It was a game for the ages for the Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings Tuesday night, as they dismantled the Notre Dame Hounds en route to a 12-0 win. In their last ever game against the Notre Dame Hounds, who are relocating to Warman for next season, the Red Wings had four players with multi-goal games, including a hat trick from Lucas Schmid.
The 12 goals are the most by any team in the SJHL this season, and the most by a Red Wings team in over a decade. Angelo Zol’s shutout is his fifth of the season, the most in a season in 10 years, and the win also gave the Red Wings a three-point gap over the Yorkton Terriers for first in the Viterra Division.
The Red Wings have now also scored 203 goals in total on the season, the most since the 2011-12 season, and their goal differential is the highest in 20 years at +53.
“Throughout the game, we tried to stick to our habits that are going to make us successful here throughout the rest of the week, and the rest of the season,” said Red Wings head coach Cody Mapes.
Jonah Bierd opened the scoring for the Red Wings 2:45 into the first period, when he took a feed right off the face-off from Schmid and wired a shot from the point past Notre Dame netminder Kaden Perron. Then, Jaxson Ruthven scored his 25th of the year at 7:15, assisted by Jerome Maharaj and Chad Lebeau.
Schmid would notch his first of the game at 13:48 of the opening frame. He was assisted by Liam Fitzgerald and Luke Schrader. It would become 4-0 for the Red Wings with 1:32 to go in the period when Luke Dekay made good on a breakaway while Weyburn was shorthanded. Then, it became 5-0 just one minute later as Cyprus Smith-Davis, a former Hound, scored his 14th of the year, assisted by Fitzgerald and Schmid.
In the second period, it would be all Josh Sale for Weyburn. He scored his ninth of the campaign at 3:28, assisted by Dekay, and then his 10th came on the power play at 6:36. Maharaj and Max Chakrabarti assisted on that goal.
The goal would also end the night for Perron, who was replaced in the Notre Dame crease by AP call-up Steven Wawryk. He would stand tall in the crease, and weathered the onslaught fairly well, not allowing a goal for more than 20 minutes of action.
The floodgates, though, would burst open in the third period as the Red Wings scored five goals in just under seven minutes.
It started with Schmid scoring his second of the game at 8:50 of the final frame. Bierd and Fitzgerald had the assists on the goal. Dekay then scored his second of the night 57 seconds later, assisted by Blake Betson and Matthew Edwards.
Chakrabarti got a goal of his own with 8:00 to play, as his shot from the point while Weyburn was on the power play got past Wawryk. Dekay and Ruthven had the assists.
Schmid would score the hat trick goal with 5:29 remaining, assisted by Fitzgerald, and Ruthven closed out the scoring with his second of the night with 4:32 to go, assisted by Lebeau.
The game would end with all but three of the 18 skaters on the Weyburn bench registering a point. One of those was call-up Kash Alger-East, who was given every chance to do so while skating on Weyburn’s top line.
“He was really good with Ruthie (Ruthven) and Romer (Maharaj), and we were just trying to throw the kid a bone to get off the schneid, and he had chance after chance and they just didn’t want to go in tonight,” chuckled Mapes after the game.
The Red Wings will now take the confidence from the big win, and look to carry it into a pair of crucial games on the weekend against the Melville Millionaires. The two teams will play a home and home, with the first game at Crescent Point Place Friday night. The Wings are currently five points up on Melville for first in the division.