After a 2-1 loss in overtime to the Brooks Bandits on Wednesday afternoon, the Yorkton Terriers are sitting in a three way tie for first in the round robin of the Western Canada Cup in what is as expected a very tight tournament. With a competitive field of the best teams in Western Canada, every team in the tournament knew that every game was going to be a battle and for the Terriers that has been no exception as all three of their games have been decided by just one goal in their first three of four round robin games. Jeremy Johnson's three weekend goals and Tyler Giebel's three point night Sunday lifted the Terriers to two straight wins to open the tournament after concerns of their busy schedule Saturday/Sunday after traveling from Saskatchewan to the island city on Friday, but the two wins no have the Terriers sitting at first with a crucial Thursday clash with the Surrey Eagles to decide who gets to play in the 1/2 page playoff semifinal.
In the first period the Terriers struck first as Jeremy Johnson picked right where he left off in Games Five/Six, scoring the opening goal of the night off some nice passing with Kailum Gervais on the assist. Nanaimo would get it right back as four year WHL veteran Greg Fraser got the goal for his hometown club to answer Johnson's first to make it 1-1. Fraser's former Prince George Cougar teammate Tayler Thompson got one right back for the Terriers to make it 2-1 before Matt Grant got one for Nanaimo to tie things up again in a period where the Terriers could just not keep the lead. Dylan Baer's tripping penalty would be the lone penalty for the Terriers in the game, but it cost them as it led to Grant's goal in a pretty even period of back and forth action with the shots being 17-13 in favor of the Clippers.
The second would see some chances both ways, but far less action as the Clippers Colton Dahlen provided the only goal of the period on a wrist shot that beat a screened MacAuley to send the Terriers into the third period down 3-2. In the final seven minutes of the game, the Terriers recaptured the magic that they had during the playoffs as Jeremy Johnson took advantage of a Clippers turnover to tie it up, before the captain Devon McMullen gave the Terriers the lead with just under four minutes left to give Yorkton the 4-3 win, escaping a loss before playing Steinbach Sunday.
Dawson MacAuley was incredible between the pipes yet again for the Terriers, making 39 saves as Yorkton was outshot 42-35 by a Nanaimo team that showed they will leave everything on the ice to defend their home ice as hosts, falling just short in the final ten minutes of the third. Kailum Gervais and Tyler Giebel both had two assist nights to add to Johnson and McMullen's heroics as well as Thompson who added an assist on the game winner to make it a two point night. McMullen and Johnson's late heroics were a flashback to Game Six of the Canalta Cup Final as the two once again combined for some late third period magic with Johnson's second goal tying the game late and McMullen's winner giving the Terriers the win and preventing them from playing a tiring sudden death overtime session playing the following afternoon against the Steinbach Pistons, who were the team to get the night off on opening night of the tournament.
Steinbach would get their chance to kick off the Western Canada Cup Sunday afternoon as the Terriers looked to finish the weekend 2-0 before facing tournament favorites Brooks after a day off on Tuesday. Going into Sunday's clash with the Pistons the Terriers knew they were going to be in tough against a hot Steinbach team led by head coach Paul Dyck that had the advantage of the night off Saturday as well as seeing the Terriers play live against the Clippers on Saturday.
All of that didn't seem to matter in the early moments as an energetic Terriers team got another opening goal from Jeremy Johnson who scored his third goal of the tournament to make it 1-0. Chase Norrish scored a goal on nice backdoor feed from John Odgers to make it 2-0 Terriers, but as on Saturday against the Clippers the Pistons would not go down without a fight in their opening game of the tournament. The Pistons would get one back less than thirty seconds after Norrish's marker as Hayden Goderis got the first goal of the tournament for the Pistons to make the score 2-1 after the first period.
As in the opening night game, the Terriers could not hold on to the lead their fast start created as the Pistons got one back in the opening five minutes of the second period as Trent Genyk tied things up for Steinbach after the Terriers jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
Daylan Gatzke was taken out with a hit to the head by Brendan Hopkins which led to a two minute hit to the head penalty and a ten minute misconduct penalty, but the Terriers powerplay would stay quiet on Sunday afternoon, ultimately going 0 for 4 on the day. Tyler Giebel would be the hero of the afternoon, taking a pistons turnover on the backcheck and walking in on goal, using some nifty dekes to beat Corey Koop for the unassisted goal in the closing moments of the second to give Yorkton a huge go ahead goal.
Dawson MacAuley stayed brilliant in goal for the Terriers on Sunday, especially in the third period. The gigantic goaltending prospect stood his ground in between the pipes and was simply just too hard for the Pistons to solve in the third, turning away 11 shots on way to a 32 save win in goal for Yorkton as the Terriers held on to a 3-2 win despite missing the empty net twice and having Kyle Rous take down Tayler Thompson on an empty net breakaway with ten seconds left.
The win gave Yorkton their fifth straight win dating back to the SJHL Final with Humboldt and all but guarantees them a spot in the tournament semifinals with each team having one loss on the weekend. Questions about the Terriers ability to bounce back from playing the hosts on Saturday night were quickly answered as the Terriers scored two very quick goals in the first period and despite for blowing the two goal advantage, were able to hold onto their 3-2 lead for the entire third period, a sign that the Terriers had the legs even after travelling on Friday and playing back to backs on Saturday and Sunday.
Tyler Giebel was the difference maker in the win over Steinbach. Partnering on a line with the red hot Jeremy Johnson,
Giebel matched his goalscoring linemates tournament production with three points of his own, assisting the two first period goals and beating Koop on a breakaway to earn the game winner in the second in what was the game's turning point.
With Nanaimo's shocking 7-2 upset over Brooks the Terriers game against the back to back AJHL Champions gave Yorkton a huge opportunity to seal a spot in the 1/2 page playoff semifinal, which would give the Terriers two cracks at one of the two qualifying spots at the Royal Bank Cup. Penalties would become a story of the game early in the contest, as a Josh Ellis kneeing penalty after a bone crunching open ice hit from Dylan Johnson to open the game stole the Terriers early momentum as RJ Reed's third of the tournament put Brooks up early as Dawson MacAuley was beat by a short side wrist shot for the powerplay marker. Three Terriers penalties in the period led to some major penalty killing work for Yorkton as Dawson MacAuley bounced back to make 15 saves in the period to keep Yorkton within one, surviving Brooks potent powerplay.
The roles reversed in the second period as Brooks took three penalties in the period and the Terriers dominated the shot clock 16-5 in the second frame. After getting the hook in their 7-2 loss to the Clippers, Michael Fredrick showed why he is one of the coveted prospects from scouts in this tournament, making some outrageous saves in the second period as the game remained 1-0 after 40 minutes due to some very talented goaltending from MacAuley and Fredrick.
Needing to find a goal in the third, the Terriers made things extremely hard for themselves as two of three roughing penalties from Austin Bourhis came in the final fifteen minutes, including one to draw a Bandits two man advantage with just under seven minutes left.
The Terriers killed off the penalty, before Nathan Murray grabbed his first goal of the Western Canada Cup with just under five minutes left in a hard scramble to the net alongside Dylan Johnson who was credited with an assist.
Continous overtime meant that no ties would be in place, and the Terriers would be the victim of sudden death overtime as a deflection would see Shane Pilling's stick at the point and the Bandits would capitalize as his blast deflected off Macauley's shoulder and into the goal to get the win.
Now with the Terriers loss and Surrey's 4-0 win over the Clippers Tuesday there will be some drama and tiebreaking mathematics Thursday as the Eagles and Terriers will clash as two 2-1 teams while the Bandits should win over an 0-2 Steinbach in their final round robin game, meaning that there is a very high possibility that two teams find themselves tied on Thursday.
Math aside, Yorkton needs a win over the BCHL Champions on Thursday night to ensure a spot in the all important 1/2 page playoff, with a loss they will need to face a rematch with Brooks/Surrey as well as beat Nanaimo/Steinbach to get there which would be difficult.
Thursday afternoon will determine the final picture of the knockout round, but the Terriers after three strong outings hope that they will be able to secure the path of least resistance to PEI and the 2013 Royal Bank Cup. A win over Surrey would get them one step closer.
