The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings notched their second win in a row Friday night, as they got past the Melville Millionaires 3-2 at the Horizon Credit Union Centre in Melville.
Head coach Cody Mapes, after the game, said the Red Wings weathered a bit of a storm in the opening 20 minutes.
“Got ourselves into a little bit of penalty trouble,” Mapes explained. “I don’t want to say we got out of it scot-free, but to get out of the period only down one was important.”
In the first period, the two teams exchanged goals 25 seconds apart, with the Millionaires capitalizing on a power play at the 14:42 mark as Louis-Frederic Theberge beat Dazza Mitchell. Austyn Hasen then quickly evened things up at the other end with his sixth of the season, making it a 1-1 game.
The first period was the busiest of the night for Mitchell, as he was peppered with 16 shots.
“Kept my head on it,” Mitchell said on how he was able to weather the early flurry of shots. “Tracking was really important. I was able to take out most of those rebounds and get those whistles for the boys.”
In the second period, the Red Wings were the ones to dominate the play, as they put 16 shots on Melville goalie Jared Thompson. They weren’t able to find the go-ahead goal. At the other end, though, the Millionaires managed to get an edge.
A shot from the point from Kyle Bochek looked as though it was going to go wide of the Red Wings net, but ended up finding a way to get past Mitchell to make it 2-1 Melville with 8:17 left on the clock.
The lead extended into the third period when the Red Wings found a way to even things up.
Ethan Whillans notched his eighth of the season, assisted by Ty Mason and Jackson Hassman, at the 8:04 mark. The momentum was then in favour of the Red Wings, and they kept the Millionaires on their toes.
The efforts paid off, with Mason then following it up with a goal with 2:43 left on the clock. Assisted by Whillans and Simon Pollock, it would stand as the game-winner.
“We battled hard,” Mason said. “We knew we could stump their playoff run here so we worked up to that win.”
The game had a bit of an edge, with a number of scrums after the whistles. There were also 56 minutes in penalties handed out, albeit 30 of those minutes coming from misconduct penalties handed out to the Red Wings in the first period. The chippiness, though, was something evident from whistle to whistle.
“It got us all fired up,” Mason added. “It kinda put a stump in their game and we built off it.”
The Red Wings will now get ready to take on the Kindersley Klippers Saturday night at Crescent Point Place. The Wings will be looking for their third win in a row, while the Klippers aim to bounce back from an 8-1 loss to the Estevan Bruins on Friday.