One of the best Bantam AA teams in the province, the Yorkton UCT Bantam AA Terriers knew they would be in an unfamiliar place in the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League South Division Finals going up against Balgonie's Prairie Storm. In the battle of the first seed Storm and the second seed Terriers it would be one of the first times all season in provincial play that the Yorkton team would be the underdogs going against a team that lost twice just all regular season.
However when the dust was settled it would be the Terriers that would finish looking like the best team in the SBAAHL, sweeping the Prairie Storm in two games during their best of three series to advance to the SBAAHL Championship as the South champs.
Yorkton would win the first game in a shocking 7-1 blowout before defending home ice with a 4-2 victory at the Farrell Agencies Arena on Sunday to clinch the series.
In Game One the Terriers would bounce back from the Storm earning the first goal in the series on a powerplay goal from Tyson Manz to rout their opponents on the road. Luke Schappert would score a hat trick in the win with Carson Welke having a three point night in a big game for the Terriers line of Welke, his brother McKenzie and Schappert who all hail from Langenburg.
Goaltender Alex Geddes would take advantage of his teammates providing more than enough scoring support, shutting out the Storm for nearly 50 minutes after allowing the first goal of the game to help send the Terriers back to the Farrell Agencies Arena for Game Two with a chance to eliminate their opponents on home ice and avoid a deciding third game back in Balgonie.
In Game Two the Welke brothers would once again be key figures in the storyline of the all important elimination game. Just over two minutes in McKenzie would score the first goal of the night before his brother Carson matched his effort exactly three minutes later to give the Terriers an early first period 2-0 lead.
Heading into the second period up two goals the Terriers would once again waste no time getting onto the board in the second frame as Keanan Sperling would score with 17:28 still left in the second period before Carson Welke would score his second goal of the night to put Yorkton well in front 4-0.
Not to go down easy, the Storm would ramp up their physical play for the rest of the second period before going into the final intermission down four goals. That seemed to motivate the Storm who came into the third period determined to show the Terriers why they had just lost two games all regular season with a dramatic comeback.
Tanner Manz second goal of the series 26 seconds into the third period would give the Storm some energy which was intensified after Colum McGauley scored just minutes later to put the visitors within two goals with over 16 minutes left to play. After looking like they were heading for a surefire league championship appearance the Terriers would have to regroup and focus on defending up just 4-2 after going into the final 20 minutes with a massive four goal cushion.
Backed by Geddes in goal and a poised unit after being rattled by the quick two goal swing, the Terriers would hold on for the next 16 minutes to earn a 4-2 final and a 2-0 series sweep over a team that the Terriers did not beat in the regular season.
After the game head coach Graham Garrett praised his team for fighting hard all series and executing their gameplan in both Game One and Game Two. "We have been playing great hockey all year, but the past two games and the first game especially has been some of the best Bantam hockey I have seen in my lifetime which is impressive considering we were up against the best Bantam AA team in the province during the regular season."
Garrett mentioned that the Terriers hard fought series with the Melville Millionaires where they lost to the Mils in overtime helped in the long run as the team regrouped and changed up their gameplan heading into the series with the Storm to great success. "Having a hard fought series with Melville before playing the Storm helped our young players get a sense of what it takes to win playoff hockey games as well as for us as coaches to go and tinker a bit to find the winning formula so it definitely helped us," says Garrett.
Talking about the performances of the Welke brothers and their linemate Luke Schappert, Garrett had nothing but praise. "Brothers usually play well together and on the same line, but when you get a pair that both want to lead and both want to pay the price in addition to having that chemistry you know you have something special and those two along with Schappert who had the hat trick really came up big for us in this series."
Garrett also praised the play of his goaltender, mentioning that the Storm were expected to have the better goaltending in this series before Geddes answered the bell with two excellent starts. "Both goalies on the Storm are supposed to be the best in the province and to have our goalie just allow three goals over two games was huge and we couldn't of asked for more."
Now the Terriers will be playing the waiting game as the North Division final has yet to be decided between the North East Wolfpack and the Sask Valley Vipers. That series is slated to go next week, but Garrett says even with uncertain ice time due to various playoffs being played around the Yorkton area and across the province he doesn't expect the uncertainty to be a factor.
"We have a great relationship with our ice scheduler and we get practice in whenever we can get onto a rink, but with so many rinks closed for the year now and the Terriers in the SJHL playoffs it can be hard to find ice so we really owe a deal of thanks to Yorkton Minor Hockey for helping us out there," says Garrett.
