SJHL SEMI-FINALS SET

LA RONGE VS. MELFORT

The Ice Wolves took care of Flin Flon in five games and have proven themselves to be much more than a one-line team. Sure, Travis Eggum and Marc-Andre Carre still had real good success, even in light of the injury to Doug Lindensmith.  But, Lance Herauf stepped up and produced 13-points in 5-games and Justin Ducharme tied for the team lead in goals with four.  Rhyse Dieno also contributed 7-points in the Flin Flon series.

Melfort struggled a bit with the Humboldt Broncos and that really isn't all that surprising as the Mustangs are a team that has not had a lot of postseason success.  So, they've had to 'learn' to win and maybe they'll adapt to various conditions as they were 3-1 winners over the Broncos in game five and then were 2-1 victors in game six.  It's not classic Melfort hockey, but they found a way to do it outside their comfort zone.

The Mustangs are likely going to direct more pucks at Adam Bartko than the Bombers did.  Meanwhile, Charles Corsi has been, as advertised, limiting the Broncos to well under two goals a game.  Needless to say, La Ronge brings much more firepower than Humboldt.

PREDICTION:  LA RONGE IN SIX

YORKTON VS. KINDERSLEY

Ravaged by injuries, the Terriers figured to have their hands full against an Estevan team that weathered the storm against Melville and posed as a formidable foe as far as looking at their roster of talent.  Instead, Yorkton dominated them and won in four straight games, barely working up a sweat despite using back-up goalie Warren Shymko in three of the four games, playing without Justin Buzzeo for a couple, and waiting on Blaine Tendler, who has been out for quite some time with a lower body injury.

Kindersley also dominated their conference semi-final series, even though Weyburn managed to get a win.  The Klippers blew out the Wings in game two in what really was the turning point of the series.  They showed they can play with a chip on their shoulder and also win when not everything is going well.  The Wings scored on the powerplay frequently while the Klippers really didn't settle into their own groove with the man advantage.  It's been smooth sailing for these guys since mid-December with very little adversity.

Yorkton won in four straight and made it look easy against Estevan.  It won't be easy against Kindersley; but you have to wonder if the Terriers still haven't ratcheted it up.  There are a number of forwards who haven't had a bust-out game yet and with Devin Peters back in the cage, you should expect that when everyone else has an off-night, he'll be there to bail them out.  All of Kindersley's top players are firing.  My only question with them will be on how they would respond to being down in a series early, say 2-games-to-none or 2-games-to-1.  Do they have the moxy if put in this kind of a position?

PREDICTION:  YORKTON IN SEVEN