The Yorkton UCT Terriers of the Saskatchewan Bantam ‘AA’ Hockey League picked up right where they left off from last years championship season, winning their first 11 games of the campaign in convincing fashion before finally tasting defeat 5-4 at the hands of Cole Fonstad and the Estevan TS&M Bruins.
A day later the Terriers crushed Weyburn 10-3 and then won their next seven games to finish the 2014 calendar year with a 19-1-0 record through 20 regular season games.
The Bantam Terriers, coached by Graham Garrett, have also scored 186 goals in 20 games, averaging out to just over nine goals per game.
Leading the Terriers in scoring is second year bantam Carson Miller, who leads the SBAAHL in scoring with 33 goals and 38 assists for 71 points in 20 games.
Right behind Miller are his line-mates, twin brothers Kaeden and Keenan Taphorn. Keenan is just one point back of Miller with 28 goals and 42 assists for 70 points in 19 games while Kaeden is three off the league leading Miller with 27 goals and 41 assists for 68 points.
Yorkton’s Brett Kemp is fourth in league scoring with 23 goals and 27 assists for 50 points despite not playing on the top Terrier line, while Reid Perepeluk leads all UCT Terrier blueliners with 22 goals and 12 assists in 17 games. Perepeluk’s 34 points are also good enough for eighth overall in the league.
But while their offence has been off the charts so far this season, what’s even more impressive is the fact that their two goaltenders that made the team out of camp, Nolan Maier (3-1-0) and Dakota Berezowski (3-0-0), have both been injured for much of the season, only playing a total of seven of the Terriers’ 20 games this year yet the team has still managed to put together a very impressive record.
AP call ups Keenan Aarrestad and Cameron Zamonsky held the fort early in the season with Zamonsky going 3-0-0 and Aarrestad picking up one win in one start before former Humboldt Bronco ‘AA’ bantam netminder Tyson Byman came in to give the UCT Terriers a steady presence in net.
Byman went 9-0-0 with two shutouts and a 1.89 goals against average in nine games.
After Christmas the UCT Terriers will begin playing their final 11 games of the regular season ahead of the 2014/15 playoffs.
There first game will be on Sunday, January 4 against the only team that was able to beat them so far this regular season, the Estevan TS&M Bruins.
The standings as of right now see the UCT Terriers lead both the South Division as well as the SBAAHL with a 19-1-0 record and 38 points. The Prairie Storm (13-1-2) and Regina Monarchs (13-3-2) are tied for second in the South with 28 points each while the Regina Aces sit sit in fourth place with an 8-6-4 record and 20 points.
Estevan (9-10-0) is fifth with 18 points while Melville (7-10-2) is sixth, Weyburn (6-10-2) is seventh and the
Regina Pat Blues (6-10-1) are eighth with 16, 14 and 13 points respectively.
The Sask Valley Vipers lead the North Division with a 15-3-1 record and 31 points while the Prince Albert Venice House Raiders (12-6-2) are second with 26 points and the North East Wolfpack (12-6-1) are third with 25 points.
The Saskatoon Maniacs, by virtue of their 9-6-4 record round out the North top four with 22 points.
Tournaments
Tournament wise the UCT Terriers struggled early on, falling short of the Graham Tuer Bantam ‘AA’ Challenge title in Regina with a disappointing 7-5 loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings in the semi-final. In total the UCT Terriers went 4-2 in the tournament, losing to the Sask Valley Vipers 5-4 and defeating the Saskatoon Generals (5-0), Interlake Lightning (7-0), Melville Millionaires (7-2) and North East Wolfpack (6-3).
However they responded in impressive fashion at the Rocky Mountain Classic Bantam AAA Invitational in Calgary, going undefeated in the round-robin, beating Kamloops 5-1, South Delta 6-4, and the Calgary Bisons 8-3 before defeating the Calgary Northstar Sabres 6-4 in the quarterfinals and the Calgary Flames 4-3 in the semi-finals to advance to the final against a previous opponent, the South Delta Hockey Academy Wild.
Unfortunately penalties got the better of them and the result was a 10-1 drubbing in the final and a second place finish.
However their second place finish at the Rocky Mountain Classic earned the UCT Terriers a spot at the prestigious John Reid Memorial Bantam AAA Invitational in St. Albert, Alberta, from January 15-18, 2015.
The UCT Terriers will be the only team from Saskatchewan at the tournament and the lone ‘AA’ team to attend. The rest of the teams will be the top bantam ‘AAA’ teams in the western provinces as well as four of the top western American teams (Los Angeles Jr. Kings, Dallas Stars Elite, Colorado ThunderBirds and Anaheim Jr. Ducks).
