Wings Win After Wild Third!

It was a cold snowy night in Weyburn tonight but the Wings warmed things up for those at the Colosseum as they skated to a 6-4 win over the visiting Nipawin Hawks. The Wings led 2-0 after a period of play with Josh Bray and Mick Pawlyshyn scoring for the Wings. The two teams played a scoreless second before the flood gates opened in the third. Michael Seib put the Wings up 3-0 just 41 seconds into the third period. The Hawks then responded with three unanswered goals from Taylor Thiessen, Torrie Dyck, and Blair Toms to tie things up at 3-3. The Wings however got two goals in a 14 second span as Bray potted his second of the game and then Craig Cornelson banged one home to put the Wings up 5-3 with 9:55 to go. Dyck got his second goal of the game just over four minutes later to make it 5-4. Brayden Nargang scored an empty netter with 29 seconds left on the clock to seal the victory for the Wings. Nargang finished the game with three points as he also had two assists. Scott Doody, Connor Krukowski and Luke Johnson all added two assists while single helpers went to Stephen Simms, Preston Shupe and Nick Needham. Toms ended up with three points for the Hawks as he had a goal and two assists. AJ Whiffen, who was presented with an award before the game for recently winning a goaltender of the week award, made 24 saves for the win. Derek Kleinsteuber made 27 saves in the Nipawin goal. Adam Feniak and Shawn Courtney both made their Red Wings debuts tonight. The Wings honored the Weyburn Eagles 3A Provincial Football Champions in the first intermission as head coach Darren Abel and his team were introduced to the crowd. The Red Wings remain in first place with the win as they improve to 17-8-2-4 and are two points up on second place Melville. The Hawks drop to 10-13-1-3 and are firmly entrenched in fifth place in the Itech. The Wings are now off until Friday when they host the Melfort Mustangs.

In Humboldt, the Melville Millionaires got 23 saves from rookie goaltender Travis Bosch as they posted a 3-0 shutout win over the Broncos. Aaron Decorby had a goal and an assist to pace the Mils. Derek Edwards and Daniel Hope also scored for Melville. Jarret Fisher, Jordan Reeve, Scott Hennings, Levi Lind and Dion Campbell all added assists for Melville. Taylor Nelson made 26 saves in the Humboldt goal. The Mils have three games in hand on the Red Wings and trail them by two points and have moved two points ahead of third place Kindersley. The Broncos failed in an opportunity to catch first place Melfort in the Itech.

In Flin Flon, a pair of former Battlefords North Stars scored against their former team as the Bombers won 3-1 over the Stars. Reid MacLeod had a goal and an assist for the Bombers while former Stars Scott Day and Barrett Penner also scored for Flin Flon. Pierre-Luc Boucher, Harley Garrioch, Cole Wilson, Tommy Castonguay and Michael Young added assists for the Bombers. Mitch Wall had the lone goal for the Battlefords with John Midtdal and Nickolaus Dvorak assisting. Carsen Chubak made 23 saves for the Bombers. Ryan Kerpan stopped 33 shots in the North Stars goal. The Bombers move back ahead of La Ronge for third in the Itech with a record of 17-10-0-1. The Stars are a league worst 3-24-1-2.

Tonight's Three Stars:

* Travis Bosch - Melville Millionaires (shutout win over Humboldt)
** Josh Bray - Weyburn Red Wings (two goals and could have had a couple more in win over Nipawin)
*** Torrie Dyck - Nipawin Hawks (2 goals and was Hawks best player on this night)

Wednesday night in the SJHL:

Nipawin @ Estevan
Battlefords @ La Ronge
Notre Dame @ Melfort

- Brad M.