Rugby continues expansion at Steinbach Regional

The Steinbach Regional Secondary School Sabres are fast becoming a destination for Rugby.

After dominating the Winnipeg Sevens league for the past few seasons, they’ve added 15s and 10s to their offerings and have immediately found success there as well, all while maintaining that high level in the smaller formats.

“We’re on the rugby pitch most days of the week now which is amazing, but learning a couple different games has been a challenge,” head coach Tahnee Grosskopf said.

“The girls have definately risen to that challenge.”

CARILLON SPORTS SECOND SHOTS: Centennial Cup Finals

Photos from the Niverville Nighthawks win in the Centennial Cup in Summerside, P.E.I.

Niverville Nighthawks team structure sets them apart in MJHL

The Niverville Nighthawks don’t look like many other Manitoba Junior Hockey League franchises.

The team does not employ a combined head coach and general manager, as is the case for nearly every other MJHL team. They instead employ Dwight Hirst as head coach and Mike McAulay as general manager.

Niverville joined the league in 2022, initially hiring Kelvin Cech in a combined role with McAulay as assistant general manager. When the team parted ways with Cech in the middle of the 2023/2024 season, they turned to Hirst, who is from Lac du Bonnet, as their interim coach and promoted McAulay to general manager, maintaining that structure ever since.

It paid off this year with a league championship and one of the strongest MJHL representatives in recent years at the national junior A championships. The Nighthawks went undefeated at the Centennial Cup en route to a national championship.

SPORTS FLASHBACK 2005: All roads led back to Randolph for Andy Stoesz

Randolph’s Andy Stoesz enjoyed the travel that was part of being the best, and often the busiest, goaltender in the Southeast for close to two decades, but this Hall of Famer is more than happy to be right back where it all started.

In fact, Stoesz, his wife Debbie and daughter Jillian still live on the family farm, where Andy and his five brothers learned to skate on a backyard rink.

Stoesz first strapped on the pads when he was in grade five at Moray School and didn’t hang up those pads for good until more than 20 years later. Along the way, he played a huge role in winning national championships at both the junior and senior levels.

On his way to induction to Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba Hockey Halls of Fame, Stoesz backstopped teams to victories in junior hockey’s Centennial Cup, the Hardy Cup of intermediate hockey and senior hockey’s Allan Cup. Wherever he has played, Stoesz has been the main difference between winning and losing.

DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS: The moments that win a Centennial Cup

Just making the Centennial Cup, Canada’s national junior A championship is an arduous task, but winning it, as the Niverville Nighthawks did this year in Summerside, P.E.I. takes a whole lot of effort, some great prepartion and a little bit of luck.

Every team you face is either a league champion or has been preparing for hosting duties for years. In a group of five, a team must finish first and get a bye to the tournament semi-finals to have a realistic chance at victory.

The host Summerside Western Capitals looked great at the tournament, pushing Niverville (ranked second in the country) to overtime and flat-out beating Rockland (ranked first) in group play. But a stumble against Alberta champions Canmore meant to win the tournament they needed to win three games over three consecutive days.

Beating Maritime rivals Truro in a league playoff rematch and blasting Quebec champions Longueuil was impressive but a re-match with Niverville in the final at a serious rest disadvantage was always going to be too much for the hosts to overcome.

AS I SEE IT COLUMN: All hail Canadian champion Niverville Nighthawks

It is impossible to put into context just how massive, just how exceptional it is that the Niverville Nighthawks, in only their fourth year in existence, are the best junior A hockey club in the nation.

Going through the Centennial Cup without a loss? Impressive. Being crowned the best junior A team in Canada at such an early age of an organization? Historic.

Some context is needed here to at least try and explain how big the Nighthawk’s championship season was.

In the storied history of Canadian hockey, there had been only three Manitoba teams that had won the Centennial Cup before this year’s tournament. The Portage Terriers have done it twice (in 1973, led by Blumenort’s scoring sensation Randy Penner, who scored an astounding 34 goals in 24 Centennial Cup playoff games that year, including a hat trick in the deciding game. The Terriers won again in 2015). The Selkirk Steelers did it the following season in 1974, thanks to a core of fantastic hockey players from Steinbach (Andy Stoez, Ken Neufeld, Randy Reimer, Ray Mutcheson and Chester Reimer.)

Howden, Golden Knights into conference semi-finals

Oakbank’s Brett Howden continues to be one of the most important players in the 2026 NHL playoffs.

The former Eastman Selects forward has eight goals in 12 play-off games so far this season, as the Vegas Golden Knights beat Anaheim to advance to the Western Conference finals. As of May 19, he sat in second for all players in goals for the 2026 playoffs.

Howden is playing on a line alongside Mitch Marner and William Karlsson, with the former leading all players in points.

Howden struck three times in the series against the Ducks in a 4-2 series win, including the winner in a decisive 5-1 game six victory in Anaheim.

Gunderson’s walk off keeps Charlotte’s NCAA baseball season alive

Cody Gunderson’s NCAA career isn’t over just yet.

The Charlotte 49ers senior from St Malo extended his career with a two-run walk-off single in Charlotte’s final game of the season, powering his team to a 8-7 win over Mephis to clinch a spot at the American Conference Championships.

The win put the Niners in a tie for sixth place in the conference standings, bouncing back to make the tournament after a rough start to conference play. Head coach Robert Woodard said he had an unusual talk with his team after a 1-2 series against Florida Atlantic with just 12 games left in their season.

“I usually don’t go to standings or landscape and what it takes because I try to stay centered on our team and getting better and being the first version of ourselves – but with this group of guys and all the seniors, they deserved to know what it was going to take to accomplish this,” Woodard said on the Niners website.

Graduating Pistons Quizi, Noad, announce college commitments

A pair of key contributors to the Steinbach Pistons from this season have announced where they will be continuing their hockey careers.

Chris Quizi will be heading back south, suiting up for the University of Wisconsin River Falls Falcons in the NCAA Division III. The 2005-born goaltender joined Steinbach this season after four years with four different junior A programs in Ontario and Alberta.

It was a tough season, injury-wise for the Bradford, Ont. goalie, as he was injured early in the season and was knocked out of the playoffs after a hard collision during the team’s MJHL semi-final loss to Virden.

Despite being limited in his playing time, Quizi was still nominated for the league’s top goaltender award, posting a 21-5-2 record and a save percentage of 0.917.

DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS: Thoughts from the Centennial Cup in P.E.I.

It’s been a whirlwind few days here for me at the Centennial Cup in Summerside, P.E.I. I’m typing this column above the ice surface as the hometown Summerside Capitals appear on their way to clinching a spot in the playoffs, as they lead Thunder Bay 3-0.

Here are some thoughts as I take in a lot of the Junior A National Championships.

NIGHTHAWKS ROLLINGI was a little worried the trip out East wouldn’t be all that fruitful after watching the first game online, with Summerside giving the Nighthawks the most trouble I’ve seen from any team all year.

Two games later and wins over Thunder Bay and Canmore have certainly ended those worries.

AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Comparing Montréal’s Jakub Dobeš to Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck

One of the great things about sport is the way it lends itself to all kinds of hypothetical or theoretical debates. Who is the better goal scorer/golfer/quarterback/pitcher/goalie are fun, abstract diversions.

So let’s partake in one now. Who is the better goaltender? Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets or Jakub Dobeš of the Montréal Canadiens.

What makes this debate so much fun is the fact that both sides have strong arguments in their favour.

The “Connor Hellebuyck is better” argument – On one hand, this is a very easy argument to make. Hellebuyck has won two Vezina trophies as the best regular season goalie in the NHL, he won last year’s Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP and he led Team USA to Olympic gold. And he was the main reason why the Jets won the Jennings Trophy two years in a row as the team that allowed the fewest regular-season goals.

SPORTS FLASHBACK 1980: Niverville Clippers win first HTHL championship

It was anything but smooth sailing for the Niverville Clippers who were beaten in the HTHL finals four times in the last five years, before clinching their first league championship on the strength of a 9-8 victory over the Mitchell Mohawks in Game Six this year.

The 1979-80 HTHL champs got three goals from Vern Warkentin, a pair from Bert Krahn and singles from the sticks of Wayne Banman, Jules Enns, Vic Warkentin and Ken Doerksen. The Clippers needed every one of those markers, as Mitchell Mohawks did a lot of scoring of their own, and trailed by a margin of just two by the end of 40 minutes.

The Clippers appeared to have the game well in hand, taking an 8-5 lead with a goal two minutes into the third, but the Mohawks fought back to tie the game with three goals in a two minute span.

Vern Warkentin’s third goal of the night gave Niverville a 9-8 win and the HTHL crown, four games to two.

Expansion to champion: Niverville Nighthawks claim Centennial Cup

For just the fourth time in history, the best junior A team in Canada comes from Manitoba. The Niverville Nighthawks joined the Portage Terriers (1973, 2014) and Selkirk Steelers (1974) in lifting the Centennial Cup, defeating the host Summerside Western Capitals 4-1 in the final May 17 in P.E.I.

Niverville began play in the Manitoba Hockey League in 2022, needing just four seasons to go from expansion to national champions.

"Words can't describe the feeling of how proud I am of these young men," head coach Dwight Hirst, who took control of the franchise mid-way through the 2024 season but was involved with the team from the beginning, said after the game.

The Nighthawks took a 2-1 lead into the third period and calmly wound down the clock, with Marlen Edwards nabbing an insurance goal and Tyler Bernier icing the game with an empty netter. Hirst, who is from Lac du Bonnet, said the message to the team after 40 minutes was to break the final period into five minute segments.

Carillon Sports Second Shots: Centennial Cup semi-finals

Featuring photos from Niverville vs Toronto and Summerside vs Longueuil.

Niverville and the hosts Summerside won to advance to the final, with puck drop set for 5 p.m. Manitoba-time May 17.

Niverville Nighthawks comeback win punches ticket into Centennial Cup final

Eastman talent took centre stage as the Niverville Nighthawks defeated Ontario Junior Hockey League champions Toronto Patriots 4-3 to advance to the Centennial Cup final. The team came all the way back after trailing 3-0 early in the second period.

Down 3-2 with less than four minutes to go in the third period, St Adolphe's Calyb Moore sniped a shot off the post and in when it looked like a rush chance was fizzling out. A minute later, Lorette's Merik Boles tipped home a point shot for the game winner, as the Nighthawks held on for the semi-final win.

"It was awesome to see Mooresy get in and score, that was a big one for sure," Boles, who was named the most valuable player for the game said afterwards.

"A couple late goals for some Eastman kids, that's exciting."