The Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers battled back late in the third period but simply ran out of time as they fell 5-4 to the visiting Melville Millonaires in SSMHL Midget league action at the Farrell Agencies Arena on Thursday, January 16.
The loss is the fifth in a row for the Kinsmen Terriers, giving them a record of 4-19-3, dropping them into a tie for last place in the league with the Prairie Storm. Melville, meanwhile, sits in tenth place with a 7-17-3 record just two points shy of the Notre Dame Midget Hounds (9-13-1) and five points back of the Notre Dame Bantam Hounds (9-11-4).
The Melville Millionaires opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game on Thursday. Traeshal Mohl beat Kinsmen Terrier netminder Rylan Palchewich to make it 1-0. The Mils upped their lead to two at the midway point of the period when Destin Vranai put his sixth of the season into the Terrier net, however Yorkton managed to cut the Mils lead to one late in the opening frame with a powerplay goal from Steven St. Marie, his ninth of the season, to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes.
A scoreless second period saw 36 total penalty minutes being issued, including two separate double minors for hitting to the head, one each to Melville's Brett Harasymuk and Yorkton's Colton Dudar, as well as a team penalty to the Millionaires for a game misconduct.
The third period saw both teams return to the skilled side of the game. Marial Beny gave the Mils a 3-1 and then 4-1 lead with his fourth and fifth goals of the season with 18:18 and 14:19 remaining in the third. The Terrier killer Darcy Kayseas made it 5-1 for the visitors with his 24th goal of the season and seventh against his former club with 12:25 left in the game and it appeared as if the route was on.
However, someone forgot to tell the Kinsmen Terriers that they were supposed to roll over and die as the hometown Terriers scored three goals in less than two minutes. Brayden Miller made it 5-2 with his sixth goal of the season on the powerplay. Tanner Mak-Krochak made it 5-3 less than a minute later with his second of the season and Tristan Mundt, returning to the ice after an injury he suffered earlier in the week, made it 5-4 with just under four minutes remaining in the game.
The Kinsmen Terriers luck finally ran out when Grayson Neufeld was sent to the penalty box for tripping with two minutes left, allowing the visiting Mils to rag the puck for the final two minutes and escape, barely, with a 5-4 win.
While his club lost 5-4, Noel Budz, head coach for the Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers, felt that his team did some positive things which is something he hopes they can build on for the final stretch of the season. "We did a lot of good things in a 5-4 loss. We shut down their big scorer Darcy Kayseas to only one goal so that was a positive whereas before he beat us himself with four goals," said the Kinsmen Terriers bench boss. "The boys showed their never die attitude which is something they've had all season long."
"One of our boys actually said to me 'You know, if we had five more minutes coach we would have won', so even though they lost they were pretty excited. They played hard and they battled hard and that's really all you can ask of them."
Next action
The Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers next action will be this weekend, January 25 and 26 when they visit the Estevan Apex Bruins (January 25) and the Weyburn Petro Bakken Wings (January 26).
