The Yorkton Terriers continue to play well, recording two wins on the week in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
The wins leave the Terriers with a record of 24-9-1-3 for 52 points to sit atop the League's Sherwood Conference.
Kindersley sits second with 42 points, followed by Weyburn with 39, Estevan with 38, Melville 30, and Notre Dame 26.
While the Terriers hold a 10-point lead in the Conference Terrier head coach Trent Cassan doesn't like even the mention of it being a "comfortable lead".
"I don't like the word comfortable," he said, adding in hockey you " don't want to get comfortable." When being comfortable sets in that's when a team "gets caught off guard."
That said, heading to the Christmas break in top spot is more than most expected of the Terriers this season.
"Certainly we're very pleased with the direction the team is headed in," said Cassan.
The Terriers played their final game before the SJHL Christmas break on the road in Weyburn Saturday.
The Red Wings got first period goals from Shawn Cowie and Rodney Cowie in the first period to lead 2-0 in the first before Justin Lamontagne scored late to draw the Terriers within one.
The teams played through a scoreless second, and scoreless third, a period in which Yorkton had only two shots, as the host Wings won 2-1.
Warren Shymko was in net for the Terriers, facing 30-shots.
On Friday night, the Terriers hosted Humboldt at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
The Broncos would score first, a powerplay goal by Justin Buzzeo, but the Terriers would respond with a pair to lead 2-1 after 20-minutes. Keven Cann and Brent Struble scored for Yorkton.
The second was scoreless, with the Terriers again outscoring the Broncos 2-1, to complete a 4-2 win.
Jeremy Boyer scored for Humboldt, with Zak Majkowski and Struble netting the Yorkton goals.Devin Peters was in the nets for Yorkton facing 38 shots, and earning first star honours.
The game was the ninth win in-a-row for Yorkton.
The win, and one earlier in the week over Melfort came after a week off. Cassan said the team didn't show any rust after the lay-off, adding "I don't think it was anything as a coaching staff we did," which kept the momentum intact. Instead he credited the team.
"It's a mature group of guys They know we have a good thing going here," he said, adding after a couple of days off they came back and started working hard through practices.
Struble said a streak like that happens because of effort.
"I think we're really working hard, doing the little things," he said. "When you're doing the little things you get success."
Struble said the other key is that the Terriers are staying on a pretty even keel even as the wins mount. He said the team doesn't "want to get too high," adding "there's a lot of season left There's a lot of hockey to play yet."
Cassan agreed that the season is a long one so a team can't get too high, or too low. He added the Terriers have their extended playoff run to draw experience from as the season wears on."The playoff run we had a lot of ups and downs, a real rollercoaster and we learned from that," he said.
It helps the Terriers that Struble has kicked his game up a notch too.
"I had a slow start to the season," he admitted, adding in his mind the key to the turn around has been "hard work" and the efforts of his teammates. " They find me when I'm open."
Wednesday winThe Melfort Mustangs visited the Terriers last Wednesday, playing through a scoreless opening 20-minutes.
Yorkton took a 2-0 lead in the second on goals by Riley Patterson and Clarke Breitkreuz.
The Mustangs had a powerplay marker by Lee Christensen 25-seconds into the third made it close.The Terriers would respond with two more, including an empty netter for the 4-1 victory. Kyle McLeod and Craig Eisenhut had the Yorkton goals.
Peters had the win in net for Yorkton stopping 30-of-31 shots.
Up nextThe Terriers and the rest of the SJHL are off for their annual holiday season break. Yorkton's next action will not be until Dec. 30, when the Melville Millionaires visit the Farrell Agencies Arena.The two teams will match-up again New Year's Day in Melville.
