The beauty of rivalry games is that prior wins and losses don't carry any weight.
The high-flying Terriers found that out the hard way last Friday, as they were downed by the Melville Millionaires 2-1, in a shootout, at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
Melville's Roger Tagoona opened the scoring at 16:04 of the first period with a goal from Rob Lazo and Andre Parker.
The goal would be the game's only one for the first 46 minutes as the team's traded shots and penalty minutes almost evenly.
A Yorkton-Melville game would seem out of the ordinary without a fight and, sure enough, Yorkton's Sam Prpich and Tyson Newell of Melville managed to square off in the opening frame.
Newell picked up a 10-minute misconduct and an instigator penalty for his troubles although the Terriers would fail to capitalize on the man advantage.
Captain Blaine Tendler finally evened the game up at one's with his fourth of the season at 6:55 of the third.
The powerplay goal came courtesy of Devon McMullen and Robbie Ciolfi.
The 1-1 deadlock stayed that way throughout regulation and required overtime to decide things.
After another five minutes passed with no goals, the game headed to a shootout.
Yorkton elected to shoot first and selected Craig Eisenhut to do the honours.
Eisenhut was denied on his chance, as was Melville's Tagoona.
Melville finally lit the lamp on their second shot with a goal by Mark Owen, leaving Clarke Breitkreuz needing a goal to extend the game.
Unfortunately for Breitkreuz, his shot was unsuccessful and the Millionaires secured a 2-1 victory.
Goaltender Kyle Jahraus picked up the win for his efforts. Jahraus made 33 saves on 34 Terrier shots and also claimed first start honours.
In what was a goaltender's night, Yorkton's Devin Peters was the second star while goal scorer Tagoona was star number three.
The Terriers managed to go one for five on the powerplay. The Mills' were scoreless in their four opportunities.
The next night saw Yorkton make the trip to Melville the second half of a back-to-back series.
This time the Terriers struck first, thanks to Nathan Murray's third of the season.
Kyle McLeod and Riley Paterson provided the assists on the goal which came at 3:16 of the first.
Zak Majkowski would follow up Murray's marker with one of his own in the second period.
The centre's seventh goal of the season made it 2-0 Terriers and was assisted by Rylan McDonell.
The score held steady at 21 through two periods despite a 22-18 shot advantage for the home team.
The third period saw Melville make a mini-charge as Cody Hanson halved the deficit with his sixth of the campaign.
Mills' captain Brayden Metz continued his hot streak of late with his third of the year, a minute later, to make it 2-2.
Not to be denied, the Terriers Craig Eisenhut responded with one of his own -?from Ciolfi and Breitkreuz at 8:26 to restore the one-goal lead.
Majkowski provided some insurance four minutes later with his second of the night and eighth of the season.
Defenceman Kelly Leismeister sealed the deal as he potted home a powerplay goal with only 1:13 remaining.
There was, yet again, more rough stuff on the night as Breitkreuz and Metz picked up fighting majors and Mills' left-winger Andre Parker received a major for cross-checking and a game misconduct as regulation time expired.
In a mirror image of their Friday night efforts, the Terriers were one for five with the man advantage with Melville scoreless on their only opportunity.
Majkowski was named first star for his two-goal game; second star was teammate Devin Peters, who made 29 saves in a winning effort.
The win moved the Terriers record to 7-1-1-2 and maintained their seven-point lead atop the Sherwood Conference.
