An overtime goal by Max Chakrabarti with 1:29 remaining in the extra period gave the Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings their 1700th win in franchise history, as they defeated the Flin Flon Bombers 3-2 Friday night at Crescent Point Place.
"Betty (captain Blake Betson) gave me a nice pass with lots of space going downhill, and I kind of just made a little move and let it rip," Chakrabarti said of the goal after the game. "Luckily it went in and got the game winner, so that's nice."
The win came over the streaking Flin Flon Bombers, who had not allowed a goal in the first two games of their southern road swing. It was the first loss for the Bombers since January 5th, when they lost in a shootout against the La Ronge Ice Wolves. It was also the first overtime loss for the Bombers since December 14th when they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Battlefords North Stars.
The win was the third for the Red Wings over the Bombers, who have gotten the better of the Red Wings in terms of the season series more often than not in recent years.
"We kind of struggled against them in the past, so it's pretty huge to have a winning record against them," commented Betson about the victory.
"Going into this game, the guys kind of had to pick it up in a hurry," noted head coach Cody Mapes. "Flin Flon's a real, real good team. We believe we're a good team too, and that was, if you were just watching, that was a real good hockey game."
Back and Forth
The two teams would exchange goals in the first and third period, with the goaltenders stealing the show for much of the game. Angelo Zol in the Weyburn net, and Matthew Kieper in the Flin Flon goal, put on a clinic throughout the 60 minutes, keeping the game close.
"I'm excited to have both of them in Winnipeg next week, that's for sure," Mapes said of the two goaltenders. They will both be on his squad at the upcoming SJHL/MJHL Showcase. "They're two of the best. I don't care what league you talk about, these two guys are as good as they come."
"Boys were getting pucks deep, just keeping things simple, and making my job easy (by) blocking shots and boxing out bodies," Zol said of the game.
Weyburn would be the first to score when Jaxson Ruthven potted his 19th goal of the season at the 5:11 mark, with Jerome Maharaj and Cyprus Smith-Davis credited with the assists. The goal got the crowd of 875 at Crescent Point Place buzzing with excitement and anticipation of the historic win.
The Bombers, though, would dampen the spirits a little when Carter Cormier scored with just over seven minutes remaining in the period.
The second period would see the two teams exchanging chances, with Kieper and Zol standing tall in the creases.
Then, in the third period, Cormier scored his second of the night 39 seconds in to make it 2-1 for the Bombers.
Both benches would get a little shorter just before the five-minute mark when Luke Schraeder from the Red Wings and Reid Arberry from the Flin Flon Bombers dropped the gloves for a spirited scrap at the Weyburn blue line. Both players would be assessed five-minute majors for fighting and a game misconduct.
Lucas Schmid would take a feed from Josh Sale with 6:13 to go in regulation and put it past Kieper to make it 2-2. From there, Zol would hold things down to force overtime.
In the extra period, Chakrabarti would score to get the win.
Making History
With the win, Weyburn became the second team in the history of the SJHL to record 1700 wins, behind the Humboldt Broncos. The moment wasn't lost on the team as they made their mark on the record books.
"Pretty special just to be part of this organization that's been in the league so long," Zol said of the achievement.
The man who scored the game winner was quick to dismiss the personal accolades.
"That's a cool fact," Chakrabarti answered when asked how it felt knowing his name would be in the books as the one scoring the game winner. "But our team's name is going to be there, so I think that's a cooler fact."
"This team has so much history - a lot of championships, and it's pretty cool to have our names put on that list," Betson added.
For Mapes, he was quick to give credit to others who have helped to make the goal possible.
"I believe Dwight McMillan is on record for about 1,350 of those," Mapes noted of the legendary coach's achievements. "The rest of us we will clean up the rest of them. It's pretty cool. I kind of said after the game that these guys got a chance to be part of history tonight, and it's pretty cool to be part of. At the end of the day, there's a lot of history with this organization, and it's cool to see 1,700 tonight, but there's a lot of really good history that comes before us."
Preparing for Yorkton
While the team had a lot to celebrate Friday night, the celebrations will be shortlived, as they need to prepare for win 1,701. Saturday, they are on the road heading to Yorkton for a game against the Terriers.
"That's a huge game," Mapes said. "If there's an opportunity for us to open up a little space within our division here, that's something we have to make sure that we take advantage of. We've had a couple of good games against them lately, but we'll have to clean up a few little details here tomorrow."
"Just keep doing what we're doing," Betson said. "It's all about practice habits, and that's been a huge factor in how we start games, so we just got to keep rolling, keep doing our thing, and keep the momentum rolling."
The game on Saturday in Yorkton will start at 7 p.m. Fans can catch all the action on Great Plains Ford Red Wing Radio Country 106.7. Dylan Fiessel will have the call starting with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m.