The opening volleys of this Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season's Highway 10 battle went to Melville on the weekend.
The Millionaires won both ends of a home-and-home set with Yorkton to regain top spot in the Viterra Division.
The Mills sit with 11 points, followed by Yorkton and Estevan both with identical 3-5-0-1 records for seven points. Weyburn remains basement-bound with four points.
Action Friday night in Yorkton started off tight, with neither team managing a goal in the opening frame.
Zach Zadorozniak finally put the home team on the board with his first of the season, 5:04 into the second, the unassisted goal coming on the powerplay.
Allen Kilback responded with a Mills' goal at 8:57 to tie the game 1-1.
Landon Farrell would then give Melville the lead with a goal at 12:18. The marker would prove the game-winner as no one scored the rest of the way.
Trevor Martin had the win in the Melville net facing 37-shots, while Dawson MacAuley faced 30, including a penalty shot with three seconds left in the opening period, and was tagged with the loss.
While not coming in a win, Zadorozniak said it felt good to get his first goal of the season. He said he feels him and linemates Daylan Gatzke and Riley Hunt are "jelling" as a line and that is meaning increased scoring chances.
Zadorozniak said the Terriers just didn't put in a full effort on home ice.
"We had a good starting in the first," he said, but was quick to add the team "has got to come hard for a full 60-minutes."
Zadorozniak said the Terriers have a lot of new faces from last season, so it is taking some time to come together. He said the first step is getting down to a full 60-munue effort every night.
Defensively, the Terriers have kept themselves in games, they have allowed 26-goals over nine games, but goals have been hard to come by.
"We've got to find ways to score some more," said Zadorozniak.
Terrier head Trent Cassan said the Terriers made some strides on the week.
"It's been an improvement," he said, adding while they lost on home ice, the team was putting out a better effort than in some of their games earlier in the season. " It's been a better effort the last couple of games."
Cassan added as a team they can't expect to turn things around in a simple game, or week, but at least he saw some steps forward to build on.
"It's not going to change in two, or three days. (But) we had some very good shifts, and some were a little inconsistent," he said.
Cassan said the Terriers had a good first period where they "made some good decisions", but in the second frame Melville managed to win more of the battles.
A night later the teams matched up in Melville.
The Terriers again struck first as Kailum Gervais scored the only goal of the first period.
Zadorozniak made it 2-0 for the visitors 11:12 into the second.
However, it took Melville only 25 seconds to get back into the contest as Greyson Reitmeier scored an unassisted Mills goal.
Cole Berreth then knotted the game 2-2 with a powerplay goal at 13:44.
In the third Drew Litwin completed the Melville comeback with a goal 12:28 into the final stanza.
Troy Trombley was in the Mills net for the win, facing 28-shots, while MacAuley took the loss for Yorkton facing 25.
Wednesday win
The Humboldt Broncos, coming off a 5-0 win over the Terriers a few days early in Humboldt, were in Yorkton for action last Wednesday (Oct. 8).
The game would be a scoreless affair until late into the second period when Dylan Johnson would score at 16:33 on the powerplay.
The Terriers would hold the one-goal margin until 19:37 of the third when Riley Hunt added an insurance marker.
Dawson MacAuley would earn the shut out facing 28-shots. Including turning away Connor Swystun on a penalty shot midway through the third.
Up next
The Terriers are scheduled to host LaRonge at the Farrell Agencies Arena Friday, and then head south to face Weyburn Saturday.
