Still stinging from narrowly missing out on home ice advantage throughout the first round of the SMAAAHL playoffs, the Yorkton RawTec Maulers took to the ice Saturday against the Notre Dame Hounds for Game One of their Best-of-Five SMAAAHL quarterfinal series looking to prove that although the Hounds got the final home ice advantage spot, it was the Maulers that were the stronger team.
Penalties galore
Playing on the edge with physicality and tenacity is something that is necessary for any team to succeed in a playoff series.
In a series as tight as the Yorkton/Notre Dame one however, where one penalty can result in a win or a loss, playing on the edge but not going over is easier said than done, as evidenced in Game One as both teams had trouble staying out of the penalty box.
Instead, the two teams combined for 165 penalty minutes – 95 for Yorkton and 70 for Notre Dame – that included two game ejections (Mauler forwards Damian Bentz and Brett Kemp) and eight different 10 minute misconduct penalties over the three periods of play Saturday night. “It was the first game of the playoffs, so both teams came out with a lot of emotion and I just thought that the officials tried to control that emotion and over-officiated the game a little bit which made the kids go even more out of control,” said Mauler head coach Graham Garrett following the game. “Unfortunately it was a penalty filled first period that players and coaches of both teams didn’t know how to cope with or handle.”
Garrett mentioned that the team that was able to respond quicker to the penalties would be the one that found success; something the Maulers – not the Hounds – were able to do. “I thought that we were able to adapt better than Notre Dame did to what was going on, and I felt that throughout the rest of the game our guys really pulled together and paid the price in a lot of areas and that turned out to be the reason that we won.”
The Maulers got a goal in the first period off the stick of rookie Carson Miller to take a 1-0 lead into the second period.
A power play marker off the stick of Notre Dame forward Colum McGauley 2:39 into the second period evened the score at one. The Hounds then took the lead just past the midway point of the middle frame when CJ Walker put the puck past Yorkton goaltender Jordan Schmuland to make it 2-1 Notre Dame.
That lead did not last long however, as Yorkton’s Kaeden Taphorn evened the score before the end of the middle frame with his first goal of the playoffs – a power play marker – with 5:16 remaining in the period.
Taphorn was back in the third period to give the Maulers their second lead of the night, putting the puck past Reid Cooper for a second time for what ultimately stood up as the game winning goal in a hard fought 3-2 Mauler Game One win.
Schmuland picked up his first career SMAAAHL playoff victory stopping 28-of-30 Hound chances while Cooper took the loss, turning aside 18-of-21 Mauler opportunities.
Miller leads the way
With Damian Bentz (29 goals, 24 assists), Brett Kemp (20 goals, 31 assists) and Tristyn DeRoose (17 goals, 19 assists) all serving one game suspensions for their actions in Game One, the RawTec Maulers were left looking for someone to lead the way offensively.
Cue Carson Miller.
The rookie RawTec Mauler forward led the Maulers in Sunday’s Game Two 4-3 win with his first career SMAAAHL playoff hattrick, kicking things off with a goal early in the first period to give the Maulers a 1-0 lead in a period that they dominated despite missing three of their top players.
An Adam Dawe penalty shot goal in the second period made it a 1-1 game after 40 minutes, however the Maulers were fortunate not to be down by more after their weakest period of hockey so far this post season. “I think defensively in the second period we got a little anxious and our defencemen were holding onto the puck for a little too long and trying to beat their forecheckers one-on-one instead of moving the puck up quickly,” mentioned coach Garrett, continuing, “That led to us getting some long shifts with some tired guys in a back-to-back situation and they were just able to keep dumping pucks in and putting pressure on us.”
Garrett said that the Maulers didn’t have any answers for the Hounds’ relentless second period attack other than their goaltender Jordan Schmuland, who, it turns out, was the correct answer. “He played great and obviously gave us an opportunity to win,” said Garrett of his goalie. “He kept us in the game in that second period and without him we would have been in trouble.”
Thanks to Schmuland’s second period heroics the two teams entered the third period deadlocked at one until Miller tallied his second goal of the game just 53 seconds into the third frame, rifling the puck off the crossbar and down to give Yorkton a 2-1 lead via a two man advantage.
A Notre Dame shorthanded goal by Cole Kirkup less than a minute later evened the game at two, but a Kaeden Taphorn goal midway through the period restored the Mauler one goal lead.
The Maulers extended their lead to two five minutes later when Miller placed a perfect shot off the post and in while beating two Hound defencemen to compete the hattrick.
Kirkup’s second goal of the game with 1:08 remaining cut the Mauler lead in half, but some undisciplined play in the final minute of the game by Hounds’ forward Thomas Casey put Notre Dame on the penalty kill for the final 32 seconds, killing their chances at completing the comeback and giving Yorkton a 4-3 win in Game Two.
Schmuland picked up his second straight playoff win stopping 32-of-35 shots while Cooper once again tasted defeat, making just 16 saves on 20 Yorkton chances.
After the game the Mauler head coach told Yorkton This Week that the game wasn’t pretty, but it was how they had to play to win. “You have to kind of draw it up like that, hope that we get a good goaltending performance and capitalize on our limited offensive chances because we were missing three of our top offensive players,” said Garrett, adding that it helped that Miller had his best SMAAAHL game of his career so far. “He’s a quality hockey player that rises to occasions and that shot for that second goal, bar down there was unbelievable, then his third goal, one-on-two and he just drags it and hits a perfect shot off the post and in, those are highly skilled plays and that’s a guy with the will to win and I think everyone had that will today but he was able to show it by converting on some of those offensive opportunities.”
The talented rookie forward agreed with his coach in that it was his best game of his career so far, but added that things aren’t over yet. “The playoffs aren’t over but it has definitely been my best game so far, although I hope to have a few more like that during the run,” mentioned Miller, adding that his teammates deserve a lot of credit for his performance as well. “The Taphorn’s have been playing great here and we’ve got some good chemistry together.
“Our defence has been solid moving the puck up to us and they seemed to always get the puck to me when I have a chance to score and I did.”
Up next
Game Three was scheduled for yesterday (Tuesday) however results were unavailable at press time. Game Four, if needed, will take place tonight (Wednesday) at the Farrell Agencies Arena with a 7:30p.m. puck drop.
