A pair of home ice wins have kept the Yorkton Terriers in control of second place in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Sherwood Conference.
The Terriers have 61 points based on a record of 28-19-2-3, trailing first place Weyburn with 72 points.
Melville sits third with 58 points, and one game in-hand.
Estevan is fourth with 54, followed by Notre Dame with 37.
Kindersley is out of the playoff picture in the basement with 26 points.
With Dawson MacAuley putting in a 14-shot shut-out in the Terrier nets, Yorkton put up a 3-0 home ice win over Melfort Friday.
Tayler Thompson, Kyle McLeod and Brent Struble accounted for the Terrier offense as Yorkton had 46-shots on losing goaltender Patrick Johnson. Struble said the win Friday was also a bit of redemption for the Terriers who lost 3-0 the last time the teams met.
"It (the previous loss) came up in the pre-game meeting," he said, adding the team was not happy with its performance in the earlier game.
Johnson certainly kept the Mustangs in the game, but Struble said facing good goaltending is part of the game.
"That's how playoffs are," he said, adding he'd still rather have the team generating 44-shots rather than 20.
Last Wednesday
The Terriers hosted Flin Flon last Wednesday, rolling over the visiting Bombers, 7-1.
The Terriers were out to a 3-0 lead, two goals by Curtis Oliver and one by Tyler Giebel, before Bomber Brandt Weldon scored on the powerplay at 18:22 of the first.
However Zak Majkowski would add a fourth Terrier goal 30-seconds later to send the home team to the dressing room up 4-1 after 20-minutes.
Giebel and Kallum Gervais would make it 6-1 after two periods.
In the third, Giebel would complete his hat trick, and scoring on the night, completing a 7-1 Terrier win.
Warren Shymko was in the Terrier net facing 28-shots in the victory.
Following Friday's win, Struble said the Terriers needed a good week.
"It's been huge. Estevan's not that far behind us," he said, adding Melville has a couple of games in-hand on the Terriers too. As a result every win is big in the pursuit of second place and home ice until the Sherwood final.
Terrier coach Trent Cassan said he is less focused on second place, and simply wants to stay in the top-three and avoid having to play in the survivor series.
"We kind of control where we finish if we take care of our games," he said. The Terriers have only six regular season games left on the schedule. " We have to take care of our end of things."
Two wins on the week was part of that goal.
"It was a good week for us," he admitted. "Obviously we want to win our home games."
That said, Cassan wouldn't put his team's target too high.
"I'd say top-three right now," he said, adding he doesn't believe Estevan has gotten the respect they deserve in the Conference, as local fans have been focused on the expectation of Yorkton and Melville meeting in the playoffs.
In terms of the Bruins "I think they've always been right there. We can't count the team out They're a good team."
That the Terriers had the killer instinct to finish off the Bombers after an early lead, and found redemption against the Mustangs shows maturity, saidCassan, adding you have to put teams away when you get ahead.
"We've got to start doing that every night," he said.
Up next
The Terriers were scheduled to host Battlefords at the Farrell Agencies Arena last night (Tuesday), but results were not available at press time. Tonight, the Terriers travel to Estevan, and Saturday are in Wilcox to play Notre Dame.
On Sunday, the Terriers will host LaRonge for a 6 p.m. start.
