection camp roster. They will be joined by 10 players from the Eastman Selects U15 team, which lost in the league finals 3-1 to Brandon this season.

This year’s final roster will be Team Manitoba at the 2027 Canada Winter Games, which will take place next year in Quebec City.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: Gerhard Derksen picks printer’s ink over plow

Gerhard S. Derksen created more than just a printing and newspaper publishing business when he changed career paths in 1932. He brought home to his family his enthusiasm and his love of the role of the community newspaper to people’s daily lives.

His strong and positive example led to family businesses covered in printer’s ink for all five of his children.

Derksen had found it difficult to adjust to farm life on the Saskatchewan prairie. Nine years after immigrating to Canada, he moved his wife Maria and young family to Steinbach, where he began work as a writer with the German-language community newspaper, The Steinbach Post.

At the time, the German newspaper and its small commercial printing shop was operated by Arnold Dyck, a friend and former colleague of Derksen’s in Russia.

Carrière commits to University of Moncton

Another Eastman Selects player has committed to play USports hockey.

Isabella Carrière will continue her hockey career in New Brunswick, with the Université de Moncton. Carrière tallied 22 points this season with the Selects U18 AAA team, as they posted a 25-2-2 record this season.

Carrière played for the Selects last season as well, chipping in four goals during the team’s championship-winning playoff run.

The Moncton Aigles Bleus play in the Atlantic University Sport conference.

COLUMN: Tales from the Gravel Ridge – Roll-call at Rosengard School #2168

There was a time, during the 1940s when my sister Anne answered “present” when her name was called in the morning, and again in the afternoon during roll-call at the Rosengard School. The school was closed in due course, which means, of course, that calling the roll was no longer part of the daily routine. Anne, however, never stopped learning during the 90 years of her life.

Anne was born in her parental home in Rosengard on Jan. 13, 1936, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, which according to Britannica, “… was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world, …”. Needless to say, my family, arriving in Canada in 1929, felt keenly the astronomical effects of this worldwide state of affairs. They had already experienced numerous setbacks before leaving the Mennonite village of Schoeneberg, now Smolyane, in Ukraine in December, 1928. These challenges included the First World War, the Russian Revolution, civil war, and anarchy, along with famine and epidemics, followed by being robbed on the train enroute to Moscow. A new life in Canada beckoned them.

Our mother, Katarina Falk always had many household and family activities to which she needed to respond daily. I think our mother had learned early in her life that in order to achieve what needed to be done, she had to be organized, and perhaps equally importantly, she needed to evaluate how to do what needed doing, and at the same time remain composed. It was within that scenario that our sister Anne, and we her siblings, heard from our mother the stories of her early life. Our mother was, all the while, darning socks or possibly knitting a new pair, or mending clothing.

My sister lived in Rosengard during her early life, and even though she no longer attended the Rosengard School, some of those classmates remained her lifelong friends. So too did numerous friends and co-workers she came to know over the years. Anne was kind and considerate throughout the 90 years of her life, and had a unique capacity for working under a range of circumstances. It can truly be said of her that those who associated with her, be it in a work environment, or in a serving capacity in her church, as well as in neighbourly interaction, came to view Anne as a friend.