The Yorkton Harvest were aiming to bump some of their opponents in the standings on the weekend, but instead they took a couple steps back.
The Harvest fell to sixth place in the SMAAAHL standings with a 6-6-2-1 record on the weekend following losing back-to-back games at home to the Saskatoon Contacts.
"We didn't do wanted we wanted to do here," said Harvest head coach Dan Cross. "Losing back-to-backs can really hurt you in the standings. Lucky for us it's pretty early in the year, but it's still disappointing."
On Friday at the Farrell Agencies Arena, two three-goal periods from the Contacts sunk the Harvest 6-1.
Following a scoreless opening frame, Kade Kehoe sniped one past Carson Bogdan to give the Bridge City Boys the lead. Damien Bentz answered back for the Harvest with just over three minutes left in the period, but Kobe Kindrachuk and Curtis Roach potted one apiece in the last two minutes to swing the momentum in the foes' favour.
The Contacts took advantage of the Harvest's penalty trouble in the final 20 minutes. In between Jordan Walls and Brayden Uhrich power play markers, Kole Lind hit the back of the net on a penalty shot.
"We gave them too many power plays," said Cross on his club's 13 penalties. "They have a good power play and made us pay for it. We can't give teams opportunities like that."
Bogdan stopped 44 of 50 shots in the Harvest blue paint while Declan Hobbs turned away 18 of 19 shots at the other end of the ice.
The following night on Saturday the Harvest put up a better performance, but it wasn't good enough as they lost 5-4 to the Contacts.
"It was a much better effort tonight," said Cross. "We generated a lot more chances and just wanted it more. It was a back-and-forth game that we would have liked to won."
In the first period, Yorkton's Corwin Stevely and Saskatoon's Jimmy Lambert exchanged goals to keep the game tied.
Down 2-1 after Kehoe scored his second in as many nights for the Contacts, the Harvest's Brennan Watson and Marc Shaw went glove high on Brock Hamm to put them up by one.
Shaw's goal was his fourth on the year in just six games following returning from a fractured femur that he suffered in pre-season.
"I just saw some space and shot it," said the 16-year-old Shaw. "It feels good to be healthy again and making plays out there."
The third period had a run-and-gun theme to it. It all started with Saskatoon's Kole Lind and Erik Climenhaga potting one apiece past Harvest puck-stopper Carter Phair on wrist shots in the first 10 minutes. Jaden Kreklewich answered back for the Harvest with a wrister of his own with just over seven minutes left, but Ian Parker's late goal at the 2:40 mark gave the Contacts the victory.
Phair turned aside 27 of 32 shots while Hamm stopped 36 of 40 for the Bridge City Boys.
Prior to their back-to-back home games, the Harvest headed to Wilcox on Wednesday, Nov. 6 to take on the struggling Notre Dame Hounds.
Leading goal-scorer Chase McKersie started and ended the night for Yorkton with two goals to lead them to a 4-2 victory.
"Mckersie has been having a great year for us," said Cross. "He's high in the league for scoring and is a player we can count on to create offensive chances for us."
Yorkton's Shaw and Levi Morin exchanged markers with Rhett Kingston and Egor Popov in between the Mckersie goals.
Phair captured the win for the Harvest, stopping 34 of 36 shots, while the longest name in the SMAAAHL - Aris Anagnostopoulos, saved 21 of 25 pucks that came his way in the Hounds crease.
The Harvest have an opportunity to make up for their disappointing weekend against the Contacts with another pair of back-to-back weekend home games, this time against the Beardy's Blackhawks. They square off against the 3-5-1-1 Blackhawks at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 1:00 on Sunday at Farrell Agencies Arena.
"We need to get four points from those games," said Cross. "Now we have to make up for our mistakes and those games are a good opportunity to do that. It's beginning to get pretty tight in the standings and we don't want to fall behind."
