Lucas Froese gave the Millionaires the lead before Daniel Orsborn scored his second of the series to give the Terriers a two goal deficit with ten minutes left at the Horizon Credit Union Centre. The Terriers yet again dominated on shots, but Wakaluk kept shutting the door and Nathan Boyer pushed the score to 5-2 before Austin Bourhis gave the Terriers a consolation prize of a powerplay goal late in the third to wrap things up with a 5-3 scoreline to end the Terriers-Mils rivalry for the rest of the year.
The Terriers can take bragging rights on the year as they took four of the six games in the Highway 10 Rivalry and still sit comfortably atop the Mils in the Sherwood with a cushion of seven points with eighteen games left in the regular season.
Coach Cassan anticipated Tuesday's game would be close going into it, "Almost every game has went to overtime or been decided by one goal in this series and I am assuming Tuesday will be no different with us heading into Melville's rink after a hard fought win."
The loss did allow the Notre Dame Hounds to keep pace with the Terriers as they still sit four points back of the Terriers first place position in that race for the home ice advantage come playoff time in March. The Hounds will host the Terriers January 8 in what will be a huge game for both teams.
The SJHL schedule makers were not kind to the Terriers in their rafting of the early January match ups as the Terriers will be going up against the league's top teams often to kick off the final stretch of the regular season in their bid to stay atop the SJHL. The aforementioned meeting with Notre Dame will be highlighted with another trip to Wilcox January 19, and a final game on February 13 as the Terriers will play their second place rivals four times in the final eighteen games of the regular season in what will be pivotal meetings when it comes to who wins the SJHL's regular season title.
Friday night might see one of the most interesting meetings of the final two months as the Humboldt Broncos and SJHL Goalie of the Month Matt Hrynkiw head to the FAA in a Bauer Division/Sherwood clash. The Broncos have rebounded from a mediocre start to the year and are now poised to overtake Flin Flon for first place in the Bauer Division as they sit in second place with 44 points to the Bombers 46 with three games at hand. Solid defense and Hrynkiw's goaltending have led the Broncos to the league's best defense with only 72 goals against and a four game winning streak have them flying high as they head in to play the league leading Terriers in what might just be a SJHL Championship preview between the potential best of the Bauer and Sherwood Divisions.
"Humboldt is a really solid team, and have similar things to what we have, they have guys from a team that won the title so they are an experienced group that knows not to panic and what it takes to win so it is going to be a huge game for us and a tough match up," noted Cassan." Humboldt beat the Terriers 6-2 in their only meeting of the season with their second game being cancelled due to poor highway conditions and the Terriers will be looking for revenge at home from that loss.
Cassan mentioned that their 6-2 loss in the middle of a losing streak showed the Terriers what they needed to work on and led to their hot late November/December, "After that loss to Humboldt where they really took it to us, we noticed what we needed to do to make that next step, specifically off ice conditioning and that really motivated us to go further and work harder."
Friday's game will be the last at the FAA for two weeks as the Terriers will pack their bags for a three game road trip to Notre Dame, La Ronge and Nipawin in a Northern swing before coming home to host the Ice Wolves on January 17.
Two of the Terriers tough tests to start off the playoff push are in the books, now games against two of the SJHL's top four teams are on deck with the Terriers having the chance to prove why they are the favorites in the SJHL going into the final games of the regular season. Friday night at the FAA and Tuesday in Wilcox might just be previews to crucial playoff series come March and April when the chase to the Royal Bank Cup begins.
