The SSMHL's Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers hosted the visiting Regina Wild on Saturday night in hopes of repeating what they did just over two weeks ago when they defeated the Wild 4-2 on home ice.
And while the two teams competing were the same the result was not, as the Wild were able to capitalize on two Terriers penalties, one to open the scoring and the other to round it out, to down the home side 5-2. With the loss the Terriers have now dropped three straight and sit 10th in the 13 team SSMHL Midget league with a 4-13-2 record.
The Wild jumped out to an early two goal lead when Regina's Caleb Parker scored two goals in just one minute and eight seconds. Yorkton cut the Wild lead in half when Josh Rohatynsky put his third of the season past Regina goalie Taylor Unruh to make it 2-1 with just 4:22 left in the first period. Regina regained their two goal cushion just 31 seconds later however, as Wild forward Fraiser Belanger put the puck past Yorkton netminder Bo Loster to give the visiting side a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Whatever Terriers head coach Noel Budz said to hid team between periods must have worked as the Terriers came out firing. However Unruh was up to the challenge, turning aside any and all Yorkton shots fired his way to keep the score 3-1 through 40 minutes of play.
The momentum that the Terriers generated in the second period carried over to the third and finally the home side was able to put another puck into the Regina net. Steven St. Marie tied Justin Poirier for the team lead in goals as he fired his seventh of the season past Unruh to make it just a one goal Regina lead 24 seconds into the final frame.
Yorkton had a great chance to even it up minutes later when Regina's Brayden Larkin was sent to the penalty box for kneeing. Unfortunately for the Terriers and their powerplay unit they could not find a way to solve Unruh for a third goal.
Regina's Colby Brandt scored the fourth goal of the game for the Wild to make it 4-2 before adding his second of the game, this time on the powerplay, to seal the deal for the visitors with just 3:32 remaining in the game.
Despite the loss, Kinsmen Terriers head coach Noel Budz felt his team never gave up throughout the game and, had the puck bounced their way from time to time, the result might have been different. "The guys are always playing hard," said the Kinsmen Terriers bench boss. "Hard work and effort is always there. Sometimes breaks happen in games and tonight we didn't get a couple of breaks. They did and they capitalized on them. That's the key to the game, capitalizing on your opponents mistakes."
Budz also touched on the fact that their special teams has struggled all year even though he has focused on them for the entire season. "Special teams have been a focus for us for a while. The penalty kill is important to obviously prevent powerplay goals. We need to stay out of the box. We have to dedicate ourselves to keeping our composure and just working hard."
Next action
The Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers next action will be Saturday, December 14 when they visit the third place Notre Dame Argos at the Duncan McNeill Arena in Wilcox. Their next home game won't take place until after the Christmas break when they host the Swift Current K-Motel Hurricanes on January 4 at the Farrell Agencies Arena at 4:30p.m.
