The Yorkton RawTec Maulers managed to put some distance between themselves and the ninth place Beardy’s Blackhawks this past weekend after downing the visiting Blackhawks 3-2 on Saturday before hammering them 5-2 on Sunday.
The two wins give the RawTec Maulers a 17-13-4 record for 38 points and seventh spot in the 12-team SMAAAHL through 34 games, eight points ahead of eighth place Moose Jaw (13-16-4) and 11 up on Beardy’s (13-22-1).
The pair of victories also moves Yorkton to within two points of the fifth place Saskatoon Contacts (19-11-2) and sixth place Prince Albert Mintos (17-11-6), who both have 40 points.
The Regina Pat Canadians continue to lead the way with a 28-6-1 record and 57 points while Tisdale (26-5-2) are just three points back in second place with 54.
The Notre Dame Hounds sit in third place with a 23-7-0 record and 46 points while the Battlefords Stars (21-11-1) are fourth with 43 points.
The Saskatoon Blazers (10-25-0), Swift Current Legionnaires (8-26-2) and Notre Dame Argos (5-24-0) round out the league in 10th, 11th and 12th with 20, 18 and 10 points respectively.
Saturday’s game saw the hometown RawTec Maulers come out slowly, firing just five shots on Beardy’s netminder David Thiel in the first period.
However one of those five shots found its way past Thiel as Yorkton defenceman Adam Neibrandt blasted the puck past the Beardy’s goaltender with 3:38 left in the period to give the RawTec Maulers a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Connor Navrot evened the score at one via a Blackhawks power play marker 5:28 into the second but a pair of Yorkton goals just 47 seconds apart, one by Carson Welke at 5:15 and the other by Derrick Budz at 4:28, made it a 3-1 game after two periods.
A late third period goal by Beardy’s leading goal scorer Ryan Rothenburger made it just a one goal game, but that was as close as the Blackhawks would get as the RawTec Maulers avenged last weekend’s disappointing 3-1 road loss to Beardy’s with a 3-2 home victory.
Carter Phair turned aside31-of-33 Beardy’s shots, including 16-of-17 in the third period, to pick up his 12th win of the season while Thiel shouldered the loss stopping just 18-of-21 Mauler attempts.
“Carter Phair basically stood on his head tonight,” offered RawTec Mauler head coach Dan Cross following Saturday night’s 3-2 victory. “We weren’t very disciplined today, we took a lot of offensive zone penalties and we’re lucky it didn’t bite us in the butt today.”
While the amount of penalties was certainly not a good thing, the Maulers took a total of 14 minor penalties through 60 minutes of hockey meaning they were shorthanded for nearly half the game, the play of their penalty killing unit, combined with that of the aforementioned Phair, was. “The guys are doing a great job blocking shots, especially when we’re a man down, and I think that is one area where I think we’ve really improved on since Christmas,” mentioned the RawTec Mauler bench boss. “Our penalty kill is a lot stronger but still I think we’d like to not take those penalties.
“A lot of them were undisciplined after the whistle and stuff like that but at the end of the day they pulled together, kept their composure and got the win.”
Sunday’s win
Less than 24 hours after the RawTec Maulers picked up their Saturday night 3-2 victory over the Blackhawks the two teams hooked up again, this time for a Sunday afternoon contest.
And once again it was the home side Rawtec Maulers that would first find the scoreboard as Maulers leading scorer McKenzie Welke found the back of the net, beating Beardy’s goalie Kody Kushniruk shorthanded to give the Maulers an early 1-0 advantage just 5:19 into the game.
Bryton Fels tied the game just before the middle point of the first frame when his shot eluded Yorkton goaltender Rylan Palchewich.
Beardy’s would then take the lead when Ryan Rothenburger fired the puck into the RawTec Mauler net with Yorkton’s Kylan Shea in the penalty box for tripping to give the visitors a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
The second period saw the hometown Maulers explode for three goals on 13 shots. First, hulking defenceman Austin Shumanski put his entire 6’5”, 205-pound body into a shot that whizzed past Kushniruk to tie the game at two just 1:04 into the second period.
Fellow rookie blueliner Tyler Stratechuk made it a one goal Yorkton lead with 10:41 left in the middle frame when he too found a way to put the puck past Kushniruk before veteran forward Damian Bentz made it 4-2 with his tenth goal of the season just over two minutes later to send the RawTec Maulers into the third period up by two.
The Blackhawk killer Adam Neibrandt scored just his fifth goal of the season, but third in four games against Beardy’s this season, via the power play to round out the scoring in a 5-2 Yorkton victory.
Palchewich got the win, his fifth of the season, stopping 24-of-26 Blackhawk shots while Kushniruk had a rough night between the Beardy’s pipes, surrendering five goals on 33 shots for his 11th loss of the season.
Once again the Maulers penalty killing units, this time successful on 11-of-12 opportunities, led the way for Yorkton; something that their head coach once again noticed. “Getting in those shot lanes, blocking shots they did an excellent job. I have no complaints on what they’re doing,” suggested coach Cross. “They’re sacrificing themselves for the team and that’s what you need, although killing over 10 penalties a game is not something we want to do every time.”
Cross then went on to mention that Sunday’s 5-2 win saw the return of the usual Mauler offence. “That Welke-Welke-Casavant line carried us for a few games, but today was more the type of game that we’re used to playing and I was quite happy with the performance that we got out of all four lines,” said Cross, continuing, “the scoring was all spread out and truthfully that’s the way that we’re going to be successful down the stretch.”
Up next
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers were in action last night against the Regina Pat Canadians, however results were unavailable at press time.
The next action for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers will be this weekend when they travel to North Battleford for a pair of games with the SMAAAHL’s fourth place club.
A weekend sweep would allow the Maulers to climb to within one point of the Stars and possibly leapfrog both the Saskatoon Contacts and Prince Albert Mintos.
