A return home for the Yorkton Harvest over the weekend was supposed to be an added boost for a team that has been on a roll to open up the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League season. Sitting at 6-4-2-1 heading into a two game homestand with the Saskatoon contacts after being out of the Farrell Agencies Arena for nearly a month head coach Dan Cross was looking to jump ahead in the standings with a strong two game series on Saturday and Sunday.
It was anything but for the Harvest.
Getting outshot 50-19 (38-10 after the first period), the Harvest fell 6-1 to the Contacts on Saturday night in their return to the FAA. Six different Contacts players scored in a game that Cross considered a result of a lack of effort.
"We were prepared and came out strong in the first period, but the effort was just not there tonight and you could see it in the difference in shots from both teams," says Cross.
A more focused Harvest team showed up on Sunday afternoon for the second game of the two game set, getting out of the first period tied up at 1-1 after a Corwin Stevely goal put the hosts on the board.
In the second period the Harvest would take their first lead of the weekend, answering an early Contacts powerplay goal from Kade Kehoe with goals from Brennan Watson and the returning Marc Shaw in the final five minutes of the second period to go into the third up 3-2 over the Contacts.
Shaw has been solid since returning from a broken leg, scoring four goals in just six games.
In the third the Contacts would once again open the scoring, regaining the lead with two goals within the first half of the final twenty minutes of play. Kole Lind would score with 13:14 left on the scoreboard and Erik Climenhaga would score just two minutes later to give the Contacts a 4-3 lead.
Yorkton would fight back to tie things up after losing the lead via a Tyler Kreklewich goal, but in the end the Contacts would prevail as Ian Parker would score the winner with 2:40 left to give Saskatoon a 5-4 win and four out of four points on the weekend. A result that put them ahead of the Harvest in the standings. Postgame Cross lamented a missed opportunity.
"With our strong start and performance on our road trip we saw this as a real opportunity to go up to the .600 range with our win percentage so now to get swept and move down to .500 if difficult to swallow."
Cross was however happy with the way the team played for 40 minutes on Sunday after being blown out on Saturday night. "I felt we came out today and gave a much better effort, but it always is a downer to give up a lead in the third period in your own building so we will have to regroup here in practice in the coming days," says Cross.
Next up for the Harvest is another weekend homestand, this time with the Beardy's Blackhawks who have just 8 points on the season. Cross is hoping that his team can regroup with a sweep over Beardy's.
"We let things get away from us this weekend so we need to bounce back with two wins next weekend to make up some ground and get to the .600 level and climb the standings a bit here."
