The second game of the first round of playoffs for the RawTec Maulers was a nail biter at the Farrell Agencies Arena, as they shared goals back and forth with the Notre Dame Hounds.
The Maulers finished in seventh place in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League regular season standings, which matched them with the second place Hounds for the first round of playoffs.
The two teams faced off only two times in the regular season, and the Hounds took both wins.
But a newfound confidence in the Maulers has been evident on the ice in playoffs, and that has resulted in two straight wins.
The first playoff game was held on Friday, Feb. 24 in Notre Dame. The Maulers came out strong in the first period, scoring three goals in the first twenty minutes of play, heading into the second period 3-0.
The first goal was scored by Ryder Pierson and was unassisted. Second to score for the Maulers was Derrick Budz, with the assist from Aiden Bulych. The third goal was scored by Aiden Bulych, with assists from Zach Halvorson and Derrick Budz.
The second period saw one goal from the Hounds, and finished 3-1.
In the third, there was a goal for both team. Yorkton’s goal was scored by Beau Stevenson. The final score was 4-2 for the Maulers.
The second game of the series was played in Yorkton at the Farrell Agencies Arena on Sunday, Feb. 26. It was an intense game of back and forth action.
Both teams took turns holding the lead, but in the end the Maulers were able to grab it and hold on for the win. The final score of the game was 5-4, with Kishuan Gervais scoring the winning goal for the Maulers in the last ten minutes of play.
After Sunday’s game, Maulers’ assistant coach Dalane Lamb said the success they’ve seen in the playoff run so far is due to the players’ confidence.
“Everyone is believing in the process that we’ve got going on here,” he said.
He also credited the players for not giving up in Sunday’s game, when the Hounds came back to score two quick goals in the start of the third period, which gave them a 4-3 lead on the Maulers.
“Guys were a little [ticked] off and wanted to come out and win this game, so we fought back and came back and won it.”
Since it’s a best of five series, one more win will give the Maulers the sweep. The third game was played on Tuesday, Feb. 28, but the score was not available at the time of print.
However, Lamb said to secure that win, the Maulers have to keep playing the puck hard, keep their defence tight and keep firing shots on net.
“We’ve been outshooting them. We had 36 shots tonight,” he said. “When you’re throwing pucks on net with bodies, it makes it tough on the goalie.”
