The Yorkton Terriers, generally unbeatable at home this season, were narrowly edged out 4-3 by the visiting La Ronge Ice Wolves in overtime Tuesday night in the third game of the best of seven Credit Union Cup final series to fall behind two games to one in the race for the SJHL provincial title.
Terrier netminder Devin Peters who recorded a shutout in the previous game at La Ronge appeared to have some difficulty turning aside pucks Tuesday.
The Ice wolves struck first with a goal by Logan Herauf early in the first period.
Robbie Ciolfi tied the game for Yorkton midway through the period assisted by Clarke Breitkreuz and Justin Buzzeo.
Graham Smerek made it 2-1 for La Ronge a little past midway in the first.
Zak Majkowski tied the game with a powerplay goal early in the second period assisted by Breitkreuz to second the teams to the dressing rooms knotted at two after 40 minutes.
Justin Ducharme gave the Wolves a one goal lead early in the third period.
Nathan Murray evened the score about two minutes later assisted by Riley Paterson and Brenden Poncelet.
The game went into overtime with the score tied at three after regulation time. Travis Eggum potted the overtime game winner, with a nice wrap-around from behind the Terrier goal. just 22 seconds into the overtime period to had a 4-3 win to the Ice Wolves.
Wednesday night was a complete reversal of Tuesday's game as the Terriers battled to a 4-3 overtime win on home ice to tie the series at two games a piece.
Ciolfi, who scored a pair of goals in the game, opened the scoring less than one minute into the first period assisted by Breitkreuz and Craig Eisenhut.
Marc Andre Carre lit up the scoreboard for La Ronge midway through the first with a powerplay goal and Logam Herauf added a second marker to give the Ice Wolves a 2-1 lead.
Terrier centre Jeremy Boyer tied the game late in the period assisted by Buzzeo and Brant Remenda.
Ciolfi struck early in the second period with his second of the game just 32 seconds into the period assisted by Kurtis Decker and Blaine Tendler.
Yorkton took the one goal margin into the third period when Nolan Souchotte tied the game midway through the third.
The game, knotted at three after regulation time, went into suddden death overtime with fans for both teams on the edge of their respective seats.
The outcome swung in Yorkton's favor as Boyer notched his second goal of the game, assisted by Buzzeo, to hand Yorkton a 4-3 win just under two minutes into the overtime period.
The win shrinks the series to a best of three games, says Terrier head coach Trent Cassan who was looking to get the best effort from the team Friday night in La Ronge rather than looking ahead to game six. "All that matters is game five now not anything farther down the road," he emphasizes.
With the best of seven series tied at two games, the series returned to La Ronge for game five Friday night.
Four powerplay goals in the fifth game saw La Ronge come from behind to edge out the Yorkton Terriers 4-3 to take a 3-2 lead in the best of seven games Credit Union Cup series.
Eisenhut gave the Terriers a 1-0 lead with one second left in the opening period assisted by Breitkreuz and Ciolfi.
Boyer made it 2-0 for Yorkton early in the second frame assisted by Buzzeo.
Aaron Enns scored the first of the fatal four powerplay markers to pull the Ice Wolves within one.
Breitkreuz scored to make it 3-1 assisted by Ciolfi a little past the midpoint of the second period.
That's when the wheels fell off Yorkton's wagon as first Carre and then Enns scored powerplay goals to pull the Ice Wolves even to make it 3-3.
La Ronge netminder Adam Bartko held the Terriers off the scoreboard for the entire third period while Justin Ducharme slipped one by Peters to clinch the 4-3 win for the Ice Wolves.
With La Ronge leading three games to two the series returned to the Farrell Agencies Arena Friday night.
It was do or die for the hometown favorites as the teams took to the ice Sunday evening.
Following a scoreless first period, Breitkreuz scored a beautiful single handed goal early in the second frame to give the Terriers a brief lead,
The outlook appeared bleak for Terrier fans as the Ice Wolves replied with three goals to go ahead 3-1 as Skyler Hladun tied the game late in the second and Herauf and Eggum notched the second and third goals for the Ice Wolves early in the third period.
Zak Majkowski pulled Yorkton within one goal with a powerplay marker midway through the final frame assisted by Ciolfi.
Breitkreuz tied the game with his second solo marker of the night to send the game into sudden death overtime and giving Terrier fans new hope.
A high sticking penalty to Eggum of La Ronge gave the Terriers a powerplay advantage going into the overtime period.
Eisenhut notched the game winner less than a minute and a half into the overtime period, assisted by Boyer to hand the 4-3 overtime win to tie the series at three games apiece.
The final game of the best of seven series returned to La Ronge for the seventh and final game.
It was a tough game, says head coach Cassan. "We had a choice to make, either we feel sorry for ourselves and complain about things or we dig in harder. It makes it that much sweeter when you do pull out a win," he admits.
The Terriers have faced adversity all year, Cassan suggests which made the team stronger and caused the players to pull together as a group.
Cassan admits many of the penalties the Terriers took at La Ronge in the fifth game may have been warranted. "Hockey is a game of emotion and you have to learn to control it as much as possible," he suggests. He also points out the Terriers played with a lot more discipline Sunday night.
He reports that Kurtis Decker who was hurt went to the hospital and probably won't play again this season. While he's sympathetic with Decker's injury, he feels the officials made the right call and the Terriers were able to take advantage of the resulting powerplay opportunity.
Eisenhut is a skilled player who has played fairly consistently all season, says Cassan. While he may have missed a penalty shot earlier in La Ronge he didn't let it bother home and came up with a very big goal at home Sunday, Cassan notes.
Breitkreuz, who scored a couple of individual goals Sunday, has also been a consistently skilled player, says Cassan. "He's a pretty high skilled guy but at the same time he does it all, penalty kill, block shots and when you work that hard you're going to get opportunities," Cassan acknowledges.
"When he makes up his mind that he's going to control the puck, he's pretty hard to knock off," Cassan adds.
The first part of the final game in La Ronge would be important, Cas-san predicted. There's not much to choose between the two teams judging by the scores in the series, he noted, adding, "It's probably fitting that it's going to come down to game seven," he commented.
He's confident the Terriers are better five-on-five. "When we have been able to stay out of the penalty box, we play well five-on-five. You can't play five-on-five from the penalty box," Cassan quips.
All one can ask of a goaltender is a chance to win the hockey game every night and not take you out of it and Terrier goalie Peters has done that every game in the playoffs, Cassan closes.
After having stretched the CU Cup series to seven games, the Yorkton Terriers went into La Ronge with high expectations Tues-day night. The cup was within their grasp. Alas, it wasn't to be, as Cassan's prediction that the team scoring early would probably control the outcome of the game.
Two first period goals dashed the hopes of the Terrier faithful as the Terriers simply couldn't get by the Ice Wolves netminder Adam Bartko whose superb performance between the pipes stymied all but one of Yorkton's scoring attempts.
Herauf potted the first marker for the Ice Wolves a mere 18 seconds into the opening frame. Dayton Fossum followed up with the game winner, a powerplay goal, to make it 2-0 a little over two minutes into the game.
Ciolfi, Yorkton's top scorer, briefly fanned the flames of Yorkton hopes with a goal in the dying minutes of the first period assisted by Leis-meister and Breit-kreuz. That was as close as the Terriers would come to the coveted cup.
Eggum added the insurance marker early in the third period to grind out the 3-1 win to claim the SJHL Credit Union Cup.
