Regina Butterchurners

A new playoff tradition emerges👢 🍺 Regina Butterchurners

Dangle Berries(0-0-0) at Butterchurners(0-0-0)

TV: S-NET 360(HD); TSN 3; 5(HD); CBC-HNIC(HD)

Season Series: The 2021/22 CCHL Season kicks off this evening, in some ways, very much the way it ended in November 2020 with the Churners taking on the Dangle Berries. In Fall of 2020 the two clubs squared off a total of three times before COVID-19 canceled the season entirely. The Dangle Berries took all three meetings(3-2, 6-5, and 8-5 respectively).

Overview: The 2021-2022 CCHL season comes as a return to form. Back are full rosters, and standard league rules while mask mandates remain. The Roster, as one would expect, expanding back out to full capacity from the pre-COVID roster looks quite different to start for the Butterchurners 10th season as a franchise:

Additions:
F - Lucas McPhee
F – Brandyn Thurmeier
F – Cole McFie
D- Taylor Bohay
G – Jordan McNaughton

Subtractions:
F – Eric McCann
F – Graham Amyotte
D – Nick Boucher
D – Dillon Bast
G – Hayden Ripplinger

The Butterchurners off-season focused on becoming a larger and grittier team to play against while stabilizing their back end by securing the returning goaltender Jordan McNaughton. McNaughton, who just turned 28 last month has nabbed the team 115 wins in 199 career starts. McNaughton plays in his 200th game with the Butterchurners this evening.

Puck Drop: The Butterchurners kick-off the 2021/22 season with their home-opener tonight in the Queen City, puck drop is scheduled for 10:00 PM at the Co-operators Centre in beautiful downtown Regina Saskatchewan!

The time has finally come, this weekend your Regina Butterchurners compete in HockeyFest - Regina, SK 2021, the tournament schedule has been released and admission is free for all spectators !

Saturday Round Robin:
Saturday, July 24th - 11:15 AM VS Old Circuit
Saturday, July 24th - 1:30 PM VS Screaming Seamen
Saturday, July 24th - 5:00 PM vs Raiders

Playoffs:
Sunday, July 25th - TBD S1 vs S4 - 10:45 AM
Sunday, July 25th - TBD S2 vs S3 - 11:15 AM

Sunday, July 25th - Men’s Final - 1:00 PM

Ready for some exciting news to kickoff your weekend?

The Regina Butterchurners will return to action this July to defend their crown at HockeyFest 2021 !

Butterchurners(1-1-1) at Pandemic Puckers(2-1-0)

TV: SNET-W(HD); TSN 1; 5(HD); NBC(HD)

Season Series: The 2nd meeting of the 2020 season for the Butterchurners and Puckers, last time around it was a tremendous effort from Hayden Ripplinger and a suffocating defense that allowed the Churners to hold on for a 2-1 victory. Tonight they will meet again with 1st place in the division on the line.

Overview: The Churners and Lumberjacks went back and forth on Saturday ultimately resulting in a 5-5 tie. The offensive outburst was expected by the Butterchurners but appeared to come at the sake of their own end.

“We certainly showed that we can score if we have sustained presser and don’t try to force the fancy plays but we also lost sight a bit in our end and ultimately need to be tighter on that side of the puck. We can’t look to Ripper to bail us out all of the time so it’s on us to make sure we handle our business and play a 300 ft game”. Said assistant captain Jordan Heimlick who had two goals in the tie.

Roster Report: The Butterchurners will be without Brett Mapes, Derek Fischer and Evan Holmes this evening. Nick Boucher returns to the blue line however to help round out 2 lines.

Puck Drop: The Butterchurners and Puckers meet in and early season matchup with 1st place on the line, puck drop is scheduled for 8:30 PM at the Co-operators Centre in beautiful downtown Regina Saskatchewan !

Fries Tallman Lumberjacks(0-1-1) at Butterchurners(1-1-0)

TV: SNET-360(HD); TSN 2; 5(HD); CBC-HNIC(HD)

Season Series: The first meeting of the 2020 season versus the Butterchurner and Lumberjacks, the Churners hold the historical edge posting a 5-1-0 all-time record going back to 2016.

Overview: The Churners had their hands full Wednesday versus the Canadians, if not for a stellar performance by Hayden Ripplinger the game would have likely been quite lopsided. After going down 2-0 in the first Ryan Knipple would score his first since September 2016 3:50 into the second to jolt the team back to life. Unfortunately the surge of effort was handily answered by Brett Markewich who was lights out and shutdown the big boys. Jake McCann would get on the board late and push the team to the edge. A mad scramble in the crease with time about to expire resulted in a buzz-beater opportunity for McCann to tie the game. A brilliant move to his back-hand and an open cage only to be robbed by a candidate for save of the year by Markewich and the Canadians hang on to win 3-2 at the Co-operators Centre.

“We came out sluggish and they got on us early and then we took a little too long to get our footing back”, said captain Sean Nijman. “We were trying to force the difficult plays in the 1st and severely lacked scoring opportunities. Credit to them, they capitalized on their chances and put us on our heels, I think the importance of a hot start and constant pressure and shots on net cannot be over stated and will be a focus for us Saturday night”.

The Butterchurners despite the loss have some positives to build on, their defensive end has only allowed 4 goals in the opening two, which puts them well ahead of the Canadians(8), Puckers(9) and Lumberjacks(14). If they can find a way to open up the scoring flood gates tonight, they could very well hold 1st place in the division and leap frog the Canadians this evening with a little help.

Roster Report: The Butterchurners will be boosted by the return of Dan Wolosin but for the third consecutive game will not dress a full roster, short a man as Nick Boucher is a healthy scratch this evening.

Puck Drop: The Butterchurners take on the Fries Tallman Lumberjacks this evening, the 2nd of our double header feature. Puck Drop is scheduled for 10:45 PM at the Co-operators Centre in beautiful downtown Regina Saskatchewan.

Pandemic Puckers(0-0-0) at Butterchurners(0-0-0)

TV: SNET-W(HD); TSN 2; 5(HD); NBC(HD)

Picking Up Where We Left Off: Well, certainly a lot has happened in the last seven months without CCHL hockey. The Churners were 4-2-1 in their last seven games since entering the D2 division again in early February and poised to enter the playoffs, middle of the pack and hungry to redeem an underwhelming first half of the season. As we all know now though, the world and the Butterchurners were put on hold as COVID-19 swept across the globe and changed our new normal. No champion was crowned in the 2019-2020 season, but today we can excitedly say, Hockey is back !

The Breakdown: CCHL hockey has returned to operations for the 2020 season and just like we saw with the NHL this summer, it comes with many new changes. To highlight a few:
- 4 on 4 Hockey
- Hybrid Offsides
- Limited 12-man Rosters
- No Face-offs
- 11 Game Season

The Roster: As one would expect with a 12-man roster, the standard 15/16 man roster we have seen of recent years from the Butterchurners was forced to be condensed. This created an extremely competitive pre-season camp which resulted a final roster selection being made:
- Jake McCann
- Brett Mapes
- Brendan Schwan
- Jordan Heimlick
- Daniel Woloshin
- Sean Nijman
- Evan Holmes
- Nick Boucher
- Logan Cronin
- Derek Fischer
- Ryan Knipple
- Hayden Ripplinger

Puck Drop: The Butterchurners kick off the 2020 season taking on the Pandemic Puckers, puck drop is scheduled for 9:15 PM at the Co-operators Centre in beautiful down-town Regina Saskatchewan !