After going into an opening weekend of the Western Canada Cup where many were concerned about the quick turnaround the Yorkton Terriers were facing in playing the Nanaimo Clippers and Steinbach Pistons in a under 24 hour span, Jeremy Johnson and Tyler Giebel helped dismissed those concerns with some clutch offensive outbursts to lead the Terriers to a 2-0 record with a 3-2 win over the Steinbach Pistons Sunday. That 2-0 record has the Terriers as the last undefeated team in the round robin, putting the team in a great position as they look forward to playing the Brooks Bandits and Surrey Eagles this week to close out their round robin.
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 gives 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. Koop was outstanding for the Pistons, specifically in the third period where he made some incredible saves to keep Yorkton from going up 4-2. His 36 saves gave Steinbach a chance to win, but it was just not enough as the Terriers battled hard to earn a well deserved 2-0 record.
Steinbach will now look to play the Surrey Eagles on Monday night as both teams will be looking to climb out of the basement in the WCC as the two teams have identical 0-1 records as Surrey was given the off day on Sunday. While after a 7-2 loss to Nanaimo, Brooks will be eager to bounce back from being shellshocked in the first upset of the tournament to the host Clippers when they face the Terriers on Tuesday.
Despite the 7-2 blowout, Brooks is still a team that has won a staggering 55 games in the 2012/13 campaign and will be a huge test for Yorkton, who now will have their sights set on locking up the #1 seed in the semifinals and will need to go through the Bandits to get there as Brooks still has a chance to finish first in the round robin at 1-1. A win for Yorkton would all but guarantee two cracks at advancing to the RBC Cup during the knockout stage as the top two seeds get the advantage of playing the winner of the 3/4 semifinal for a chance at the Royal Bank Cup if they lose the 1/2 semi in a format very similar to the page playoff system in curling.
For now the Yorkton Terriers will enjoy a day off, a chance to enjoy the beautiful British Colombia scenery and get a well deserved day to recover after surviving a weekend that tested their will and fight over an extremely busy three day schedule. They won't be able to relax for long with a huge meeting with a Brooks team that will be looking to avenge a 7-2 embarrassment on Sunday night, but for now the Terriers are in first place and feeling good. But the Road to the RBC Cup still has tons of distance on it, but at the halfway checkpoint of the round robin it is so far so good for the SJHL Champs.
...Other WCC News and Notes. With one goal and four assists, Tyler Giebel is the scoring leader after two days at the Western Canada Cup while Jeremy Johnson's three goals put him as top goalscorer after two games. Nanaimo's Greg Fraser is right behind with two goals as well as RJ Reed of the Brooks Bandits. Surrey and Steinbach will serve as the only game Monday with Brooks, Yorkton and Nanaimo getting days off after playing back to back games on the weekend. Nanaimo will play Surrey Tuesday night while the Terriers will take on Brooks in the afternoon game as the Western Canada Cup resumes a full slate of action tomorrow.
