Struggling recently after a strong start to the 2013/14 Saskatchewan AAA Midget Hockey League season, the Yorkton Harvest couldn't right the ship on the weekend going up against the third place Prince Albert Mintos. Losing on both Saturday and Sunday, the Harvest could only earn one point out of four registering just an overtime loss in two home games.
Saturday was the Harvest's best day of the weekend, leading 2-1 into the final minutes of the third period before the Mintos equalized and sent the game into overtime. Negating a shorthanded goal from Jaden Kreklewich and a potential game winning goal from Tanner Jeannot that gave the Harvest a 2-1 lead.
In the end Lance Yaremchuk would be the villain in the final period with a game tying goal that was one of the lone times that rookie goaltender Carter Phair didn't answer the bell in a 33 save performance. The Mintos would make good of Yaremchuk's late heroics in the overtime period, scoring on an unassisted winner from Teal Sobkowicz to earn the extra point in a 3-2 win.
With Carson Bogan in goal on Sunday afternoon the Harvest allowed their second first period powerplay goal of the weekend, this time it would prove to be costly as the Mintos added one more goal to take a 2-0 lead they never looked back from in a 5-2 win to clinch the weekend sweep.
Yorkton gave up ten powerplays in the loss, allowing two goals on the powerplay and it was head coach Dan Cross' main talking point postgame.
"We just gave up too many penalties this weekend and it was what cost us at the end of the day, you can't give up that many penalties to a good hockey team and expect to get away with it," laments Cross on a two game stretch where the Harvest gave up 18 total penalties to the Mintos something that caused problems in installing their gameplan with so much time spent shorthanded. "We really couldn't get the matchups we wanted on the ice in both games with so much time spent on the PK so it was frustrating and is something we will be working on in practice."
The two losses continued the theme of recent struggles from the Harvest, who still have playoff positioning despite only winning three of their last ten games.
Hovering near the .500 mark, Cross is challenging his players to make a pre Christmas push to shake off their recent slump. "We have been struggling to find the back of the net, to stay out of the penalty box, to find the back of the net, but we have been in games and I think we just need to rattle off one win to get some of our confidence back."
The Harvest will be up against a stiff opponent when they do get back in action at the Farrell Agencies Arena next weekend for another two game batch as they will be taking on the fourth place Moose Jaw Generals.
That two game homestand comes after a midweek trip to Wilcox to take on the first place Notre Dame Argos in what is a very challenging weekend for the Harvest. Taking on two of the league's best one thing is for certain, a win would likely earn some serious moment. Only three points back of the Generals despite being in eighth place the Harvest's first half could look drastically different with a turnaround weekend at the FAA.
