The Weyburn Red Wings marched into Wilcox Tuesday evening and sent a message that was loud and clear, albeit to the last place team in the division.
That was a 7-1 drumming over the Norte Dame Hounds who have also fallen from grace in recent times.
The Wings could ill afford to lose to the Hounds Tuesday evening, which would have put them on the same footing and that's something the Wings wanted to avoid at all costs.
In a chippy game which saw the Wings assessed with 17 minutes worth of penalties and the Hounds with 25 minutes, all in the first two periods.
For the remainder of the game there wasn't another penalty from either team, whether from a divine intervention or referee Nathan Wieler's insistence.
Weyburn's Jesse Ross opened the scoring floodgates at the 14:23 mark of the opening period on a power play with help from Lucas Ulmer and Coltyn Sanderson.
Less than a minute later Sanderson on another power play made it a 2-0 contest with the help of his linemates Ulmer and Ross.
The Hounds did managed to spoil Mitch Kilgore's shutout hopes at 9:02 of the second period, but Kilgore would exact some revenge when he was credited with the assist on Weyburn's third goal from Blake Kirkham.
It wasn't until the third period when the Wings found their stride and scored four unanswered goals. Ryan Whitell started the drive at 5:39 of the final period with help from Shawn Cowie and Bruce Keegan. Next it was Brock Appleyard's turn to light the lamp with assists going to Scott Kirkham and TJ Wees at the 7:36 mark.
Taylor Ernst got into the scoring drive also when his shot found the back of the Hounds net at the 10:31 mark with helpers awarded to Cowie and Whitell.
It would be Bruce Keegan's turn to add to the scoreboard with the Wings seventh and final goal of the evening at the 13:37 mark, with Ernst garnering an assist for his part of the drive.
Weyburn was two for seven on the power play and Notre Dame was only one for seven on their tries.
Wings visit Klippers
The Weyburn Red Wings woes continue as their latest road trip is one the players would like to see fade into the distance.
Call it bad breaks or just a run of bad luck but the players know that this skid won't last for long, and the sooner the better according to lead players on the team who wish to remain anonymous.
"This weight can't hang around our necks too much longer and we hope our supporters will continue to hold onto their faith in us and that we will get the job done," said one player.
The Wings disappointing road swing began last Friday night when they took on the Kindersley Klippers after sitting cold for five days. Melville's "sick call" cancellation hurt the Weyburn players, as there was too much time to sit around and think of what would happen next.
The Wings needed to get back onto the ice and show they are still a force to be reckoned with.
The Wings welcomed the chance to get physical with the Klippers on the opening night of their three-game road swing. Brock Appleyard stunned the Kindersley crowd when he, along with Drew George and Jens Johnson, opened the scoring with just 58 seconds off the time clock.
But less than two minutes later Casey Rogers would even the score with a Klippers goal to make it a 1-1 contest.
Rodney Cowie would give the Wings their slim one goal lead back five minutes later in the first period with assists being awarded to brother Shawn and Scott Kirkham.
Kindersley would knot the game at two all in the dying seconds of the second period on a Taylor Duzan goal, which would send both teams to their respective dressing rooms knotted at 2-2.
That's when fate handed the Wings their first loss of the weekend when Braeden Adamyk would score the Klippers winning goal at the seven-minute mark of the final period making it a 3-2 game to this point. Johnny Calkins would add the final goal, unassisted at the 11:50 mark of the period making the final tally 4-2 in the Klippers favour.
Wings battle North Stars
In another relatively fast game (two hours, two minutes) the Wings were outgunned as Weyburn netminder Mitch Kilgore faced 35 shots on the evening while North Star netminder Kyle Birch faced only 24 shots from the Wings.
This time it would be the home team who would strike first as Keith Grondin would light the lamp first while on the power play at the 9:58 mark of the opening period.
Appleyard would even the score unassisted at the 16:15 mark of the same period, making it a 1-1 contest going into the second period.
But it would be Shayne Morrisey who would increase the Stars slim lead at the 1:57 mark of the second period.
Weyburn would continue to battle back when Shawn Cowie would draw the Wings even again with help from TJ Wees. This however would be the Wings last goal on the evening despite their best efforts to score on the Stars' netminder.
The third period brought more pain for the Wings as Blake Tatchell, unassisted, would take advantage of another power play situation and regain their lead.
Both teams would battle back and forth but luck has not been on the Wings side this trip and with less than 2 minutes remaining Travis Cech would make it a 4-2 game.
The Wings would pull Kilgore from their net in favour of another attacker but Kyle Hall would dash any hopes with an empty net goal with 20 seconds remaining in the game to make it a 5-2 game.
The Wings are in Yorkton on Thursday (Nov. 25) but due to press deadlines, results were not available. The Estevan Bruins will be in town on Saturday, November 27 followed by Kindersley on Tuesday, the 30th.
