It was another busy weekend of action through the Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League.
The game that stood out on the schedule Friday was at North Battleford Civic Centre as the Meota Combines took on the Hafford Hawks.
There was not much scoring in the first period. It was the Combines who finally drew first blood midway through the frame, as a shot from David Greyeyes somehow got past Hafford goaltender Kristian Sawyshyn. Kihisis Derosher had the assist. Shots on goal favored Hafford 9-7 through one period.
Early in the second, a Meota shot hit the crossbar and stayed out, keeping it a 1-0 score. But about five minutes in, a rebound off of the Hawks netminder found the stick of Michael Pylypow, who fired the puck into the net for a 2-0 lead. Bryce Gatzke and Greyeyes assisted.
At the 10:59 mark, Meota made it 3-0 as Vince Sauvie scored from Bo Gervais and Levin Floen. Derek Welford’s unasssisted goal made it 4-0 with 7:04 left in the period.
With 2:20 left in the second, Hafford finally got on the board with a power play goal from Mathew Wilgosh, with Kyle Rathgeber assisting.
The two teams traded goals in the third. With 8:11 left Sauvie got his second of the game from Greyeyes and Taylor Tatchell on the power play; with 4:43 left, Hafford’s Kyle Rivett answered with Taylor Afseth assisting, wrapping up the scoring in a 5-2 Meota Combines win. The game ended on a sour note as a number of players broke into fights behind the Meota goal with 33 seconds left, but it made no difference to the final result.
The win moved the Combines to 10-2 on the season, good for first place in the league standings.
In other action Friday, the Battleford Beaver Blues had a rough go of it on the road in Shellbrook, losing to the Silvertips 8-3.
Brett Robillard had two goals and an assist to lead Shellbrook; other Shellbrook goals came from Jody Blais, Doran Canaday, Devin Dicus, Nathanial Martin, Jayden Skauge and Mitch Wourms. For Battleford goals came from Mason Carriere, Cody Danberg and Mike George. The loss dropped the Blues to 9-2, two points back of Meota for first in the league.
On the road in Radisson, the Edam Three Stars beat the Wheatkings 6-5 in overtime. Edam’s Mitch Wall had three goals and two assists and Damon Schaefer scored two in the victory; Brian Clark had two goals and an assist in the loss for Radisson.
Games on Saturday night saw Shellbrook win 4-3 at Maymont, Glaslyn winning 4-3 at Radisson and Spiritwood losing 13-2 at Edam. Mitch Wall had five goals and Joel Blaquiere scored three for the Edam victory on Saturday.
