Despite a hard fought effort from the lowest seed in the SJHL Quarterfinals in the Notre Dame Hounds during the defending champion Yorkton Terriers first playoff series in the SJHL Playoffs an expected ending was reached on Friday night at the Farrell Agencies Arena when the Hounds were dispatched unceremoniously 7-1 in a deciding Game Five win for the Terriers to advance to the SJHL Semifinals.
The win would settle the series at 4-1 and would come after the Hounds gave the Terriers everything they could handle and more in the opening four games before being blown out at the FAA in the deciding contest. Employing a physical and hard nosed strategy, Notre Dame would push the Terriers from the opening puck drop to the final whistle in an attempt to get the defending champs off their game.
While the Terriers fought back, they would not lose their composure even after a Game Two loss on the road and having to go to overtime to beat the Hounds on the road in Game Four. In the end staying composed would pay off with an expected early end to the series.
An early end almost didn't come as Notre Dame was less than three minutes away from taking a second win at the Duncan McNeill Arena on Thursday as a third period goal from Andrew Cummings gave the Hounds a 2-1 lead for most of the final period. Leaving just minutes of defense in the way between them and a forced sixth game back in Notre Dame regardless of the result at the FAA the next night in Game Five.
That didn't happen as Terriers rookie Tanner Lischynsky would become the playoff hero with his first SJHL game at the perfect time to tie the game up at 2-2 with 2:20 left to play to take the game into overtime in Wilcox.
After tying the game late the Terriers would make no mistake in making the Cinderella Hounds pay in overtime as fellow rookie Jordan Ross would show that the newcomers can be just as clutch as the veterans with championship experience, beating Alexi Thibaudeau to score the overtime winner and put the Terriers up 3-1 in the series with the chance to clinch the series on Friday.
Back at home the Terriers would make no mistake of finishing off Notre Dame as quickly as possible, riding off a valiant early effort from the Hounds with an opening goal from Brett Boehm before eventually blowing out the playoff candle for the Hounds in an embarrassing fashion with a 7-1 blowout win that also featured two fight victories from the Terriers by the way of Kailum Gervais and Dylan Johnson to rub salt in the wounds of a Hounds team that managed to draw the scorn of the FAA faithful in just five short games.
Seven different Terriers would score in the win, a victory that Terriers captain Devon McMullen was happy clinched the series after five physical games that McMullen credited the Hounds for coming out with inspired efforts in. "It was nice to finish the series in five games and get closer to the next step in the playoffs," said McMullen postgame on Friday. "Especially with the way Notre Dame was playing us at home and on the road it will be nice to relax a bit and not have to worry about any Game Six or Game Seven games before focusing on the semifinals."
McMullen also credited the Hounds for their hard fought effort, something that he embraced as a solid playoff introduction. "As much as they may have got under the skin it helped motivate us to play better and prepared us for what it takes to win in the playoffs and they did a really good job of making sure we had to earn the series," says McMullen who added. "You never want a team to just roll over and give you and easy win because that isn't going to help you get better so this series was a good experience for us."
Not knowing their SJHL Semifinal opponent on Friday night the Terriers captain made sure it was clear regardless of opponent that the team would be taking it one game at a time when it comes to their quest to defending their SJHL title and advancing to the Western Canada Cup.
"We know that the expectation is to defend our title because we are the defending champions, but we also know that we won the title last year by taking that one game at a time," says McMullen who is playing his final Junior season after a long stint with the Terriers. "Whatever happens in the end happens and it would be nice to finish with a title, but for now we are just focused on the next game, the next practice, the next play, and continuing our goals one step at a time."
That opponent will be the Humboldt Broncos as the SJHL semifinal will feature a Canalta Cup rematch of the Terriers and Broncos series that decided last year's SJHL title with the Terriers upsetting the Broncos quest at back to back titles in six games to lift the trophy. Now it will be the Broncos who look to return the favour at the same time as trying to rewrite the script on what was a disappointing second half to regular season in Humboldt that saw the Broncos fall to third place in the Kramer Division.
In fact at the end of the regular season the Terriers would finish 14 points above the Broncos in the league standings, a drastic disparity in performance that will give this series a different fell than in the 2013 Canalta Cup Final in which it was the Terriers who were slight underdogs against the defending champions and regular season leaders. This time the Terriers will be looking towards being not just favourites, but being steady ones with a large gap between them and the Broncos based on how the regular season played out and where the two teams finished.
