Carson Welke scored his second goal of the season two minutes into the game and twin brother McKenzie beat Regina netminder Clarke Flegel with a wrist shot through the five-hole for the only goal of the shootout to lift the Yorkton RawTec Maulers over the Regina Pat Canadians 2-1 in SMAAAHL action last Wednesday night in Regina.
The win moves the Maulers above .500 for the first time this season with a record of 7-6-0-1, good enough for 15 points and seventh place overall, one point back of the Notre Dame Hounds (8-2-0-0) and three up on eighth place Moose Jaw (5-8-0-2).
The Tisdale Trojans continue to lead the 12-team SMAAAHL with a record of 11-1-0-2 and 24 points, while the Saskatoon Contacts (11-3-0-1, 23 points) and Regina Pat Canadians (10-3-0-1, 21 points) round out the top three.
However the Welke boys weren't the only two Mauler players that made a difference on Wednesday night. RawTec Mauler goaltender Carter Phair also had a lot to do with the seventh Yorkton victory of the 2014/15 season.
The 6'4", 165-pound second year man from Carnduff turned aside 49-of-50 Pat Canadian shots through 65 minutes of play before shutting the door in the shootout, stopping the shots of Regina forwards Arthur Miller, Tyran Brown and Riley Woods to seal the road victory for his club. "Definitely Carter (Phair) was the standout player and got us the win," offered RawTec Mauler head coach Dan Cross when asked who in his mind played a key role in the victory. "He really won the game for us and he made all three saves in the shootout there as well."
However Cross was quick to mention that it wasn't only Phair that had a good night between the pipes. His counterpart Flegel also did well to keep the Yorkton offence, an offence that as of late has found their game, off the board for 63 straight minutes. "The goaltending on both sides was pretty good because we had 30 shots on their guy and only scored one," said Cross, adding that both teams had significant opportunities with the man advantage yet could not find the back of the net as Yorkton was 0-for-5 on the powerplay while Regina failed to capitalize on seven chances with an extra man in the Yorkton victory.
And while a win over any team is always nice, according to the Mauler head coach this one in particular was even better. "The week before we lost to them in overtime in Regina so it's nice to go there and in two games in a week there take three out of four points. That's pretty good," mentioned Cross. "They're one of the top teams in the league and they'll be a team that we're probably going to meet down the stretch and into the playoffs I would assume so to beat them now, it's good."
It may be true that when playoffs roll around the Maulers and Pat Canadians will do battle. However the Maulers aren't looking that far into the future just yet.
At the moment their attention is on their next four games, all at home, against the Prince Albert Mintos and Saskatoon Contacts; two teams that the RawTec Maulers are hoping to catch in the standings in the following weeks. "We have the P.A. Mintos coming in next weekend for a two game stint and then we have the Contacts after that. Those are two teams that are just in front of us in the standings," suggested coach Cross. "Obviously it's kind of exciting for us. We feel as if we're playing better now and those are teams that we want to leapfrog over just like we did with Moose Jaw."
Next action
Cross alluded to it. The next action for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers (7-6-0-1) will be this Saturday and Sunday when they welcome the defending league and national champion Prince Albert Mintos (8-3-0-2) to town for a pair of games.
Saturday's game will start at 7:30p.m. at the Farrell Agencies Arena while Sunday will see the two teams hook up for an afternoon affair starting at 2:00p.m.
