The Yorkton Terriers came off another gruelling week of four games in six days with five out of 10 possible points in the SJHL standings.
The Terriers began the week on the road at the Centennial Arena where the Nipawin Hawks claimed a 4-1 home ice win over the visiting Terriers with a pair of goals in each of the second and third periods.
After a scoreless opening frame, Elliot Peterson started the scoring for Nipawin just 31 seconds into the second period.
Tyler Giebel tied the game with Yorkton's lone goal of the contest assisted by Jeremy Johnson and Brent Struble.
Less than a minute later Ryan Ostertag made it 2-1 for Nipawin.
A pair of third period goals, one each by Darius Cole and Wheaton King clinched the 4-1 win for the Hawks.
The Terriers next took on the Flin Flon Bombers in the Whitney Forum, emerging with a narrow 3-2 overtime win.
Curtis Oliver opened the scoring midway through the opening period with a singlehanded goal to give the Terriers a 1-0 lead.
Chase Norrish made it 2-0 for the Terriers early in the second period with a powerplay goal assisted by Brenden Poncelet and Keven Cann.
Riley Storzuk pulled the Bombers within one late in the second frame while Brandt Weldon tied the game late in the third period.
Norrish buried the puck in the overtime period to hand Yorkton the 3-2 win assisted by Giebel and Kelly Lessmeister.
A four goal third period put the game away for the Terriers on home ice Friday night as they downed the visiting Kindersley Klippers 6-1.
Following a scoreless first, Oliver lit up the scoreboard for Yorkton early in the second period assisted by Kyle McLeod and Ryon Sookro.
Johnson added Yorkton's second goal late in the second period assisted by Struble and Devon McMullen.
Jamie Vlanich started the Terrier four goal third period scoring spree early in the third assisted by Zak Majkowski and Tayler Thomp-son.
Johnson added his second goal of the game assisted by Giebel and Struble.
Majkowski made it 5-0 for Yorkton assisted by Vlanich.
Kody Thue scored the lone goal for Flin Flon late in the third period.
Brady Norrish capped the Terrier scoring at six goals assisted by Poncelet.
In the second game of a two game home series with the visiting Kindersley Klippers the Yorkton Terriers outshot the visitors 41-23.
A four goal opening period including three goals scored within two minutes looked like the Terriers were on their way to a second home ice win. It wasn't to be, shocked Terrier fans watched as the Klippers doggedly bounced back to tie the game in regulation time and went on to record the 5-4 win after a shoot-out.
McLeod scored the first goal for the Terriers just under three minutes into the game assisted by Oliver and Dylan Baer.
Majkowski added the Terrier's second goal about a minute later assisted by Vlanich and Norrish.
Less than 15 seconds later Vlanich scored Yorkton's third goal assisted by Majkowski and Thompson.
Troy Gdeny notched Kindersley's first goal late in the first period.
A goal by Colby Daniels pulled the Klippers within one goal of Yorkton.
Sam Rockwell capped Terrier scoring with Yorkton's fourth goal of the game assisted by Sookro and McLeod to send the teams to the dressing rooms with the Terriers holding a two goal edge after 20 minutes.
A pair of second period goals, one each by Bradley Buckingham and Beau Stewart tied the game at four.
Following a scoreless five minute four-on-four overtime period, the game was settled with a shoot out.
Kindersly netminder Justin McDonald frustrated three Terrier shooters while Kindersley's Brennan Bosovitch slipped the puck past Terrier goalie Kale Thomson for the win.
Yorkton Terrier head coach Trent Cassan admits he was disappointed in the attitude the team seemed to have Sunday. "We just took a lot for granted tonight, that they're just going to hand you two points and jump on the bus and head home," he says.
He'd like to impress on the players that every team requires a strong effort every game. There are no easy wins in the league. It's just not easy to do. He thought after Friday night's game the team saw a better effort was needed but Sunday's game seemed to go the opposite way, he suggests. "We don't practise a lot of toe drags and passing up from shooting lanes in prime ares but we did that for whatever reason and thought we could get away with it and obviously it hurt us," Cassan explains.
Going into next week, Cassan says he'll try to show the team what they do well when they're successful and compare it to the times when things don't go well. "Our guys have responded well when we've talked to them about some things we need to do a better job of and I have confidence and I expect that we will again," he suggests.
Cassan says it's unfair to lay the loss on Terrier netminder Kale Thom-son. "Kale's played very well for us all year and been a good team guy so to even look his way as to why we didn't get two points tonight is not a fair thing to do at all," he says.
He credits the Kindersley Klippers with a good effort. It was their third in three nights. They could have just rolled over but they didn't. They had a lot of energy. "They've obviously had a tough go of it this streak of games but they saw an opportunity to get out of it and they did," Cassan closes.
