The Yorkton UCT Terriers took on the Estevan TS & M Bruins in the SBAAHL South Division semi-finals on March 3 and 5 and made short work of the only SBAAHL team to defeat them in the regular season, dismantling the Bruins by identical 7-1 scores in Games One and Two to move on to the SBAAHL South Division final against the Prairie Storm.
Game One
The UCT Terriers came into Game One looking to jump all over the visiting Estevan TS & M Bruins.
They did just that as Carson Miller beat Estevan goaltender Cody Levesque to open the scoring 6:40 into the opening frame for a 1-0 Yorkton lead.
Brett Kemp made it 2-0 not long after, however the Bruins would get on the board before the end of the period when Mason Strutt put the puck past Nolan Maier on the power play to pull the Bruins to within one after 20 minutes of play.
The game remained 2-1 for much of the second period, however a pair of Terrier goals 1:39 apart, one each by Kaleb Bulych and Kaeden Taphorn, gave the host UCT Terriers a 4-1 lead after two periods.
Zach McIntyre’s first of the playoffs increased the Yorkton lead to four less than three minutes into the third period and chased Levesque from the game; replacing him was backup Callum Spearing.
Kemp welcomed the new Estevan net minder into the game by putting the puck past him and into the back of the net less than a minute after he entered it for a 6-1 Terrier lead.
Kemp then rounded out the scoring and completed the hat trick two minutes later, once again beating Spearing to make it a 7-1 Yorkton final.
Maier picked up the win turning aside 21-of-22 Estevan shots while Levesque shouldered the loss stopping 28-of-33 Yorkton attempts. Spearing stopped 7-of-9 shots he faced in limited action.
Immediately following the game UCT Terrier head coach Graham Garrett told Yorkton This Week that he knew that Estevan would come out strong, but that he also knew his team would win if they could stick to their game plan. “We had to get pucks deep, fore-check, wear guys down and make them not want to play anymore,” suggested Garrett. “We needed to wear their d-men down so they couldn’t move the puck or carry the puck and I thought we did that very well.
“I thought our guys matched their intensity and as the game went on we started to take over control of the hockey game and the scoreboard shows it.”
Game Two
The Yorkton UCT Terriers travelled to Estevan for Game Two of their best-of-three SBAAHL South Division semi-final series on Thursday, March 5 with brooms in hand, looking to sweep the TS & M Bruins right out of the playoffs.
However they forgot to trade their brooms in for hockey sticks to begin the game as the Bruins came out of the starting gate on fire, desperately hoping to grab an early lead.
Their desperate attempt proved to be successful as Estevan’s Jake Palmer opened the scoring for the host Bruins less than five minutes in to give hope to the rest of the team.
Hope that ended up being dashed late in the period when Yorkton’s Brett Kemp evened the score at 1-1 after 20 minutes.
A pair of Yorkton goals in the second period, one each by first year bantam players Kaeden Korczak and Zach McIntyre, made it 3-1 for the UCT Terriers before a four goal explosion, three by Kaeden Taphorn and one by McIntyre, in the final frame put any thoughts of an Estevan comeback to bed.
Maier picked up his second straight win over the Bruins, this time stopping 14-of-15 shots while Levesque once again picked up the loss despite turning aside 37-of-42 Yorkton shots before once again being replaced by Spearing who stopped 7-of-9 shots.
Up next
The Yorkton UCT Terriers will now take on the SBAAHL’s second ranked Prairie Storm in SBAAHL South Division final action.
The Prairie Storm cruised through the SBAAHL regular season, finishing second overall with a sparkling 26-2-3 record; those two losses, however, came at the hands of the UCT Terriers, who beat them 6-1 on Saturday, December 6 and 3-2 on Monday, January 5.
Game One of the Best-of-Three SBAAHL South Division final is set for this afternoon at the Farrell Agencies Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 5:00p.m.
