Heading into a two game series with the Swift Current Legionnaires, it was crucial for a struggling Yorkton Harvest team to pick up full points on the weekend for the first time this winter as they took on the cellar dwelling Swift Current club.
The Harvest did just that, shaking off a 4-2 loss during the week at the Farrell Agencies Arena with back to back wins in Swift Current to widen the gap between eighth place Yorkton and the four teams chasing them for the league's final playoff spot.
Wednesday's loss to the Argos was expected as the first placed Notre Dame academy club started the game off with three straight goals scored by Taylor Ross, Mackenzie Wiens and Keegan Milligan respectively to start the game off with a three goal cushion in the opening period.
Drayson Skulmoski would put the game back into reach for the hosts with a shorthanded goal assisted by Turner Ottenbreit to end the first period with Yorkton down 3-1 to the Argos.
Given a powerplay chance midway through the second period, the Harvest converted to move within a goal as Riley Rozdeba scored his fourth goal of the season on assists from Adam Neibrandt and Levi Morin to continue the Harvest comeback at the halfway mark of the game. It would prove to be the only powerplay goal of the game as the Harvest managed to blank the Argos on the man advantage with a perfect 5/5 penalty kill on the evening.
Their comeback would be killed just :12 after the Rozdeba goal as Langenburg product Evan Werle scored his sixth goal of the season as the local defenseman put the final nail in the Harvest's coffin on Wednesday with what proved to be the decisive goal in a 4-2 final score.
Yorkton's Matt Kustra, a Prince George Cougars product who spent time with the Yorkton Terriers in goal during the preseason before the team settled on Riley Medves as their backup, made 21 saves in his return to Yorkton as the Argos continue their first place form with a win in a potential first round playoff matchup with Yorkton.
Currently Notre Dame is three points ahead of the Prince Albert Mintos while the Harvest seemed destined to finish in eighth place, three points behind the Saskatoon Contacts for seventh place having played three more games. If these two teams do play in the playoffs there will be some bad blood as Werle and Ottenbreit both took 10 minute misconducts with just :13 left on the clock in the final seconds of the game.
Moving on from the loss during the week at home, the Harvest would head into the weekend where they would have a chance to beat up on the last placed Legionnaires, who had just six wins total during the 2013/14 season heading into their weekend series with Yorkton. A loss to Beardy's to start 2014 would have the Harvest's guard up as they learned their lesson not to take any opponents lightly and came into Swift Current looking to make the most of their opportunity.
Things did not start according to plan for coach Dan Cross' team as the Legionnaires would score the game's opening goal on the powerplay as Tristan Hermanson would score his fifth goal of the season to give Swift Current first blood and put Yorkton on the ropes in a game they needed to get two points out of.
After heading to intermission down one goal, the Harvest came out with a mission to turn the game back in their favour. That came sooner than expected as Tanner Jeannot would score off a feed from Chase McKersie under a minute into the second period to tie the game up at 1-1.
Solid goaltending from Carson Bogdan and Swift Current's Kyle Zinger would keep the game scoreless for the rest of the second period as the team's would have to wait until the final period for a chance to make their push for the two points.
It would be the Harvest's most in form player since the Christmas break that would rise to the occasion as Turner Ottenbreit would continue his recent goalscoring run for the Harvest since spending time with the Saskatoon Blades with his eighth goal of the season for the game's game winning goal. Chase McKersie and Corwin Stevely would pick up their second assists of the night respectively after both players assisted on Jeannot's goal in the second period.
Logan Leslie would score an empty net goal to make the final score 3-1 in the first game of the weekend. Bogdan was solid in goal for his sixth win of the season, making 32 saves on 33 shots in a game that was kept low scoring by both goalies.
Saturday's win would set up a Sunday matinee clash between the two teams with the Harvest already halfway completing their goal of a weekend sweep. This time they would draw first blood as Leslie would build on his empty net goal on Saturday evening with the game's first goal on Sunday to give the Harvest a 1-0 lead less than five minutes into the first period.
Swift Current would answer right back off of a Ottenbreit roughing penalty as Carter Doerkson would score in the final seconds of the powerplay to tie the game up at 1-1. It would be the start of a back and forth first period as after Jaden Kreklewich scored a powerplay goal of his own to regain the Harvest lead, Hermanson would score on an assist from Doerkson to tie the game at 2-2 after 20 minutes.
From that point on it would be all Harvest as three straight unanswered goals would accomplish the team's mission in a 5-2 final. Second period goals from Marc Shaw and Chase McKersie would put Yorkton on top before Korwin Shewchuk added the icing to the team's weekend sweep in the third with a powerplay goal to end the weekend.
The wins would move the Harvest to three games back of .500 as their record through 33 games is now 12-15-4-2. Good enough for 30 points and a ten point cushion over the ninth placed Saskatoon Blazers.
The Harvest's next two games will be crucial as they will be playing 2012/13 playoff opponents in the Regina Pat Canadians on January 26 in Regina before playing hosts to the Pat C's on the 29th. Regina sits at sixth place with 36 points and if the Harvest can manage to get a sweep they could vault in the standings and avoid having to play the regular season champs in the first round of the playoffs. With 11 games left in the 2013/14 regular season, the Harvest are running out of time to make their climb up the standings. With the playoffs all but wrapped up, the team's next focus will be a winning streak to climb the standings and gain momentum heading into the postseason. That can start this week when the Harvest look for revenge against the team that knocked them out in the final game of their best of five first round series last season.
