The first two games of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Sherwood Conference have been lopsided wins for the Yorkton Terriers.
Friday on Farrell Agencies Arena ice the Terriers took the series-opener 7-2, and, led by a Devin Peters shut-out performance, won 7-0 Saturday, again on home ice.
On Friday, Yorkton took a 2-0 lead after the opening period on goals by Riley Paterson and Robbie Ciolfi.
Spencer Braaten used the powerplay to draw Kindersley within one midway through the second before later goals by Brant Remenda and Clarke Breitkreuz extended the Terrier lead to 4-1 after 40 minutes.
In the third, Jesse Mysiorek scored short-handed for the Klippers, but it would be all Kindersley could muster as Paterson, Zak Majkowski and Craig Eisenhut rounded out Yorkton's scoring.
Peters faced 31-shots in earning the win, while Klipper Sean Cahill took the loss on 30 shots.
Paterson said the Terriers went into the game with confidence, and then "stuck to the game plan."
It helped that the Terriers were getting scoring from sources such as Paterson, who admitted it made things easier when you "get contributions from all the lines."
As for his own line, Paterson noted himself, Nathan Murray and Brenden Poncelet are "all pretty big," and they are as able to use that size to generate opportunities.
Two goals in the first certainly gave the home Terriers a comfort zone too.
"It was huge. It's always good to get that early lead," said Paterson.
While a 7-2 win looks good on the scoreboard, Terrier head coach Trent Cassan was downplaying the lopsided score after the game.
"This time of year you take a win any way you can get it," he said, adding that doesn't matter if it's 7-2, or 3-2.
And, in some ways, the game was closer than the score indicated, said Cassan.
"I thought we had them back on their heels in the first, but I thought in second they had us back on our heels," he said. "But even though we were outplayed (in the second) we did capitalize on some opportunities late in the period."
It helped too that Peters was solid in net.
"He was real good," said Cassan. "He was solid and strong and big."
As for someone like Paterson emerging as the game's first star with two goals, Cassan said he was not particularly surprised.
"I think guys have contributed all year in different ways," he said, adding it was good though "to see them rewarded for their hard work with some goals."
Cassan said the Terriers want "everyone to feel part of a victory," adding, "and everybody did tonight."
On Saturday, Yorkton's shooters chased Cahill from the Klipper net early, as he was hooked at the 8:07 mark of the first period after allowing three goals on 10 shots.
Justin McDonald would go the rest of the way, allowing four goals on 31 shots the rest of the way.
Meanwhile Peters stopped all 32 shots he faced on the night.
Offensively, Brenden Poncelet, Jeremy Boyer and Eisenhut each scored twice for the Terriers, with Ciolfi adding the single.
The shut out had Peters all smiles.
"It feels good to be back," said the Terrier netminder in only his third start after missing a month of action. "I started to get bored (just watching)."
While he did face 32 shots, Peters said for the most part they were shots from the outside thanks to how his team played in front of him. He said his defence is committed to looking after its own end first and "the forwards back-checked hard."
As for the two huge wins, Peters said he was not all that surprised.
"They're pretty good, but I'm not surprised at all. We're not here to fool around. We're here to win," he said, although he added the 14 goals were a bonus. "I didn't expect 14."
As was the case in Game 1, the third and fourth lines played big.
"If your third and fourth lines score goals like that, that's when you win games," said Peters.
Cassan again tried to under play the significance of a 7-0 score.
"Certainly it was two pretty strong games at home, but you don't get any more than two wins out of them," he said.
In Cassan's mind, the third period Saturday might have been the most important effort by the Terriers.
"Going into the third period we didn't want to allow them to take some positives out of the game," he said, adding preserving the shut-out was a goal the Terriers accomplished.
Cassan again noted Peters looked good.
"I thought Devin played very solid," he said.
When asked about Peters' comment on the efforts of his defence, Cassan said the Terriers are committed to team defence, led by the blueline.
"We have four 20-year-old defencemen who are pretty calm and composed and they play defence first," he said. "When we do have some breakdowns Petey's been there to shut the door."
The key after the game was not to get over confident as a result of the two wins.
"We talked about it, enjoy it for a bit, but you don't win a series with one game," said Cassan.
The Terriers were scheduled to play Game 3 of the series last night (Tuesday) in Kindersley, but results were not available at press time.
Game 4 goes tonight (Wednesday) in the Klippers barn.
Cassan said games three and four would not be easy.
"They play very well at home, and like we have been they've been very good at home," he said.
Game 5, if necessary, will be played at the Farrell Agencies Arena in Yorkton Friday, with Game 6, again if necessary, back in Kindersley Sunday, for a rare 6 p.m. start.
If the series goes the distance, Game 7 would be in Yorkton Tuesday, March 29.
