The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings dropped their second game in a row to the Battlefords North Stars Saturday night. The Battleofrds would score two goals in the third period to pull away for a 4-3 victory.
The loss, coupled with a Melfort Mustangs win, moved the Red Wings to second in the SJHL, but they still hold a three-point lead over the Estevan Bruins for first place in the Viterra Division.
"You can't fault the effort tonight," Red Wings head coach Cody Mapes said after the game. "There was a lot more compete in the game for us on our side tonight than there was last night."
The two teams would trade goals in the first period, which ended with the scoreboard tied 2-2.
It began with a goal from Treycen Wuttunee at 9:07 of the period, and then Rylan Williams scored on the power play with 6:30 to go in the opening frame.
From there, a rapid sequence of events would result in the first goal of the night for the Red Wings.
Just eight seconds after the goal by Williams, Battlefords' Logan Goodwin would get called for cross-checking, putting Weyburn on to the power play. It would take just six seconds with the man advantage for Weyburn to get on the board as Cyprus Smith-Davis scored his eighth of the season to make it 2-1. Jerome Maharaj and Max Chakrabarti assisted with the goal.
Then, with 1:20 remaining in the first period, Chakrabarti would score a power play goal of his own, assisted by Maharaj and Jaxson Ruthven.
Neither team would score in the second period, but then the North Stars would take the lead early in the third. Williams netted his second of the game on a shorthanded breakaway to make it 3-2.
Wuttunee would then score his second of the night at the 8:23 mark, putting the Red Wings down 4-2.
The third period would also see things start to heat up on the ice, with the referees handing out 50 minutes in penalties, albeit 30 of those were to one player, as North Stars' forward Elijah Anderson was given two 10-minute misconduct penalties and a game misconduct at the 9:23 mark of the period.
Weyburn would end up on the power play as a result of the penalties handed out after a scrum that formed when Battlefords' Jordan Grill slew-footed Weyburn's Jace McNichol. On the ensuing power play, Ethan Dekay scored his 13th goal of the season, assisted by Chakrabarti and Ruthven to make it 4-3.
The Red Wings would pour on the pressure after the goal but were unable to solve Justen Maric one more time, and the score ended 4-3.
"We will just continue to try to get better every day here, and we look forward to going into Melville on Tuesday," Mapes commented. "We'll get back to work on Monday and it'll be good. This was kind of a gut check for our team here to see what we were made of, and I thought we competed well, and I thought we answered a lot of questions that we had."
The Red Wings will be back in action Tuesday night in Melville against the Millionaires. You can catch all the action on Great Plains Ford Red Wing Radio Country 106.7.