Ty Matonovich picked up the win in his first start as a Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings, and Jerome Maharaj scored twice as the Red Wings skated to a 6-1 victory on home ice Tuesday night, defeating the Notre Dame Hounds.
“I was feeling great,” Matonovich said after the game. “I saw every shot, and D played great, the boys played great, and we outscored them. That’s all you can ask for at that point.”
“We were up at the end of the first, and he had to make two or three really good saves just to make sure it stayed that way,” head coach Cody Mapes said. “I thought he looked real comfortable.”
Weyburn opened the scoring in the game in the first period when Blake Betson notched his eighth goal of the season at the 7:12 mark. He was assisted on teh goal by Josh Sale and Turner McIntyre. Then, Max Chakrabarti scored a power play goal at 16:42. Ethan Dekay and Jaxson Ruthven assisted his ninth of the year.
In the second period, the Red Wings wasted little time in adding to the lead. Jerome Maharaj’s10th of the campaign came just 60 seconds into the period, with the assists on the goal going to Ruthven and Cyprus Smith-Davis. Then, Ruthven scored a goal of his own, unassisted and shorthanded, at 6:56.
Marahaj would make it a 5-0 game at 10:12 with his 11th of the season and second of the night. Smith-Davis had the assist on the goal. Dekay then netted his 23rd of the season, unassisted, with 2:21 to play in the period.
The second period also saw McIntyre having to leave the game after going awkwardly into the boards in the Notre Dame zone.
“It sounds like a broken arm, so we’re going to go and check that out tonight here, and just be with him,” Mapes said of the incident. “Our group is a very, very tight-knit group, and when something like that happens it’s tough to deal with as a group but I thought our guys managed it as best they could.”
The Hounds would finally get on the board in the third period when Hudson Kerr scored a power play goal for Notre Dame at the 2:58 mark. That goal would be the only blemish on an otherwise perfect start for Matonovich.
Tensions started to build in the third period, with the two teams combining for 68 penalty minutes, including four 10-minute misconducts. Things didn’t boil over, however, with the officials keeping a modicum of control in the dying minutes of the game.
The Red Wings, who are five points back of the Flin Flon Bombers for 2nd overall, and five points up on the Yorkton Terriers for 1st in the Viterra Division, will have a few days off before getting back into action on Friday. They will be entertaining the Bombers at Crescent Point Place.