The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings opened the scoring just 2:22 into the first period last night against the visiting Notre Dame Hounds and never looked back. The Wings, thanks to a hat trick from Keenan Ingram, would put the Hounds in the dog house with a 9-0 preseason win.
“Obviously, a lot of good things,” Red Wings head coach Cody Mapes said after the game when asked for his thoughts on the performance. “Like we talked about, a few things that we’ve worked on in practice and things that we wanted to kind of implement, and as the game went on, we started dialling in a little bit.
Ingram’s goal to open the scoring came at the 2:22 mark. The power play tally was assisted by Samuel Masse and Max Chakrabarti. Chakrabarti then scored a power play goal of his own at 5:31 with Connor Frost and Jase McNichol getting credit for the assists.
Ingram would then add another goal, just 64 seconds after the Chakrabarti goal, assisted by Braigh Legrandeur and Masse.
The scoring for the first period would be wrapped up with just under four minutes remaining as Josh Karman would find the twine on the power play. He was assisted on the goal by Dallen Oxelgren and McNichol.
There would just be one goal in the second period as Alyandro De Leon scored shorthanded just 5:12 into the period. Ingram would have an assist on the goal.
In the third period, Weyburn would continue to pour things on. Cole Miller would score 2:27 into the frame, assisted by Luke Dekay. Then, nine seconds later, Carson Castro found the back of the net, assisted by Blake Betson and Chakrabarti.
Betson would then get another assist at the 7:18 mark, as his pass to Liam Fitzgerald would find the net while the Red Wings were on the power play to make it 8-0. The scoring would then be rounded out for the Red Wings when Ingram potted his third of the game with 6:25 to play, assisted by Oxelgren.
In the crease, Dazza Mitchell didn't see too much action in his first preseason game. He would need to make just two stops in the first period and had 13 saves on the night to record the shutout, the second for the Red Wings in the preseason.
“Notre Dame obviously had a very young, young group out here tonight, and I don’t think that’s the true colour of what they are,” Mapes said to put the dominant win into perspective. “At the end of the day, you know, this game in a month really isn’t going to matter.”
Cyprus Smith-Davis was also in the line-up for the Red Wings. He spent most of the past two seasons skating with the Notre Dame Hounds before being traded away late last season.
“It was good to see a couple familiar faces,” Smith-Davis said. “Came out on top, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.”
Ingram, playing in his first game with Weyburn since being acquired from the Fort McMurray Oil Barons, said the philosophy for the game was simple: “Get on them early, don’t stop... pedal to the metal.”
The Red Wings will now prepare for the Estevan Bruins Friday night, as they play their storied Highway 39 rivals in a home-and-home this weekend to close out the preseason. The game Friday at Crescent Point Place will start at 7 p.m. with the two teams meeting again Saturday in Estevan.