The Yorkton Bantam UCT Terriers are a good team.
A VERY good team.
And on Saturday, November 8 the visiting Swift Current Kabos Raiders found out just how good the UCT Terriers are, falling victim to the offensive juggernaut that is Yorkton by a score of 15-0 at Yorkton's Kinsmen Arena.
In fact the Bantam Terriers scored eight goals in the first period alone; two more goals in one period than the Raiders had shots for the entire game.
Scoring in the first period were Brett Kemp, Kaeden Taphorn and Zach McIntyre with singles, while Carson Miller scored two and defenceman Reid Perepeluk found the net three times for a rare first period hattrick.
The UCT Terriers added four more goals in the second period off the sticks of Kemp, Kaleb Bulych, Keenan Taphorn and Ashton Shewchuk and three more in the third period on goals by Keenan Taphorn, Shewchuk and Perepeluk to round out a completely dominant 15-0 win.
Tyson Byman picked up the six save shutout, his first blank slate of the season, while Swift Current's Brandon Wiebe shouldered the loss for the Raiders.
The six save shutout, which on paper looks easy, was far from it, as UCT Terrier head coach Graham Garrett was quick to point out. "They had a couple of powerplays where they got a couple of quality chances on us and he made the saves," said Garrett of his netminder Byman, continuing, "and that's not easy to do when a kid has no shots on him at any other time in the game.
"Somehow he has got to keep himself in the game. He has to stay focused and move around and stay warm and obviously it's not an easy thing to do but it's something that he has to be able to adapt to and tonight he did."
Byman wasn't the only one that was able to stay warm and stay focused. The entire UCT Terrier team were focused throughout the entire game; something that Garrett hopes is a sign of things to come after a lack of focus cost the team in the Graham Tuer tournament just last week. "It's a 60 minute hockey game and a couple of times in Regina we weren't ready to play first periods and it cost us a couple hockey games," said Garrett. "A couple of games I saw we just weren't at the intensity and preparedness levels that we needed to be at, but today we obviously were.
"I thought that today we moved the puck extremely well and didn't give them any opportunities and that's what we need to do every game."
Garrett will get a chance to see just how well his team can focus and what kind of an intensity they can bring to games as early as this Thursday when they travel to their first AAA tournament of the season, Calgary's Rocky Mountain Classic. "We play Kamloops our first game and North Delta, who is one of the top teams in the country at this age group and then the Calgary Bisons," offered the UCT Terrier head coach. "We've got to be able to increase our intensity and not fall into thinking we will easily move the puck around and score like we did today.
"It's not going to be that easy starting Thursday and we have to understand that."
The win improves the Terriers record to a perfect 10-0-0 and first place in both the SBAAHL Â鶹´«Ã½AV Division and League standings, eight points up on the Â鶹´«Ã½AV Division's second place Estevan TS & M Bruins and three points up on the North Division leading Sask Valley Vipers for first overall.
Up next
The Yorkton UCT Terriers next action will be Thursday when they take on the Kamloops Jr. Blazers at the third annual Rockey Mountain Classic. They'll then take on the Delta Hockey Academy and Calgary Bisons to wrap up round-robin play.
The next SBAAHL action for the UCT Terriers will be Tuesday, November 25 when they host the Notre Dame Hounds.
