With injuries to veteran forwards mounting and the lack of a true high end goalscorer since Jeremy Johnson's junior career came to an end last season, the Yorkton Terriers made a move that stirred up the SJHL late last week when they acquired Brett Boehm from the Flin Flon Bombers for forward Dalton Menke and futures prior to their pre-Christmas slate against the Estevan Bruins and Notre Dame Hounds.
Looking to help ease the absence of Tyler Giebel, who has been injured for much of the season after a solid 2012/13 season and playoff run had him tabbed as the Terriers scoring leader this season, the Terriers opted to go for Boehm who was ranked by NHL Central Scouting with a late round C rating and was given a scholarship to NCAA D-I University of Minnesota Duluth after taking the SJHL by storm in a sensational rookie season with the Bombers in 2013.
Boehm, who scored 25 goals with the Bombers in his rookie season did not disappoint in his first appearance at the Farrell Agencies Arena on Friday night when the Terriers faced the Estevan Bruins. Put on the Terriers top line with top assist man Tayler Thompson, Boehm went quickly to work, showing the Terriers what he could bring to the table with a powerplay goal to open the scoring against the Bruins. The goal was Boehm's 11th of the SJHL season.
The new Terrier added an assist on a Kailum Gervais goal to give the Terriers their second score of the night, but in the end Boehm's debut was spoiled by former Yorkton Harvest forward Ben Johnstone who scored two third period goals to force overtime and stun the FAA crowd.
In overtime the Bruins would complete the comeback that was spurred on by the former Harvest man in Johnstone as Tanner Froese finished a breakaway opportunity to give the Bruins a 4-3 overtime win, handing the Terriers a rare home loss in their final regular season meeting with their Viterra Division rivals.
The Terriers lost despite outshooting the Bruins 38-23 as Kale Thomson allowed his highest goal total at the Farrell Agencies in December after seemingly racking up shutout after shutout for the hometown crowd as of late.
On Saturday with backup Riley Medves in goal the Terriers travelled to Wilcox to take on the Notre Dame Hounds for the first time in the 2013/14 season. For the opening two periods the Terriers were neck and neck with the Hounds before the wear and tear of playing on back to back nights appeared to creep in as after a 3-3 score heading into the third, the Hounds scored three unanswered in the final period to sink the Terriers and hand them their third straight loss.
Cortlan Procter, Brayden Schmidt, and Dylan Baer scored the goals for the Terriers while Notre Dame's Sam Aulie scored two goals for the Hounds in the win to register his 12th and 13th goals of the season. Riley Medves made 21 saves in the loss facing 26 shots while Hounds goal Brett Soles stopped 31 out of 34 shots on goal in the win for Notre Dame.
After three straight losses the Terriers would face the Hounds for the second straight time on Tuesday as they wrapped up a home and away series with the Hounds before the SJHL's Christmas break. Trying to avoid a losing streak and finish the pre-Christmas schedule with the league's best record, the Terriers needed a win over the Hounds to go home for the holidays on a high note. After a 6-3 loss, the Terriers came out with a mission to respond with a much better effort on Tuesday.
For the second straight home game it would be the Terriers new addition that got the game's opening goal, scoring once again on an assist from his new center in Tayler Thompson to put the Terriers up 1-0 heading into the second period. It would prove to be the game winner as Kale Thomson was on his way to a 25 save shutout, but the Terriers were not done scoring as they got all of the offense they wanted before heading home for Christmas break after a slow start in the first period.
Goals from Tyson Enzie, Dylan Johnson and captain Devon McMullen put the Terriers up 4-0 heading into the third period, but the Terriers were not done there as the new addition and the captain put the cherry on top of a dominating performance before the Terriers players and coaching staff returned home for the holidays.
Picking up the puck in the neutral zone, Boehm went on an individual run to the faceoff circle, deking out Hounds defenseman Matt Sefton before unleashing a quick wrist shot that gave the Terriers a 5-0 lead.
McMullen added to the Hounds misery one last time on a shot from the point to end the game with a 6-0 win, but postgame the talk was once again of the trade that makes the defending SJHL champs even tougher in a move that was weeks in the making according to Terriers General Manager Don Chesney.
"We were looking to bring in a top scorer since our injuries have mounted up," says Chesney who pointed out several key Terrier returnees have missed time in the first half of the season.
"Giebel has been out for awhile now and he was supposed to be one of our top scorers, and Derek Falloon just came back into the fold and with the league's best defense it was a move that we felt would give us a chance at making a good playoff run to the league title and hopefully one step further to the Royal Bank Cup."
Boehm also mentioned that the chance to play for a Royal Bank Cup and help the Terriers defend the league title had him excited even though he had a ton of success in Flin Flon.
"The Bombers have a great organization and it was a sudden thing to be told you might get traded, but when I knew it was the Terriers I felt that if I was going to have to move teams in the league this would be the top place to go so I am excited to bring my scoring to the fold and hopefully turn into even more of a complete two way player while I am here to help the team."
Yorkton returns to action January 30 in Melville against the Millionaires before hosting the Mils on New Years Day.
