The Yorkton Terriers picked up five of a possible six points last week to maintain their league-best record in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
The Terriers sit with a record of 18-5-1-3 for 40-points, six up on second place Melville with 34 in the Viterra Division.
Estevan sits third with 24 points, followed by Weyburn with 22.
The solid week's effort concluded when Melfort rolled into Yorkton Saturday to face the Terriers, and played the host team tight through a scoreless first two periods.
Devon McMullen finally broke the scoreless tie with a powerplay goal at 11:56 of the third for the Terriers.
Josh Ellis would add two empty-net goals late to complete a 3-0 win.
Kale Thomson recorded his second straight shut-out turning away 23 Mustang shots.
Austin Rediron was tagged with the loss for Melfort facing 42-shots.
Thomson said it feels good to put together back-to-back goose eggs.
"I'm seeing the puck out there," he said, adding "I have some pretty good D'-men in front of me Obviously they played pretty good in front of me."
In terms of shut-outs Thomson said back-to-back efforts are rather rare.
"I don't know if it's happened since my Bantam days, or something like that," he said.
That the game was so close, in spite of a 40-shot effort by the Terriers, and Thomson said he felt that.
"There's a little bit of added pressure," he said, adding that he felt there were "two, or three" key saves he made on the night.
In general terms Thomson said goaltenders want to face shots.
"It's nice to get a lot of shots off the start to feel the puck," he said.
Terrier head coach Trent Cassan said Thomson is playing steady.
"I don't know if I'd call it a groove," he said. "Every game this season he's just been very steady We just know what we're going to get every night. He's been very, very consistent all year."
Cassan said a goaltender succeeds not always by the number of saves.
"It's not the number of saves but the timing of them," he said.
As for 40-shots and only one goal, Cassan said they would obviously like to "have a little bit of separation," on the scoreboard, but a win, is a win.
Shoot-out Friday
The Terriers were in Weyburn Friday night, a night where the Wings would get out to a 2-0 lead through 20-minutes.
Josh Lees opened the scoring only 14-seconds into the game, with Matt Eng adding a second goal at 14:40.
Dylan Johnson gave Yorkton their first goal on the powerplay at 14:58 of the second.
Daylan Gatzke tied the game for the Terriers with a goal 1:45 into the third.
The game would remain knotted 2-2 through the remainder of regulation time, and then through the five-minute, four-on-four overtime.
Weyburn would finally secure the win in the shoot-out.
Riley Medves faced 31-shots in the loss for Yorkton, with Rylan Parenteau facing 32 in the Wings net for the win.
Last Tuesday action
Nov. 26, Yorkton travelled to Estevan for a game that proved rather short on offence as the two teams combined for only 37-shots and one goal.
Terrier Cortland Proctor scored 2:02 into the game, for the night's only marker.
Thomson would record the shut-out for the Terriers facing 22-shots, while Matt Gibney took the loss on a night he faced only 15-shots.
Terrier moves
The Terriers made some moves heading up to Dec. 1.
Nick Sandy was sent to Neepawa of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League for future considerations.
The Terriers also assigned forward Brayden Schmidt to Pilot Butte in Junior 'B".
Up next
The Terriers will host Nipawin at the Farrell Agencies Arena Friday, and head to Estevan for action Tuesday.
