It was an up and down week for the Harvest. Fortunately, it ended on a high note.
The Harvest ended an abbreviated two-game losing streak with a 4-0 victory, Sunday, versus the Saskatoon Blazers.
The Harvest began last week with a Thursday face-off against the Saskatoon Contacts at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
A goal in every period by the Contacts doomed the Harvest, however, as they dropped a 3-0 decision.
The Contacts fired 41 shots at Yorkton's Kale Thomson, who was able to stop 38 of them.
The Harvest were unable to match Saskatoon's attack. They were outshot 16-5 in the opening period and 41-29 overall.
Yorkton's special team's were also an achilles heel for the club as they went scoreless (0-5) on the powerplay and conceded a goal while a man down.
Looking to rebound, the Harvest played host to another Saskatoon club (the Blazers) on Saturday.
The Harvest opened the scoring in front of their home crowd, thanks to Kade Halabuza. John Odgers and Gage Rapitta drew assists on the goal at 9:45 of the first.
David Miazga responded for Saskatoon to knot the game at one's before the intermission.
The Blazers seized the lead once and for all at 18:07 of the second on a powerplay. Mitchell Schwark converted a pass from Stu Symenuk that put Saskatoon up 2-1 and would end up being the winner.
Despite a decided shot advantage in the third period, accompanied by several close chances, the Harvest were unable to get back into the game.
Harvest Head Coach Grahame Garrett was not pleased with his team's effort (or lack thereof) in the first two periods.
"I thought for the first periods they played like they wanted to win and we just played," Garrett recalls.
As Garrett points out, the Harvest were repeatedly stymied in the third period by Blazers goaltender Daniel Jahnke.
"In the third period, we're down and we threw everything we could at them and their goaltender had a lights out game. That's the hockey game in a nutshell," he details.
With the loss still fresh in his mind, Garrett had one goal for the following night's rematch.
"We have to come out here (and) we have to win the hockey game tomorrow, it's as simple as that."
And win they did.
Sunday's rematch with the Blazers saw the Harvest jump out to a 2-0 lead after two periods.
Denin Boesch's first period marker and Gage Rapitta's goal in the second had the Harvest up by two despite being outshot 21-15.
The Harvest put the icing on the game in third with goals from Rapitta (his second of the afternoon) and Tanner LeSann to secure a 4-0 victory.
The bounce back game for the Harvest could largely be attributed to the play of goaltender Kale Thomson.
Thomson was named the game's first star, as he made 26 saves in the shut-out victory.
Yorkton's powerplay also did it's job by contributing two goals on four chances.
Despite the victory, the Harvest's season thus far has been typified by an inability to dress a full lineup.
Injuries and extenuating circumstances have put the Harvest at a disadvantage when it comes to icing a full roster.
Garrett indicates that this shortage of forwards has been increasingly frustrating.
"Right now, we're having trouble getting a full lineup out there," he points out, "We're playing with nine and ten forwards each and every night. It's asking a lot of the guys that are playing. They're giving 100 per cent effort. Every team's got four lines running against us and we've got three. It's getting tough until we get everybody back in the lineup, it's going to get tougher."
One of the problems with an ever-changing lineup is the difficulty in setting lines to determine team chemistry.
The shortage of players has severely hampered the Harvest forwards unity and, subsequently, their ability to score goals.
As Garrett explains, "We don't have any chemistry because we don't have lines together. It's a simple as that. We've been together for six weeks and we've only had one line that's played together. And that's the biggest problem right now, finding that chemistry to score. We've never had the same four set of lines for one game this year."
The Harvest's next action will be on Saturday, October 16 when they will play host to the Swift Current Legionnaires. Game time is 3:30 p.m. at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
