We need to find a way to score more goals.
鈥� Grant Ottenbreit
Kinsmen Terriers coach
The Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers opened the 2016 SSMHL Midget Division calendar year with a pair of games this past weekend, first taking on the Estevan Apex Bruins in Carlyle on Saturday before travelling to Lumsden on Monday to do battle with the Lumsden/Bethune Lions.
Saturday鈥檚 game saw the Kinsmen Terriers struggle early and often against the second place Bruins, as both Matt Bill and Josh Skjonsby scored for Estevan in the first period for a 2-0 Bruins lead.
Yorkton kept the game close in the second period as goaltender Carter Park kept his team in the game, but two more Estevan goals in the third frame 鈥� one each by Mitchell Morrison and Preston Brodziak 鈥� gave the Bruins the 4-0 lead.
Brayden Miller鈥檚 sixth of the season with 12:30 left in the game broke the Ethan Veroba shutout bid, but that was the only offence for the Kinsmen Terriers on the night as they fell 4-1 to the Bruins.
Following the game Kinsmen Terrier head coach Grant Ottenbreit said that his team couldn鈥檛 recover from a lacklustre first period, despite putting together strong second and third frames. 鈥淲e had a bit of a slow start but then controlled play more in the second and third periods,鈥� offered Ottenbreit, adding that he felt the slow start was in large part due to injuries. 鈥淲e had two centremen injuried in Estevan and Ashton Shewchuk (nine goals, nine assists) was still out so we had a short bench.鈥�
Ottenbreit then mentioned that injuries or not, that鈥檚 no excuse to not score more than one goal a game. 鈥淲e need to find a way to score a few more goals,鈥� said Ottenbreit, continuing, 鈥淏ecause defensively we鈥檙e pretty good.鈥�
Monday鈥檚 game saw the Kinsmen Terriers find the back of the net two more times while limiting the Lumsden/Bethune Lions to just one goal of their own to skate away as 3-1 victors.
Luke Schappert, Josh Rohatensky and Carter Lake scored for Yorkton in the win, however the Kinsmen Terriers could have certainly had more if not for the heroic effort by Riley Christiansen, who stopped 69-of-72 Yorkton shots in the game.
The two results leave the Kinsmen Terriers with a record of 8-12-7 and ninth place in the 14-team SSMHL Midget Division, one back of both the Regina Capitals (10-10-4) and Regina Vics (10-12-4), who each have 24 points to hold down the final two playoff spots.
The Notre Dame Bantam Hounds (22-2-1) lead the way with 45 points, Estevan (14-6-6) is second with 34 while the Regina Rangers (14-8-3) and Notre Dame Hounds (12-6-5) round out the top four with 31 and 29 points respectively.
Fifth place belongs to the Notre Dame Argos (14-9-0) with 28 points and Weyburn (9-10-7) is sixth with 25.
Moose Jaw (10-12-2) and Melville (9-11-4) have 22 points to share tenth, the Prairie Storm have 21 for 12th while Swift Current (7-15-1) and Lumsden/Bethune (0-24-1) round out the standings with 15 points and one point for 13th and 14th place.
Next action
The Kinsmen Terriers were scheduled to play the Melville Millionaires yesterday (Tuesday), however results were unavailable at press time. The next action for the Kinsmen Terriers will be this weekend when they take on the Notre Dame Argos in Wilcox Saturday evening before going to Weyburn the following afternoon to battle the Lightstream Wings.
