The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings finished the month of October with just one loss in regulation, coming back on October 4th, after they skated to a 5-3 win over the Melfort Mustangs last night. The win gives the Red Wings points in 10 consecutive games, the only blemish on the streak coming in an overtime loss to the Humboldt Broncos Tuesday.
Weyburn was led by Ethan Dekay and Jaxson Ruthven, who finished the game with a pair of goals each. Turner McIntyre would also get his first goal of the season in the win.
"It probably wasn't our best showing, but our effort was there," said head coach Cody Mapes after the game. "Our compete level was there, and at the end of the day, we got good goaltending and our PK was good again."
The good goaltending came from Dazza Mitchell, who turned aside 43 of the 46 shots he faced in the game.
Weyburn got things started when McIntyre scored 2:44 into the game. His first goal as a Red Wing was assisted by Ethan Dekay and Josh Karman. Dekay would then make it a 2-0 game with his 10th of the season with 4:58 remaining in the first period. Max Chakrabarti and Blake Betson picked up the assists.
Ruthven then scored with 3:15 to go in the first period on the power play. His goal, assisted by Chkrabarti and Jerome Maharaj, put the Red Wings in a commanding lead.
Melfort would reply, though, when the puck barely trickled over the goal line on a shot by Ty Thornton with 0.2 seconds remaining in the first period. This would see the teams head to the dressing room with Weyburn up 3-1.
In the second period, Zayden Sadlemyer scored on the power play to bring Melfort within one with just over 10 minutes to go in the period. Weyburn didn't take long to respond, though, as Ruthven netted his second of the night with 8:02 on the clock. Chakrabarti and Dekay had the assists on the goal.
The third period saw the two teams put the puck on the net, but the goaltenders made the big saves until late in the game.
With 2:06 remaining, and their net empty in favour of an extra attacker, Nolan Roberts scored for Melfort to make it 4-3. They would pull the goaltender again after the face-off at center ice, but the Red Wings would prevent any chance of a comeback by the visitors as Dekay scored his second of the night with 1:28 to play. Betson had the assist, as did Luke Dekay.
"They're a physical team, and I though we just played to our game and used our speed," Ruthven said of Melfort after the game. "Obviously the box score shows they took lots of penalties, and I think all that comes from our speed and skill, and staying with it."
"A lot of good defensive plays," Chakrabarti, who finished the night with three points, said about what went well for the Red Wings. "I think they had double our shots, but Dazza kept strong and kept clearing pucks, getting good entries, and finding our chances on the power play."
The power play was good for the Wings throughout the game, scoring twice in eight opportunities.
"Melfort has one of the best PKs this league's seen in a long time, and so for us to be able to capitalize and expose a little bit of som areas on the ice, it was good," Mapes answered when asked about the special teams after the game. "In this league, you don't win games without good special teams on both sides of the puck, and so it was good to see those come through tonight."
From here, the Red Wings get set for a pair of back-to-back games in Kindersley next weekend. The Red Wings will be playing the Klippers on Friday and Saturday in their second road trip in just a short time. You will be able to listen to both of those games on Great Plains Ford Red Wing Radio Country 106.7.