The La Ronge Ice Wolves, coached by Kevin “Killer” Kaminski, played off against the Melville Millionaires in an SJHL game held at the Kaminski Arena in Churchbridge on November 27th in front of hundreds of fans.
The Melville Millionaires came into the game with a record of 5 wins, 11 losses and 7 overtime losses. Meanwhile, the Ice Wolves managed 9 wins, 15 losses, 1 overtime loss and 2 shootout losses on their record prior to the game.
The Millionaires and the Ice Wolves both came into the game hurting from recent losses; La Ronge in their game against Yorkton and Melville against Nipawin.
On the evening of the 27th in Churchbridge, the Millionaires came out victorious with a score of 5-2 over the Ice Wolves.
The crowd cheered loudly as Coach Kevin Kaminski and the Ice Wolves squad hit the ice. Kaminski is a supportive hometown hockey player and former NHL-er who hosts a Golf Classic in Churchbridge to help raise funds for the community. The tournament started in 1985 and raised nearly half a million dollars for the Town of Churchbridge.
Melville opened the scoring early in the game as #29 Zach Cain found the net within the first five minutes. A minute later, #21 Ryland Maier added to Melville’s lead to give the Millionaires the momentum.
With some big hits early on from both teams, it was apparent the game would be a physical one.
After the first period, the score was left at 2-0 for the Millionaires.
The Ice Wolves started the second period highly motivated. The team pushed the puck into the Melville zone often and had some good chances.
#61 of Melville sustained an intense hit midway through the second period. After help from the trainers, he was able to make it off the ice. A 5 minute major penalty was given out for the hit.
#94 Cole Larocque and the Millionaires capitalized on the extra-man situation and brought the score to 3-0 with 8:48 left in the period.
With 5:27 left, #37 Brandon Della Paolera from La Ronge put the team on the board after having many close chances earlier in the period. #16 Kole Christensson of the Ice Wolves followed up that momentum up soon after with a goal of his own with 4:52 remaining making the score 3-2.
Just over a minute later, with 3:32 remaining, the puck was lifted in the air and connected with one of the ceiling lights in the arena, taking it out and putting a temporary stop to the game.
After a highly-motivated 2nd period, the Ice Wolves came back to leave the period with a 1 goal deficit.
The puck throw happened in between the 2nd and 3rd periods, where attendees competed to win a $200 gift card prize courtesy of Legacy Co-op. Young skaters from Churchbridge Minor Sports helped clear the pucks prior to the zamboni coming out to prepare for the 3rd period.
#29 Zach Cain of Melville caught a breakaway with 12:56 remaining in the period to score his second goal of the night and advance the Millionaires lead to 4-2.
#20 Bryan Gilman of La Ronge was escorted away from the ice surface with 6:33 remaining by the referees. He received a 10 minute misconduct penalty which essentially ended his game.
#54 Noah Wills of the Millionaires added an empty net goal with 1:11 remaining to put the game out of reach.
The intensity was not squashed from the Ice Wolves however, as they continued to grind to the Melville net until the very end of the game.
Kuzy’s Kitchen served the post meal for the athletes which was held at the town hall.
After the post-game meal, coach Kaminski reflected, “We had to play catch up hockey as it was 2-0 after 1. I thought we had the ice tilted for the 2nd and as we made it 3-2 and had many opportunities to score more, but couldn’t finish. The effort was there but we had too many turnovers and missed assignments, and gave up another breakaway for the 4th goal.”
Coach Kevin Kaminski added, “We have to be more accountable with our puck decisions and make plays when available, but we can’t force things at their blue line that cause odd-man rushes. We need way more consistency in our game for 60 minutes.”
47 penalty minutes were handed out in total, with 39 of those going to the Ice Wolves.
Taiya Sauser sang the national anthem prior to the game for the crowd.
The Churchbridge Fire Department provided the first aid crew for the game.
The 50/50 winner received $885.
In October of 2019 when La Ronge took on Yorkton at the Kaminski Arena, the Terriers prevailed 3-2 in overtime.