The Yorkton Harvest won one and lost one last week.
Thursday night the Harvest, who led through both the first and second periods, saw the game get away on them in the third period. A miscue by the powerplay unit and one by the penalty kill unit resulted in two goals by the opposing Regina Pat Canadians, who outshot the Harvest 45-32, to clinch a come-from-behind 4-3 win at the Al Ritchie Arena.
Regina struck first as Corey Kosloski opened the scoring late in the first period.
Yorkton replied with two goals in the last minute of the period to take a 2-1 lead at the end of 20 minutes of play. Dustin Minto struck first for the Harvest with just 47 seconds on the clock assisted by Ryley Stefanyshyn.
Tanner LeSann scored Yorkton's second goal, a powerplay marker assisted by John Odgers.
Kailum Gervais extended the Harvest lead early in the second period assisted by Yanni Mamais.
The Pat Canadians capitalized on a couple of Harvest miscues to score twice in the final frame to win the game. Graham Black's shorthanded marker tied the game at three. Black also added the game winner, a powerplay goal to clinch the narrow 4-3 win for Regina.
Returning to home ice Saturday night, the Harvest held off the visiting Notre Dame Hounds for a decisive 5-2 at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
The Harvest outshot the Hounds 46-25 on the way to the win.
The Harvest struck twice in the first period with Ben Johnstone finding the back of Notre Dame's net for Yorkton's first goal assisted by Kody Thue.
Andrew Stack tied the game with a powerplay goal.
Harvest captain Dustin Skilliter made it 2-1 for Yorkton assisted by Levi Cable.
Johnstone notched the lone goal of the second period to make it 3-1 for Yorkton after 40 minutes, assisted by Devan Fafard and Cable.
Skilliter scored his second of the night one minute into the third period assisted by John-stone and LeSann.
Zak Cardiff capped the scoring for the Hounds with Notre Dame's second goal of the game.
Travis Baber capped Harvest scoring chipping in Yorkton's fifth goal of the game assisted by Gage Rapitta and Adam McCannell.
Harvest head coach Graham Garrett says the Hounds are a team that's struggling to win and were playing short handed. The Harvest need to take advantage of that and he believes they did, playing a very strong game. "Our forecheck was very good. We didn't give them anything five-on-five," he reports.
While he thinks Yorkton's penalty kill might have been a little more aggressive, he credits the Notre Dame netminder, Tyler Fuhr with solid play in goal. "We must have had 25 scoring chances, but we hit a couple of posts and missed some open nets. However it's never a bad thing winning a hockey game 5-2," Garrett declares.
He feels the Harvest played well in Regina Thursday night but were hampered by being shorthanded on the back end with a pair of defensemen out. Regina was able to block a shot and get a shorthanded breakaway goal to tie the game. Then they were able to score the game winner on the powerplay. "We played a very strong game. We just made a mistake on the powerplay and they were able to score," he explains.
Garrett says the Harvest are back up to around 500 with a couple of home games remaining before the Christmas break. "We want to get above 500 to make sure we're not sitting in seventh and eighth place but are challenging for fifth and fourth," he says. The next three games are important games for the Harvest in order to head into Christmas on a winning note, Garrett states. "Hopefully we'll get healthy and will stay healthy after Christ-mas," he says.
A rough stretch where the Harvest, unable to put together some back-to-back wins, squandered a few points, costing them a trip to the Macs Tournament this year, Gar-rett notes. "Those points you don't get back," he says.
Those losses put the team at the bottom of the playoff race. They need to keep winning to get back up into the middle of the pack, Garrett suggests.
He doesn't anticipate any roster changes before the January 10 deadline. "These are 20 guys we picked and we're expecting them to handle the job," he states.
Harvest goalie played Kale Thomson had a great game against Regina Thursday as well as against the Hounds Saturday, says Garret. "He's been stellar for us all year and that's what you expect from a third year guy and he's been a mainstay for us all year," Garrett closes.
