The Yorkton Terriers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League came out of a chippy two-game series against the Melville Millionaires with one win and one loss – and a lot of penalty minutes.
On Friday night, the teams played in Yorkton at the Farrell Agencies Arena. The game ended in favour of the Millionaires with a score of 7-4. While this game held some tension between the rival hockey clubs, it was only the igniter for Saturday’s game.
Terriers’ goals in Friday’s game were scored by Carson Welke (2), McKenzie Welke and Jordan Ross.
This game also doubled as the sixth annual Terriers Teddy Bear Toss. Fans littered the ice with teddy bears when the Terriers scored their first goal. In total there were approximately twelve bags of teddy bears collected, as well as two bags of other toys, which will all be donated to the Salvation Army Christmas Cheer Program.
After the game, Terriers’ head coach and GM Casey O’Brien said he was disappointed with the end result of the game.
“Our powerplay was finally working tonight but the second period killed us. We just didn’t get enough traffic in front [of their net]. Their goalie left a lot of rebounds that I thought we could have gotten,” said O’Brien. “The goals we gave up tonight just can’t happen.”
“Between any teams in the league, any team can win on any given night. I think eliminating those mistakes will help us further down the road.”
When asked about the next night’s game in Melville, O’Brien kept it simple.
“We’ll be ready to go tomorrow,” he said.
And he was right.
On Saturday the Terriers headed down highway ten to Melville, where they came away with a win. The final score was 5-2.
Goals were scored by Cole Keenleyside, Corwin Stevely, Dexter Robinson, McKenzie Welke and Jared Legien.
Mat Hehr, the assistant coach of the Terriers, said that Saturday’s game was a great response after losing at home on Friday.
“I thought we were the hardest working and grittiest team on the ice after being out-worked on Friday,” said Hehr. “Our powerplay also had a good weekend. It was good to see it start to gain confidence.”
While the win was a big one for the Terriers, the scoreboard at the end wasn’t what had people talking on social media.
At the end of the game, there had been a total of 288 penalty minutes handed out between the two teams. Yorkton racked up 132 and Melville received 156.
Each team was left with only twelve players on their benches after the rest had been ejected from the game due to fighting.
The Terriers will play at home on Friday night when the face the La Ronge Ice Wolves at the Farrell Agencies Arena. The puck will drop at 7:30 p.m.
