In what turned out to be an awesome second period, the Yorkton Junior Bulldogs could only settle for a tie in a game most on the team felt they should have won.
Last week in Regina, the Bulldogs had one of their goals credited to the other team and lost; this past Saturday, they were guilty of letting an extra point slip away in the standings and settled for a 10-10 tie when they hosted the Moose Jaw Mustangs.
Zack Soke had another strong game for the Bulldogs, pumping out two goals and two assists, said Joe Choptuik, Bulldogs head coach.
Despite the strong showing in the middle frame, Choptuik wasn't the least bit impressed that his team could not hold onto the lead.
Moose Jaw scored the equalizer to make it 10-10 with less then five minutes remaining in regulation. Prairie Gold Lacrosse League games do not enter overtime during the regulation, says Choptuik, due to time restraints on floor rental, he added.
Against Moose Jaw, he wasn't happy and he let everybody know it, too.
"Not this year," he responded when asked if Moose Jaw was a strong club this year.
"We can't let them score so many," he added. "A tie isn't a loss, but it's not a win, either," he pointed out.
With a season schedule already short, it makes victories even harder to come by.
He added that Moose Jaw got a couple goals they probably shouldn't have scored.
"This game's never over (however)," he said of the sport's tendency to usually come down to the last several minutes to determine a winner.
"I thought we'd win this one," he said. "For awhile in the first (period), we were just giving the ball (right) back (to them)."
Yorkton's Dalton Bakke, who had spent some time playing lacrosse in Moose Jaw's minor system, was at a loss for words when asked what happened to let the Mustangs back into it.
"I don't know," he said, but did note that it was a "disappointing ending" to see the visitors score to tie the game up.
There was over five minutes left following that goal, but both team's goaltenders played well enough; Yorkton's Louden Choptuik stood on his head for the remainder and was the difference in keeping Moose Jaw from making it 11-10.
"We played tough. We came out hard and they didn't," said Bakke
He added that "yeah, it is" tough to have to settle for a tie regardless what the score happens to be, as there was no winner decided from the game.
The middle frame also saw one of the more heated exchange of fists when Tyson Haas and Moose Jaw's Riley Bridges couldn't take any more of each other and a scramble broke out. A Mustangs player knocked Soke to the ground and tried to cross check him when he was already down before Haas and Bridges got involved and went at it for a good couple minutes.
Both players were slapped with five minute majors to go along with game misconducts.
In the second game of the homestead, Yorkton got what they needed more then anything else, two points in the standings and possibly a small jump up in the PGLL standings.
Coach Choptuik commented that it's the team's "first official win" referring back to their May 19 game in Regina where a Soke goal was put under the home side score, which helped result in Regina winning the game on a goal they didn't score.
"It was a good weekend for us," he said of the present win, a 16-7 beating over Estevan. Yorkton took the lead and never looked back.
For the second straight home game, Yorkton played well in the second period. After scoring four in the first period and four in the third period, they had seven the middle frame. Soke scored twice and added two assists in that period, after recording one assist in the first.
Bakke and Justin Genaille also scored twice in the second.
