YORKTON - When the Yorkton Sports Hall of Fame and Museum holds its induction dinner Sept.9, only one team will be added to the hall.
As noted by the Hall of Fame “they had to come from behind in the qualifying round, and they had to go to overtime in the final game, but the 2013-14 Terriers did both, and won the RBC Cup national Junior A hockey championship in the spring of 2014,” and are now being honoured.
Arguably, the 2013-14 version of the Terriers provided the greatest moment in local sports in the past quarter century winning the Royal Bank Cup in May 2014.
Fans will remember the Terriers led the Royal Bank Cup final only once, but it was when it mattered most — overtime.
So now, years after the dramatic win the team will be inducted into the local hall of fame.
The honour comes after the team was inducted into Ted Knight Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame in Swift Current at a ceremony in Yorkton in 2022.
The championship was the Terriers’ first after four previous final tournament appearances.
The Terriers first visit to the RBC was in Sudbury in 1991 when they lost in the semi-finals which was their same fate in 1996 in Melfort, and 1999 when the Terriers hosted the RBC. In 2006 the Terriers made the RBC final in Streetsville, losing to the Burnaby Express.
It would be largely unheralded Derek Falloon, who changed the team’s fortunes.
Falloon, the hero in a round robin overtime to advance the Terriers into the playoffs, scored 15:01 into the first overtime frame which propelled the Terriers to their first national title in five visits to the RBC.
As for the actual game, the Canadians started scoring in the final on a goal by Anthony McVeigh 9:26 in.
Daylan Gatzke responded tying the game at 15:07.
The game went to the second period knotted 1-1.
The second period went Carleton Place's way as Stephen Baylis at 4:12 and Andy Sturtz at 10:34 gave the eastern team a 3-1 lead.
In the third, the time started to wear off the clock on the Terriers, and when Dylan Johnson was tagged for an interference penalty at 14:05, a comeback looked unlikely.
But the Terriers killed the penalty, and then at 17:13 Tanner Lischynsky gave the Terriers life with Yorkton's second goal of the final.
Eight seconds later, Terriers fans at Kal Tire Place in Vernon were still celebrating the second goal when Dylan Johnson tied the game, which would eventually push the game to overtime, and set up Falloon to become a Terrier legend.
