The Yorkton UCT Terriers of the Saskatchewan Bantam 'AA' Hockey League (SBAAHL) picked up three more victories this past weekend to improve their unblemished record to 8-0-0-0 in league play and first place in both the Â鶹´«Ã½AV Division and entire SBAAHL.
The Regina Monarchs (4-1-0) and Estevan TS & M Bruins (4-4-0) are tied for second in the south with eight points each while the Sask Valley Vipers lead the North Division with 10 points, closely followed by the North East Wolfpack with nine points and the Prince Albert Venice House Raiders with eight points.
Saturday saw the UCT Terriers travel to Prince Albert to take on the Raiders. Kaeden Taphorn led the Yorkton attack with four goals and an assist while Brett Kemp also found the back of the net three times while adding one helper.
Other goals on the night were scored by Reid Perepeluk (two goals, two assists), Kaleb Bulych, Aiden Bulych and Keenan Taphorn.
Recently acquired netminder Tyson Byman picked up the win, his first as a Terrier, turning aside 19-of-21 Raider shots. Carson Schewaga shouldered the loss for Prince Albert, stopping 31-of-43 Yorkton attempts.
The following night, Saturday, October 18, the UCT Terriers visited North Battleford to take on the Barons.
A lacklustre defensive effort resulted in a close 7-6 victory for the UCT Terriers, despite severely outplaying the hometown Barons for much of the game.
Scoring for the UCT Terriers in the victory were Keenan Taphorn and Reid Perepeluk with a pair of goals each, while singles were added by Miller, Kaeden Taphorn and Michae Coleridge.
AP call up Cameron Zamonsky got the win in net, stopping just 8-of-14 Baron shots while Lance Alm took the loss, stopping 39-of-46 UCT Terrier tries.
The third and final game of the weekend saw the UCT Terriers get back to their dominating selves, crushing the host Saskatoon Outlaws 11-3 on Sunday afternoon.
Keenan Taphorn led all Yorkton players with nine points (two goals, seven assists) on the day, while Carson Miller (four goals, two assists), Kaeden Taphorn (one goal, three assists) and Reid Perepeluk (two goals, two assists) also had strong offensive performances in the game.
Byman picked up his second win in as many starts for the UCT Terriers stopping 13-of-16 Saskatoon shots. Saskatoon's Matthew Pesenti took the loss turning aside 31-of-42 Yorkton shots.
During a phone interview Monday evening UCT Terrier head coach Graham Garrett said that he felt as if his team put forth two strong efforts on the weekend, but failed to perform to the best of their abilities in one of the games. "Saturday I thought our defence gave the puck away and made a lot of poor decisions," offered Garrett. "Whereas Sunday I thought we addressed that and the guys reacted very positively and played a very solid game like they did on Friday."
Garrett also took time to address the goaltending issues that his team is currently going through, mentioning that both Nolan Maier and Dakota Berezowski remain on the injured list, while AP netminders Cameron Zamonsky and Keenan Aarrestad will be returned to their house teams for the beginning of their regular season.
But that means that other netminders will have an opportunity to start between the Yorkton pipes. One such goalie to be given that chance is second year SBAAHL goaltender Tyson Byman (Wadena, SK), who spent last season playing for the Humboldt Broncos where he posted a 6-4-3 record through 13 starts. "Byman is a kid we had to go out and sign because with the bantam house kids starting their league and stuff now we can only use them for 10 games each and we don't know how long Meier is going to be out," offered head coach Garrett, continuing, "And Berezowski is probably out until Christmas so we had to find somebody who we knew could play games and Tyson played last year in Humboldt in AA so he has experience in the league.
"That should help us get a little bit of consistency in the net at least."
Up next
The Yorkton UCT Terriers (8-0-0) will welcome the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors (0-4-0) to the Farrell Agencies Arena this coming Sunday. Game time is set for 2:00p.m.
