Following a successful November, the Yorkton Terriers started December with a pair of losses at home.
Saturday, the visiting Battlefords North Stars shutout the home town Terriers 3-0 at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
Battlefords goals were scored by Kyle Hall in the first period and Tim Rollins and Woody Klassen in the second frame.
North Stars netminder Graham Hildebrand claimed the shutout.
Sunday evening the visiting Estevan Bruins squeaked out a narrow 4-3 win with a last minute goal in the third period.
Ryon Sookro opened the scoring with an early first period goal assisted by Kelly Lessmeister and Kyle McLeod.
Dylan Smith tied the game with a powerplay goal midway through the period.
Derek Whitehill's powerplay marker in the second period gave the Bruins a one goal edge after 40 minutes.
Tanner Froese extended Estevan's lead to two goals early in the third period.
Brenden Poncelet pulled the Terriers within one with a powerplay goal assisted by Devon McMullen and Keven Cann.
Nathan Murray tied the game at three late in the period assisted by Curtis Oliver and Riley Paterson.
Just when overtime seemed inevitable, Cole Olson slipped the puck past Terrier goalie Warren Shymko to score the powerplay game winner with 16 seconds left in the game to clinch the 4-3 win for Estevan.
Terrier head coach Trent Cassan says he felt the Terriers weren't very strong on their sticks, fanning on pucks or fumbled pucks against the Bruins. He thinks the players were moving the puck well and passing hard. "When we got into those right areas, the puck would just skitter off our sticks and we weren't able to handle some good passes in both games," he explains.
Estevan's powerplay unit was more effective Cassan admits.
He feels Yorkton's defense has played well and the Terriers have had solid goaltending every game. There have been games where the defense and goaltending have helped the forwards. Occasionally the forwards need to step up and help the defense out. It's a total team effort, Cassan points out.
He admits it was disappointing to lose just when it appeared the Terriers managed to salvage a tie. "I know the guys are disappointed because they battled hard and it's no one individual that you can look toward for the loss," he states.
Terrier coaches have pared down the team to 23 players as Lamontagne has left and Ryley Stefanyshyn has been placed with the Ochapowace Thunder.
Cassan says he will be looking for a little more urgency around the net and in those tight areas as well as for a little more composure in handling pucks and passes better in upcoming games. "In the powerplay we have to get more traffic to the front of the net, not on the outside of the box," he suggests.
