ELK POINT - Elk Point Elks made it two wins in two weekends over the Dewberry Mustangs, as they followed up their 5-4 win on Jan. 15, with a 3-2 victory, this time in the Mustangs’ home pasture.
Saturday’s game saw both goalies at their best, keeping the game scoreless well past the middle of the second period, before Matt Boulianne slipped an unassisted shot past the Mustangs’ netminder to put the Elks on the scoreboard with about six and a half minutes left on the clock. It took almost five more minutes before Bryce Goldsmith, assisted by Lee Popescul, scored for the Mustangs for a 1-1 tie going into the second intermission.
Stephen Simmons, assisted by Connor Njaa and Trent Throndson, gave the Mustangs the lead seven minutes and 11 seconds into the final frame, but that lead lasted all of 24 seconds before Dillon Kalinski, assisted by Bryton Beattie and Donovon Bibeau, added the Elks’ second goal of the evening, Bibeau breaking that tie less than two minutes later, assisted by Kalinksi and Morgan Greve, giving the Elks a 3-2 lead.
The final 10 minutes of the game saw multiple penalties but no scoring, and the Elks coming home with the win.
The previous weekend saw the Elks overcome their Jan. 14 9-3 loss to the Wainwright Rustlers to edge out the Mustangs, who at that point, sat at the top of the Alberta division of the SaskAlta Hockey League, by a slim 5-4 margin on Jan. 15, both games as home in the A. G. Ross Arena.
Wainwright dominated the Jan. 14 game right from the opening puck drop, with three goals in the first period and another three in the second before Arron Gagne, assisted by Curtis Witney, lit the Elks side of the scoreboard. One more Rustlers goal in that period and two more in the third gave the visitors a 9-1 lead before Orrie Wood, off a pass by Bibeau, hit the mark with just under four minutes left in the game, Kalinksi added an unassisted goal with a minute and three seconds to go before the final horn sounded on the 9-3 defeat.
Saturday night’s crowd saw a far different game, with the Elks first on the scoreboard, Mitchell Bibeau with an unassisted goal 11:08 into the game, Dewberry’s Ryley Bates tying the score off an assist from Mason Lavoie later in the opening period.
Gagne, assisted by Witney and Brayden Labant, and Wood, assisted by Kalinksi, gave the Elks a two-goal lead briefly in the second, before the Mustangs’ Ty McNab, assisted by Mitch Walker and Brayden Wilson, tightened the gap to a single.
Dewberry pulled ahead briefly in the third, with a goal by Goldsmith assisted by Walker and McNabb followed up by another by Stephen Simmons, assisted by Kyle Desmit and Carter Myhovich, but that lead lasted all of 31 seconds before Labant fired one home off an assist by Witney, to tie the score at 4-all. Kalinski sent the game winner home just 56 seconds later with helpers from Bibeau and Greve, for a final score of 5-4 in the Elks’ favour.
The Elks will host the Two Hills Longhorns at home in their final game of the regular season on Friday, Jan. 28.
