The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings ended their previous three-game losing streak with a triumphant 4-3 win over the Melville Millionaires Tuesday night. This was the first of four straight games that the Red Wings will play on the road.
Both the Red Wings and the Millionaires were looking to break losing streaks as the Millionaires were on a seven-game losing streak.
17 minutes and 34 seconds into the first, Jake Misskey scored his first goal as a Red Wing and the first goal of the game. Taylor Schmidt and Shayde Peterson were credited with the assists. Not even a minute later though, the Millionaires tied it up.
Before the second period started, the Red Wings were given a two minute delay of game penalty, and then a minute later Mathieu Belanger was given a tripping penalty. The three-on-five disadvantage lead to the Millionaires breaking the tie.
At the 10 minute mark on a power play, Dante Ballarin scored his first SJHL career goal and tied up the game at two apiece. Ben Hiltz and Jevon Schwean were credited with the assists.
Not even four minutes into the third, Ballarin scored his second of the night with assistance from Quinton Hill and Tyson McLean.
Graham Skinner then used a power play opportunity to put one between the pipes. Hiltz once again provided assistance along with Rhett Frey, and 15 seconds later, the Millionaires made the score 4-3 and that was the final goal of the game.
Noah Decottignies was a solid rock in net for the Wings as final shots were 41-28 for the Millionaires.
Hiltz was given the third star of the night and Ballarin was given the second.
Previous to their win over the Millionaires, the Red Wings fell to the Notre Dame Hounds at home Saturday night.
The game started in favour of the Red Wings, with the Wings outshooting the Hounds 12-10 in the first. In the last couple of minutes of the period, Liam Rutten scored his second goal of the season. Ballarin earned his first point in the SJHL by assisting Rutten along with Connor Karo.
Twelve seconds later a brawl broke out, but it was quickly detained and resulted in Keigan Callander and Hounds Sho Takai being given 10-minute misconducts. The penalty seemingly altered the Red Wings aggression and stature for the remainder of the game.
Shots were 7-7 in the second period, but the Hounds were able to use one of their shots to score a power play goal near the end of the period.
The game remained tied 1-1 until the Hounds scored with 1:15 left in the game. A few seconds later, the Hounds put another into the netting before the final buzzer.
Final shots on net were 33-23 for the Hounds with Decottignies spending the game in net for the Wings.
The Red Wings stars were Jacob Piller with the third star, Schwean with the second and Rutten with the first.
The Red Wings now play three more away games before returning to Crescent Point Place to play. This weekend they play their Highway 39 rivals on Friday night in Estevan, and face the Hounds once again, but in Moosomin on Saturday night. The third game is in Melville again on Nov. 12.
