The Terriers week teetered on the brink of disaster twice at the FAA this week as two teams battling to sneak into the playoffs gave the Terriers early scares as they try to hold on to first place in the Sherwood Division standings. With Humboldt never seeming to lose and even the Millionaires trying to make a push for the division crown, the Terriers have been in just as much need of points as the teams at the bottom of the standings as they look to secure home ice advantage that looked like a near guarantee at Christmas time.
Thursday night saw the Terriers host La Ronge who were hot off a win in Melville and were looking to increase their Bauer Division playoff odds. The Ice Wolves came out strong, scoring three quick goals on Kale Thomson leading to coach Trent Cassan giving him the hook for the night in favor of Dawson MacAuley. A rare goalie change seemed to wake up the Terriers as they turned a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 win off of a dominating performance from Jeremy Johnson, who recorded a hat trick on the night to get the two points for the Terriers.
Cassan was impressed with Johnson's offensive output in the win and gave some credit to his linemates as well saying "We have had Jeremy's line together since mid-December and they should be given some credit too, they found him backdoor and gave him scoring opportunities all game that he did a great job of working hard to turn into chances." Cassan also mentioned how Johnson's effort to go to the net is one of the key aspects of his game, "He wants to score, he takes the puck and goes to where the goals are, and that is a big part of his game and when he scores like that we usually are going to win" said Cassan.
The lone weekend action for the Terriers saw them participate in Hockey Day in SK as they took on the Notre Dame Hounds in Assiniboia for neutral site action. Notre Dame was looking to turn things around after a cold post Christmas stretch that has them in third place behind Melville in the Sherwood Division.
The Hounds got their turnaround as they beat the Terriers 5-2 in a physical game for a neutral site event. Some rough stuff involving John Odgers, John Neibrandt and the Hounds' Dillion Schwartzenberger near the final whistle that saw each player get a ten minute misconduct apiece. While Zak Majkowski and Nathan Murray both dropped the mitts for the Terriers and earned fighting majors. Dawson MacAuley got the start for the terriers and made 34 saves in the loss while Notre Dame's Michael Salmon was the difference maker in making 38 saves in the win.
Hot goalies were the story of the week against the Terriers as the Red Wings put in an upset bid in one of the stranger games of the season on Tuesday night. J.P. Boucher of the Red Wings stood on his head throughout the game for the Red Wings, who seemed to score on every shot they put on net, which luckily wasn't many. Weyburn scored first on the powerplay in the first period, before Kailum Gervais levelled a Red Wing on the backcheck and received a beautiful pass from Tyler Giebel just seconds later before faking out Boucher and going top shelf with the backhand to tie things at one going into intermission where things started to get weird.
The Red Wings posted two shots in the second period. Two. Normally that would serve as a nightmare for most coaches, but the Red Wings managed to get two solid chances out of both their shots and made the most of them, beating Thomson on both occasions and after a Zak Majkowski goal the Red Wings were up 3-2 going into the third despite being outshot 22-2 in the period.
More of the same continued in the third as the Red Wings continued to rely on Boucher to save the day as he made huge save after huge save. Eventually John Odgers hustle in front of the net paid off as he muscled a puck in front of the net into the goal, drawing the ire of Boucher who gave some cheap shots and challenged the enforcer to a fight that never materialized with Odgers getting a ten minute misconduct and Boucher taking a roughing penalty.
Dylan Johnson scored just a minute after to wrap things up and send the Red Wings home with a loss after Boucher's sparkling performance almost stole a win from the Terriers who outshot the Wings 45-10. The homestand continues this weekend as the Terriers take on Melfort and Kindersley on the 25/26.
