After jumping out of the gate to open the 2000-2001 season the Weyburn Red Wings received a double dose of reality as the Melville Millionaires took both ends of the weekend home-and-home series.

The Money Men dominated Friday's contest at the Colosseum as they took an early lead when Mike Markell opened the scoring at 3:43 of the first period. Graham Dearle, Jean-Francois Verret and Trevor Hitchings followed as they each added singles to put Melville comfortably in front 4-0. Mike Costley put the Red Wings on the board with his second of the season with just 40 seconds remaining in the middle period.

Melville extinguished any momentum the Red Wings may have picked up with their late goal as Thomson buried his fourth of the season past Terry Denike.

Weyburn's Matt Bothwell with his second and newcomer Preston Briggs, with his first SJHL marker, rounded out the scoring in the 5-3 Red Wings loss.

Out-shot for the second time in as many games, a defensive breakdown contributed heavily to the Wings' early deficit. Denike stopped 30 of 35 shots in the loss.

"We had trouble helping the defencemen," said fourth-year Weyburn forward Christian Cote. "We weren't back-checking enough. We didn't help our defencemen, they were by themselves the whole time."

McMillan said the lack of forward help on the back check and an ineffective penalty-killing unit seemed to make them vulnerable to the veteran latent Melville squad.

"I thought five-on-five, we played with them and at times outplayed them," said McMillan. "Where they beat us was their power play was working better than our power play and they have more veterans, which at this time of the year will help them.

"There are a number of things we have to work on: our defensive game and our penalty killing. The good thing out of the game in Melville was our penalty-killing in the last half of the game got really good and the boys started reading what was happening, and that's just experience," said McMillan.

The Millionaires continued to roll the following night as the two teams made the trip north to Melville.

Like the night before Melville jumped out to an early lead they would not relinquish. After Lincoln Beaudry netted his first of the season to open the scoring 2:39 into the game, the Millionaires took advantage of a Steve Seghers holding penalty as Carter Thomson notched his fifth of the early season on the power play.

The Red Wings, not to be totally outdone, clawed their way back with a pair of their own power play goals starting with Christian Cote's second of the year at 17:48 of the first and Jeff Cameron's first of the season at 9:15 of the second.

Nathan Erick lit the lamp 19 seconds apart.

Dearle put the game away with his second goal in as many nights as he sent Weyburn to the second intermission down 4-3.

Thomson and Mike Markell each added insurance goals in the final frame to guarantee the Melville sweep.

McMillan knows there is still a lot of work needed to be put in if the Red Wings hope to repeat last year's south division title, but he is confident he has pinpointed the early problems.

"Where they put us in the hole both games was on the power play. That's where they seemed to always pull ahead of us, on the power play and then put us behind the eight-ball," said McMillan. "There was a lack of communication, that's where we got mixed up on a couple goals, not knowing who is taking who and the system is not in there yet."

In his first action of the season, Schenectady, N.Y.'s Mike Rockwell stopped 17 of the 23 shots the Millionaires fired at him in the finale of the two-game set.

The Red Wings are back in action Friday as they kick-off a grueling three games in three nights road trip in Kindersley before travelling to Battlefords and Humbolt the following nights.

In trimming down their roster, the Red Wings sent Teague Willets-Kelly to the Yorkton Terriers for future consideration. Last season the State College, Penn., native posted four goals and 39 penalty minutes in 20 games.

other moves from around the SJHL, the Estevan Bruins shored up their blue line by acquiring six-foot-three, 200-pound Steve Gehlen from the Lebret Eagles in exchange for future considerations.

Gehlen should add even more toughness to the league's most-penalized team. Last season Gehlen recorded two assists and 87 penalty minutes in 57 games with the Eagles. This season Gehlen recorded one assist in two contests with Lebret.

As well the Nipawin Hawks transferred the playing rights of list player Andrew Tarala to the Battlefords' North Stars for the right to five-foot-11, 190-pound defenceman Darren Holland. Last season Holland, a Brandon, Man. native, recorded one assist and two penalty minutes in four games.

In other news the Estevan Bruins announced last season's all-star defenceman, Prestin Ryan, accepted a full scholarship to attend the University of Maine.

The Arcola native had three stand-out seasons with the Bruins, including being named the best defenceman in the SJHL for the 1999-2000 season.