With a pair of wins this past weekend, 2-0 over Humboldt and 4-2 over Notre Dame, the Yorkton UCT Terriers now have more wins in a row, 16, than 16 other SBAAHL teams do in total this season with just three games remaining on their schedule.
The two wins improve Yorkton’s record to 27-1-0, seven points ahead of the second place Prairie Storm (22-2-3, 47 pts.) in the SBAAHL’s South Division.
The Regina Monarchs sit in third with an 18-5-5 record and 41 points while the Regina Pat Blues find themselves in fourth with a 15-13-1 record and 31 points.
Estevan (15-13-0) is fifth with 30, the Regina Aces (11-9-6) are sixth with 28 while Weyburn is in seventh with a 10-14-5 record and 25 points.
Melville and Moose Jaw round out the South Division top eight with identical 7-16-4 records and 18 points while Notre Dame (7-18-2) and Swift Current (3-25-0) round out the division with 16-6 points respectively.
The Sask. Valley Vipers (20-7-2) continue to lead the SBAAHL North Division with 42 points despite dropping their last four games with the North East Wolfpack (16-8-3) and Prince Albert Raiders (16-10-3) sitting tied for second and third in the North with 35 points each.
The Saskatoon Stallions round out the Northern top four with a 13-9-5 record and 31 points.
Blanking the Broncos
Humboldt’s Kobey Clarke caused all sorts of problems for the Yorkton UCT Terriers on Saturday, January 31, turning aside 48-of-50 Yorkton shots in the game.
However Clarke couldn’t stop them all as both Kaleb Bulych and Kaeden Taphorn found a way to put the puck past the Humboldt goaltender; Bulych’s coming early in the first period while Kaeden Taphorn’s 35th of the season put any thought of a Humboldt upset to bed with just 6:21 left in the game to seal the 2-0 Yorkton win.
And although the offence wasn’t its usual self, Yorkton scored less than five goals in a game for just the third time this season, Yorkton UCT Terrier head coach Graham Garrett said that he’ll take this result over a high scoring one any day. “We’ll take a 2-0 win over an 8-5 win every day. Every coach would,” offered Garrett, adding that Clarke was a big reason that the score wasn’t higher. “Their goaltender, kudos to him because he had a very good game.
“Again we had some opportunities to put the puck in the net early that we didn’t take advantage of which allowed him to get his confidence up and he played well.”
Clarke wasn’t the only goalie to put forth a strong effort on the night, however.
Yorkton’s Nolan Maier picked up his third shutout of the season stopping all 16 Bronco shots while increasing his league shutout streak to over eight consecutive periods.
Maier has not surrendered a goal in the last 162 minutes, 32 seconds of playing time. “He’s played over eight periods now of shutout goal so I think he’s starting to get back into it,” offered Garrett on the play of his starting netminder, adding that Maier had been out for a lengthy amount of time due to injury earlier this season, but that it’s good to see him finally play to his potential. “After being off so much at the start of the year and then again at the middle of the year it’s been hard for him to get in that groove and now he’s had over eight straight shutout periods and that’s what we’re going to need from him going forward into the playoffs.”
Winning the dog fight
A day after their strong defensive effort against the Broncos, the Yorkton UCT Terriers were back on the ice, this time taking on the lowly Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox.
Aiden Bulych opened the scoring early in the first period on Yorkton’s first power play of the game when he beat Hounds netminder Riley Kohonick for his 11th of the season just 3:26 into the game.
Keenan Taphorn’s 29th of the campaign just 18 seconds later made it 2-0 Yorkton and it looked as if the wheels were about to fall off for Notre Dame, however Kohonick stood tall for the rest of the period to keep his team within two.
Yorkton, looking to increase their two goal advantage, came out firing in the second period, however it was the Hounds that would find the back of the net first in the middle frame as Caleb Creasor, against the flow of play, cut the Terrier lead in half via a Hounds power play goal with 9:41 left in the period.
Nikita Khavronin tied the game at two with Notre Dame’s second goal of the period on just their second shot of the frame, however it took just over a minute for Yorkton to regain the lead as Zach McIntyre made it 3-2 Yorkton with 4:09 left in the second period.
McIntyre’s second of the game midway through the third period finished off the scoring in the game as Yorkton succeeded in making it 16 straight wins with a 4-2 win over Notre Dame.
Dakota Berezowski picked up the win stopping 9-of-11 Notre Dame shots while Kohonick was the hard luck loser, playing well enough to deserve a win by turning aside 45-of-49 Terrier attempts only to suffer the loss.
Up next
The next action for the Yorkton UCT Terriers (27-1-0) will be Tuesday, February 10 when they host the Melville Millionaires (7-16-4) at the Kinsmen Arena.
They’ll then finish off the regular season with a pair of home games at the Farrell Agencies Arena on Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14 against the Regina Aces (11-9-6) and Saskatoon Maniacs (11-10-6) respectively.
