The Yorkton Terriers will have to play the waiting game heading into the weekend as the regular season and defending SJHL champs will face the lowest seed that advances our of the league's new postseason Wild Card round in the SJHL Quarterfinals under the new three division playoff format.
One of the Terriers potential playoff opponents is known, but there is uncertainty heading into the weekend as the Flin Flon Bombers and Estevan Bruins will play a fifth game on Thursday night to decide the winner of the #6 vs #10 Wild Card series.
If Estevan wins on Thursday night the Terriers will play #9 seed Notre Dame in the Quarterfinals as their Viterra Division counterparts beat the Kramer Division's Nipawin Hawks in four games in an upset to reach the Round of 8 that will begin this weekend.
Regardless of the Terriers first round opponent they will be heading into things as the odds on favourites to lift the Canalta Cup for a second time. After all the Terriers one upped their 2012/13 regular season performance by winning the league regular season title six points clear of the rest of the SJHL. In fact the 2013/14 Terriers improved in many areas during the regular season compared to their SJHL champion roster.
In the scoring department the Terriers had two 60 point scorers in the regular season in Brett Boehm (66 pts) and Tayler Thompson (61 points) who both cracked Top 5 in league scoring. With defenseman Chase Norrish coming in 11th in the league scoring race the Terriers have three players in the Top 20, something that they didn't even achieve last year as Nathan Murray came in 25th. While the Terriers saw Jeremy Johnson come up in the clutch during the playoffs and had a balanced scoring team all year in 2013, the addition of Boehm and the improvement of Thompson and Norrish heading into their final Junior seasons this year's team will be heading into the playoffs with a lot more front end firepower than last year's champs had.
Kale Thomson has also stepped up in between the pipes for the Terriers, taking advantage of a veteran defense that eventually made up for the departures of former WHL talents Austin Bourhis and John Neibrandt to become equally as stingy in the back as the year before. Thomson went from losing his starting job to current Regina Pats goaltender Dawson MacAuley during the stretch last year to becoming a record setter, becoming the all-time leader in single season shutouts with eight. If Thomson can remain consistent in the playoffs as he was as the Terriers workhorse during the regular season the Terriers should have the quality in net once again to make the deep playoff run they are expected to make.
The 2013/14 playoffs will also serve as a last hurrah for several long term faces on the Terriers roster. Captain Devon McMullen, who has been on two Terriers teams that have played in a league final is in his last season as are; Tayler Thompson, Kale Thomson, Tyler Giebel, Derek Falloon, Chase/Brady Norrish and Brett Boehm amongst a long list of 1993 born players. That amount of players putting their Junior careers on the line should make for a hungry and focused locker room that should be prepared to step up to the challenge of having the highest expectations heading into March. Regardless of who the Terriers will face in the first roumd, or for any round in their quest for a league title they will have the pressure of expecting to win. After all the Terriers won the league in six games last year and finished first in the league after returning much of their core. What makes them a strong team will bring the pressure of being expected to win as the Terriers will have the target on their back from day one in this year's run during the playoffs. Last year the Terriers were just another team looking to win the title, this spring the story will be different as they will have the championship experience, but also the championship target on their back in addition to being expected to make a run not just to the league title, but to potentially the Royal Bank Cup.
For now the Terriers still don't know their playoff future, or their first round opponent. Many will peg them to win the Canalta Cup for the second straight time, but upsetting the defending champions Humboldt last year the Terriers will know just how hard it is to lift the trophy and saw first hand how hard you have to fight to win it for the second time. Head coach Trent Cassan and a group of players that will be potentially playing their last games as Juniors will be hoping to use their championship experience to a second straight league title. If only they could find out who they were playing in the quarterfinals.
