The rookies trying out for a starting position with the Weyburn Red Wings are forcing the coaches to make some very difficult decisions as the pre-season winds down this week.

In the past week, the Wings split a home-and-home pair of games with their arch-rivals, the Estevan Bruins, winning by 7-3 at home before dropping a 5-4 decision on Wednesday evening in Estevan.

Hosting the Melville Millionaires at the Colosseum on Friday evening, the Wings began a string of three consecutive wins by defeating the Money Men by 4-1.

Travelling to Yorkton on Saturday, the Wings went nearly three minutes into overtime to defeat the Terriers 4-3, and on Monday night they defeated Notre Dame 6-3 in Wilcox.

As these are exhibition games, the coaches are using them to try out their prospective rookies, with 38 still in training camp, said general manager Ron Rumball.

"They're a good, hard-working group of rookies with a fair deal of hockey sense and ability to read the play, and generally they seem to be playing quite well We're under a lot of pressure right now because of the high number of players we have in camp," said Rumball.

The coaches hope to whittle the training camp size down to 27 players by the time the regular season opens on Sept. 17.

Meanwhile the coaches will be watching how the players act and react in game situations, evaluating their skill level and how they handle physical situations in games, he said. Due to the exhibition schedule, coaches can't bear down to work on skill development until after the regular season starts.

"You do more playing than practising, and that's one of the down-sides of this time of year. You don't work on your power plays and penalty-killing," said Rumball. "The games are good, they allow you to see how well they understand the game. There's a lot more pressure playing exhibition games than in inter-squad games."

The decision to trim the roster won't be easy to make this year, added the general manager, and the cuts will mean releasing players with good talent.

"I think we'll be very competitive with a lot of good hustle. Hopefully we'll be able to produce more scoring this year, which is sorely needed in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League these days," said Rumball.

In the home game on Friday, the Wings opened scoring at 1:38 in the first and added a second less than a minute later to take a quick jump in the lead. Weyburn outshot the Millionaires 34-24 in a game that featured several bouts on the ice.

In Yorkton, the Terriers outshot Weyburn 47-32, but strong goaltending kept Weyburn in the match. Mike Weisgerber led the way in scoring, notching a goal and a pair of assists. The other goals came from Emery Olavson, Shawn McCarthy and Matt Krepps.

The game was tied at the end of the second period and remained that way until the end of regulation time; the winning goal was scored at 2:56 into overtime.

In the Labour Day game at Notre Dame, the Wings doubled the Hounds 6-3 in what was described as a chippy match where both teams received 10 minor penalties and six majors.

The top scorers in this match again included Weisgerber with a goal and an assist, along with a pair of goals from Rhett Ballard and three assists from Serge Sinicin. The other goals were scored by Chad Nicholson, Mike Costley and John Ginenvso.

The Red Wings only have three exhibition games to round out the pre-season. They host the Notre Dame Hounds tonight, Sept. 8, at the Colosseum with a 7 p.m. game time. On Friday they travel to Yorkton, and the final exhibition match is Sunday evening in Melville.

The Red Wings will have five days to trim the roster down to 27 players and begin practising for the regular season, which opens on Friday, Sept. 17 in Yorkton. The home-opener will be the next day, Sept. 18, as they host the Lebret Eagles, starting at 7:30 p.m.