The Yorkton Sherring Gold Pee Wee Terriers got their South Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League (SSMHL) final series off to a good start at the Gallagher Centre Friday night.
So good that when the two teams hooked up Sunday for a matinee down in Weyburn, Yorkton head coach Ed Zawatsky acknowledged that it could be the final game of the year for the Red Wings.
"They'll battle hard," he said. The Yorkton team met up with the Weyburn Young Fellows Red Wings in the league final.
It was a best-of-3 hockey series.
For Yorkton, it ended up being a best of 2 series.
"We won 8-3. We are back-to-back champs, our overall record in the South Saskatchewan League was 24-0. Huge accomplishment for the kids," head coach Ed Zawatsky texted from Weyburn.
After coming off a first period of hockey that apparently nobody on the team was overly thrilled about, the kids got their act together before it was too late and scored six goals, only one was answered.
In a 6-1 win to start the series.
"The first period wasn't too strong," said second-year Pee Wee and forward Tyler Stratechuk, who added that goaltender Nolan Maier was big in the win.
"The first period wasn't the best," chimed Cody Dubas, adding that it would be important to come out Sunday and "put pressure on".
Jake Kustra found the back of the net on two occasions, so did Derrick Budz while Kaeden Taphorn and Logan Foster each chipped in with singles.
Trey Bear, who had two assists in the win, both came in the opening period, said after the game that despite things getting chippy in the third period, they tried to keep their emotions in check when the game is on the line.
"We usually try to control ourselves out there," he said.
Bear was the lone Terrier who had two assists.
Carson Welke had one, Kaleb Bulych had one, McKenzie Welke, Tyler Stratechuk and Alec Zawatsky each helped set up Terrier goals.
Coach Zawatsky noted, like Bear pointed out, the game got physical; nobody in orange seemed surprised.
"They're physical at times," says Zawatsky.
"Yeah, they're used to that," he said of his own players getting aggressive.
In Yorkton on Friday evening, the Terriers tallied twice in the final 5:31 of the opening period.
Zawatsky wasn't worried about such a low scoring team with a team that went through the SSMHL season with a perfect 20-0 record.
"It was pretty intense," noted Foster, who chipped in with a goal and a helper. "We didn't want to get down."
When Budz scored to make it 3-1 less than a minute into the third, Zawatsky insisted he wasn't paying any attention to the numbers up top.
"I didn't really even look at the scoreboard," he said with a grin.
