The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings concluded their far northern road trip with a spirited 4-1 win over the Flin Flon Bombers. Back-to-back contests in the incredibly tough Whitney Forum, the Red Wings now extend their win streak to seven games.
Braigh LeGrandeur got it started for the Red Wings halfway into the first period with a friendly bounce off of a skate for his third of the year at 10:36 assisted by Cyprus Smith-Davis and Lucas Schmid.
Six minutes later, Drew Molde added on with his third of the year on a nice no-look feed from Tyler Dahms at 16:30 to make it 2-0 through the first 20 minutes. Just 1:53 into the third period, Ethan Dekay extended his point streak to 8 games with his ninth of the year assisted by Turner Mcintyre and Josh Karman.
The Flin Flon Bombers finally got on the board in the third period with Koen Senft scoring his sixth of the year off of his shoulder, assisted by Anthony Piccininno and Carter Anderson on the powerplay at 7:54. Red Wings captain Blake Betson added some insurance with an empty-net goal, his third of the year at 19:12 assisted by Braigh LeGrandeur capping off the 4-1 win for the Red Wings.
The captain, Blake Betson, with a fitting end to a long northern weekend trip with the empty netter, talks about what went successfully for the team this weekend, and over the last seven games.
" We just did the little things right, like we always have these last seven games here. Just do the little things right, play to our systems, trusting each other and positive energy on the bench just brings us up every night and pretty cool to win here in Flin Flon with our team. Haven't done it in a long, long time so pretty special.”
Dazza Mitchell had an incredible performance in the net tonight for the Red Wings, making 42 saves on 43 shots against a hungry Bombers team looking for revenge. There were lots of opportunities for the Bombers, especially on the powerplay, but Mitchell stood tall and backstopped the Red Wings to the win. Mitchell touches on how important it is to win both games on the road in the toughest arena in the league.
“I think we just came in and played a really good team game tonight. We saw a few things we needed to correct and work harder on and we came into tonight ready to go, ready to buy in as a team and it all worked out in the end. This is probably the toughest part to play in in junior hockey. It's so historic, so bouncy like you'd never know really what's going to happen but coming in we knew the challenge ahead of us, we knew what we wanted to do, what we wanted to get out this weekend, come in, play as a team, play our game and walk away with four points.”
With tonight’s win extending the streak to seven, it now moves the Weyburn Red Wings into fourth place within the entire SJHL. Head Coach Cody Mapes talks about the tough battle in the win tonight and looking forward to resting up before getting back on the road again.
“You could tell as the game went on that it was definitely our third game in four nights. Our goaltending was very good having two guys that can go back-to-back like that it gives you a big advantage and at the end of the day, our guys were all in today when it came to being hard to play against. Blocking shots, boxing out, those are the reasons that we won tonight. Now, we got to get home, get some rest here as it’s always a tough road trip. We'll get back to work here on Monday, and we're right back at it on Tuesday in Humboldt. No rest for the wicked here.”
The Richardson Pioneer will look to extend their win streak to eight on Tuesday night when they head to the Edgar Peterson Arena in Humboldt to take on the Humboldt Broncos. The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. and catch all the action on Great Plains Ford Weyburn Red Wing Radio Country 106.7 with the pre-game show starting at 6:45 p.m.