The Yorkton Sherring Gold Terriers should be proud of themselves for what they accomplished during the 22nd annual Regina PeeWee Classic Hockey Tournament held last week in Regina.
The PeeWee Terriers became the first team to ever make it to the Regina PeeWee Classic Hockey Tournament finals in three consecutive years, losing in the final to the Langley Eagles in 2012 before winning it all in 2013.
This year they came to within one goal of becoming champions for the second year in a row and fourth all-time and would have had the nets been just an inch or two wider. "Three-on-three overtime and our guys went down the ice and hit the post," said a very proud Chad Korczak, head coach of the Sherring Gold Terriers. "Then they (Winnipeg Twins) come back down the ice and score the game winning goal.
"I told the kids after the game 'hold your heads up high'. Yeah we battled and it would have been nice to repeat and win this tournament but they put a pretty honest effort in for six games and yeah the loss hurts us all but I was happy with their performance."
Korczak has all the reasons in the world to be happy with his team. The Sherring Gold Terriers opened the tournament on Thursday, Jan. 23 with a 6-0 whitewashing of the Foothills Bisons before making mincemeat out of the Lumsden Lions 13-0 on Friday morning.
The Terriers then met up with the Humboldt Broncos on Friday night in the final Dale Derkatch pool game; A game which Korczak knew would be the one to determine whether they'd be playing in the 'A' side or 'B' side playoffs. "We figured that game would be pretty tough. I know a couple of kids on that team that are pretty good players," offered the PeeWee Terriers coach. "I think we were able to control and shut down their two go to guys and we played well that game and it was a close game with the score 3-2 for us."
With the 3-2 win the Terriers advanced to the 'A' side playoff round where they met the Winnipeg St. Vital Victorias, a team that, Korczak's words, they 'knew nothing about'.
While knowledge is usually power, the opposite seemed true on Saturday afternoon as Yorkton ran roughshod over the Victorias, winning 7-3 and advancing to the 'A' side semi-finals where they took on the pre-tournament favourite Cloverdale Colts.
Cloverdale proved no match for the high flying dogs as Korczak's Kids punched their ticket to the 'A' side final with a resounding 6-2 victory.
Unfortunately a repeat of 2013 was not to be as the Terriers fell 3-2 in overtime to the Winnipeg Twins despite jumping out to an early two goal lead. "We got two early goals in the first and they tucked one in later in the first. The second period was scoreless. We battled through and they got a goal with around 10 minutes left in the third period to make it 2-2 and then we both had our chances before they ended it in overtime," mentioned Korczak.
Although the team did not bring home the big trophy, two members of the Yorkton Sherring Gold Terriers did bring home some personal awards.
Terriers netminder Nolan Maier was named a second team all-star while Kaeden Korczak was named to the first all-star team. Kaeden Korczak was also named tournament MVP thanks in large part to 13 points over six games.
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton Sherring Gold Terriers will be Saturday, Feb. 1 when they visit the Estevan Sherritt Coal Bruins for game one of a two game total points series Provincial match up.
Game two will take place on Sunday, Feb. 2 at the Yorkton Kinsmen Arena. Puck drop is set for 2:30p.m.
