In the most exciting game of the RawTec Maulers’ season, five periods of play resulted in one huge playoff win for Yorkton, sending them into the second round of playoffs in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League.
The first round of playoffs saw the Yorkton Maulers and the Notre Dame Hounds face off in four games, in a best-of-five series.
Yorkton took the first two wins while Notre Dame took the third.
Game four was held at the Farrell Agencies Arena in Yorkton on Thursday, March 2.
After the first period of play, things looked grim for the Maulers as the Hounds led 3-0.
The Maulers came back and fought hard in the second period, and it all started to pay off in the last three minutes of play. Maulers’ D-man Kaedan Korczak scored two back-to-back goals, putting the Maulers back in the game with a score of 3-2 after 40 minutes of play.
In the third period, Jordan Respch tied it up for the Maulers, which would send the game into not one, but two overtime periods.
In period five, almost half way through, an unassisted goal from Kaedan Korczak sent the crowd in the FAA into celebration as hats littered the ice to celebrate the assistant captain’s hat trick – and the huge win.
After the game, no players could remove the smiles from their faces – Korczak was definitely no exception.
“I can’t even explain it. This is the first playoff series we’ve won in about 15 years, so I can’t put it into words,” said Korczak.
After the first period, he said they knew the answer to success was to keep firing shots on the Hounds’ goalie, and eventually it would work out.
In terms of his personal game, Korczak said he simply stuck to the game plan.
“The guys supported me and it just worked out in my favour,” he said.
Jordan Schmuland recorded the win in net for the Maulers, blocking 44 of 47 shots on net.
“This feeling is kind of crazy,” said Schmuland. “Kevin, our head coach, is a big part of that.”
“When you’re the underdogs going into playoffs, and you come out on top of the second place team who only had seven losses this season, its unbelievable,” said Schmuland. “Especially with the confidence that our coach had in every single one of us.”
The Maulers will move on to the semi-finals to face the Regina Pat Canadians. The first game of the series was cancelled on Monday night due to weather, so game one will be played in Regina on Thursday, March 9. Game two will be at the FAA on Saturday, March 11. The puck will drop at 8:00 p.m.
