Exciting Weekend for the Elks

The Sr Men’s Elks win one, lose one over the weekend

Despite a loss to rivals, the Dewberry Mustangs, on Friday evening, Coach of the Elk Point Elks, Murray Cochrane says the weekend was filled with great hockey for the boys.

Friday: Dewberry

With loads of Dewberry fans making the trip to the AG Ross Arena, Friday night’s game was electrified, says Cochrane.  “When the Mustangs come to town, there’s a little bit more excitement. There was lots of fans, lots of Dewberry people,” Cochrane laughs that not only did the team take the game, one Dewberry fan took home the 50/50 money.

The Elks opened scoring in the first period after a long 13 minutes of battling, thanks to SCOTT WARD with the assist to JORDYN WOZNIAK. The lack of scoring action in the first twenty minutes of play was more than made up for in the second.

“Dewberry makes you pay for any mistakes. We turned the puck over in some bad places and they put it in our net,” Cochrane says there were some costly mistakes in the second, starting 21 seconds into play. KURT BENSMILLER, recuperated from a shoulder injury, that kept him off the ice for two years, put in an unassisted goal to get things rolling for the Mustangs. TY MACNAB put in some back-to-back beauties, then it was Bensmiller again to make it a 4-1 game at 14:07 for the visiting team.

Elk Point had only one response in the second, from DEVIN MONETA, assist to MYLES WHITFORD and LEE LETESTU, before Dewberry’s KIRK CHIEF put one in to close the period 5-2.

Bensmiller captured a hat trick 9:43 into the third, advancing the ‘Stangs again, before the Elk’s WHITFORD, with a feed from DEREK WEST put in a last-ditch effort goal at 12:55. The revival never came for the Elks, with Dewberry taking the 6-3 win home with them across the river.

“They capitalized a little more than we did,” Coach Cochrane says the loss didn’t hinder the excitement, “it was a good game; I enjoyed it.”

Saturday: Neilburg

Elk Point welcomed Neilburg to another fan-filled night at the AG Ross Arena. Coming off the town’s annual Extravaganza, there were a lot of faces in the crowd to cheer the Elks onto a 4-0 victory.

The timekeeper kept busy putting up penalties in a scoreless first period, with 24 minutes in penalties split between the two clubs, things got heated early in the game. The second was much like the first, penalty-wise; however, the Elks opened up scoring 1:50 into the period, thanks to MYLES WHITFORD with assist to JASON KALYNCHUK and DEREK WEST. DEVIN MONETA followed up with two goals, the first unassisted and the second with the help of JORDYN WOZNIAK, to close the period with a 3-0 lead for the Elks.

LEE LETESTU got the sole point in the third with an unassisted goal at 15:46. Once again the penalty box was a revolving door, mainly opening for Elks’ HARRISON MAAS who took in 14 penalties in the first and followed up with 10 more in the third. Neilburg was not without their share of bad boys, racking up 26 minutes of penalties in the game.

“We got the win, we probably didn’t play our best,” Coach Cochrane says there’s some elements that the club will be focusing on come Wednesday night’s practice. “Defensively we’re playing fairly decent, except for the Dewberry game, where we gave up some goals.”

“Our record is 6-3-0, if we can continue building on it, we’re going to continue to have an exciting season.” The Elks play Vermilion Rock this Friday at the AG Ross Arena, then travel to Viking to take on the Gas Kings on Saturday evening.