The Yorkton Harvest AAA Midget hockey club went into Prince Albert on Sunday night, the home of the fifth place team in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League and lay down a 5-2 beating.
They had the upper hand on the scoreboard for all but six minutes of play at the Art Hauser Centre Arena and have climbed out of the SMAAAHL basement.
The win lifts Yorkton out of last spot in the league and are sitting at 2-7, one point up on the Notre Dame Hounds and two better than the Beardy's Blackhawks.
For the first time all season long, they scored four unanswered goals all of which came in the third frame.
Chase McKersie opened up the scoring at the 4:51 mark of the first frame. Dakota Odgers and Eric Meyer drew assists.
The 1-0 lead held up until halfway through the second period when Prince Albert took a 2-1 lead on goals by Justin Boyer and Adam Osczevski, whose goal came on the power play.
It was the first of two power play goals that afternoon.
The home side took the 2-1 lead into the dressing room.
Yorkton came out onto the ice for the third period, took 10 shots on goal and scored four times.
Yorkton's output was something, according to head coach Jeff Odgers, all started the night before when they were in Duck Lake playing the Beardy's Blackhawks.
"It actually started the night before," he explained via telephone over what happened in the third period against the Mintos.
Odgers said they fired 60 shots at Taryn Phaneuf of the Blackhawks and afterwards "we had some meetings as a team," says Odgers, who pointed out that rookie Chase McKersie had a good night against Prince Albert, netting a goal and adding a pair of assists.
Dakota Odgers tallied from Kholton Shewchuk at 16:06.
Rookie Ethan Bear scored on the man advantage from Logan Herchak and Jaden Kreklewich. Odgers tallied his second of the day from Meyer and McKersie, before Meyer notched one himself from Odgers and McKersie at 6:34 to round out the scoring.
"It's actually huge," he said of the final score, pointing out that the AAAs had a "heart-breaking loss" at Beardy's the night before.
Odgers added that the Mintos were "rested and waiting for us".
It was a good game."
He noted that the last 10 minutes of the second period could have done the team in as Prince Albert turned their attack up into high gear, but Yorkton netminder Spencer Bomboir held them in.
"It was that last 10 minutes of the second period"
NOVEMBER
The Yorkton AAAs will hope that the goal scoring they've had on the road keeps up as they head northwest to the Battlefords where they play a pair of games against the AAA Stars Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Yorkton trails the Stars by three points going back to the weekend.
The Saskatoon Contacts continue to lead the league with their record of 8-1. Moose Jaw is seeded in second place at 7-3-1 and the Saskatoon Blazers are in third place at 6-1-2.
Wins this weekend in the Battlefords could jump Yorkton into the top six.
