The Wilkie Outlaws got their inaugural season in the Sask West Hockey League underway in similar fashion to their time in the NSRHL.
The Outlaws won their first two games of the season, beating the Biggar Nationals and the Unity Miners.
Wilkie opened their season Halloween night with a 7-4 win over the Nationals in Biggar.
Kyle Dilosa got Biggar on the board first with a goal 1:32 into the opening period. Brett Schell answered for Wilkie just over a minute later, tying the game at one. The Nationals regained their one-goal lead with 7:37 to play in the first on Kevin Fick's unassisted marker. Then, with 5:44 to play, Will Rathje tallied a power-play goal for the Outlaws, making it a 2-2 game heading into the first intermission.
In the second, Biggar made it a 3-2 game on Clark McNulty's power-play goal early in the frame.
Wilkie then took the game over, scoring four straight goals to take a 6-3 lead. Kyle Wagner tied the game at three 2:56 into the period. Less than two minutes later, Mike Sittler found the back of the net to give the Outlaws their first lead of the game. Rick Cey gave Wilkie a two-goal lead with a power-play goal with 13 minutes left in the frame. Wagner then scored his second goal of the period with 7:39 to play.
McNulty brought Biggar to within two goals with 4:35 left in the second period.
Brett Harrison sealed the Outlaws' win with a goal 2:26 into the third period.
Jared Herle made 31 saves in Wilkie's first win of the season. Kirby Halcrow stopped 39 shots in Biggar's loss.
The Outlaws and the Miners engaged in a high-scoring contest Saturday night that saw Wilkie edge the defending league champions 8-6.
Wilkie dominated the first period with five goals, all of which were scored on the power play. Sittler opened the scoring for the Outlaws 9:26 into the game. Less than a minute later, Bruce Yockey made it a 2-0 game.
After Travis Mosher scored to make it 2-1, Robert Keller, Andrew Herle and Derek Keller all scored power-play goals for the Outlaws to make it 5-1 Wilkie after the first period.
The teams traded goals in the second period. Michael Shirley found the back of the net for Unity with 9:06 left in the middle frame. The Outlaws answered 15 seconds later on a goal from Harrison.
In the third period, Behn Robertson scored two consecutive goals for Unity to cut Wilkie's lead to two. Then, with 10:49 to play in the third, Cey made it a 7-4 game. Robertson responded quickly as he completed his hat trick 26 seconds later to cut the lead to two again. Cey's second goal of the period put the game out of reach with 3:48 left.
Shirley's second of the game with 58 seconds left made it an 8-6 game, but the Miners were unable to get any closer.
Herle stopped 28 shots to pick up his second win of the weekend for Wilkie. Cory Grant took the loss for Unity while making 34 saves.
In other action from the SWHL's opening weekend, the Eatonia Huskies used a six-goal first period to beat the Biggar Nationals 10-5 Saturday night at the Eatonia Memorial Arena.
Kyle Dorowicz and Kenton Dulle each scored twice in the Huskies' win. Matt Mckinnon, Troy Boisjoli, Ben Webb, David Brown, Brett O'Malley and Ayron Mikkelsen also scored for Eatonia.
McNulty had a hat trick in a losing effort for the Nationals. Dilosa also picked up two goals for Biggar.
Eight games are on the SWHL schedule this weekend. Friday night sees Unity in Biggar to take on the Nationals, the Luseland/Dodsland Mallards hosting the Kerrobert Tigers, the Outlaws play their first home game of the year against the Macklin Mohawks and Eatonia travels to Kindersley to face off with the Red Lions. All games begin at 8:30 p.m.
On Saturday night, Luseland/Dodsland are in Eatonia, Unity travels to Macklin, Wilkie hosts Biggar and Kindersley is in Kerrobert to take on the Tigers. Each game starts at 8 p.m.
