Offence hasn鈥檛 been hard to come by for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers so far this season as they boasted the second-highest scoring offence in the SMAAAHL prior to this weekend鈥檚 two game tilt with the Beardy鈥檚 Blackhawks, scoring 98 goals so far this season in 26-games; a 3.77 goals per game average.
That trend continued this weekend, as the Maulers scored 15 times over two games to pick up four huge points with 6-4 and 9-5 victories over the Blackhawks.
The two wins gives Yorkton a total of 37 points and moves the Maulers (18-9-1) past the Prince Albert Mintos (17-8-2) and into fourth place in the 12-team SMAAAHL, two back of the third place Notre Dame Hounds (19-8-1), three back of second place Moose Jaw (18-6-4) and just four off the league-leading Regina Pat Canadians (19-5-3) who have 41 points so far this season.
Yorkton also sits five points up on the sixth place Tisdale Trojans (14-9-4) who have 32 points this season. The Saskatoon Blazers (13-14-1) sit in seventh spot with 27 points, one ahead of Beardy鈥檚 (12-13-2) who rounds out the playoff positions with 26 points.
The Saskatoon Contacts (12-17-1) sit on the outside looking in at the Christmas break with 25 points in ninth spot, two points ahead of the tenth place Battlefords Stars (10-15-3). The Notre Dame Argos (7-14-3) and Swift Current Legionnaires (6-21-1) sit second last and last in the SMAAAHL with 17 and 13 points respectively.
On Saturday night the RawTec Maulers welcomed the Beardy鈥檚 Blackhawks to the Farrell Agencies Arena.
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes the Maulers fell behind as Shae Kiryk and Jared Hamm both scored power play goals for Beardy鈥檚 to take a 2-0 lead midway through the second period.
However the Maulers would flex their offensive muscle later in the period as rookie Brett Kemp would score his first goal of the game and ninth of the season to cut the Beardy鈥檚 lead in half.
Damian Bentz would then put the puck past Blackhawks goaltender Kody Kushniruk with 42 seconds left in the middle frame to send the two teams into the second intermission deadlocked at two.
A Taylor Elmy goal 3:12 into the third period gave the Maulers a 3-2 lead, but a pair of Blackhawk goals 鈥� one each for Josh Sielsky and Graehme Fiolleau 鈥� gave the visitors back their one goal advantage with just over half a period remaining in the game.
But that lead, too, proved not to be safe as Yorkton forward Tristyn DeRoose picked up a loose puck and fired it past Kushniruk to make it a 4-4 game with 7:22 remaining in the third.
The RawTec Maulers then took the lead on Kemp鈥檚 second goal of the game with 3:37 remaining, before the talented rookie forward added one more goal to his total, picking up the hat-trick with an empty net marker to seal a 6-4 Yorkton victory.
Jordan Schmuland picked up the win for the Maulers stopping 21-of-25 Beardy鈥檚 shots while Kushniruk took the loss stopping 21-of-26 Yorkton attempts.
A day later and the two teams were back at it at the Farrell Agencies Arena and once again the offence was on full display as the RawTec Maulers outgunned the Blackhawks for a 9-5 win.
The visiting Blackhawks once again opened the scoring - this time on a Kiryk power play goal for an early 1-0 lead - only to have the Maulers storm back with four straight goals to take a 4-1 lead on a pair of Elmy markers and one each for Drayson Skulmoski and Kemp.
A second Beardy鈥檚 power play marker of the second period 鈥� this one scored by Sielsky 鈥� got the Blackhawks to within two with 6:29 remaining in the opening period; however the Maulers regained their three goal cushion not long after as Kaeden Taphorn put the puck past Shaemus McLeod to give Yorkton a 5-2 lead after the first period.
DeRoose, Beau Stevenson and Kaleb Bulych made it 8-2 Yorkton in the second period before the Blackhawks finally got another puck past Yorkton鈥檚 Alex Geddes to send the game into the second intermission at 8-3 for Yorkton.
A pair of Blackhawks goals less than two minutes apart started to make things interesting, but a Bentz goal with 5:12 left in the game proved to be the final nail in the Blackhawk coffin as the Maulers won their second game of the weekend, this one 9-5.
Geddes picked up his fifth win of the season and improved his overall record to 5-4-0 by stopping 25-of-30 Beardy鈥檚 shots while McLeod was pelted in the loss, turning aside 26-of-35 Yorkton shots but still allowing nine goals in the game.
鈥淥ur offence really showed up this weekend. We came out and created a lot of really high-quality scoring chances and got scoring from all four lines and that鈥檚 huge going into the Mac鈥檚,鈥� said Mauler head coach Graham Garrett following the conclusion of his team鈥檚 9-5 win, adding that while he鈥檚 happy to see the offence flourish, he鈥檚 not entirely satisfied with the way the penalty kill played all weekend. 鈥淚 think our penalty killing wasn鈥檛 very strong this weekend; six of their goals came on the power play so we鈥檙e going to have to make sure that we have the matchups we want when we鈥檙e on the P.K. going forward.
鈥淲e lost a little bit of focus this weekend on the penalty kill but we鈥檒l fix that up here going into Calgary. Hopefully we鈥檙e not sitting in the box for 20 minutes every game either when we鈥檙e there.鈥�
As for that offence, Garrett said it was nice to see role players like Taylor Elmy 鈥� who scored three times in the weekend series against the Blackhawks 鈥� finally find their offensive game. 鈥淗e had a little bit of puck luck this weekend and hopefully that helps with his confidence,鈥� mentioned Garrett of Elmy. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a big body and he has great speed and when he can use those to his advantage he鈥檚 going to be a dangerous player and we saw that this weekend.鈥�
Up next
The RawTec Maulers may be finished their 2015 regular season schedule, however they aren鈥檛 finished with their 2015 games as they鈥檝e been invited to the prestigious Mac鈥檚 AAA Midget World Invitational Hockey Tournament in Calgary.
Yorkton鈥檚 first game will be on Boxing Day against the Foothills CFR Chemical Bisons (13-8-3, AMHL). They鈥檒l then take on Reid Perepeluk and the Cariboo Cougars (17-6-3, BCAAAHL) on December 28.
The RawTec Maulers will then take on the California-based Ontario Avalanche (17-10-0, WSHL) on December 29 before wrapping up round-robin action on December 30 against the top team in the Alberta Midget 鈥楢AA鈥� league the Lloydminster Bandit Pipeline Bobcats (18-3-2, AMHL).
