The Yorkton RawTec Maulers have moved into sixth place in the highly competitive SMAAAHL after back-to-back weekend wins over the Moose Jaw Generals at the neutral
location of Moosomin, 4-3 on Saturday and 4-1 on Sunday.
The two wins propel the RawTec Maulers ahead of the Generals and into sixth spot in
the SMAAAHL standings with a 6-6-0-1 record and 13 points, one up on both the Notre Dame Hounds (6-1-0-0) and Moose Jaw Generals (5-6-0-2) and three back of the defending league and national champion Prince Albert Mintos (7-3- 0-2).
The Tisdale Trojans continue to lead the way with a 10-1-0-1 record and 21 points while the Regina Pat Canadians are second overall with a 10-3-0-0 record, good enough for 20 points on the season.
Weekend success
The RawTec Maulers headed into Moosomin
with one thing in mind: leapfrogging the Moose Jaw Generals and taking over sixth spot in the SMAAAHL.
On Saturday they took a giant step towards that weekend goal when they downed the Generals 4-3 on the strength of two goal opening frame.
Carson Welke got the Maulers on the board with 6:25 remaining in the first period when he buried his first of the season past Moose Jaw netminder Hunter Arps.
Veteran forward Drayson Skulmoski made it 2-0 Yorkton just over four minutes later when he too beat Arps to give the RawTec Maulers a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Branden Klatt got the Generals to within one less than two minutes into the second period, but a Koal Roberts solo effort goal 10 minutes later gave Yorkton back their two goal lead.
The two goal lead lasted for just over four minutes, when Moose Jaw's Turner Ripplinger
beat Phair for his first of two on the day to cut the Yorkton lead to one at 3-2 after two periods of play.
But that was as close as the Generals would get as the teams traded third period goals, Brennan Watson with 12:41 remaining and Ripplinger with his second of the game with six minutes left, as the Yorkton RawTec Maulers took the Saturday afternoon affair 4-3.
Phair turned aside 37-of-40 Moose Jaw shots in the win while Arps shouldered the loss, allowing four goals on 36 Mauler attempts.
While he is happy with the win, Mauler head coach Dan Cross felt that, while his team put forth a strong first and third period, sandwiched in between was a less than stellar middle frame. "We came out, had an awesome first period and a bit of a sluggish second period, but the again in the third we just wore them down," offered Cross, before mentioning that one of the main reasons the game went Yorkton's way was due to their balanced offensive effort. "We had four goals and we had nine different guys on the score sheet.
"It's a team effort and that's the way we're going to win all year long."
Sunday's game was much the same as Saturday's, with the Maulers using a complete team effort and a ramped up physical game to lay waste to the Generals.
However in that team effort was the standout play of forward Damian Bentz, who in the second period scored a natural hattrick that took the wind completely out of the General sails; and the way he did it was impressive. "The guy gets a natural hattrick with two shorties (shorthanded goals), that doesn't happen all the time," remarked the Mauler bench boss Cross after the game. "It looked like we were in a bit of trouble, we had just missed a couple of really good, wide open nets and all of a sudden we're down 5-on-3 but we come out of it with two goals.
"Obviously that's the changing point of the whole game right there."
And while Bentz's natural hattrick was the key to victory, his first goal was the one that really deflated the Moose Jaw club, when he capitalized on a little bit of General miscommunication between General netminder Colby Entz and a defenceman and beat Entz for his first shorthanded goal of the game. "He (Entz) went behind the net there and their d-man and him, they had a little bit of miscommunication," smiled Bentz, continuing, "he went to shovel it behind the net but I just picked it up, skated out front and shoved it in the empty net."
But although Bentz's three goal performance certainly propelled his team to victory, he's definitely not taking all the credit, saying, "Everybody is together, everyone is staying together, working hard and it's been good. We're kind of on a roll now here so hopefully we can keep that going."
Also scoring in the RawTec Mauler win was Koal Roberts, while Phair picked up his second win in as many days, brushing aside 28-of-29 Moose Jaw shots, while Bhody Magnusson was the only General able to beat him in the game.
Entz, who hails from Churchbridge, took the loss stopping 33-of-37 Mauler shots.
Overtime loss
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers were also in action on Wednesday, October 29, when they took a stroll to Regina to battle the Pat Canadians.
After a scoreless first period Regina's Jake Tesarowski opened the scoring with a powerplay goal 9:48 into the second frame.
However the Maulers quickly responded with a little bit of twin magic as the Welke boys connected on one of what is sure to be many goals of the season when McKenzie potted his team leading sixth of the season with the assist going to brother Carson just 25 seconds after Regina had opened the scoring.
The Maulers took the lead three and a half minutes later on a Brennan Watson goal and things looked good, for just over a minute. Because that's when Tyler Adams drew the Pat Canadians even to send the game into the third period deadlocked at two.
A scoreless third period solved nothing, sending the two teams to a five minute, four-on-four overtime period, where Regina would end up taking it on a Riley Woods goal with 2:21 remaining in the extra frame.
Final score: Regina 3, Yorkton 2.
Carter Phair shouldered the loss for the Maulers stopping 38-of-41 Regina shots while Clarke Flegel was the victor, preventing 22-of-24 Mauler attempts.
Next action
The next action will be tonight when the Yorkton RawTec Maulers (6-6-0-1) once again travel to Regina to play the Regina Pat Canadians (10-3-0-0).
