ELK POINT – Elk Point Elks started off the new year with a pair of big wins, defeating the SaskAlta Hockey League’s west division-leading Wainwright Rustlers 8 to 4 on Friday in Elk Point and edging out the Two Hills Longhorns 9 to 8 on their visit to that community on Saturday evening.
The Elks shut the gate on the Rustlers early in Friday night’s game, with four goals on the scoreboard, the first two by Matt Boulianne off assists by Dillon Kalinski in both and Kurt Franklin in the second, an unassisted goal by Donovon Bibeau and the fourth by Orrie Wood, assisted by Brayden Labant and Bryton Beattie. Wainwright found the Elks net late in the period, only to have Tanner Gardipy up the Elks’ ante to 5-1 with an unassisted goal with 1:27 left on the clock.
The Rustlers would add one goal in the second frame, but the Elks would counter with two more, Bailey Lonsberry assisted by Labant and Boulianne and Kalinksi assisted by Isaiah Cardinal in the first half of the third, before they answered the Rustlers’ third goal with Wood’s second of the evening, assisted by Labant and Charlie Rogal. One final goal from the Rustlers left the visitors with a four-goal deficit for the evening.
Elks 9, Longhorns 8
Saturday evening’s visit to Two Hills was a much closer contest, with the Rustlers first on the board just under two minutes into the game, before the Elks scored two, the first by Labant off assists by Boulianne and Cardinal on a power play and the second by Kalinski, assisted by Tristen Carter and Labant, in the middle of the period, with Two Hills adding another pair to take a 4-3 lead before the first intermission.
The Elks added six in the second period, five of them in the first 10 minutes, Labant and Kalinski both completing their hat tricks and Jean Guy Boisvert and Wood adding singles, with two assists each for Bibeau, Gardipy and Boisvert, and Wood with one, Kalinski adding the Elks final goal of the evening, assisted by Franklin, on a power play.
The Longhorns added three during the second period, one of them with 14 seconds on the clock, to go to the dressing room with a two-goal deficit. They would add another late in the third period, but still couldn’t even the score, giving the Elks a 9-8 win.
This coming Saturday, the Elks will host the Dewberry Mustangs, with the return game in Dewberry the following Saturday. The Elks’ final game of the 2021-22 regular season will hit the A.G. Ross ice on Friday, Jan. 28 against the Longhorns.
