The 3-1 loss to the Regina Pat Canadians on Sunday afternoon at the Farrell Agencies Arena was definitely not Carson Bogdan's fault.
The second year Yorkton net minder turned aside 38 of 40 Regina shots, while his teammates directed just 17 pucks on Pat Canadians goalie Logan Flodell, nine of which came in the first 40 minutes, in the Harvest's fourth consecutive defeat.
Regina dominated the first period, outshooting the Harvest 12-4 and keeping much of the play in the home team's end of the rink. The Pat Canadians pressure resulted in the lone goal of the opening frame when Regina's Arthur Miller beat Bogdan for his 11th goal of the season with 5:53 left in the period.
A scoreless second saw the ice once again tilted in the visitors favour, however Bogdan stood on his head, stopping all 16 of Regina's shots while his counterpart Flodell stopped the five shots he faced as well.
Regina upped their lead to 2-0 less than five minutes into the third period when defenceman Michael Eskra jumped into the play to beat Bogdan for his sixth of the season.
It looked as if Flodell would register his second straight shutout against the Harvest. That is, before Harvest leading scorer Chase McKersie cut the lead in half with his 15th goal of the campaign when his wrist shot from a sharp angle beat Flodell glove side to make it 2-1 with 2:03 left in the game.
Unfortunately for the Harvest 2-1 was as close as they'd get, as Jayden Halbgewachs put the win away for his team with an ensurance goal at 19:24 of the third period.
Bogdan's 38 save performance, his second impressive outing against Regina at home in the past 12 days, has been one of the few bright spots for the Harvest in a rather dark 2014 in which they are just 3-6-1-0 (12-18-4-3 overall). "The last two times we've played Regina he has played well," said Harvest head coach Dan Cross. "Last time he shut them out and ends up with the loss because we lose in overtime. This time he did everything he could to get the win. We can't complain there."
What Cross and company can complain about, however, is the fact that while their defence and goaltending has been strong, their offence has been all but non-existent. "We're just struggling to find some goals here," mentioned Cross, continuing, "We missed a couple of opportunities there that, maybe in other circumstances we'd probably come out of that with a goal but we're not. We're having trouble finding goals and that's what we're working on."
The Harvest have just seven more games remaining in the regular season, three at home and four away (including Tuesday night's game in Tisdale), before the end of the regular season and sit five points up on the Notre Dame Hounds (10-21-3-3) for the eighth and final playoff spot.
Next action
The Harvest traveled to Tisdale on Tuesday night to take on the fifth place Trojans, however results were not available.
The next action for the Yorkton Harvest will be Sat., Feb. 15 when they host the Battleford Stars at 7:30p.m. at the FAA
