The Yorkton UCT Bantam Terriers travelled to Regina for the prestigious 25-team Graham Tuer Bantam AA Challenge hockey tournament this past weekend in the hopes of repeating as tournament champions after taking the 2013 edition with a 4-1 over the Sask Valley Vipers in the final.
Unfortunately the UCT Terriers were unable to repeat, going 3-1 throughout the round-robin and 1-1 in playoff play.
The first game of the tournament saw the Terriers take on last season's runner up, the Sask Valley Vipers.
Yorkton got a pair of goals from Keenan Taphorn and one each by Carson Miller and Zach McIntyre, however their goaltending, which was their strength in 2013, became suspect as Tyson Byman let in five goals on 25 shots as Yorkton dropped the first game of the tournament 5-4, meaning the next three round-robin games became must win match ups.
The second game of the tournament proved to be a better result as AP netminder Graham Buckle made the saves when needed, turning aside all 11 Saskatoon General shots for a 5-0 Yorkton victory. Scoring for the UCT Terriers were Keenan Taphorn and Brett Kemp with a pair each and defenceman Reid Perepeluk with one. Yorkton outshot Saskatoon 66-11 in the game.
A hattrick from Kemp and yet another two goal performance by Keenan Taphorn led the Yorkton UCT Terriers to a dominant 7-0 victory over Manitoba's Interlake Lightning in their third game of the round-robin. Also scoring in the win were Aiden Bulych and Michael Coleridge while Byman picked up the shutout with a total of fwive saves. Yorkton fired 69 shots at the Lightning goal in the win.
The victory over Interlake set up a very important game against the rival Melville Millionaires. A win would secure first place for the Terriers in Group E heading into the quarterfinals while a loss would eliminate Yorkton from the tournament.
Keenan Taphorn made sure that the Terriers would not be going home early as he put together yet another multi-goal effort, this time scoring three times to lead the Terriers to a 7-2 win. Kemp made it three games in a row with two or more goals with a pair in the win while Miller and Coleridge rounded out the Terrier scoring.
Byman picked up the win between the UCT Terrier pipes, turning aside 14-of-16 Millionaire chances.
The victory gave the UCT Terriers a 3-1 overall record and top spot in Group E, meaning they advanced to the quarterfinals where they took on the Group A champion North East Wolfpack.
As has been the case this tournament, Keenan Taphorn once again led the UCT Terrier offence, this time finding the back of the net four times while adding a helper to push Yorkton past the Wolfpack 6-3. Also scoring for Yorkton were Miller and Kemp, while Byman got the win stopping 12-of-15 North East shots to send the Terriers into the semi-finals against the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The magical run came to an end in the semi-final however, as the Terriers found themselves on the wrong end of a 7-5 scoreline. Scoring for the Terriers in the loss were both Keenan And Kaedan Taphorn, Carter Lake, Aiden Bulych and Kemp.
Up next
The next action for the Yorkton UCT Bantam Terriers (9-0-0) will be this Saturday, November 8 when they host the visiting Swift Current Kabos Raiders (2-7-0) for a 4:00p.m. game at Yorkton's Kinsmen Arena.
(Note: Yorkton UCT Bantam Terrier head coach Graham Garrett was unavailable for comment due to work and therefore could not give quotes for this particular article).
