The Yorkton Harvest came off a three game home stand last week with five out of a possible six points heading into the Christmas break, claiming a pair of wins and an overtime loss.
Despite being outshot 37-18, the Harvest edged out the Regina Pat Canadians 2-1 in the Farrell Agencies Arena Thursday night.
Following a scoreless first period, Levi Cable put the Harvest on the scoreboard midway through the second period assisted by Kade Halabuza.
The one goal lead held as the teams skated out to the third period with Yorkton leading 1-0.
Jared Martin tied the game early in the final frame before Dustin Minto notched the game winner assisted by Ryley Stefanyshyn and Kody Thue to hand Yorkton the 2-1 win.
Saturday night the Harvest, backstopped by net minder Kale Thomson, shutout the league leading Prince Albert (P.A.) Mintos 4-0.
Ben Johnstone scored the lone goal of the first period assisted by Dustin Skilliter and Cable. The Harvest took a one goal lead into the dressing room after 20 minutes.
Kailum Gervais scored a power play goal midway through the second frame assisted by Halabuza and Stefanyshyn.
Cable capped the Harvest scoring with a pair of third period goals, the first, a solo power play marker and the second assisted by Skilliter.
Thomson claimed his second shutout of the current season.
Sunday afternoon a little luck, and a lot of hard work saw the Mintos, who outshot the Harvest 40-27, edge out the Harvest 4-3 in overtime.
Following a scoreless first period, Landon Belchamber scored the lone goal of the first period midway through the frame to put the Mintos up by one goal after one period.
A three goal third period by the Harvest almost pulled out the game for Yorkton, tying the game at three after regulation time, sending it into sudden death four-on-four overtime.
Cable tied the game at one midway through the third period assisted by Skilliter and Thue.
Stefanyshyn's single-handed goal gave Yorkton a brief one goal lead until Tad Kozun tied the game for P.A.
With a little more than four minutes in the game, P.A.'s Sawyer Lange scored the go ahead goal.
Battle though they might, the Harvest seemed unable to notch the game evener until Yorkton's Denin Boesch caught Mintos net minder Taran Kozun out of position and launched the tying marker from outside the blueline with just 51 seconds remaining in regulation time to send the game into overtime.
Just when it appeared the game would end in a tie, the Mintos staged a final play of the game attack and with five seconds on the clock Belchamber potted the game winner, his second goal of the game.
Following the game a slightly dispirited Thom-son admitted the Harvest had finally come together as a team and managed to pull out some solid wins recently. "We're coming out with 60 minute efforts now," he reports.
Thomson attributes Saturday's shutout to solid play by the team. "Once you have a couple of good games and the team's playing well, you get on a roll and you start to feel good. That's how it's been for Spencer (Bomboir) and me lately," he states. He suggests both he and Bom-boir have been playing well and feel pretty confident in net.
The scoring has also picked up lately. Those early goals also help getting the team rolling and picks up player confidence, Thomson says.
He admit's the game tying goal may have been a tad lucky, but feels the team deserved it for their hard work all weekend. "It was nice to get to overtime to claim the one point," Thomson closes.
Harvest head coach Graham Garret says the Harvest dominated the Mintos Saturday. P.A. tried to bring some different strategy to Yorkton which appeared to play into the Harvest strengths. "We were able to create a lot of offense, get a lot of open shots and shut them down offensively," he explains.
Garrett says the Mintos, a good, well coached hockey team, adjusted well Sunday to make the game a little closer. Unfortunately a tough play at the end of the overtime allowed P.A. to score with five seconds left in overtime, Garrett observes.
The game winning goal was made on a perfect shot. "You give him 10 more opportunities, he doesn't hit it one more time," Garrett predicts.
The Harvest coach informed his players that in his opinion if the Harvest continue to play like they did Saturday night, they could become league champions.
He reports that the Harvest played a solid 60 minutes of hockey in the Thursday win over the Regina Pat Canadians. "The guys played hard, won their one-on-one battles and were able to shut Regina's offense down.
While the overtime loss in the last game before Christmas leaves a bitter taste, the Harvest need to keep in mind what they've accomplished in the last month, Garrett points out. Three games below 500, it looked like the Harvest would have to struggle to make the playoffs. "Now we've got ourselves right back into the middle of the pack. That's kudos to these guys as players," Garret acknowledges.
The Harvest will be on the road for five straight games the first two weekends in January, Garret notes. "That confidence and the way we played here, we've got to be able to take that on the road," he closes.
