Mired in a 16 game winless streak, the Yorkton Midget 'AA' Kinsmen Terriers welcomed the Notre Dame Hounds to Yorkton's Kinsmen Arena this past weekend for a pair of games in the SSMHL's Midget division.
In Saturday's game the Hounds got four goals in the first period, one each from Kirill Klassen, Vlad Zamzhytski, Conor MacLean and Taylor Runighan and added one more in the third off the stick of Travis Gook to hand the Kinsmen Terriers their eleventh straight loss and extend Yorkton's winless skid to 17 games.
Notre Dame also went 3-for-10 on the powerplay on Saturday, while the offensively handicapped Kinsmen Terriers failed to click on all 10 of their chances with the extra man.
Snapping the streak
This late into the season and with no hope of making 'A' side playoffs, many teams would have simply mailed their regular season in.
The Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers, however, are not like many teams and they proved that statement true on Sunday in a 2-1 come-from-behind spoiler win.
The Terriers came out flying on Sunday, outplaying the visiting Hounds for much of the first period.
The hard work and relentless attacking led to the Hounds chasing the play and picking up two separate penalties, however Yorkton's powerplay unit could not find a way to beat Notre Dame netminder Coltyn Calahasen and the two teams took a scoreless tie into the first intermission.
The second period saw the visiting Hounds turn the tables on the Terriers, outplaying the hosts for large amounts of the middle frame and pressuring the Terriers in the offensive zone.
That offensive pressure paid off for the Hounds very late in the period.
Playing four-on-four, Hounds leading scorer Conor MacLean fired the puck past Kinsmen Terrier goaltender Rylan Palchewich and into the back of the net with just 48 seconds remaining in the period to give the visitors a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes of play.
A double minor to Notre Dame's Hayden Yaremko gave the Terriers an early extended powerplay and three minutes into the man advantage Yorkton struck.
Yorkton's Brayden Miller fired the puck on Calahasen, who turned aside the initial shot. However the puck landed on the stick of a pinching Mason Plews.
The defenceman made no mistake, firing the rebound past Calahasen for his third of the season to even the game at one.
It looked like Notre Dame had all the momentum late in the period. Then disaster struck for the Hounds.
With Yorkton's Tanner Mak-Krochak in the penalty box for roughing, Calahasen left the net to play the puck, but instead of rimming it around the boards he fired it over the glass for a delay of game penalty, negating his teams' powerplay and giving life to the Terriers.
Terriers' Kylan Shea made Calahasen pay for his mistake. The Kinsmen Terriers blueliner accepted the Tristan Mundt pass, undressed Vlad Zamzhytski at the blueline and backhanded the puck past Calahasen for his seventh of the season and a 2-1 Kinsmen Terrier lead with just 1:24 remaining in the game.
The dejected Hounds could not get the puck deep into the offensive zone for the last minute and a half, resulting in a 2-1 Terriers win.
"We knew we could play with them because we've beaten them before," said an ecstatic Noel Budz, Kinsmen Terriers head coach, following his team's 2-1 victory. "It was a good win for us."
Budz also mentioned that he was happy with the way his team played in Saturday's 5-0 loss as well. "We were pretty proud of our game Saturday night too. We had a slow first period where they scored four on us but after that it was a two period 1-0 loss."
The Sunday win snapped Yorkton's 17 game winless streak and in the process caused some serious problems for a Hounds team which now sits ninth overall, one point out of the 'A' side playoffs with six games to go.
Wins have been few and far between for the Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers. Their last win prior to this one came way back on November 23rd, 2013, a 1-0 victory over the same Notre Dame Hounds.
This win, however, comes at a perfect time as the Kinsmen Terriers get geared up for the 'B' side Consolation playoffs. "We're out of the 'A' playoffs and we have been for some time," mentioned Budz, continuing, "But we've still got the 'B' playoffs. Our goal now is to challenge for that 'B' side. There will only be two teams in the league that win their last game and we want to be one of them."
Up next
The Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers took on the Regina Wild on Tuesday; however scores were not available at press time.
The next action for the Yorkton Kinsmen Terriers will be Saturday, February 22 when they visit the Notre Dame Hounds (15-14-1) at the Duncan McNeill Arena for a 7:00p.m. start.
