There was an awful lot of scoring over the weekend at Yorkton Kinsmen Arena.A lot more than usual.
One game went their way, the other didn't.
On Friday evening in front of a sparse crowd at the Kinsmen, the Yorkton Bulldogs pounded out 12 goals against the Estevan Big Dogs.
Two days later however, it was a sadly different sight as the visiting Regina Riot nearly caused a riot, beating Yorkton into the ground by the end of the second period and winning by a final score of 11-4.
The 1-1 weekend results drops the Bulldogs record to 1-4.
If the Bulldogs can pound out a few more games where they hit doubledigit figures on the scoreboard, then this team will be laughing their way to the top of the standings.Unfortunately, coach Joe Choptuik does not see that being the case.
He said it was good to record the team's first win of the season but noted that it happened to come against the league's worst team.
"Estevan is one of the weaker teams in the league," he said inside the dressing room.Also on the upside was Yorkton's power play efficiency, which saw them score goals on three of 12 opportunities.
It may have been the first time ever that Yorkton's Junior B lacrosse team scored more times with their own man in the box instead of the other team's player(s).
Justin Genaille, Dalton Bakke and Brendon Turberfield each scored with a teammate in the penalty box.
Genaille's goal came with 1:02 left to play in the opening period and sent the teams to the dressing rooms with the locals out ahead comfortably, 4-1.
Brandon Wizniak opening the scoring at 13:03 from Genaille and Turberfield. Estevan tied it at 8:53 from Marshall Holzer.
Goals by Turberfield, Genaille and Wizniak's second of the period put Yorkton ahead 4-1 at the break. Turberfield and Geoff Jones each had a pair of assists.
In the second period, Turberfield scored his second goal of the game, Jones scored his first and Bakke added a shorthanded marker at 10:36 to make it 7-1.
Estevan got one back 45 seconds into the third when Trey Bernhardt scored unassisted, but Jones' second of the night made it 8-2. Estevan replied with a River Lafferty goal before the Bulldogs rounded out the scoring with four tallies; two by Turberfield and Zach Soke with back-to-back goals in the final two minutes of play.
He said he's looking to get that similar goal output against the other teams that make up the Prairie Gold Lacrosse League. He added that the 11-4 beating his team took in their most recent outing at Kinsmen wasn't quite indicative of the way the game played itself out.
Yorkton tends to come out soft early in the game and then get stronger and generate scoring opportunities as the game goes on. Against the Riot, Choptuik said, it seemed to go the exact opposite.
"It actually wasn't one of our worst games," he claimed. "Regina's a more competitive team."
He went on to explain that in this particular meeting, the game seemed to go in a different direction.
"The second period...it went the other way."
Yorkton also got into bad penalty trouble in the middle frame which did nothing to help.
Despite the lopsided score, in which Regina scored five times in the middle frame, it added to a 4-3 advantage Regina held by the start of the period; Choptuik isn't worried about when the Riot return to Yorkton for a rematch later this month.
"We just can't play in the penalty box," he said, referring to the eight calls they were charged with in that woeful second period.
