Two weeks have been contested in the Hanover Tache Junior Hockey League this season and so far the six-team outfit seems to be balanced. All teams except for Steinbach (who’s played just one game) have points while no one has more than three so far.

Week 2 saw three games played with the visiting team winning all three! On Saturday Red River put up eight goals in their 8-1 victory over Mitchell Mohawks while Lorette crashed the party at Steinbach winning 4-2 in the Huskies home debut. After hosting two days earlier the Mohawks took to the road on Monday facing Springfield Xtreme. The teams played 65 minutes and could not find a winner, which was decided in a shootout.

Mitchell won their first game of the season in that shootout, earning a 3-2 win over the Xtreme. Both goaltenders had strong performances: Mark Woloshyn of Springfield stopped 31 of 33 shots only to be outdone by his counterpart. Mitchell goaltender Luke Friesen made 52 saves in the game and was the winner after the shootout. For his efforts Friesen is the HTJHL Player of the Week!

The shootout win over Springfield earned his first victory with the Junior Mohawks. As a rookie in 2014-15, Friesen (0-8; 7.71 GAA, .843 save%) shared time in net for Mitchell, who returned to the Junior league after a two-season hiatus going 2-19-0-1.

2015-16 HTJHL Player of the Week

Week 1: Bailey Fehr, Grunthal Jr. Red Wings

Week 2: Luke Friesen, Mitchell Mohawks