The Red Wings held on to their one-point lead over Estevan, after splitting home-and-home action against the Bruins on the weekend.
The Red Wings held on to their one-point lead over Estevan, after splitting home-and-home action against the Bruins on the weekend. With two games remaining in their regular season, the Red Wings are third place in the Sherwood Conference of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL).
Right behind them in fourth place, the Bruins have three games left in the regular season. The battle over third place is an important one, as the first round of the SJHL playoffs will be the Survivor Series, where the fourth and fifth place teams compete in both the Sherwood and the Bauer Conferences.
Hosting Estevan in Weyburn on Saturday, the Red Wings fell 5-2 to the Bruins. There were no goals taken in the first period, with the Bruins leading 3-2 by the end of the second. For the Red Wings, Jesse Ross scored at 12:04, assisted by Coltyn Sanderson and TJ Wees; and Keegan Bruce scored during a power play at 13:59, assisted by Brentt Becker and Drew George.
Then during the third period, Estevan notched two more goals to capture the win. Mitch Kilgore was in net for loss, stopping 27 out of 31 attempts.
While playing the Bruins in Estevan on Friday night, the Red Wings captured a 5-2 victory. No goals were scored in the first period, with Estevan taking a slight 2-1 lead after the second. Notching Weyburn's first goal was TJ Wees during a power play at 15:40, assisted by Keegan Bruce and Brock Appleyard.
The Red Wings then dominated the third period, scoring four times and preventing the Bruins from catching up. Bruce scored a power play at 10:05, assisted by Drew George; Lucas Ulmer scored a power play at 10:36, assisted by Sanderson and Jesse Ross; Scott Kirkham notched a goal at 17:42, assisted by Cole Klippenstein and Bruce; and Ross scored on an empty net, assisted by Tanner McCall.
Kilgore won in net, and stopped 24 out of 26 attempts.
Earlier in the week, the Red Wings won a 2-1 shoot-out victory against the Yorkton Terriers on Feb. 8. The Terriers started off scoring with one goal in the first period, and kept the Wings from scoring during the first and second periods. Then a goal by Ross at 1:30 in the third period had tied up the game.
After no goals were scored in the overtime period, the game was forced into a shoot-out. Yorkton was unable to score, with George notching the shoot-out goal for the game. Kilgore earned the win in net, stopping 24 out of 25 attempts.
Last week, the Red Wings announced their nominations for the year-end SJHL awards. They nominated Brock Appleyard for Most Valuable Player; TJ Wees for Top Defenseman; and Mitch Kilgore as Top Rookie.
The last two games of the regular season will be played on home ice for the Red Wings. They face Melville at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 18, and then host the Notre Dame Hounds at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 20.
