After a three game losing streak in the middle of their seven game road trip put the Terriers in third place in the Sherwood Division standings the Terriers bounced back in a big way, topping off two straight wins on the road with a regular season classic victory over the league best Flin Flon Bombers in their home return.
Going into the final stretch of their seven game road trip the Terriers found themselves struggling for the first time all season as goaltending and penalty kill woes led to 6-2 and 4-0 losses to Humboldt and Flin Flon pushing their record on the road trip to 2-3 with two games left to right the ship.
A bounce back 6-3 win over the Ice Wolves in La Ronge led by a Patrick Martens hat trick and four point night pushed the Terriers to .500 on the road trip and shook the Terriers out of their mid-November funk. Dylan Johnson scored his second goal of the season while Austin Bourhis rounded out the notable Terrier offensive performances with two assists from the blueline in the impressive win. Dawson MacAuley got the start in goal and had a strong 29 save performance.
Friday night saw the Terriers close out their road trip in Weyburn with a chance to salvage a winning record during their seasons most difficult stretch. Chase Norrish and Nathan Murray both notched a goal and an assist each to lock up a 3-1 win behind MacAuley's near shutout performance to push their final record for the road trip to 4-3. The game got physical in the dying moments as Weyburn's Robert Wilkinson's checking from behind penalty with six minutes left saw Kalium Gervais take exception seeing both players earn game misconduct penalties and fighting majors. John Niebrandt was also assessed a game misconduct in the late minute antics caused by the Red Wings.
With their road trip duties all wrapped up the Terriers got to return to the FAA with a rubber match against the Flin Flon Bombers as their reward. The Terriers ended the Bombers undefeated start to the regular season at home before losing to the Bombers 4-0 during the road trip.
Kale Thomson was given the start in goal for the Terriers after two straight starts from Dawson MacAuley while Devin Buffalo was looking to repeat his shutout performance in goal for the Bombers.
A shutout would not be in the cards for Buffalo as Daylan Gatzke scored off of a deflection 2:59 into the first period to give the Terriers a lead less than five minutes into their home return. Brenden Poncelet took advantage of a undisciplined unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to add a powerplay tally to make it 2-0 halfway through the second period.
Tyler Giebel and Tayler Thompson added goals to put the Terriers up 4-1 and gave the FAA faithful some relief in a three goal cushion. A quick goal from the Bombers Brett Penner made the score 4-2 and a very questionable cross checking penalty given to Chase Norrish gave the Bombers a five minute major powerplay and swung momentum out of the Terriers direction.
The Bombers capitalized early in the powerplay, but clutch penalty kill defense and some steady saves from Thomson killed the rest of the Bombers powerplay and kept the score at 4-3. Flin Flon would not be denied as more pressing in the Terriers zone led to Brett Bohem's fifteenth goal of the season to tie the game up at 4-4 with under two minutes to go in the third period.
Overtime was looming, but Tayler Thompson had other plans as he scored with just seven seconds left in the game to give the Terriers the two points in what was the most entertaining SJHL contest of the season. Thompson, who was playing in just his second game in nearly a month scored the Terriers final two goals and added an assist in a comeback performance.
With the win the Terriers now sit in first place in the Sherwood Division standings tied with the suddenly red hot Notre Dame Hounds, who are winners of eight straight.
A home/away series with Melville on the weekend looms with the Millionaires on a three game losing streak and sitting two points behind the Terriers and Hounds after looking great to start the season. Two wins for the Terriers over their rivals could give them a six point cushion over the Millionaires and create some separation in what is now a three horse race for the top spot in the Sherwood Division.
Expect physical and entertaining hockey to be on display as the last series between the Mills and the Terriers in October resulted in two identical 4-3 shootout wins split between the two teams in what was two very even and tightly contested games.
The Terriers have a chance to put salt in the wounds of their limping rivals and put Melville on panic alert with a weekend sweep, only time will tell if the rivalry game will wake up the Millionaires or if it is the Terriers time to take back bragging rights in the Highway 10 rivalry.
