The Bienfait Coalers have taken the lead in their best-of-five semifinal series with the Yellow Grass Wheat Kings.
Bienfait defeated the Wheat Kings 4-2 on Tuesday night at the Bienfait Memorial Arena. Cole Piche and Jayden Sorozuk scored in the first period to give the home team a 2-0 advantage.
After Troy Miller scored early in the second to cut Bienfait’s lead in half, Blaine Herzberg and Tyson Price responded to put Bienfait up by three through two periods.
Brendon Vertefeuille would get the only goal in the third for the Wheat Kings.
Jackson Walliser was in goal for Bienfait, while Tanner Erickson was the goalie for Yellow Grass. It was the first loss for Erickson in the regular season or playoffs this season.
The next two games will be played in Yellow Grass, on March 4 and 6. Game 4, if necessary, would be March 7 in Bienfait, and Game 5 would happen March 10 in Yellow Grass.
The other semifinal series, between the Redvers Rockets and the Carnduff Red Devils, is tied at 1-1. Carnduff took Game 1 Feb. 24 in Redvers, but Redvers went into Carnduff two nights later and won Game 2 4-2.
Trevor Geiger opened the scoring for Carnduff in Game 1 with a goal with 23 seconds to play in the first period.
Jordon Miller responded for Redvers less than seven minutes into the second period, but Sean Mulcahy’s goal with 3:42 to play in the second proved to be the game-winner.
Blake McMillen and Cody Moore added goals in the third for Carnduff.
Kenton Miller had two goals and two assists to lead Redvers to the victory in Game 2. He opened the scoring 48 seconds into the game, but Barrett Dumaine tied the contest a few minutes later.
Miller scored again in the second to give the Rockets a 2-1 advantage, and Brady Fidierchuk scored what proved to be the game-winner with just over six minutes to play in the third.
Cody Moore pulled Carnduff to within one with 1:43 to play in the third, but Drew Hoff restored the two-goal advantage 18 seconds later.
Thomas Bauche was in goal for both games for Redvers. The goalie for Carnduff was not available.
