The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings entered Thursday night’s game looking to extend their point streak to four games. Their opponents, the Humboldt Broncos, were looking to break a three-game losing streak. In the end, despite the Red Wings throwing everything they could at Broncos starting goalie Benjamin Motew, Humboldt came away with a 3-2 victory.
“All in all, I think we played well,” Red Wings head coach Cody Mapes said after the game. “I think we asked for some changes, and we asked for some changes, and those changes were made well, and the guys competed. You lose Kovey (Nick Kovacs) for basically two periods out of that game and that’s a huge loss on our back end. And our guys didn’t miss a beat. They continued to move forward and continue to compete and give ourselves a chance, and sometimes you play well and the cookie doesn’t crumble your way.”
The Red Wings were the first to get on the board when Cade Meiklejohn scored his 14th of the season on the power play at the 10:05 mark of the first period. The goal was assisted by Brendan Hunchak.
Humboldt would respond with a breakaway goal from Cage Newans with 4:04 left in the first to even things up. Then, Spencer Bell scored 4:09 into the second period to give Humboldt the lead. Patrick Lanthier then scored with 8:02 remaining on the clock in the third to make it 3-1.
Weyburn would respond late when Matthew Hodson scored his fourth of the season with 1:08 to play in the game. Max Monette and Jerome Maharaj had the assists on the goal. The Red Wings would then pressure with a number of great opportunities over the final 68 seconds but couldn’t get the puck past Motew.
At the other end, Dazza Mitchell had another strong game, turning aside 30 of the 33 shots he faced on the night, while Motew was tested 37 times, and stopped 35.
The Red Wings were also looking at a shortened bench for the game, with Lucas Schmid out serving a suspension and some other players on the roster a little banged up. Still, Mapes liked what he saw from the 10 forwards and seven defencemen who were dressed for the game.
“We asked for a lot of them, ten forwards, and everybody played and there wasn’t really a point where we shortened the bench or anything,” Mapes said. “Everybody was going, and our two young guys on the backend were good again, and they played more than their fair share. So, we’ll continue to roll with what we got and everybody’s got to be next man up here, and get a little excited for a little more opportunity.”
Some of those opportunities will be coming up Saturday night as the Red Wings head to Melville to face the Millionaires in a key Viterra Division matchup. Melville is currently three points up on Weyburn for third place in the Division, and fifth in the overall standings. A win for the Red Wings could potentially put them a point out of fifth, and leapfrog them past Nipawin and Kindersley into sixth place.
That game will be heard live on Great Plains Ford Red Wing Radio, Country 106.7, with Nick Nielsen on the call. It starts with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m., and the puck drops at 7:00 p.m.