The first round of the SJHL Playoffs is officially in the books and it is official, the Yorkton Terriers will get their shot at revenge on the Melville Millionaires in the Sherwood Division Final after their 4-1 series win over the Estevan Bruins. After wrapping up their series on Saturday night the Terriers then shifted their focus to the Millionaires-Hounds series, where Melville was on the ropes against Notre Dame down 3-2 in the series, but after Sean Aschim's Game Six OT winner rallied in Game Seven to give the Sherwood another playoff installment of the Highway 10 Rivalry.
While winning in five games might give some the impression on paper that the Terriers dominated the Bruins, that was not the case Thursday night when the Terriers went to Estevan's Spectra Place in need of a win to avoid going to Game Five back at the FAA tied at two games apiece. Whoever won Game Four was going to take serious momentum heading into the rest of the series as the Bruins were feeling optimistic about their chances after a 5-2 home win in Game Two and a near upset at the FAA in Game Three backed by Curtis Martinu's hot goaltending which kept the score at 0-0 until well into the third before Patrick Martens two goals gave the Terriers a 2-1 win. If the Bruins were to grab another home win the series would become a best of three, if the Terriers were to win the series would be going back to Yorkton 3-1 with the Bruins needing to beat the Terriers twice on home ice to survive and upset Yorkton, making Thursday night's game the turning point of a series that was hard fought in its opening three games.
Brady Norrish opened the scoring at Spectra Place for the Terriers, clanging home his first goal of the playoffs and giving the Terriers the upperhand heading into the second period. The goal game 16:01 into a period where Estevan were looking to set the tone, nearly outshooting the Terriers in the opening frame, making Norrish's goal a killer for the home Bruins.
Dawson MacAuley would keep the Bruins off the scoreboard until the third where Wyatt Garagan tied the game for Estevan.
Quiet for most of the series after scoring 22 regular season goals, Tyler Giebel picked the right time to break his playoff slump, scoring the game winning goal with six minutes left in the third to give the Terriers a 3-1 series lead and sending the series back to Yorkton with a chance for the Terriers to finish off the Bruins nice and early. MacAuley was solid in the win, posting 28 saves in the win and erasing all memory of the five goals he allowed in Game Two at Spectra Place.
Game Five at the FAA would give the Terriers the chance to sit and rest their wounds for an extra few days with a win while the Bruins were looking to give the Terriers their first regulation loss at the FAA in the 2012/13 season to extend their year for at least another game and send the series back to Spectra Place. After scoring the only two goals in Game Three at the FAA, Patrick Martens took little time in carrying over that magic into Saturday night scoring the game's first goal and giving the Terriers a 1-0 lead in the opening stages of the first period.
Estevan would come out swinging in the first twenty minutes, but an interception by Jeremy Johnson on a Bruins powerplay breakout would lead to a shorthanded goal and a 2-0 lead. Calder Neufeld would score for the Bruins in the first to make it 2-1 going into intermission but it felt like a missed opportunity as the Bruins outshot the Terriers 21-6 and were still losing after one.
In the second the Terriers rewarded MacAuley for making 20 first period saves with some more goal support, Kailum Gervais earned his third of the series to put the Terriers up 3-1 and Martens grabbed his second of the night to answer a Bruins powerplay goal to end the second up 4-2. Martens would add a third and Giebel would put in an empty net goal to finish off the Bruins with a 6-3 Game Five win and a 4-1 series win.
Patrick Martens was the series MVP in the win over the Bruins, scoring seven goals all at the FAA. His two goals in Game Three slammed the door on a Bruins upset and with a Game Five hat trick Martens erased any doubt on who was the star of the Sherwood Semifinal. "I had great work from my linemates all series and was in the right spots and took advantage of being given a lot of scoring opportunities from my teammates" said Martens who was quick to share the credit with the rest of his team for his individual success in the series. Martens also gave his goaltender some love post game for his stellar opening period "MacAuley stopped a lot of shots for us in the first period, he faced 21 in the first and after the first Coach told us to focus a bit more defensively and from there we kept Estevan from coming back into the game" said Martens.
While the Terriers were waiting on the winner of Melville-Notre Dame to see who their Sherwood Final match up would be both the players and head coach Trent Cassan downplayed any notion that there would be a preferred opponent going into the next round. "Both teams are tough, skilled hockey teams that present a challenge for us in the next round that we are going to have to prepare for once the series is over we will focus on that" said Cassan when asked about the possibilities of playing either Melville or Notre Dame on Saturday night.
Now that everyone knows who the Terriers will be playing on Friday night at the FAA speculation can be made on the match ups between the Millionaires and the Terriers. With the Mils winning last seasons Sherwood Semifinal over the Terriers in five games a squad filled with veteran Terriers will be looking for revenge over a Melville team that boasts the league MVP in goaltender Alex Wak-aluk and the league's top scorer in Ian McNulty.
Melville holds the advantage in front end talent in this series with the aforementioned Wakaluk and McNulty being bolstered by three of the leagues top fifteen scorers beyond McNulty, giving the Mils some potent forward strength. Nathan Boyer has won two SJHL championships with La Ronge was fifteenth in scoring while Sean Aschim came tenth in the league and Russell Trudeau finished second, giving the Millionaires arguably the best first two lines in the league based on the statistics.
However where the Terriers earn their keep is in their depth, with Nathan Murray being the only Terrier who cracked the top twenty in the SJHL in scoring the Terriers have a wealth of players who have bought into the team concept while also being extremely talented. This balance that led them to the regular season title in the Sherwood Division will be the key to the Terriers hopes of advancing to the Canalta Cup Final as Melville has the weapons needed to win and brought in Boyer to add some championship experience to the only franchise in the league to never win an SJHL championship.
This series is incredibly even on paper, with the Terriers needing to win the last night of the SJHL regular season to clinch first in the division. The Terriers will need a full effort from every line as they have been nearly all season if they are going to get some sweet revenge on the team that ended their season last year in five games. The Highway 10 Battle is about to heat up the parkland area for another playoff chapter.
