The Yorkton Peewee Sherring Gold Terriers played two games at the Farrell Agencies Arena recently.
One, against the rival Melville Millionaires, was a regular season tilt. The other, meanwhile, was game one of a two game provincial total points series against the talented W eyburn Youngfellow Wings.
Thursday night
On Thursday the Terriers faced the Melville Millionaires in their final regular season game and handed their Highway 10 rivals a 5-2 loss.
The Millionaires scored the lone goal of the first period when, with Yorkton's Tanner Hoffman in the penalty box for hooking, Byers Johanson put the puck past Terriers goalie Spencer Welke for a 1-0 Mils lead after one period.
Melville held their 1-0 lead for over half of the second period before Kaeden Korczak took over.
The talented Korczak scored three straight Terriers goals, his 18th, 19th and 20th, including two just 20 seconds apart, to give the Terriers a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.
Kaeden's brother Ryder Korczak gave the Terriers a three goal lead under two minutes into the final frame when he beat Tyler Harasymuk for his 11th of the season.
Melville's Sheydon Woodhouse would get the Mils to within two with 14:08 remaining in the period, but Zach McIntyre's 33rd of the season restored the Terriers three goal lead and sealed the 5-2 victory for Yorkton.
The win gives the Terriers a 17-2-1 final record and combined with a Weyburn 4-4 tie on Sunday against Estevan, the 2013-14 SSMHL Peewee regular season title.
Walloping Weyburn
On Saturday the Sherring Gold Terriers hosted the Weyburn Youngfellow Wings for the first game of a two game total points series provincial match up.
The Wings have been the only team to cause Yorkton any kind of trouble this season and on paper it looked like it would be a very close game. On paper.
On the ice it was a different story as the Terriers took a 4-0 lead into the second period on a pair of goals from Ryder Korczak and one each from Kaeden Korczak and Zach McIntyre.
Colby Vranai made it 5-0 for Yorkton midway through the second period when a beautiful stretch pass by Aiden Bulych sent Vranai in alone on Matthew Dutchak.
Steven Kesslering got Weyburn on the board less than a minute later to make it 5-1, but Ryder Korczak would get that one back for the Terriers. With 2:06 remaining in the period Korczak fired a weak shot that eluded Dutchak for his third goal of the game.
Four more goals in the third period, two more by McIntyre and one each for Bulych and Ethan Evanovich, gave Yorkton a 10-1 win and more importantly a commanding nine goal lead in the two game provincial total points series .
The win, while expected, still shocked Sherring Gold Terriers head coach Chad Korczak. "Going into this game, I'll be honest, I was hoping for a couple goal win for sure. But 10? That came as a shock," offered Korczak. "This 10-1 win is just a bonus heading back to Weyburn with this kind of lead. It definitely gives us some breathing room."
Korczak had previously mentioned how tough it can be when trying to convince young kids the importance of continuing to push the tempo of play. With a 6-1 lead after two periods it would have been easy for the Sherring Gold Terriers to take their foot off the gas pedal and allow Weyburn back in to the game. However, Korczak felt what he said to the kids in the locker room really sunk in. "heading into the third I told the kids 'you're in a great spot here to really open it up' and they responded well with four goals.
"We just asked for another 20 minutes for them to play as hard as they could and whatever it is it is and that's how they came out."
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton Sherring Gold Terriers will be Friday, February 21 when they travel to Weyburn for game two of their two game total points series.
For Yorkton to win they need to either win the game, or lose by less than nine goals.
