The Yorkton Terriers Premier Cabinets Peewees saved their best for last and it came at a pretty good time against a pretty good team Sunday afternoon as the Everlast Eaves and Exteriors Ltd., Peewee hockey tournament took control of both the Farrell Agencies Arena and the Kinsmen Arenas.
In one of their first introductions to the physical contact involved in Peewee hockey, says head coach Lynton Evans, his Terriers responded and showed they are ready to continue at this pace.
After dropping their opener, 5-4 against Melfort on Friday afternoon, it must have been something the coach said as the Terriers stormed back to win three in a row and claimed the B-side finals in front of a good crowd at the Kinsmen Arena.
"It was our best hockey of the year this weekend," states Lynton Evans, coach of the Terrier team following a decisive win over the Muenster Flyers.
The 6-1 final score suggests possible blowout, but if not for strong goaltending by Yorkton's Carter Park, and his Flyers' counterpart the score should have been closer.
The teams exchanged goals in the first period, but Yorkton pulled away with five unanswered in the third frame.
Brandon Pelletier had two goals in the win, his first opened the scoring at the 15:21 mark of the second period after solid goaltending at both ends kept both teams off the scoreboard. Logan Hoffman drew even for the Muenster Flyers four minutes later.
Yorkton's Dalton Renton also had two goals in the win. His first gave the Terriers a lead they wouldn't give up, proving to be the game winning goal. Stephen Oleskiw drew his first of two assists of the game and it was all Terriers from that point on.
Jordan Stoll scored to make it 3-1 from Riley Klimchuk, before Renton added his second goal with Pelletier drawing the lone assist, making it 4-1.
Jordan Evans scored the teams fifth goal from Ryvir Hine and Pelletier rounded out the scoring with his second goal and Oleskiw added his second assist.
Lynton Evans, head coach of Yorkton's squad said he was quite happy with the way his team battled back, after taking a tough loss Friday afternoon against the Melfort Mustangs, rebounded in a big way all the way to the B-side title game.
Yorkton won all of their games by a margin of five goals.
Yorkton beat the Melville Jets, 6-1, then knocked off the Petro Canada Terriers, 7-2. In the B final, it was another 6-1 win over the Flyers.
Coach Evans said the season has been a first for some of the players who aren't as used to the body contact as some of the second and third-year players. Evans said his team is starting to come together.
"Halfway through the year, we're getting used to the body contact, physical element."He said in this tournament, there couldn't be much in the way of expectations. Tournament organizer Tanya Nystrom said that 13 of the 16 teams came to Yorkton from out of town.
Evans said that made it hard to know what to expect. "It was hard to make the draw. There's so many out of town teams."
Despite not knowing the competition very well, the Premier Cabinets Terriers put on a show in each win, outscoring their opposition by five in each game.
"We tried to play our game of hockey. Yeah, I think we peaked in the B final...but didn't pull away until the third."
Strong defence made Carter Park's job easier and he was brilliant in goal when he had to be.Several Terrier players showed potential that they might make it up the minor hockey ranks in the next few seasons.
"We played good defence all weekend. We got strong goaltending from Park and it was a good effort all year around."
DIGGER AWARDSTournament organizers want to thank the following businesses for their sponsorships: Agri-Trend Agri-Coach Scott Park, Rocen Autosport, Fox FM and Yorkton Concrete Products for the acknowledgement of the Digger Awards.
The Premier Cabinets team currently has eight games left in their seasons, Evans said and they sit in third place in their division.
