The Yorkton Terriers lost a pair of road games on the weekend to even their season record at 3-3, good for six points.
The Terriers sit tied for second in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Sherwood Conference with Weyburn, two points back of Notre Dame and Estevan. Kindersley has four points, and Melville resides in the basement with three-points.
On Friday, the Icewolves led 1-0 after 20-minutes, went up 3-0 after two periods, then added one in the third to complete a 4-0 lead.
Warren Shymko was in the Terrier nets facing 51-shots in the loss.
Johney Cormier, Brett McNevin, Aaron Enns and Patrick Tran scored for the Icewolves.
Alex Rajotte earned the LaRonge shut-out facing 38-shots.
On Saturday, the Terriers had goals from Jeremy Johnson and Jamie Vlanich, but still lost 5-2 to the Icewolves.
Brodie Eisbrenner, Nathan Boyer, Patrick Tran, and Jordan Ethier, with a pair scored for LaRonge.
Kamil Przepiorka faced 45-shots in the Terrier nets for the loss, while Rajotte collected the win for the Icewolves.
"Actually their goalie played well both games," offered Terrier assistant coach Casey O'Brien. " He was a good goalie."
O'Brien said Rajotte is obviously aware of the live boards in his home rink and did a good job of smothering loose pucks, and "really helping his 'D' all the time."
The LaRonge defence also aided Rajotte keeping the Terriers to the perimetre.
"Our guys just couldn't get in there."
Yorkton also had difficulty getting to rebounds.
"We weren't creating second chances on our shots," said O'Brien, adding they can work on that. "Guys just have to direct the puck more to certain locations where we can create second chances."
O'Brien said Yorkton also looked tentative to start both games.
"The guys seemed a little nervous the first period of both games," he said.
As for the nine combined goals against, O'Brien said the guys did make some errors.
"They were small mistakes that are correctable," he said.
O'Brien said in spite of the goals against, both Terrier netminders played well. He added it's tough when a team scores on a three-on-one, and the powerplay, as LaRonge did Friday.
"Kamil played well," he said of Przepiorka's second start. "There were no goals where we can fault him. They sort of came off defensive breakdowns."
O'Brien also commented on Friday's goaltending effort, noting "Shymko played well."
While a win on the road would have been nice, O'Brien said no one needs to panic over the weekend results.
"It's early in the season. We're not panicking at all about anything," he said. "We just want to keep improving every day."
Up next
Yorkton was to play in Weyburn Tuesday, but results were not available at press time.
Tonight, (Wednesday) the Terriers are in Melfort. On the weekend, the Highway #10 rivalry heats up with Melville at the Farrell Agencies Arena, with the two teams back in action in Melville Saturday. Next Tuesday Yorkton is in Estevan.
