The 2015/16 麻豆传媒AV Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League (SSMHL) Midget division season can only get better for the Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers, as the young dogs dropped a pair of home games to open the campaign, losing 2-0 to Estevan on Saturday before dropping a 7-2 decision to Moose Jaw Sunday.
On Saturday Yorkton Kinsmen Terrier goaltender Carter Park stopped all but two of the shots he faced; however his counterpart Ethan Veroba did him one better stopping every Yorkton attempt on goal to give the Kinsmen Terriers a 2-0 shutout loss to the Estevan Apex Bruins.
However Kinsmen Terrier head coach Grant Ottenbreit told Yorkton This Week that it wasn鈥檛 his goaltender鈥檚 fault that the team lost the game.
Instead, a couple of mistakes combined with untimely penalties were the team鈥檚 downfall in their first game of the season. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to blame Carter for the loss because he gave us every opportunity to win,鈥� offered coach Ottenbreit. 鈥淗e helped put us in a position tonight to win. We were right there, but we made a couple mistakes that led to goals and then we had a couple of undisciplined penalties towards the end and that stung us.
鈥淲e had a 5-on-3 and ended up taking a penalty in their zone, then we took another one, so some undisciplined stuff we have to work on.鈥�
A day later and the Kinsmen Terriers once again came out on the wrong end of the score-line, falling 7-2 to the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors 7-2. This time it was Dakota Berezowski shouldering the loss for the Kinsmen Terriers letting in all seven Moose Jaw markers while Brodie Ottenbreit scored both of Yorkton鈥檚 goals in the loss.
Coach Ottenbreit said that the two losses come in large part due to the fact that the Kinsmen Terriers have had just two practices before their season-opening weekend. 鈥淲e only have two practices under our belts so far,鈥� mentioned the Kinsmen Terrier bench boss, adding that they also have a couple of key injuries. 鈥淲e also have two guys injured, two 17-year-olds weren鈥檛 in the lineup tonight so that hurts.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a really young team but I thought we had a really good showing for the amount of practice time we鈥檝e had.鈥�
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers will be tonight when the Kinsmen Terriers travel down Highway 10 to do battle with their SSMHL rivals the Melville Millionaires.
Yorkton will then host the Lumsden/Bethune Lions Friday night at at 7:30p.m. before wrapping up weekend play with a 4:00p.m. game against the visiting Prairie Storm. Both games are at the Yorkton Kinsmen Arena.
