The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings are back in the win column, after skating to a 6-4 victory over the Melville Millionaires. The win keeps the Red Wings in second place in the Viterra Division, one point up on the Yorkton Terriers.
The game came just hours after the Red Wings found out they won’t be playing any more home games in December. The City of Weyburn continues to struggle with an ammonia leak at the Crescent Point Place ice plant. Despite that news, head coach Cody Mapes said the team came to play without letting anything distract them.
"The guys had a choice on which way they wanted to go with this thing and to see the guys come out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, and just the way they blocked shots and they were all in to finish this game tonight was such a good show of the character that we have on this hockey team,” Mapes said after the game.
Mapes also got the perspective of watching the game from somewhere other than behind the bench. The head coach for the Red Wings was serving a one-game suspension he received after getting a game misconduct at the end of Saturday’s game against Battlefords. Forward Jerome Maharaj was also serving a one-game suspension for the same reason.
Even without their top point-getter in the lineup, the Red Wings put up a big first period, with Jonah Bierd starting things off 9:51 into the game. Ethan Dekay and Turner McIntyre assisted his goal.
McIntyre himself would then score a goal with 3:37 remaining in the period. The power play goal was assisted by Max Chakrabarti. The scoring wasn’t finished, though, as Wyatt LaCoste scored his first goal as a Red Wing with 20 seconds to play in the period, assisted by Ashtyn Shields and Ryder Rommelaere.
“(A) long time in the making, but it feels really good,” LaCoste said of the goal after the game.
The Millionaires would start to get back into the game in the second period, though, as Evan Leden would beat Angelo Zol 3:24 into the period, and then Gaborik Carlson would score with 8:27 to go to make it 3-2. Then, Leden’s second goal of the game 2:21 into the third period would even things up.
Weyburn, though, wasn’t going to stop. Liam Fitzgerald scored 9:16 into the third, with McIntyre and Bierd getting the assists on the goal. Then, Jaxson Ruthven netted his tenth of the season with 2:54 on the clock to make it 5-3. Blake Betson's empty-net goal with 1:36 remaining, assisted by Fitzgerald, would seal the game, with Melville adding a goal with just four seconds remaining to make it 6-4.
The date of the next game for the Red Wings isn’t known for sure at this time. They were scheduled to host the Kindersley Klippers at home this weekend for two games, but those have been postponed due to the issues at the arenas. The remaining four home games in December have all been postponed. This means the only known game on the schedule will be December 21st when the Red Wings will travel to Yorkton to take on the Terriers.