After getting swept in their return to the FAA by the Saskatoon Contacts last weekend, Yorkton Harvest head coach Dan Cross made it a mission for the team to get two wins over the Beardy's Blackhawks on home ice on Saturday and Sunday to make up for dropping points in their return to home. It got interesting at times on Sunday, but at the end of the weekend the young Harvest club completed the goal Cross set out for them with two wins over the Blackhawks to move them back up the Saskatchewan AAA Midget Hockey League standings.
On Saturday the Harvest took advantage of a two goal first period and two goals from Seattle Thunderbirds prospect Tyler Kreklewich to earn a 5-2 win over Beardy's. Marc Shaw opened the scoring up for the Harvest with five minutes left in the opening period and Riley Rozdeba scored with just six seconds on the clock as the Harvest set the tone with two late goals in the first that were the eventual turning points in the win.
Kreklewich's first goal of the second period put it out of reach with a 3-0 lead that the Blackhawks could not recover from. Carson Bogdan made 30 saves in the win for the Harvest in the win. It would be much needed for the Harvest, who snapped a short losing skid with the win and set up a Sunday afternoon clash where the hosts could snatch all four points over their visitors. It would turn out to be quite the adventure for the Harvest.
The Harvest would come out flying in the first period, outshooting Beardy's 20-6 and roaring out to a 3-0 lead. A goal from Corwin Stevely less than two minutes in was followed by a powerplay goal from Jaden Kreklewich and a marker from blueliner Turner Ottenbreit to send the Harvest into the second period quite confident that they would be earning their second W over the weekend. It turned out that the Blackhawks weren't about to give up.
Coming back with a flurry of goals over their own, the Blackhawks scored three straight unanswered goals in the first five minutes of the second period to tie the game up at 3-3. With the game falling apart, Cross was faced with the tough decision to pull promising rookie goaltender Carter Phair to send a message to his players to wake up and get back into the game.
"I had to make a move to send a message to the team that what effort they came out with wasn't going to get the job done and it was costing us the game," says Cross, who mentioned that the move to pull Phair will likely not be the last time he pulls his goalie and that the youngster has been great for the team thus far.
"Carter has went above and beyond all of our expectations so far this season and taking him out of the game had very little to do about his play and it won't be the last time he gets pulled in his career," says Cross who has been impressed with the play of Phair in 2013 so far.
Yorkton dug themselves in a deeper hole, letting in one more goal with Bogdan in net to push the score to 4-3 for Beady's, but the team regroupd and responded well after the second period intermission and some likely choice words from their head coach after blowing a three goal lead after outshooting Beadry's 20-6 in the first period. After the second the Blackhawks had scored four goals on 14 shots outshooting the Harvest 14-9, Cross said the drop off was expected, but the goals just kept piling on and on in a hurry.
"Being up three goals you expect a natural easing up of your players because of that lack of urgency and to their credit Beardy's came out in the second ready to come back into this hockey game after giving three goals up of their own unanswered in the first," says Cross. "To our guys credit they came back and recovered."
Jaden Kreklewich scored with less than three minutes gone in the third period to tie the game up and turn back the momentum. With Carson Bogdan settled in goal stopping 22 of the games final 23 shots from the Blackhawks, Koal Roberts got the game winning goal near the midway mark of the third before the defense held on to a one goal lead until Tanner Jeannot scored an empty netter to close the deal. Postgame Cross was happy with the end result.
"We came out with the mission to make up fro last weekend with four points and we did it, it may have got a little bit more exciting than we would have counted on, but our guys responded well and battled to get the job done.
Yorkton fell 7-4 to Tisdale on the road on Tuesday night at the Tisdale Recplex with another multi goal second period proving to be the turning point.
Tisdale responded to a late Tyler Kreklewich goal to send the game into the second period 1-1 with three goals in the second, including a late on with :30 left on the clock from Tanner Negal to make it 4-2 going into the third.
Marc Shaw would score first in the third to put the Harvest within one, but a powerplay goal from Drew Litwin and an added insurance marker from Wyatt Hinson put the game away for good in a Trojans win.
Yorkton plays host to the Mintos on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. the Harvest are currently in a four way tie for third place with Prince Albert, making the game one that is sure to have early implications in the standings.
