The Yorkton Terriers recorded a pair of wins at home last week, the first win came in overtime and the second a nail biting two goal edge over the visiting team.
Wednesday night the Terriers edged out the visiting Flin Flon Bombers 4-3 in a shootout.
Devon McMullen opened the scoring for Yorkton late in the first period with a powerplay goal assisted by Zak Majkowski and Keven Cann.
The bombers replied with a goal by Jay Young.
Following a scoreless second period Cameron Blair gave Flin Flon a brief lead before Curtis Oliver tied the game for the Terriers early in the third period assisted by Jeremy Johnson and Kyle McLeod.
Johnson notched the go-ahead goal to re-establish the Terrier lead assisted by Oliver and McLeod.
With about 10 seconds remaining in regulation time, Brett Penner tied the game.
Following a scoreless overtime, three players from each team went to a shootout. All three Terriers, Johnson, Ryan Sookro and Jamie Vlanich slipped the puck past the Flin Flon netminder, Devin Buffalo in the shootout.
Terrier netminder Kamil Prezpiorka stopped one of three shots taken by the Bombers to clinch the shootout win for Yorkton.
Sunday, the Terriers and Estevan Bruins were tied at two goals apiece going into the third period, each teams scoring one goal in each of the first and second periods.
McLeod lit up the scoreboard for Yorkton late in the first frame, assisted by Johnson.
Calder Neufeld tied the game for the Bruins before the period ended.
Tanner Froese gave Estevan a one goal edge with a powerplay goal to open second period scoring.
Johnson scored a powerplay goal for Yorkton to even the score with less than a minute remaining in the second frame, assisted by Oliver.
Going into the third period tied at two, the Terriers scored three quick goals in the first half of the final frame to take a three goal lead.
Sookro started the scoring spree just under two minutes into the period assisted by Vlanich and Majkowski.
Oliver increased the Terrier margin to two goals with a powerplay marker assisted by Johnson and McLeod.
Justin Lamontagne's powerplay goal midway through the period gave Yorkton what appeared to be an insurmountable three goal lead. Brenden Poncelet assisted on the goal.
The Terriers saw their lead vanish as the Bruins stormed back with three goals in four minutes to tie the game at five. Estevan goals came from Neufeld, Dylan Smith and Cole Olson.
Two quick powerplay markers put the game away for Yorkton. Vlanich notched the first, which proved to be the game winner, on a solo effort. Sookro added the insurance marker, with less than a minute left in regulation time to hand Yorkton a 7-5 win.
Terrier right winger Jeremy Johnson, named first star in the game says the team has a lot of good young talent.
Johnson says his line mates Kyle McLeod and Curtis Oliver are both quick which makes the trio work well together and hope to put up some big numbers.
Johnson says he enjoys playing for the Terriers full time. He thinks his teammates are a great bunch of guys and he likes being closer to home.
"You just get it down low, work it in deep, move their D-men around and get shots on goal," Johnson describes Yorkton's strategy which resulted in seven goals in the game.
Terrier goalie Warren Shymko says the team bounced back from the three quick goals which nullified Yorkton's three goal lead.
Shymko sees young players like Johnson stepping up and scoring goals. "Guys are playing their roles this year and it's working good," he says.
Everything seems to be working well for the Terriers, Shymko states. "We're just playing the systems and doing what the coach says and everything is working for us. We're just playing hard. That's all that is," he declares.
Shymko rates his own performance as good. The defense is making things easy for him by keeping shots to the outside, he says.
He admits his performance in Sunday's game might have been better but says he learns from that and what matters are the two points for the win.
Terrier head coach Trent Cassan says it's great to get to points for a win at anytime during the year.
Cassan says the team showed good character by sticking with the game for the win rather than getting down on themselves after the Estevan three goal rally in the third period. "Those are things that you can't teach," he suggests.
The Terrier powerplay was successful lately because players were moving their feet, Cassan claims. "Sometimes when your powerplay is struggling guys kind of stand around and tend to watch each other," he asserts.
Now guys are doing a good job of coming off the wall. The Terrier defensemen have done a good job of getting to the net and drawing opposing players in to them to open up their teammates, Cassan reports.
He says the line of Johnson, McLeod and Oliver play well together. McLeod, the only veteran, is showing a lot of improvement in his game. He's moving his feet better and showing a lot of confidence after a year of junior hockey under his belt.
