As of press time Thursday morning the Weyburn Red Wings should have been in a 2-2 tie with the Kindersley Klippers. But as fate would have it the Wings have to make an uphill climb to get things done.
Tuesday night was no different as the Wings dominated the game but lost the battle in a second-overtime period contest where the Klippers ended the game at the 14-second mark of the fifth period.
Weyburn's Blake Kirkham opened the Wings' scoring drive at the 4:56 mark of the first period with help from Coltyn Sanderson and Brock Appleyard, which would even the score at 1-1.
With just over a minute remaining in the opening period Keegan Bruce along with Scott Kirkham and Drew George would get the go-ahead goal on a powerplay drive.
Weyburn controlled the game and even scored twice more in regulation time but an inattentive officiating crew called back two goals and allowed a Klippers' goal much to the displeasure of the 800 fans in attendance and caused the Wings to go down 3-0 in the opening playoff round.
Wings show true grit
Those 600 fans that came out to Wednesday night's contest got to see the real Weyburn Red Wings in action as Tanner McCall opened the scoring on a powerplay drive with help from Brentt Becker and Blake Kirkham.
The Wings never looked back from that point on as they continued to hammer Klippers veteran netminder, Sean Cahill until he was pulled from the net after Weyburn had figured how to get the puck past Cahill.
Drew George was next to step up and deliver for Weyburn along with Keegan Bruce as they made it a 2-0 game going into the second period.
The Klippers still were reeling from a first period trouncing and they couldn't pull out of this nose-dive while Weyburn continued to control the play at both ends of the ice. Weyburn rang the puck off the post and were a hair within scoring on other drives but it would be Blake Kirkham along with Tanner McCall and Jesse Ross who would score the Wings' third goal and put the game out of reach for the visiting Klippers who were stunned and flat-footed by the Wings' dominance.
Kirkham would add the Wings' final goal at the 8:15 mark of the second period with help from Bruce on the powerplay to make it a 4-0 contest to this point. Weyburn had a rash of penalties and trips to the sin-bin. But despite the ear-splitting objections from the crowd on many of the calls it would be Weyburn's Mitch Kilgore who stood tall in his net and chased away every shot directed his way.
That is until the third period when Braeden Adamyk picked up a loose puck while Weyburn was on the powerplay and broke netminder Kilgore's hopes for a shutout at the 3:01 mark of the final period.
This goal gave hope to the Klippers and they started to press Weyburn who at times were caught off guard until Wings' coach Dwight McMillan called a time out and calmed his troops.
With over 1:35 left in the contest the Klippers pulled their back-up goaltender Justin McDonald in favor of another attacker on the ice. This would be the Wings' netminder Kilgore's finest moments between the pipes as he was assaulted with shots from in close and far away to try and draw nearer. Kilgore stood firm and kept everything out of his net and handed his team new life and a chance at continuing their drive in the SJHL playoffs.
Game five will now be played on Friday, March 12 in Kindersley then game six will be back in Weyburn on Sunday March 13 at Crescent Point Place at 7:30 p.m.
