MJHL’s top players aiming for spot on Team Canada

Four Steinbach Pistons were joined by Niverville Nighthawks player in Saskatchewan this week, hoping to impress Team Canada staff and earn a spot at the World Junior A Challenge.

Steinbach’s Zhenya Miles, Rory Gilmour, Evan Gradt and Brody Green and Niverville’s Loik Leduc were named to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League team for the Western All-Star Challenge. The team was open to U19 players.

St Adolphe’s Graeme Pickering, who plays for Winkler in the MJHL, was also named to the roster, one of just two 2009-born players to make the cut.

Forty players from the Manitoba and Saskatchewan leagues were in Martensville battling for a spot on Team Canada West. The two leagues split a pair of one-goal decisions in their two games played Nov. 4 and 5.

Carillon Sports Second Shots: October 30th edition

Featuring photos from Steinbach Regional volleyball games against Dakota Oct. 22, Gab-Roy/Pointe des Chenes Women's High School Hockey League action in Ste Anne Oct. 23, a CRJHL game between St Malo and La Broquerie Oct. 24, Steinbach vs Niverville in the MJHL Oct. 25 and the Bantam minor football championship at Princess Auto Stadium Oct. 26.

U18 Female Selects looking strong to kick off title defense

There is a new face behind the bench of the Eastman Selects Manitoba Female Hockey League’s U18 AAA team.

With Laird Laluk dropping down to coach his daughter in the program’s U15 team, Trevor Hildebrand has taken the reigns. He’s behind the bench of one of the most defensively sound teams you could find, with two excellent goalies to match. Hildebrand coached the U15 team before moving up and is familiar with a lot of the players on this roster.

The team proved that, going down to Minnesota earlier this month to dominate a tournament with four consecutive shutout victories to win their division.

“From top to bottom, it’s quite enjoyable,” Hildebrand said.

New high school hockey team finding early success

The newest team in the Manitoba Women’s Hockey League has gotten off to a decent start.

Ile des Chenes-based Gabrielle-Roy and Ste Anne’s Pointe-des-Chenes have long combined to ice a team in the Winnipeg High School Hockey League and this season the Cavaliers have now started play in the MWHSHL.

The team is coached by Kevin Lansard, who graduated from Pointe-des-Chenes. Lansard, who is involved in multiple levels of hockey across the region, said coaching a high school team has been an adjustment.

“It’s a different culture with school being a part of hockey also,” Lansard said, adding he worked closely with the team before the season started to ensure they could ice a team.

SPORTS FLASHBACK 1993: Remember October of 1993?

The two most surprising events in October of 1993 were the Progressive Conservatives loss to the Liberals in Provencher in the federal election and the Toronto Blue Jays winning back-to-back World Series.

While most Carillon readers were more interested in the federal election campaign, where Kelly Clark found that Jake Epp was a hard act to follow, sports fans were kept abreast of the happenings on the baseball field in Hogtown by TSN sportscaster Jim Hughson.

During the baseball season, Hughson’s Somewhere in a Park column gave Carillon readers a behind-the-scenes look at major league baseball.

Here’s what Hughson wrote for the November 3, 1993 column in The Carillon:

DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS: Toews signing a home run

Since the Winnipeg Jets have returned, my free agent wish list for them has been as follows; veterans and locals.

It’s no surprise that the Jonathan Toews signing is an absolute home run for me, and that was before he even took to the ice.

I loved when Winnipeg picked up Eric Fehr for their inaugural season. I thought the Olli Jokinan signing was a savvy move. I strongly advocated for the team to pick up Jamir Jagr when he was on his retirement tour.

To have historically significant players wear a Jets jersey is a treat all its own, even if the player isn’t the star they once were.

St Malo will need to be ‘road warriors’ in CRJHL

Arena renovations in St Malo mean the community’s junior B team is starting the season with a massive streak of road games.

Those tough circumstances haven’t stopped the two-time defending Capital Region Junior Hockey League champions from getting off to another strong start, going 5-1 to open the year.

“There’s only so much ice out there,” head coach and general manager Ralph Collette said after a 4-3 win in La Broquerie.

“Communities have their own communities to take care of. I get it. It’s very tough to find ice.”

Providence Pilots fall to Brandon Bobcats for 3rd straight year in MCAC soccer finals

The Providence Pilots women’s soccer team continues to be snake-bitten when it comes to Manitoba competition.

The team lost their third consecutive final to the Brandon University Bobcats 3-0 Oct. 26. The loss marked their fourth straight year losing in the last game of the Manitoba season. The Pilots haven’t claimed a Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference title since 2014.

It was a much more lopsided affair this year, as the Bobcats scored right before half-time on their home field and added on insurance mid-way through the second half. The previous two seasons have come down to the final kicks of the game with 2-1 final scores.

Ste Genevieve’s Emilie Dornez, who played her high school soccer at Gabrielle-Roy, scored in Brandon’s 14-0 blowout semi-final win over the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers.

Steinbach Regional Sabres drop hard-fought WHSFL quarterfinal

The Steinbach Regional Sabres varsity football team’s season came to an end Oct. 24, as the team dropped a 29-20 decision to the Vincent Massey Trojans in Winnipeg.

The Trojans dominated the Sabres to the tune of 40-0 earlier this year in Winnipeg High School Football League play, but the quarterfinal was a different story, despite early turnovers allowing the home side to take a 22-0 lead.

Special teams were key for the Sabres to make it a game. Quarterback Angelo Stoyanov, who had three rushing touchdowns to give the Sabres their points, punted on a third and seven, with receiver Ryan Martin lining up behind the kicker and busting downfield to recover for the visitors.

After converting that play into a touchdown, the Sabres went short on the kickoff, with Martin kicking a ball recovered by Owen Mederois. Star lineman Ryder Wallace got into the game as well, blocking a short Vincent Massey field goal.

Ste Anne’s Zach Lansard named to NHL watch list

Ste Anne’s Zach Lansard could be the next player from the region to be drafted into the NHL.

The forward was named to NHL Central Scouting’s “Preliminary players to watch” list for the 2027 draft Oct. 20. Including on that list is Lansard, who plays for the Regina Pats in the Western Hockey League, and was named the team’s rookie of the year last season.

The Pats forward is the son of Kevin Lansard, who is part of multiple hockey organizations across the Eastman region as a coach and manager.

The 2008-born forward potted 19 points as a 16-year-old for the Pats, and had four goals in his first 10 games for Regina this season. Lansard played a season of Eastman Selects U15 AAA hockey before moving to play at the Rink Hockey Academy until joining Regina last season.

Carillon Sports Second Shots: Oct 23rd edition

Featuring an SRSS Sabres hockey game Oct. 15, a pair of MJHL games in Niverville and Steinbach Oct. 15/18, a Providence women's soccer match Oct. 18, action from the Eastman Selects Weekend in Steinbach and a HTJHL Steinbach Huskies game Oct. 19.

Winnipeg Jets Town Takeover returning for 2026

For the first time since 2023, the Winnipeg Jets will set up shop in a rural community for a game.

The Jets announced the return of their Town Takeover, where the team sets up a watch party full of activities during one of the team’s away games at a location outside of the city.

The first-ever takeover was hosted at Morris in 2019, with Stonewall and Oakville hosting in the years following the pandemic.

”The Jets Town Takeover initiative aims to celebrate and connect with the team’s many rural fans by bringing the game closer to home and putting a spotlight on the winning community,” a True North press release reads.

Olympian Jocelyne Larocque gives back to Eastman Selects

Eastman hockey players got the chance to pick the brain of one of Canada’s best during Selects Weekend in Steinbach.

Jocelyne Larocque, who boasts two Olympic Gold Medals along with countless other accomplishments in a Team Canada uniform, was at the Southeast Event Centre Oct. 18, as she hosted a question and answer/autograph session with Eastman Selects players.

“(Hockey has) taught me so many life lessons, I made some amazing friends, and has given me so much love and joy,” Larocque said.

Nearly every regional Eastman Selects team was in action this week at the SEC, as the program gathered for what they hope will become an annual event.