The Yorkton Terriers had a rude introduction to the second half of their season as their Highway 10 rivals, the Melville Millionaires claimed wins in both games of the home and home series.
The Melville powerplay was working as the Mils tallied on three of five opportunities on the way to a 5-1 win in game one at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
Melville netminder Zak Rakochy was also solid turning aside 29 of 30 shots on goal.
Terrier fortunes were not quite as good. The powerplay wasn't working as Yorkton missed on all five opportunities.
The penalty kill wasn't as sharp either, giving up three goals.
Melville Marksmen scored four goals in the first period presenting the Terriers with an insurmountable challenge. Roger Tagoona tallied a pair of markers, including a powerplay goal, while Lucas Froese and Michael Desjarlais each added a goal.
Brayden Metz capped Millionaires scoring with a third period powerplay marker.
Yorkton's lone goal came off the stick of Clarke Breitkreuz, a shorthanded marker in the third period.
Terrier head coach Trent Cassan admits the team may have made some mistakes and weren't as crisp handling the puck as usual in the game.
While the Terriers lost the game, Cassan feels the guys played hard, never considering the game out of reach at any point.
In addition to Rackochy's great job in goal, Cassan points out the Melville defense did a solid job of turning aside potential scoring threats. Millionaire forwards collapsed down in front of the net and did a good job of blocking shots at times too, he adds. "Whereas we were almost so anxious that we were shooting it into the shinpads too sometimes," he notes.
While the tragic loss of teammate Myles Cameron over the break may have been on the players' minds, and which will take some time to deal with, Cassan doubts it had a major bearing on the outcome of the game.
There are ups and downs in every season, Cassan declares. How you get through those tough times and what you learn from those times is important.
He admits he and Terrier staff will be looking at ways to improve the team, as will all teams, as the trade deadline looms. "Ten teams make the playoffs in this league and there are probably 10 teams that feel they can win the league championship if they make one or two improvements to their hockey club and we're no different than those other teams. If we have a chance to upgrade, we'd certainly have to look hard at it," Cassan states.
He says he'll be cautious in considering trade possibilities because, "You can go out and make two or three moves and there's no guarantee that those moves are going to work. There will be five or six teams that will probably make trades, and at the end of the day there's only going to be one team that wins," he closes.
