The Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League regular season opened up over the weekend in Yorkton and saw the AAA Harvest host the league's defending champions, the Saskatoon Contacts in back-to-back games at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
A total of 20 goals came out of the two-day affair, as the visitors showed why they are the defending league champs, winning by one goal in each high-scoring tilt.
In Saturday's opener, the new lineup for the AAA Harvest was announced at centre ice.
The Contacts got on the board first and never trailed as they skated to a 5-4 win.
The game-winning goal came on a Saskatoon power play with 1:57 remaining in the game.
"It was a back-and-forth all game. It was an unbelievable pace," said Jeff Odgers, head coach of the Yorkton AAAs.
The teams combined for four goals in the opening period alone.
Brayden Uhlrich scored the first goal of the 2012-13 season at the 17:52 mark.
Harvest rookie Logan Herchak tallied at 12:49 to draw even with an unassisted goal.
Saskatoon regained their lead at 3:50 when Vuki Mpofu tallied on a power play.
Yorkton's Donavon Lumb scored his first of two goals also on the power play, from fellow rookie Turner Ottenbreit and Logan Karakochuk.
Saskatoon scored the only goal of the second period, to take a 3-2 lead into the third. Uhlrich notched his second of the night.
Two goals apiece in the third , including the winner with .53 left, saw the Contacts skate to a 5-4 win.
Lumb's second goal came after rookie Carson Cayer was able to jam a rebound under the goalpad of Saskatoon's Rylan Parenteau on a Harvest power play.
Despite the last-minute loss, coach Odgers said he was happy with the fact they gave them a good run.
"They are defending champs from last year. They have a good team. We had the exact start we wanted," said Odgers. His team outshot Saskatoon 48-30 overall, and held a 21-8 advantage through the first period.
The teams met up for a rematch on Sunday afternoon, which saw both team improve their scoring by one. It was another one-goal victory, this one to a tune of 6-5.
In the rematch, Yorkton gave up a 3-0 first-period lead only to crawl back into it, then fall behind again.
Tate Olson, Terrell Draude and Kolten Olynek all tallied in the first period for the Contacts before the Harvest even knew what hit them.
Cayer cut the lead to 3-1 on a power play at 18:36 of the second period but MaCarthur Bell scored two minutes later to restore the three-goal lead.
Lumb scored his first of the game and third goal of the weekend but Mpofu answered back, putting the Contacts up by a 5-2 count heading into the third period.
No scoring through the first 10 minutes of the third led to four goals in the last 10 minutes. Rodney Southam put the visitors up 6-2 at the 10:38 mark. Three Yorkton goals including a shorthander looked like they may have been heading into overtime. Goals from Chase McKersle and Lynndon Pastachak closed the gap to 6-5, Pastachak's second goal came on a shorthanded effort.
Yorkton went 1-8 on the power play. Saskatoon went 0-10. Saskatoon managed at least 10 shots on goal in each period. Yorkton had less than 10 in the first two periods. Next up is another homestand this weekend with the Battlefords Stars. Game times are Saturday and Sunday, both games are at 2 p.m.
