The Yorkton Harvest jumped to fourth place in the SMAAAHL standings following knocking off the Beardy's Blackhawks in back-to-back home games on the weekend.
Ultimately, they were must-win games for the Harvest because they left four points on the table the prior weekend in back-to-backs against the Saskatoon Contacts.
"These were games we knew we needed to win," said Harvest head coach Dan Cross. "They are a big four points and I'm hoping this will lead to us finishing this quarter with a good record."
In Yorkton's first game on Saturday night at the Farrell Agencies Arena, a 43-shot performance led to them beating Beardy's decisively 5-2.
"I was very happy with how they played," said Cross. "We had a plan in place and it worked. We changed up the lines a little bit and it worked."
Following Marc Shaw putting the Harvest on the board first roughly 15 minutes in the game, Riley Rozdeba made it a 2-0 lead with only six seconds left in the opening period.
In the second period, Harvest rookie Tyler Kreklewich and Blackhawks winger Adam Santoro exchanged goals.
The Kreklewich brothers, Jaden and Tyler, notched one apiece in the third period while Adam Hergott netted the Blackhawks' second.
Carson Bogdan stopped 30 of 32 shots in the Harvest blue paint. Meanwhile, Kyle Rahier stopped eight of 10 pucks and Mitchell Canaday turned away 30 of 33 for the Blackhawks.
Despite blowing a 3-goal lead to the Blackhawks in their second game on Sunday, the Harvest rallied in the third period to come away with a 6-4 victory.
"When you go 3-0 and you're playing that well sometimes you expect your team to go through a bit of a lull there and we did in the second period," said Cross. "But to their credit, they responded well and not every team can hit the gas like that after they hit the brakes."
The Harvest came out of the gate flying, putting 20 pucks on net in the opening 20 minutes. Of those shots, team captain Corwin Stevely, sniper Jaden Kreklewich and blueliner Turner Ottenbreit found the back of the net.
Yorkton's breakdown came in the second period. The Blackhawks' Santoro potted two and Cody Schwan added another to tie the game up at three less than four minutes into the frame. Although the blame can't be solely put on Harvest goalie Carter Phair's shoulders, he was pulled in an attempt to wake up the entire team.
"You don't want to blame your goalie; it was just a wakeup call for our team, nothing against our goalie," said Cross on Phair, who stopped eight of 11 shots. "But that's hockey - goalies get pulled sometimes."
Just over three minutes into the third, Jaden Kreklewich sniped one past Blackhawks goalie Mitchell Canaday to shift the momentum back in the Harvest's favour and tie the game up at four. Koal Roberts came up big for his club just four minutes later - scoring the game-winner off a wrister. Tanner Jeannott went onto score on the empty net with 12 seconds left in the game.
In replace of Phair, Bogdan stopped 22 of 23 shots while Canaday turned aside 40 of 45 pucks at the other end of the ice.
One of the biggest positives in the back-to-back wins for the Harvest was seeing the Kreklewich brothers lead the offense. Jaden scored three goals and one assist while Tyler notched two and added a helper.
"Both Kreklewichs have been scoring lately," said Cross. "They are a big part of our offense so it is good to see. We are a much better team when they are scoring and creating scoring chances for us."
The Harvest headed to Tisdale on Tuesday, Nov. 19 to take on the Trojans. They don't play again until Wednesday, Nov. 27 when they host the Notre Dame Argos at 8 p.m.
