The News Review sports writer Chase Ruttig selected excerpts of his top Yorkton sports moments of 2013. Here is his column from the Yorkton Terriers SJHL Championship.
This season was my first covering the Yorkton Terriers, going into researching the team and covering and attending the preseason scrimmages, exhibition games and camps. I didn't know what to expect.
I knew that the Terriers had lost to the Melville Millionaires in the Sherwood playoffs the year before and that they were returning key players, but still there wasn't anything that screamed out that the Terriers were going to win an SJHL Championship and I was relatively new to covering the team. Yet as the season moved along in the fall you started to sense that the Terriers group was a special one and one that had the hallmarks of a team that was going to be memorable.
Their defense, which was undersized at the start of camp, got a huge boost in getting back Yorkton's John Neibrandt a WHL Champion with the Kootenay Ice and Austin Bourhis from the Prince Albert Raiders to shore up their blueline and provide a physical presence. Tayler Thompson, who had injury problems and spent only partial time with the Terriers as a member of the Prince George Cougars, was back for a full season as was fellow former Cougar John Odgers. The Terriers began to get deeper and deeper as a roster and with that the season started to progress and signs started to emerge.
The Terriers started to show that they were a contender in the SJHL and carried that through their three week long November road trip while they were kicked out of the FAA for the Harvest Showdown and despite some road woes were still right at the top of the Sherwood Division standings heading into the last game before the Christmas break where they would host the Notre Dame Hounds with first in the division on the line.
The Terriers showed that they were a team built to win a championship in that game, they dominated every aspect of the game at the FAA when they easily could have mailed it in with long drives back home or to the airport before Christmas looming in the morning. Captain Devon McMullen shed the mitts after a big hit as did Derek Falloon as two of the Terriers smallest players in stature stood up for their teammates while the Terriers cruised to a 4-1 victory and confirmed that they were the top dog in the Sherwood Division, a division lead that they would hang onto until the end of the season losing just twice in the regular season at the FAA.
It was that defending of home ice that was so special about the 2012-13 Yorkton Terriers. Away from home the Terriers would lose 15 times in the regular season, it was their Achilles Heel, but for whatever reason they always put in a full effort for their paying customers. Every night but two (and once in the playoffs to Melville) the Terriers fans went home happy thanks to a full effort from the Terriers. "Who Let the Dogs Out" would be played a lot after Terriers home wins and the Terriers would go into the playoffs as one of the favorites to hoist the Canalta Cup with no player in the Top 10 of scoring in the league. In fact the Terriers didn't even have a scorer crack the Top 15, and Nathan Murray the team's regular season scoring leader at No. 20 on the SJHL league leaders list didn't even score a goal until Game Six of the Canalta Cup Final. Yet the Terriers always seemed to win, the right guy always seemed to step up and nobody seemed to care who scored the big goal, who made the big hit, or who got the post game interview and glory for having a big game. The whole team only cared about winning for each other and slowly but surely the city started to pay attention. Game One of their first round series against the Estevan Bruins only saw 700 people fill the Farrell Agencies Arena, yet by the end of the playoffs you couldn't find a ticket by puck drop. When they went on the road the fans followed on fan buses or by driving themselves, bringing air horns, cowbells, and whatever they could to attempt to bring some of the Terriers home ice advantage on the road.
It ended up working as the Terriers shook off their road woes in the playoffs to help lift the Canalta Cup. In Game Six against the Melville Millionaires the Terriers shocked a packed Horizon Credit Union Centre to win the Sherwood Division title and get revenge on the rivals that eliminated them the year before. In that game frequent healthy scratch Dylan Johnson, who didn't play since Game Two of the first round against the Bruins, came in and scored two second period powerplay goals on League MVP Alex Wakaluk to lift the Terriers to the Division title. Melville had the league's top two scorers as well as the MVP in net in Wakaluk, making the Terriers win that much sweeter and once again showing the value of a complete team. By the end of the game the crowd was all Yorkton, with "Go Terriers Go" chants at every whistle and faceoff taunting their rival fans as the crowd at Melville's new arena was nearly a 50-50 split in Terriers and Millionaires fans.
That support trickled over into the Canalta Cup Final where the nearly two and a half hour drive to Humboldt did not deter the fans from filling up the two charter buses making the trip up or driving themselves to support their Terriers on the road. In the final the Terriers once again lacked the statistical numbers of the Broncos led by CJHL Goaltender of the Year Matt Hrynkiw and former #1 WHL Bantam Draft Pick Alex Forsberg. The series between the Broncos would be a tight one, with the Terriers needing at least one win in Humboldt to take home advantage from the defending champion Broncos they would fall just short in Game One as Alex Forsberg's OT winner would give Humboldt the win.
It ended up working as the Terriers shook off their road woes in the playoffs to help lift the Canalta Cup. In Game Six against the Melville Millionaires the Terriers shocked a packed Horizon Credit Union Centre to win the Sherwood Division title and get revenge on the rivals that eliminated them the year before. In that game frequent healthy scratch Dylan Johnson, who didn't play since Game Two of the first round against the Bruins, came in and scored two second period powerplay goals on League MVP Alex Wakaluk to lift the Terriers to the Division title. Melville had the league's top two scorers as well as the MVP in net in Wakaluk, making the Terriers win that much sweeter and once again showing the value of a complete team. By the end of the game the crowd was all Yorkton, with "Go Terriers Go" chants at every whistle and faceoff taunting their rival fans as the crowd at Melville's new arena was nearly a 50-50 split in Terriers and Millionaires fans.
That support trickled over into the Canalta Cup Final where the nearly two and a half hour drive to Humboldt did not deter the fans from filling up the two charter buses making the trip up or driving themselves to support their Terriers on the road. In the final the Terriers once again lacked the statistical numbers of the Broncos led by CJHL Goaltender of the Year Matt Hrynkiw and former #1 WHL Bantam Draft Pick Alex Forsberg. The series between the Broncos would be a tight one, with the Terriers needing at least one win in Humboldt to take home advantage from the defending champion Broncos they would fall just short in Game One as Alex Forsberg's OT winner would give Humboldt the win.
Yet when Game Five rolled around with the series still tied at 2-2 going back to Humboldt, the Terriers still knew they could win in Humboldt and win the series and in post game interviews that confidence was repeated again and again, "We know we can win in Humboldt," was the mantra that was repeated countless of times after winning Game Four, after two misses in Games One and Three the Terriers knew Game Five would be as good of a time as any as a win would give the Terriers a chance to close on home ice.
The fans knew it too, piling into the fan buses and making the trip up to Humboldt's EPA Arena where they would be treated to one of the best games the SJHL has ever seen. Three overtimes. 50 saves from each goaltender and a Yorkton Terriers win from a tip in front of the net from hometown hero Jeremy Johnson sent fans back home for Game Six on Sunday night. In that Game Six the Terriers would come out roaring to a 3-0 lead. Yet Humboldt scored with under five minutes left to tie the game and you could hear a pin drop at the FAA, but the Terriers didn't give up. In the end a last minute hustle play from their captain Devon McMullen to get to the puck and put it on net after winning a 50/50 battle for a puck that trickled out to the slot led to Jeremy Johnson's second game winner in two nights and the Terriers first title since 2006. Yet for nearly an hour after the game, you still couldn't find a seat at the FAA as the fans stayed to witness their team lift the cup. After the win the Terriers and their captain Devon McMullen showed why they were champions, when initially given credit for the goal, McMullen made sure to let everyone know that his teammate and last year forward Jeremy Johnson tipped in the winner.
That selflessness and commitment to the team over personal glory is what made the 2012/13 Terriers an unforgettable team.
Blessed with homegrown talent in the Johnson brothers, Dylan and Jeremy who both contributed to huge series clinching playoff moments and a handful of other players who spent their minor hockey careers in the Yorkton area including Kale Thomson, John Neibrandt and Tayler Thompson, the Terriers team embraced the city of Yorkton and the city of Yorkton embraced them back. When the Terriers were headed out to Nanaimo for the Western Canada Cup the city sent them off in style with a pep rally that nearly 1000 people made it out to attend. When they were playing in Nanaimo, often during the middle of the day during the week. Fans made sure to tune into the radio or sneak out for lunch at one of the sportsbars showing the game to catch their team.
Even though they fell one game short of the Royal Bank Cup, this was a Terriers season that will be looked upon as one of the best Yorkton has ever seen. 51 wins. Just two regulation losses at home. Their first Canalta Cup since 2006. The 2012-13 Terriers gave Yorkton something to cheer about and the city rallied to support them, which is what sports is all about.
As a reporter I don't cheer for a specific team or result as part of the job, but being from Yorkton it was an honor to follow a team that I cheered for as a child, watching the Terriers team that went to the Royal Bank Cup and won titles up until 2005-06. Watching the city come together to fill the FAA to full capacity for Game Six of the Canalta Cup Final was something I will never forget and being on the ice when the cup was presented to the players and to the city was one of the best moments of my short time working and covering sports in Yorkton.
