The Yorkton Harvest hockey team has been having a rough go of it as of late. The SMAAAHL club is mired in a seven game winless skid that includes a 5-1 loss to the league leading Notre Dame Argos last Wednesday, a 2-1 home loss to the Moose Jaw Generals on Saturday and a 2-2 tie with those same Generals on Sunday. The latest results give the Harvest a record of 8-10-4-2, good enough for 22 points and eighth place in the 12 team SMAAAHL.
The most recent game against the Moose Jaw Generals was a tale of Jekyll and Hyde for the Harvest. Yorkton dominated the first period, outshooting the Generals 14-6 and outscoring them 1-0 thanks to captain Corwin Stevely's sixth goal of the season assisted by Damian Bentz and Tanner Jeannot.
The Harvest then turned from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde in the second period, picking up five minor penalties including a double minor to Levi Morin for head contact. Moose Jaw's Trey Tendler made the Harvest pay for their transgressions not once, but twice, as the Generals leading scorer put two powerplay goals past Harvest goalie Carter Phair to give the visitors a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.
Hyde turned back into Jekyll for the third period as Jeannot's 10th of the season gave the Harvest a powerplay goal of their own a mere 49 seconds into the third period, however, the Harvest could not get another puck past Grant Naherniak despite firing nine more shots his way in the third period and another six at the Moose Jaw net in overtime.
Although his team managed to secure a point, Harvest head coach Dan Cross mentioned that both he and his team are not completely satisfied with the result. "The whole third period we really pushed hard. We were trying to get the win. We're not happy with the tie," said the Harvest bench boss following Sunday's 2-2 draw with Moose Jaw. "We really wanted the win. I think we just need it. We're kind of on a slide here and we need something positive to get us going. We are working hard it's just that we're having a tough time right now."
Cross then commented on his team's biggest problem this season. "Yesterday we only took three penalties which was awesome. And then today I don't know what it is, it's like the floodgates opened and we started getting penalties and that was the common at the end of the day: Penalties."
Saturday's game
The Yorkton Harvest dropped their fourth straight game on Saturday night as the visiting Moose Jaw Generals skated off with a 2-1 victory despite being outshot 31-24.
Trey Tendler opened the scoring for the visiting Generals with seven minutes remaining in the first period to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Jared Dmytriw made it 2-0 when his shot eluded Harvest goalie Carson Bogdan before Korwin Shewchuk put his fourth goal of the season past Churchbridge native Colby Entz to cut the lead in half. Unfortunately that was as close as the Harvest would get as Entz shut the door the rest of the way to give his team a 2-1 road victory.
Wednesday night in Wilcox
The Olympic sized ice surface at the Duncan McNeill Arena in Wilcox proved to be a problem for the Harvest, who fell 5-1 to the SMAAAHL's top club the Notre Dame Argos.
The Argos used their speed to their advantage all game long, dominating the Harvest for the entire 60 minutes and outshooting the Yorkton club 52-18.
Yorkton's lone goal came off the stick of captain Corwin Stevely late in the first period to tie the game at one at that point. Four unanswered Argos goals later and the final was 5-1.
Next action
The Yorkton Harvest look to get back into the win column this coming Saturday when they travel to Duck Lake to take on the last place Beardy's Blackhawks at the Willow Cree Memorial Sport Centre. The next night the Harvest will be in Prince Albert to take on the third place P.A. Mintos. Game time is 7:30p.m. against Beardy's and 1:30p.m. in Prince Albert.
