Carter Phair stopped 45 of 47 Notre Dame Hound shots during Saturday afternoon's SMAAAHL tilt in Wilcox, however the Mauler offence couldn't solve Hounds goalie Dylan Ferguson resulting in a 3-0 shutout loss to open the 2014/15 regular season.
In fact the Maulers managed to fire just 16 shots on Ferguson all game long, 10 of which came in the opening frame, while Phair turned aside 17 in the first period alone before brushing aside 14 more in the second period before Lantz Hiebert finally managed to find the back of the net for the eventual game winner nearly six minutes into the third period.
Notre Dame doubled their lead just under the midway point of the period when, with Yorkton forward Drayson Skulmoski in the box for tripping, Ethan Crossman bulged the back of the net for a powerplay goal to make it 2-0.
Carson MacKinnon rounded out the Hounds scoring in the game, sealing the win for his club with an empty net goal with just 27 seconds remaining in the game.
Ferguson picked up the win while Phair was the far busier goalie on the night, turning aside 45 shots n the loss.
But while Phair picked up the loss, Mauler head coach Dan Cross felt that his goaltender was actually the best player on the ice throughout the game and really deserved a better fate. "Phair played exceptionally well and kept us in the game and kept it close right up to the third period when they finally scored," offered Cross. "He only let in two goals on 47 shots so that's a pretty impressive outing on his part."
The Maulers were also heavily outplayed for much of the game, however early on they traded blows with the Hounds and showed flashes of brilliance.
Unfortunately lack of experience got the better of them and while the Hounds got stronger throughout the game, the Maulers simply backed away from the fight, registering just one shot in the second period and five in the third. However Cross believes that if his team got one lucky bounce in the first period, thinks may have been different. "If we got a lucky goal there in the first period when we had a few chances, well that might have changed the whole tempo of the game," suggested the Mauler head coach. "They might have been squeezing their sticks a little bit more and we could have maybe stolen a point from them."
Cross also believes that the ice surface in Wilcox, where the ice is Olympic sized as opposed to the NHL standard, was a little bit overwhelming for his young squad. However he expects the Maulers to learn from their first experience as a team on the larger ice surface in time for their next game in Wilcox, which will be tonight when they take on the Notre Dame Argos.
Home opener
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers will open the home portion of their schedule this Saturday when they welcome the Battlefords Stars to town for a7:30p.m. start before once again hosting the Stars the following afternoon for a 2:00p.m. game. Both games will be played at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
