Yorkton Minor Hockey wrapped up a crowning achievement in player development in March as the Pee Wee AA Terriers finished up their 2012/13 season with a provincial and league title and a staggering 49-1-1 season. No that is not a typo, the Sherring Gold AA Terriers lost just one game all season in defending their league/provincial championship. A successful season was something coach Chad Korczak expected in returning players from last year's squad, but nothing like what happened this season. "We knew during tryouts at the start of the season we had a special group of young kids who loved hockey with talent and potential that would help us have a pretty good season, but we had no idea that we would have a season like we had at the start" said Korczak.
The AA Terriers first sign of their potential came after an early season tournament win in Prince Albert where they beat a Lloydminster team that the team rated very highly coming into the tournament, giving the Pee Wee's some confidence that they can play with anybody early on in the season. From there the Terriers went to the Regina Pee Wee Classic tournament, where after narrowly losing the year before the Terriers relied on second year talent to lift them to their first Classic title since Jarret Stoll was a Pee Wee.
After the tournament the Terriers turned the corner, finishing South Sask play at 20-0 and entering the playoffs, where they would once again have to come out of the South Sask league before playing the prairie Storm in the provincial semifinal. After a month layover between games, the Terriers were rusty and suffered their first tie of the season in a 5-5 game before earning a 5-2 win in Yorkton in the home leg of their two game series to win 10-7 on total goals. Korczak attributed the close call to a lack of games in between and some hot goaltending from the Prairie Storm saying, "With it being hard to find exhibition games and going up against a hot goaltender we were really up against it, but we dug deep and our leaders stepped up and got the job done at home."
In the provincial final the Terriers went up against a Prince Albert squad who won out of the North regional playdowns and the Terriers were much better prepared for the final after their layoff, finishing Game One up six goals before winning the provincial title with a ten goal cushion. Giving them a treble that they had as a goal all season with a provincial title, a league title, and the Pee Wee Classic crown.
The Terriers only loss all season came to Spruce Grove in the Lloydminster tournament final after beating them 8-0 in the round robin early that weekend. With Spruce Grove winning Alberta provincials, their only loss of the season came at the hands of one of the other top clubs in Western Canada.
"I think it speaks a lot of Yorkton Minor Hockey that we can have seasons like this at the Pee Wee AA level while graduating players to the next level" said Korczak. "We have had a good run at this level over the past few years winning provincial titles and now having this season and it really speaks a lot of the players and coaches that we are doing something right if we can constantly bring in new kids at the Pee Wee AA level and being consistently competitive."
The Pee Wee AA Terriers plan to have six returning players next season, with a 49-1-1 record those players might be able to teach the next crop of Pee Wee Terriers a thing or two about how to win hockey games.
