The SEHL fired back up from the Christmas break with four games this past weekend. Unlike
the previous weekend, there was only one blowout, with the rest of the games seeing close
scores.
Up north on Friday night, the Canora Cobras welcomed the Preeceville Pats into the Snake Pit
for the second matchup between these two teams in two weeks. And unfortunately for the
visiting Pats, the Cobras were in an unforgiving mood coming off their first regulation loss of the
season, pumping home goals aplenty in a 16-1 rout of Preeceville. For the snakes, only Carson
Dennis and Mathew Wilgosh failed to record a point among the skaters, while Carter
Dereniwsky, Scott Mickoski, and Cole Rathgeber each recorded a hat trick for the visitors.
Dereniwsky racked up seven points for the evening, followed by Logan Foster with six points
and Derrick Schwartz with five. The Pats’ Jorie Dull had the only goal for the home squad, while
Jasper Booker faced 49 shots in the loss. Brad Sentes faced 21 shots in the Cobras’ cage.
Meanwhile, down south, the Churchbridge Imperials and the Esterhazy Flyers faced off in the
Kaminski Arena for the first time since the Cole Cusitar incident. Amazingly, Cusitar returned to
the Imps’ lineup on December 20 th . On this night, Cusitar paced the Imperials attack with two
goals and an assist, but it wasn’t enough as Churchbridge fell 5-3 to the Flyers. Connor Erhardt
and Dylan Tanner each recorded two assists for Churchbridge, who also got a goal and an
assist from Drew Putland. Colby Entz tended the twine for the Imperials, and Michael Andrews
got the win for Esterhazy. Colton Schick fired home four goals to lead the Flyers, while Shane
Collins and Tyler Stewart each chipped in with two helpers.
Saturday’s two games featured two closely contested matchups. In Preeceville, the Pats and
Cote Selects locked horns in a back-and-forth affair. Cote blazed out to a 4-zip lead before the
Pats found their offence, but when they did, it led to six consecutive goals for Preeceville by the
halfway mark of the third period. Needing a spark and a change of momentum, Cote’s Kalium
Gervais and Preeceville’s Colby Nieckar threw down in what is being reported as an epic tilt.
Twenty seconds after the fight, Tristan Keshane netted his second of four goals on the night,
and the comeback was on for Cote. Final score was a 9-7 win for the Selects. Cote’s top line of
Tristan Keshane (4-2-6), Konrad McKay (1-5-6) and Braedon Boschman (0-4-4) were firing on
all cylinders, while Brennan Watson racked up a goal and an assist. For their part, Preeceville
had seven different goal scorers, including Kyle Yaremchuk (1-3-4). Chase Zurowski, Brayden
Ganson, and Austin Karcha each recorded a snipe and a helper, with Jake Huska putting up two
assists. Former Select Braiden Berezowski tended the net for the Pats. Frazer Farmer
recorded the win for Cote, who lost Hayden Lacquette early in this game to a five minute head
contact major+game misconduct, plus an additional game misconduct for abusive conduct.
The main event for the weekend was in Canora on Saturday night, as a shorthanded Swan
Valley Axemen squad rolled into town fresh off a hotly contested win over the Cobras just before
Christmas. For the hosts, they were missing several players as well, but their roster depth was
on full display. These two teams do not like each other, which produces hard-hitting, tight-
checking games, and this one was no exception. Logan Foster staked the Cobras to an early
lead off a Mathew Wilgosh feed, but the Axemen’s Steven Arp knotted the score at one with
about six minutes left in the first period, with Riley Morden and Tyan Mykula recording assists.
In the second period, it looked like the Cobras were going to get themselves into penalty
trouble, but it was the Canora power play which struck late in the frame, as Vaughn Wilgosh
blasted home a point shot after being set up by Brett Duczek and Skylar Wallin. Heading into
the third period up 2-1, the Cobras put the Axemen attack on ice, including killing off a lengthy 5
on 3 Swan Valley power play to win the game 2-1. Devon Dubyk faced 47 shots in the Swan
Valley net, while Brad Sentes stopped 35 of 36 shots to backstop the Cobras.
The first weekend of the new year has Preeceville in Churchbridge for the lone Friday night
game. Saturday night, the South Division sees the Rocanville Tigers hosting Churchbridge,
Swan Valley in Esterhazy, and Preeceville trekking to Wapella to face the Blackhawks. Up
north, Cote is in Canora to face the North Division leading Cobras. All game times are 8pm
except for the Cote-Canora game, which fires off at 730pm.
