The Yorkton Harvest continued into the new year with a game at the Willow Cree Memorial Sport Centre at Beardy's on Saturday afternoon.
After finishing the opening period tied at 1-1, the visiting Harvest were outscored by three goals in the second period, came out on the wrong end of a 6-5 final score.
The first game of the new year pitted the Harvest against the top team in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League, the Beardy's Blackhawks.
Jeff Odgers, Harvest head coach, admitted to being a little concerned going into it.
"We hit a crossbar," he said, describing some of the chances Yorkton had throughout the game.
The shots on goal were nearly dead even, and Beardy's happens to have a strong goaltender.
"They do have a good goaltender," says Odgers. "The third period was good."
Yorkton trailed 6-3 heading into that period, Odgers said.
"We talked about it after the second (period)," he said of the chances they were getting. Yorkton outshot the Hawks 14-10 in the opening period.
The Harvest operated at 20 per cent power play, scoring twice on 10 opportunities. Evan Zdunich opened the scoring for Beardy's at 10:41 of the opening period. Yorkton's Kody Thue tied the game at 1-1 when he tallied at 5:44 on the man advantage. Brayden Park and Tanner Lesann drew the assists.
In the second period, the Blackhawks opened it up with five goals. Three came unanswered. Only one goal came on the power play. Brett Boehm got the first goal of the second period to give Beardy's back their one-goal lead. Colton Laroque and Jaryd Watson also tallied to make it 4-1 lead.
Yorkton got one back when Blake McMillen tallied to cut the Blackhawks lead in half, with Jake McMillen drawing the assist. Boehm added his second of the game to make it 5-2. Lynnden Pastachak replied for Yorkton on the power play from Lesann and Nicholas Pouliot before Laroque added his second of the game.
Beardy's took a 6-2 lead into the third period where the Harvest tallied two from Pouliot and Brodie Schouette. Pastachak, Pouliot, Lesann and Jeffrey Ness drew assists.
Odgers said the Blackhawks didn't make any mistakes in the third period, but noted that the Blackhawks always play like they are going to score more goals than their opposition.
Spencer Bomboir was in net for Yorkton, stopping 32 of 38 shots.
On Sunday, Yorkton earned themselves their first point of the new year when they played in Tisdale against the Trojans.
Yorkton took a 3-1 lead into the third period but two Tisdale goals in the last six minutes sent the game into overtime.
The game ended in a 3-3 tie.
The visitors jumped out to a lead in the final minute of the first period when Josh Lees tallied from Schuette and Kailum Gervais.
They added to the lead early in the second period when Levi Morin tallied; Gervais drew his second straight assist.
Tisdale got to within one when Wyatt Garagan scored on a power play to cut the Harvest lead to 2-1.
Lesann padded the Harvest lead to 3-1, scoring at 17:50 from Lees and Thue.
In the game's last six minutes, Brayden Gelsinger sent the game into overtime with two goals, the second came with 33 seconds left to secure a point.
"It was an exciting game," Odgers said. "We got off to a lead, killed some penalties in the third."
They also killed on in the overtime, as well as getting a couple good chances to win in overtime.
NEXT ACTION
Next up for the Yorkton AAAs is their first home game of 2012 when they host the Notre Dame Hounds. Game time is 8 p.m., at the Farrell Agencies Arena. As of press time, one point separates the two clubs in the standings. Both teams will meet up again in Yorkton on Sunday afternoon. Game time is slated for 4:30 p.m.
GAME NOTES
Yorkton lost one of their top rookies in the Beardy's game as leading goal scorer Jake McMillen suffered a broken collar bone Jan. 7 at Beardy's. Odgers said McMillen will be seeing a doctor sometime this week and it is likely he will be missing some time. McMillen is tied for scoring with 13 goals and third in team points with 23.
