The Klondyke Dental Molars may be sitting at the bottom of the standings, but not by as much as at the start of the season.
After going winless in their first 11 games, the Molars (6-13-4) have moved within two points of the seventh-place Performance Centre after a strong December and a 4-3 win over Kilrich (8-12-3) Wednesday at Takhini Arena.
“We are doing a lot better,” said Molars’ Paul Sahagiian, who scored twice against Kilrich. “We put Adam (Green) on defence — we turned it around right there. When he went on defence we improved dramatically. He’s one of our best forwards, but he’s also a really good defenceman.”
“Because I was always up cherry picking,” said Green, modestly. “Now we actually have five guys in our zone instead of four.
“I played defence quite a few years ago, but whatever, I’ll play any position.”
After Joel Witten and Mike Blower each scored to put Kilriich up 2-0, the Molars came storming back with four goals in under nine minutes to end the first.
“We stopped skating for about seven minutes and they popped four goals in,” said Blower, who also assisted Witten’s goal. “It was a typical game for us: we couldn’t score enough goals.”
Molars’ third goal — the game winner — arrived off a face-off in the Kilrich zone when Laurie Malo passed to Paul Sahagian in front of the net who sent it home with 5:22 to play in the period.
The game far from over, Kilrich came within inches of tying it up in the second.
After Rick Moses knocked in his own rebound to bring his team within one, Rob Thompson put a shot on net that went off Goalie Ray Davies’ pad, off the post and came to a stop on the goal line with 9:20 left.
“They skated a lot harder in the second period,” said Sahagian.
The Molars’ first two goals came from Rob Millar and Tim Turner-Davis.
According to Blower, bloated holiday diets may be having a lingering effect on the team.
“Everyone’s about five pounds heavier,” said Blower. “It’ll shorten the shifts a little bit.”
Rangers, Edgewater trade leads on way to tie
For the third time in a month the Firth Rangers dissolved a healthy Edgewater Hotel lead to avoid a loss. Down 5-2 in the second, the Rangers (11-7-5) scored three consecutive goals to pick up a point with a 5-5 tie.
“It was kind of like déjà vu all over again,” said Rangers defenceman Bruce Demchuk, who registered two goals in the game. “I don’t know, we’re a second-period team.
“At halftime we thought, We’ve got to play better — we’ve done it before. So we did it again.”
Last month the Rangers overcame a three-goal deficit to grab a 3-3 tie against Edgewater (9-9-5), followed by a rally from down 3-1 to win 4-3 on December 10.
“I don’t know what it is, we change our game or something,” said Edgewater goalie John Grant. “If we have a one goal lead, we don’t do too bad.”
The Rangers tied the game 5-5 while on the power play with 5:24 left in regulation time when Steve Reynolds got the rebound on a shot by Stu Mackay. Phil Borgel also picked up an assist on the goal.
Down 1-0 nearing the end of the first, the Rangers took the lead for just 17 seconds with a pair of goals 12 seconds apart by Ron Limooges and Demchuk. Edgewater’s Morley Lassard scored to tie the game at 2-2 soon after.
Other Edgewater goals came from Brent Stokes and Rick Seaman, plus two from Brent Cooper, who just returned from a vacation in Hawaii.
“He won the prize tonight for the nicest tan-line in the dressing room,” said Grant.
Gary Boyd also scored for the Rangers.
“It might have been a different result if Shelby Workman was there,” said Grant of his ill teammate. “He’s got the late-game flu.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com