The Yorkton Terriers earned five points in three Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League games this past week.
The Terriers record now sits at 15-13-0-1 for 36 points, good enough to climb into third place in the Sherwood Conference. Weyburn leads the pack with 49 points, followed by Estevan with 37.
Melville now sits fourth with 35 points, followed by Notre Dame with 25, and Kindersley with 19.
Saturday the Notre Dame Hounds rolled into the Farrell Agencies Arena in the city and ended up in an old-fashioned shoot-out with the Terriers. The host team looked well in control after 20-minutes, leading 4-1, but the Hounds would not go away.
The Terriers held a 6-4 lead after two periods, and finally finished the game with an 8-5 win.
The Terriers were led by two-goal performances by Ryon Sookro and Zak Majkowski, while Curtis Oliver, Kyle McLeod, Riley Paterson and Tyler Giebel added singles.
Troy Murray responded with two goals for the Hounds, with Brandon Millin, Todd Christian and Catlin Foley adding singles against Terrier netminder Kale Thomson who faced 31-shots in the win.
After the game Sookro admitted, "we had ups and downs," in the game, but added in the end it worked out in the Terriers' favour.
Sookro said the five goals allowed was a case of team breakdowns, noting having allowed a couple of odd-man rushes and allowing a couple of turnovers.
"We can't be doing that," he said. Terrier head coach Trent Cassan agreed the team was off at times Saturday.
"There was some mistakes that were made," he said. " We were making some turnovers at the blueline. The guys skated by some loose pucks."
Cassan said mistakes are part of the learning process, noting they will need to keep on the players about limiting mistakes.
"We'll have to review the game on video until the guys see it on tape it doesn't always sink in," he said.
As for the offensive onslaught, that is a positive Sookro said the Terriers should be able to build on in the final week of action before the SJHL's Christmas break.
"It was big night for some of the guys," he said. Cassan said it was good to see the offense roll.
"We talked about having played three games in four nights, we'd need all four of our lines to have an impact in the game, and chip in and we had that tonight," he said.
On the road
Last Wednesday the Terriers visited the Kindersley Klippers enjoying 2-1 and 4-1 period leads on their way to a 5-3 win.
The Terriers had goals from Riley Paterson, Tyler Giebel, Nathan Murray, Chase Norrish and Tayler Thompson.
Shymko was in the Yorkton nets facing 31-shots.
Kyle Davies with a pair, and Justin Lund scored in the loss for the home team.
"There's no easy points in the league," said Cassan, adding "we were up 4-1 and maybe got a little bit too comfortable.
"Kindersley kept coming."
But Cassan said the Terriers found a way to collect the two points, which is important.
A night later the Terriers faced the Battlefords North Stars, the top team in the league.
Yorkton carried a 3-1 lead into the third period, only to see the margin evaporate as the home team tied the game, forcing overtime, where the Stars completed their comeback win.
Tyler Giebel and Brent Struble gave the Terriers a 2-1 lead in the first period as Blake Tatchell replied for the Stars.
Tayler Thompson scored the only goal of the second to extend the Terrier lead to 3-1.
Roger Tagonna and Boyd Wakelin scored in the third for the Stars to knot the game, with Tatchell getting the fame-winner 2:46 into overtime with a short-handed effort.
Kale Thomson was in the Terrier net facing 32-shots in the loss.
Cassan said it's never great giving up a 3-1 lead, but reminded "we've got three-out-of-four points on that rink (this season) which is a very tough thing to do." He added it's a case " you can't beat yourself up, or your guys over one point (missed)."
Up next
The Terriers have three games on the schedule in the last week of SJHL action before the league's Christmas break.
Last night, (Tuesday), the Terriers were scheduled to play in Wilcox against Notre Dame but results were not available at press time.
Friday the Terriers will host Nipawin at the Farrell Agencies Arena, and Saturday the Notre Dame Hounds are back in the city for the third meeting in eight days.
