The Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers came out of the gates slowly to open the 2015/16 SSMHL Midget 鈥楢A鈥� season, dropping back-to-back home games to Estevan and Moose Jaw.
But since then the 鈥楢A鈥� Terriers have went undefeated in their last three games, picking up a 2-2 tie in Melville last Wednesday before shutting out the Lumsden/Bethune Lions 6-0 on Friday and edging the Prairie Storm 3-2 on Sunday to move to 2-2-1 through the first five games of the season.
On Wednesday the Kinsmen Terriers needed 39 minutes and 58 seconds to finally put a puck past Melville goaltender Braidon Berezowski, as Jonah Sutter scored his first goal of the season with just two seconds left in the middle frame for a 1-0 Yorkton lead thru two periods.
Brodie Ottenbreit鈥檚 third goal in as many games made it 2-0 Yorkton just over three minutes into the third period, however a pair of late Melville goals, one each from Luke Nkwama and Jevon Schwean, brought the home side back even for an eventual 2-2 tie.
Yorkton鈥檚 Carter Park stopped 21-of-23 shots for the tie, while Melville鈥檚 Berezowski turned aside 18-of-20 Yorkton shots in the game. 鈥淚 think we outplayed Melville right from the start of the game,鈥� said Kinsmen Terrier head coach Grant Ottenbreit, adding that his guys are still adjusting to the Midget 鈥楢A鈥� level. 鈥淲e have guys learning new positions and stuff still, but I think we鈥檝e come a long ways from where we started.
鈥淚t鈥檚 tough to give up a two goal lead and we almost lost the game with 12 seconds left, but we still managed to get the tie.鈥�
Friday night the Kinsmen Terriers made sure that Lumsden wouldn鈥檛 be able to forge a late comeback like Melville did, taking the visiting Lions out of the game after just 20 minutes thanks in large part to a four goal first frame.
Mason Plews put the Terriers on the board just 1:27 into the game, putting the puck past Riley Christensen for a 1-0 Yorkton lead.
Reid Arnold鈥檚 first of the season made it 2-0, before Brodie Ottenbreit and Caden Durocher capped off a strong Yorkton first period with two more Kinsmen Terrier goals for a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes.
A pair of Carter Lake goals, one in both the second and third periods, rounded out the scoring for the Kinsmen Terriers in a 6-0 shutout win. Dakota Berezowski registered his first shutout of the 2015/16 season stopping all Lumsden/Bethune attempts, while Christensen shouldered the loss for the Lions.
Two days later and the Kinsmen Terriers were back at it, using a strong third period to squeak past the Prairie Storm 3-2 at Yorkton鈥檚 Kinsmen Arena on Saturday.
Bryce Hubick gave the visitors a 1-0 lead with nine seconds remaining in the opening frame, beating Park for his first goal of the season.
Drayden Haberman鈥檚 first of the year evened the game at one with 5:40 left in the second period as he found a way to beat Prairie Storm netminder Dallin Sorensen.
The Prairie Storm regained their one goal lead early in the third period when Thalon Kress snapped a shot past Park on the powerplay, but just two minutes later the Kinsmen Terriers once again tied the game when Colin MacDonald banged the puck past Sorensen to even the game at two.
Reid Arnold, wearing the captain鈥檚 鈥楥鈥� for the game, then gave Yorkton their first and only lead of the game midway through the final period when he tipped home the Carter Lake point blast to round out the scoring for a 3-2 Yorkton win.
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers (2-2-1) will be this weekend when they host the Notre Dame Argos (2-1-0) at the Farrell Agencies Arena on Saturday at 2:15p.m. and the Swift Current K-Motel Hurricanes (1-3-0) at 4:00p.m. Sunday afternoon at the Kinsmen Arena.
