The Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers are playing their best hockey at a time where they need as many points as possible if they want to remain in a playoff position in the very tight SSMHL Midget Division.
The Kinsmen Terriers let a single point elude them last Wednesday, allowing the Prairie Storm to score with 40 seconds left in a 3-3 tie. Josh Rohatynsky scored twice for Yorkton in the draw while Brodie Ottenbreit had the other Terrier marker.
Jacob Piller, Dylan Thackeray and Nathan Kuntz tallied for the Prairie Storm.
Friday鈥檚 game saw the second place Estevan Apex Bruins visit the Farrell Agencies Arena.
Wyatt Bayliss put the visitors on the board in the first period with a shot that found its way past Dakota Berezowski, however the Kinsmen Terriers responded not long after as chippy first-year defenceman Carter Lake wired the puck past Ethan Veroba for his 12th goal of the season and a 1-1 tie through 20 minutes.
Estevan regained their one goal lead midway through the middle frame as Kale Martens put the puck past Berezowski on the power play, but two quick goals by Yorkton 鈥� one each for Ashton Shewchuk and Brodie Ottenbreit 鈥� made it 3-2 Yorkton after two periods.
A strong third period by the Berezowski and the Yorkton defence ensured that Estevan would not find a way to even the score in the final 20 minutes, thereby giving Yorkton the 3-2 win. 鈥淲e knew that they had outplayed us in the first period of every game so far this year so we knew we had to come out strong,鈥� said Kinsmen Terrier head coach Grant Ottenbreit following the game. 鈥淲e needed the boys to stay focused and they did a great job and they pulled out a 60-minute effort there to beat Estevan.鈥�
One day later and the Kinsmen Terriers were back in action. This time the Weyburn Lightstream Wings were the opponent; a team that Yorkton had tied with the previous three times they played.
Matthew Anderson gave the Wings an early 1-0 lead just 1:46 into the first period.
The Anderson goal held up until just past the midway point of the second period when Yorkton鈥檚 Nicholas Demchuk banged a rebound past Weyburn net minder Talen King to tie the game at one.
Reid Arnold made it 2-1 Yorkton five minutes later with his 10th goal of the campaign before Jordan Repsch鈥檚 seventh goal of the season rounded out all the offence in the game for a 3-1 Yorkton win.
The two wins move Yorkton (11-13-10) into sixth place in the SSMHL Midget Division, three back of the fifth place Notre Dame Argos (17-10-1) and one point ahead of seventh place Weyburn (11-11-9).
The Notre Dame Bantam Hounds (24-4-1) lead the league with 49 points, Estevan (19-8-6) is second with 44 while the Notre Dame Hounds (16-7-5) and Regina Rangers (17-10-3) share third and fourth with 37 points.
Melville (12-14-5) rounds out the playoff position teams with 29 points while the Prairie Storm (11-11-6) and Regina Vics are both just one point out of the playoffs with 28.
The Kinsmen Terriers will be back in action this weekend when they travel to Balgonie (Saturday) and Wilcox (Sunday) to play the Prairie Storm and the Notre Dame Hounds.
