The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings took a first period lead in their home opener with the Yorkton Terriers Sunday afternoon, but the visitors were keen to spoil the party, with the Terriers rallying back to escape Crescent Point Place with a 5-3 win.
The loss at home comes after the Terriers skated to a 6-1 win over the Red Wings in the season opener in Yorkton Friday night.
“There’s some improvement over the last 36 hours, but at the end of the day, we got to be way more competitive than that,” Red Wings head coach Cody Mapes said after the game. “Yeah, there were improvements, but we’re going to win here with the right 24 guys that want to be competitive and show up every single day, and the next week is probably going to kind of show a lot of that.”
The Red Wings opened the scoring just 2:13 in when Blake Betson scored his first of the season, assisted by Liam Fitzgerald and Josh Karman.
“You always got to be prepared and ready for that puck to come onto your stick, and lucky for me it just came right to me, and I had the opportunity, and I put it away,” Betson said of the goal.
Just over two minutes later, 4:42 into the first period, Keenan Ingram notched his first of the season to make it 2-0, with Betson and Fitzgerald getting the assists on the goal.
The score would remain 2-0 for the Red Wings until the second period when the Terriers came rushing back. It would start just 32 seconds in as Jeff Hammond scored, followed by a game-tying goal from William Leonard with 6:51 to play in the period.
In the third, Riley Cormier would score for Yorkton 4:01 into the frame to make it 3-2, then Jaron Desnoyers scored a short-handed goal with 5:06 remaining to make it 4-2.
In the Weyburn net, Dazza Mitchell, in his first start of the season, would face 32 shots, turning aside 28 of them.
The Red Wings would respond just moments later, as Lucas Schmid scored a power play goal with 4:24 to go in the third to make it 4-3. Drew Molde and Cyprus Smith-Davis would assist on the goal.
The Terriers stopped any chance of a late game-tying goal, though, when Thierry Laliberte scored an empty-net goal with 55 seconds left to play.
The Red Wings will look to bounce back next weekend, as they host the Melfort Mustangs on Saturday at Crescent Point Place.