It wasn't much more then a year ago today when the Yorkton AAA Harvest found themselves in the same situation.
Playing against exactly the same team in the exact same arena, with nearly the same score and unfortunately the exact same result.
The Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League playoffs ended almost as quickly as they began as the Harvest entered the post season and exited the post season with last year's nemesis, the Prince Albert Mintos.
According to Harvest head coach Graham Garrett, Monday night's 3-1 loss came against a goalie who held his team in the entire game.
The shots on goal were nearly the same, as the Mintos had two more then Yorkton, 30-32.
The Harvest recorded a respectable 10 in each period.
"At the end, he (Dawson MacAuley) made a couple huge saves at the end."
Garrett said he was overall pleased with his team's effort, especially having come away from the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert with a tightly fought 4-3 victory over the Mintos on Saturday, which forced a fourth match in Yorkton this past Monday.
Yorkton had a 4-2 lead late in the third on Saturday but the Mintos closed to within one with less then 40 seconds left in regulation.
"We just never gave up. We kept playing hard," insisted Garrett.
That game came after losses of 6-3 and 3-0 in games one and two respectively.
Garrett said he was a little disappointed his team couldn't beat MacAuley the way they beat him back on Dec. 18 at Farrell Agencies Arena.
But in game four of the playoffs, it was the other way around.
When asked how hard it was to lose to the same team in the opening round in back to back years, Garrett responded "as hard as it was last year".
Saturday night in PA, Yorkton played a "great first period" and then "here, we outchanced them".
Mintos' Brennen Bosovich scored twice in the win, once in the first period off a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle. He would add another goal with time running out in the second.
Yorkton's Kailum Gervais may have put the visitors back on their heels a bit at 9"08 of the third period and went down as the only power play goal scored that evening.
Roddy Sewap and Ryley Stefanyshyn drew the assists on a goalcrease scramble that beat MacAuley cleanly and cut the PA lead to 2-1.
"Right there, you're hoping the guys have that momentum," says Garrett following the whistle at the end of the Mintos' 3-1 win.
Captain Dustin Skilliter said it was "a huge relief to get that goal and their "spirits jumped".
The Harvest started to get back into the series with a tight 4-3 win on Prince Albert home ice Saturday night.
Yorkton held a 4-2 lead late in the third period before Prince Albert scored to close to within one.
Harvest netminder Kale Thomson closed the door for the remainder of the game to win game three.
The teams exchanged goals in the first period. Jordan Swenson got the home team on the board while Dustin Minto replied for the visitors, from Ryley Stefanyshyn and Roddy Sewap.
Tanner LeSann then gave Yorkton their first lead of the game midway through the second period but Swenson answered back three minutes later with his second of the game to tie it at 2-2.
Yorkton's Gervais restored the one-goal lead with 1:52 left in the second period with Stefanyshyn getting his second assist to give the visitors a 3-2 lead heading to the second intermission.
In the third, Gage Rapitta put the Harvest up 4-2 with less than 10 minutes remaining. Prince Albert made it interesting with less than a minute remaining in regulation to cut the lead to 4-3.
In Prince Albert for game one, both teams tallied once in the opening period but the home team broke out for four goals in the middle frame and led 5-1 after two periods. Prince Albert also held a 16-2 shots on goal advantage in the second period alone.
Kody Thue would record the lone Harvest goal at the 11:00 minute mark of the second period.
Ben Johnstone and Denin Boesch each scored in the third period in a 6-3 loss.
The teams moved to Yorkton for game two last Thursday night and it was all Mintos in a 3-0 win.
The visitors scored once in each period, outshot Yorkton by a 25-21 margin and nobody could capitalize on the power play.
The Harvest were originally scheduled to play Saskatoon, but ended up with the Mintos in round one.
The other opening round series that is still underway has the Regina Pat Canadians and Notre Dame Argos heading to a deciding fifth game this week.
