The Highway 10 rivalry for the current Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season was renewed on the weekend, but little was settled in terms of which team is better this time around.
It took Lucas Froese only 44-seconds Saturday night to give the home town Melville Millionaires a 1-0 lead at the Horizon Credit Union Centre.
Yorkton Terrier Nathan Murray would tie the game in the powerplay, only to see Alex Elliot and TJ Reeve each score before the first intermission to give Melville a 3-1 edge.
Tyler Giebel would score the only goal of the second to draw Yorkton closer.
In the third, Patrick Martens would have the only goal to knot the score 3-3, forcing the teams into overtime.
The five-minute, four-on-four extra frame proved nothing, and the game would go to the shoot-out.
Kale Thomson would face 45-shots in the Terrier nets but gave up two shoot-out shots in the loss, while Alex Wakaluk faced 41 for the Millionaires, plus two in the shoot-out, in the eventual 4-3 Melville win.
A night earlier in Yorkton the game also ended up 3-3 after 60-minutes.
Yorkton led 2-1 after 20-minutes, only to give up the lead allowing the Millionaires two unanswered goals in the second period.
Brenden Poncelet and Brady Norrish had scored for Yorkton.
Reeve had two goals for Melville, with the go ahead goal coming from Froese. It took until 16:57 of the third for Tyler Giebel to tie it up.
"I haven't had too much success lately," offered Giebel after the game.
He said he was focusing on going to the goal in the game, and it paid off with the tying goal. " I knew it was going to come."
Giebel said he and linemates Nathan Murray and Jeremy Johnson have been clicking well of late in spite of his not getting a lot of goals.
"I've got to give those (guys) credit for sure," he said, adding " we all have different attributes. I think we all bring something to the line."
Giebel said Murray is a big body presence on the line, and 'JJ' is a goal scorer.
"I like to see myself put pucks on the net," he said, which makes him the set up man of the trio.
As for going to the net to get the goal, head coach Trent Cassan said "it's kind of what I talk about," but added it takes success like Giebel's fort players to recognize the effort will pay dividends.
As for the late comeback Giebel said "it goes to show you we never give up." He said the win certainly had the team feeling good about itself after the game. " Everybody in the room is so high right now."
The game would stay tied through the rest of regulation, and five-minutes of four-on-four overtime.
In the deciding shoot-out goaltender Thomson, who faced 43-shots in the game, turned away two shooters, while the Terriers potted a pair past Wakaluk, for the 4-3 Yorkton win.
Cassan said the win Friday was well-earned.
"That's definitely the hardest we've been challenged and pushed all year," he said. "They are a good hockey club," he noted of this year's Millionaires squad.
Cassan said Thomson had another strong game in the Terrier nets.
"He's been very steady the whole way through," he said, adding the score doesn't seem to matter to his netminder " his mentality and composure is the same. His demeanor is pretty calming for the guys. He's given us a chance every night he's been in there."
The weekend split leaves Melville atop the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Sherwood Conference with 15 points, two better than Yorkton which has 13 based on a 6-1-01 record.
Kindersley sits third with 10 points, followed by Notre Dame with seven, Estevan with five and Weyburn with four.
New face
The Terriers did have a new, old face in the line-up for the weekend. After a couple of seasons in the Western Hockey League defenceman Austin Bourhis, 20, is back in the fold.
"He's big. He brings a lot to the hockey club," said Cassan.
While he has WHL experience to draw on, he also has "a lot of energy and enthusiasm," said the Terrier coach, adding he has a way of keeping his teammates lose, but "when it's time to get down to work, he does that too. He's got that physical edge and a good shot from the point."
Up next
The Terriers were scheduled to host Flin Flon last night (Tuesday), but results were not available at press time.
Thursday the Terriers travel to Melfort, before hosting LaRonge at the Farrell Agencies Arena in the city Saturday.
