The Yorkton Harvest wrapped up their first quarter of action by splitting a pair of games last week.
The two points sit the Harvest in fourth spot in the SMAAAHL standings with a 5-4-1-1 record.
In their first game of the week, the Harvest hosted the Notre Dame Hounds at Farrell Agencies Arena on Wednesday.
Yorkton's offense found their grove against the Hounds, leading them to a commanding 7-3 victory.
"At times we dominated against the Hounds," said Harvest head coach Dan Cross. "We got off to a quick start - scoring two goals early (first from Chase McKersie, second from Koal Roberts) - that helped swing the momentum in our way. At times I thought we were a bit lazy and didn't keep the pressure on, but in all we played a good game."
Up 4-3, the Harvest scored three goals with seven minutes left in the third period to put the game away. Power forward Riley Rozdeba, blueliner Logan Leslie and 15-year-old rookie Kylan Shea scored their first goals on the season.
"It was good to see those guys score," said Cross. "We need more secondary scoring and we got it against Notre Dame. Those guys stepped up and scored some key goals for us."
Carter Phair stopped 23 of 27 shots in the Harvest crease for the win while Clark Flegel let in three goals on five shots and Aris Anagnostopoulos stopped 30 of 34 shots for the Hounds at the other end of the ice.
In their second contest on Saturday, the Harvest fell to the Regina Pat Canadians 4-3 on the road at the Co-Operators Arena.
Following Marc Shaw giving Yorkton a one-goal lead in the first period with his first goal on the season in just his second game, the Pat Canadians' Tyler Adams and Cohen Yano scored one apiece in the middle frame to the turn the tables.
Down 4-2 with just over a minute left in the third period, McKersie notched his ninth on the year to put Yorkton within one, but it turned out to be too little too late.
Carson Bogdan stopped 28 of 32 shots for the Harvest while Logan Flodell turned away 21 of 24 pucks in the Pat Canadians' blue paint.
The Harvest's bench boss believes his club's flat start led to their loss against the Queen City Kids.
"I didn't like how we started the game; I thought we started out flat," said Cross. "Against a quality team like Regina, you have to play a full 60 minutes to get the win and we didn't do that."
McKersie's three-goal week puts him second in the SMAAAHL scoring race, behind Notre Dame Argos forward Dillon Dube, with nine ginos and nine apples in 11 games. He was awarded for his great start to the season by suiting up with the Yorkton Terriers on Tuesday in their road game against the Estevan Bruins.
The Harvest kick off November with three-straight road games. This weekend they play the Prince Albert Mintos on Saturday and the Beardy's Blackhawks on Sunday. They then head to Wilcox on Wednesday to face the Hounds for the third time this year.
Partially because the 3-4-2 Mintos, 2-4-1-1 Blackhawks and 1-9-0-0 Hounds all sit outside the SMAAAHL's top eight, Cross feels his club has to capitalize on the trio of games.
"I wasn't too happy with our first quarter, so we have to make up for some games in the second quarter," said the head coach. "I really wanted to get that Regina win. But now we have to move on and make up for it on the road this weekend. I want us to win both of our weekend games. They are below us in the standings and we don't want to give them a chance to gain on us."
