It has truly been a tale of two seasons for the Yorkton Harvest. After opening the season's first ten games with just two wins, the Harvest have rode a strong December and early January to finally reach the .500 mark and are one of the hottest teams in the SMAAAHL with a 7-2-1 record in their last ten games. However, going into last week, the Harvest were still looking at a three game stretch that could have seen them fall all the way back out of playoff position with the eighth place Notre Dame Argos, the ninth place Saskatoon Blazers, and the fourth place Saskatoon Contacts making up an all important three game swing. With the Argos and Blazers having multiple games at hand over the Harvest and just 15 games left in the regular season, these meetings were elevated to a near must win status for the Harvest.
First up was a home date with the Argos that seemed like it was off to a great start as a highlight reel dangle and assist from Lynnden Pastachak to Korwin Shewchuk gave the Harvest a 1-0 lead just 1:30 into the first period. The momentum gained from that highlight was quickly vanished as the Hounds ran goalie Spencer Bombior off the ice with four unanswered goals as the Harvest struggled to find their legs in the opening period, Carson Bogdan was brought in to replace Bombior and a Pastachak goal at the tail end of the first sent things into the intermission with a manageable 4-2 deficit for the Harvest.
Levi Morin began the Harvest comeback after a Argos penalty for cross checking with a perfectly placed wrist shot before Pastachak and Corwin Stevely added second period goals of their own to make it a 5-4 Harvest lead going into the third period in what was a dominating second period performance after being so flat in the first period session.
The third period was much tighter, with the Hounds pressing on for the tying goal in what was still a 5-4 contest at the FAA.
Levi Morin proved to be the difference maker, scoring another goal from the slot off another well placed wrist shot to give the Harvest a two goal lead which proved to be the difference in the 6-4 win.
The Harvest were without Head Coach Jeff Odgers who was missing due to announcing duties with Shaw for their WHL broadcasts. Assistant Coach Dan Cross took over the head coaching duties while Jason Gordon filled in at Assistant Coach. Gordon said he enjoyed the experience of helping out with the Harvest and said that "It took a bit to get the line rotations going, but once we did we settled in and it turned out to be a great game."
The Harvest then headed to Saskatoon on Saturday and Sunday for road meetings with the Contacts and Blazers. Saturday night saw the Harvest play the Contacts and with an intense game with the ninth place Blazers the next day, the risk of looking ahead past the fourth place Contacts was there.
Less than two minutes in the Contacts were already on the board as Kade Kehoe put one past Carson Bogdan to give the Contacts a 1-0 lead, Eric Meyer scored off assists from Dakota Odgers and Korwin Shewchuk to tie things up going into the second. In the second period the script reversed as Lynnden Pastachak scored at the 1:58 mark of the period before Kehoe levelled things again heading into the third period.
With a chance to prove that they can continue to beat top teams in the SMAAAHL the Harvest answered back from an early powerplay goal in the third with a flurry of goals, dominating the Contacts and showing once again the talent and confidence they have found recently. Pastachak and Meyer both scored powerplay goals on a two man advantage to give the Harvest the lead before Logan Herchak added an empty net goal to make it 5-3 for the Harvest. Pastachak added another empty net goal to record the hat trick and send the Harvest into Sunday's meeting with the Blazers with two extra valuable points.
With the Blazers having games at hand and creeping up on the Harvest in the standings, two points would see the Harvest create some separation as well as close in on sixth placed Tisdale making the Sunday evening clash all the more important for them. Going down early was not a problem for the Harvest on the day as Ethan Bear scored a powerplay goal to add to his two assists on Saturday to give the Harvest a 1-0 lead.
In the second the Harvest took a 2-0 lead as Koal Roberts scored his first of the season in his first weekend with the Harvest before the Blazers scored two quick unanswered goals to tie things up at two's. As he has done all season Pastachak came up with the timely goal at the end of the second period before adding an empty netter at the end of the third period to give the Harvest a 4-2 win. Pastachak's goal was his 22nd in 30 games and his 40 points sits him fifth in the league in scoring. Giving the future Red Deer Rebel a reputation for being one of the SMAAAHL's most talented offensive players.
Carson Bogdan was huge once again all weekend, running away with the number one goalie job and making the saves needed to give the Harvest's high powered offense a chance to take over games. With the way he has been playing, expect Bogdan to get the majority of starts down the stretch.
With the two wins the Harvest now sit three points above the Blazers in seventh and seven points above the Argos who are in ninth, with both teams having three and four games at hand over the Harvest that cushion is smaller than it appears, but with the way the Harvest have been playing as of late it is hard to imagine both those teams keeping up even with the extra games at hand.
A slower next two weeks sees the Harvest take on hosting duties at the FAA. A rematch with the Moose Jaw Generals who beat the Harvest 3-0 in their last meeting at the FAA January 6. With the Generals in a three way tie for second place with the Contacts and Pat Canadians expect a tough matchup for the Harvest. Then on January 23 the Harvest will play host to the aforementioned Canadians in another midweek meeting to wrap up a two game homestand. With just twelve games left in the regular season the Harvest are inching away at not only creating some breathing room, but making noise that they can pull off playoff magic.
