HEADLINES

Tofield voted In, Round Lake Voted Out.
Bonnyville Opts for the Sask-Alta League
NCHL Adds a New Team for 2025-26 Season
Camrose Announces Coaching Change
A Look Back at Year 30.

STANDINGS

Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS
Lacombe	16	14	2	0	28
Wetaskiwin	16	13	3	0	26
Innisfail	16	11	4	1	23
Stony Plai..	16	11	5	0	22
Camrose	16	8	7	1	17
Devon	16	6	7	3	15
Bonnyville	16	6	10	0	12
Westlock	16	2	11	3	7
Morinville	16	1	15	0	2

SCORING LEADERS

Jamie
Johnson (LAC)

Player	Points
Jake Mykitiuk (WET)	31
RJ Reed (WET)	30
Thomas Beretta (LAC)	28
Troy Maclise (LAC)	25
Colin Zimmer (LAC)	24
Cam Maclise (LAC)	23
Mike Marianchuk (INN)	22
Kruise Reddick (SPE)	21
Denis Cadrin (BVP)	21

GOALIE LEADERS

Nick
Schneider (WET)

.945

Goalie	SV%
Connor Dobberthien (CAM)	.941
Devin Buffalo (WET)	.939
Kolter Pawlick (DVB)	.925
Wade Waters (INN)	.921

MARCH 6, 2023

The Tale of the Tape

the NCHL

The 28th edition of the NCHL's Vanberg Cup finals starts this weekend as the Lacombe Generals will host the Red Deer Rustlers in game 1 on Saturday night at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex. The finals series is a best of seven games.

This is the first time these teams have met in the playoffs and they’ve played 6 times over the last 3 years during the regular season. Lacombe holds the advantage with a 4-2 series record.

Red Deer comes into the finals having gone through 2 rounds of playoffs - they swept the 4th place Westlock Warriors in the quarterfinals, and then took out the defending Vanberg Cup champions Camrose Crush in 6 games in the semi finals.

Lacombe has had an easier time as they had a first round bye thanks to their President's Cup winning regular season, then they swept the persistent Devon Barons in the semi finals.

This series looks to promise some outstanding hockey over the next few weeks. Here is some statistical information pertaining to both teams:

There is no lack of star power on each of these teams. For the Rustlers, Tyler Berkholtz (NCHL MVP, 2 time Scoring Champ and 3 time 1st Team Allstar), defenseman Cory Pritz (2 time 1st team Allstar and last years Top Defenseman) and forward Dylan Houston (1st team Allstar). The Generals boast last season's Top Goaltender, NCHL MVP and 2 time 1st team allstar Mack Engel, 1st team allstar forward Cam Maclise, and last season's 2nd team allstar defenseman Craig Gans. The Rustlers Tim Vanstone leads all playoff scorers with 7-15-22 in 7 games. Mack Engel leads all goaltenders in the playoffs with a 2.24 average and a .913 save percentage, while the Rustlers Devon Carroll is 2nd (minimum 5 games played) with a 3.46 average and a .902 save percentage.

Both teams will be missing players due to suspension - the Generals will be missing defenseman Blair Mulder for game one, while the Rustlers Dustin Claffey will miss game one and the ageless Peter Vandermeer will miss the first 2 games.

The Tale of the Tape

The Tale of the Tape

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