Following having three weeks of regular-season action off, the Yorkton Bantam UCT 'AA' Terriers returned to the ice on Thursday, Nov. 21 at Farrell Agencies Arena with a tilt against the Regina Pat Blues.
Up against the Queen City Kids, a strong first period led to the Terriers capturing a 5-3 victory.
Down 1-0 after an early marker from Pat Blues forward Isaac Sandomirsky, the Terriers stormed back with three straight goals from Tyler Stratechuk, Keenan Taphorn and Carson Welke in that respective order.
"In the first period we took control," said Terriers head coach Graham Garrett. "We got three goals and that gave us a good lead. I liked the offensive chances we were getting and we finished on some of them. I thought we clearly won the first period."
Yorkton ran into penalty trouble in the middle frame as they took 16 minutes worth of time in the sin bin. Regina, meanwhile, took three double minors themselves.
"It seemed if we weren't on the power play, we were on the penalty kill in the last two periods," said Garrett. "There were a lot of undisciplined penalties that took place. It wasn't our best 40 minutes."
The Terriers took advantage of one of their power plays as Keenan Taphorn scored his second on the night, but Pat Blues blueliner Noah Kozack scored right off the hop in the period to cancel out the markers.
With the clocking counting down, the Pat Blues were hot on the Terriers' trail because of a goal from Chase Nameth at the 6:45 mark. But McKenzie Welke dashed their comeback dreams as he scored with 45 seconds left in the contest.
Alex Geddes stopped 18 of 21 shots in the Terriers net while Blake Diewold turned aside 15 of 19 shots for the Pat Blues.
Calgary tournament
On Nov. 16-17, the Terriers took part in a Calgary tournament. Because they were up against some elite bantam hockey clubs, Garrett was happy with his club's effort despite their 1-3-1 record.
"We weren't happy with our 1-3-1 record, but we were happy with our effort," said Garrett. "We outshot some teams that we lost to and I thought we played really well. It was a quality tournament with 'AAA' bantam clubs."
Up next
The Terriers hosted the Regina Foxes at home on Tuesday, Nov. 26. The game's results weren't ready for press time. They have three road games on the weekend, facing the North East Wolf Pack on Friday, the Saskatoon Bandits on Saturday and the Moose Jaw Warriors on Sunday.
