The Weyburn Red Wings have concluded their pre-season games with a road trip to take on the Hounds of Notre Dame on September 14 and a visit from Briercrest College Monday Sept. 13th. at Crescent Point Place in Weyburn.
WINGS ON THE ROAD
This meeting with the Hounds showed that Weyburn could be the disciplined team on the ice and take advantage of costly penalties.
The Wings would strike four times in the opening period with their first two goals coming on the power play. Shawn Cowie would open the scoring drive with assists to Dylan Coupal and T.J. Wees at the 9:52 mark of the first period. Daniel Adams would strike next with help from Keegan Bruce and Coupal at the 10:08 mark. Zane Weal would score Weyburn's third goal unassisted at the 15:01 mark and Bruce would end the Wing's scoring drive with their fourth at the 13:21 mark of the opening period with help from Jens Johnson and Cowie.
The Hounds would counter with their own power play goal at the 13:35 mark of the second period when Carson Grolla found the back of the Weyburn net.
The Wings would go into the third period with a 4-1 lead and Drew George would add to the lead with Weyburn's fifth goal unassisted.
But N.D.'s Grolla would once again cut into Weyburn's lead when he scored the Hounds second goal at 10:88 of the third period. The Hounds appeared to be mounting a come back when Ajay Moore picked-up their third goal on the evening but it was too little, too late when Kyle Vogal of Weyburn drove the final dagger into the heart of the Hounds at the 18:56 mark of the final period unassisted. This gave the Wings a 6-3 victory over their rivals.
WINGS SCHOOL BRIERCREST COLLEGE
Bill Crawford of the Briercrest Clippers might have thought this was going to be an easy game when he scored at the 45-second mark of the opening game, but the Wings had other thoughts on their minds.
Weyburn answered back ten minutes later in the opening period on a Lucas Ulmer goal with helpers awarded to Adams and Kevin Mann to even the score at 1-1.
It wouldn't be until the third period when the Wings ignited with a three-goal scoring drive in a one-minute time frame to crush a shocked Clippers squad.
Weal opened the scoring at the 4:21 mark with assists going to Ryan Whitell and Brock Appleyard. Twenty seconds later Coupal along with George and Shawn Cowie made it a 3-1 contest.
Adams would deliver the final blow for Weyburn when he along with Mann and Ulmer finished the scoring drive for Weyburn at the 5:51 mark of the closing period with their fourth goal.
In the dying moments the Clippers made it a 4-2 contest on the power play when Jarren Schultz scored the college's final goal.
The coaching staff are happy with the results but realize this is only the beginning of the season and there are many hills to climb and miles to travel before they can think about this year's play-off rounds.
WINGS VS HOUNDS AT HOME
With only a limited amount of veteran hockey players taking to the ice on both benches, Wings and Hounds hopefuls showed their respective coaches what they were made of.
The Hounds showed early on that theirs would be a chippy-team this season as they opened the game in Weyburn with the first three penalties. The Hounds were however rewarded shortly after killing their second penalty when Pavlo Zerebecky snuck one past Wing's netminder Mark Zoerb to make it a 1-0 contest at the 8:29 mark of the first period.
Weyburn would find itself in penalty trouble, but a strong penalty-kill squad kept the Hounds from increasing their slim lead. A Notre Dame turnover deep in the Hounds end resulted in Weyburn's Justin Dalebozik finding the back of a surprised Hound's netminder Russel Abbott's net, to knot the game at 1-1 with just minutes left in the first period.
Weyburn would successfully kill off a penalty to start the second period and Rod Cowie would be rewarded with the Wing's second goal at the nine minute mark of the period. Shawn Cowie and Keegan Bruce picked up assists on the Wing's second goal. Halfway through the game the Wings put in Lucas Felbel as their second goalie to test his metal.
The home team would go on to increase their lead to 3-1 at the 17 minute mark with a powerful screen shot, which found the back of N.D.'s net once again from Dylan Coupal and assists being awarded to Kevin Morrison and Jack Emmer,
With new SJHL regulations this season regarding "hits to the head" and "boarding" infractions, there are certain to be many extra trips to the sin-bin in order to protect players' well being. Weyburn was the first to find this out during this game and the Hounds took quick advantage of the Wing's penalty for boarding and drew within one goal. Hound Ajay Moore made it a 3-2 contest to this point.
The third period was a series of rushes into both ends as all players were eager to please their respective coaches, but Weyburn would strike again when Dalebozik, Drew George and Coupal made it a 4-2 game. But Weyburn's woes weren't finished yet as they tested out the boarding laws again with N.D.'s Trevor Cameron closing the gap to 4-3.
Weyburn's line of Zane Weal, George and Brock Appleyard came up with the puck on a broken Hounds play and increased the Wing's lead to 5-3 with three minutes remaining in the game. Weyburn was then called for too-many players as one player had one skate on the ice and the other on the bench, which caught the attention of Wing's General Manager Ron Rumball up in the press box. The evening's referee must have felt the cold stares and heard the catcalls from those in attendance and quickly evened the playing field by assessing the Hounds a high-sticking penalty. The penalty binge didn't end there, as the referee appeared to take an instant disliking to Weyburn in the final three minutes of the game. Notre Dame would strike once more on the power play with 32 seconds remaining on the clock. Hounds Todd Christian would bring his team to within one goal of tying the game but be that as it may, Weyburn soldiered-on and came out with a 5-4 win to a fast pre-season game in front of a sparse hometown crowd.
The Wings open the regular season with seven away games while Crescent Point Place puts its final finishes on renovations. The season opener is Saturday against the Yorkton Terriers followed by a trip to Flin Flon for games on the 24th and 25th. The first home game of the 2010-2011 season will be October 8 against Estevan.
