The Yorkton Terriers and Melville Millionaires hooked up for the traditional home-and-home New Year's set, with Melville taking both.
Even with the two losses Terriers remain atop the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Sherwood Conference with a 24-10-2-3 record and 53 points. Kindersley sits second with 42 points, followed by Weyburn with 41, Estevan with 40, Melville 38, and Notre Dame 26.
The Mills and Terriers faced off in Melville New Year's Day.
The Terriers scored the lone goal of the first period off the stick of Zak Majkowski.
The teams swapped second period markers, Clarke Breitkreuz for Yorkton and Roger Tagoona for Melville.
Michael Rogochewsky, of the Millionaires scored 25-seconds into the game to tie the game 2-2. Breitkreuz made it a 3-2 for the Terriers with a goal 1:05 into the third, but Cody Hanson would respond for the Millionaires to tie the game 3-3, scoring at 2:52.
The tie would hold until the five-minute, four-on-four overtime period when Tagoona would get the winner for the Mills at 4:24.
Devin Peters took the loss in the Yorkton net, facing 46 shots, while Zach Rakochy had the Melville win facing 38-shots.
In YorktonThursday night the Millionaires were at the Farrell Agencies Arena, grabbing a 4-0 lead in the first period, and skating to a 5-1 win after swapping third period markers.
Roger Tagoona scored the first two for Melville, with Lucas Froese, Michael Desjarlais and Brayden Metz adding singles.
Clarke Breitkreuz responded with Yorkton's lone goal.
Rakochy faced 30-shots in the Millionaires net for the win.
Peters started the game but was pulled in favour of Warren Shymko after allowing four goals on nine shots. Shymko faced 16-shots the rest of the way.
Terrier head coach Trent Cassan said the team had some obvious rust early Thursday.
"We were off a bit in the first making some mistakes and maybe not as crisp handling the puck as we usually are," he said.
However, in spite of getting down 4-0 after 20-minutes, Cassan said he saw some positives to take away from the game.
"We lost the hockey game but at the same time still played hard," he said, adding the team "didn't feel the game was out of reach at any time." The Terrier coach said that is "a good approach to take."Cassan said the Terriers also ran into a sharp goaltender in Rakochy, who got lots of help from teammates too. "I thought their defence blocked a lot of shots."
It was also a situation where the Terriers seemed to be helping the Melville netminder in terms of their shot selection, offered Cassan. He said at times the Terriers were pressing to the point they were "almost shooting it into their shin pads."
Asked if the vehicle accident death of Terrier Myles Cameron just before Christmas was having an effect on the team's play? Cassan said it was obviously "still on guy's minds." However, he did not use it as an excuse.
That said Cassan added, "it's something to deal with. It's going to take some time."
Cassan said the death of a teammate has to have an impact on everyone associated with the team, and that everyone deals and responds to such things differently.
"You have to get through the tough times," he said, adding the important thing is "what you learn from those times."
Up nextThe Terriers are on the road this week. They were scheduled to play in Nipawin last night (Tuesday), but results were not available at press time.
Tonight (Wednesday) Yorkton swings into Melfort to face the Mustangs.
The Terriers next action at the Farrell Agencies Arena will be Tuesday (Jan. 11), when Kindersley visits.
While the team goes on the road, Cassan and team general manager Don Chesney will also be on the phone looking for some last minute additions to the team since the SJHL trade deadline is Jan. 10.
Asked if they were interested in making a move? Cassan said, "I think every team will be and we're no different."
However, just because teams are interested doesn't mean deals will get made, with 10 of 12 SJHL teams destined to make the playoffs, noted Cassan. Still, he said if the Terriers have a chance to upgrade the roster "we'll look hard at it It's something we definitely have to look at. Our job's to make the hockey club as strong as possible."
