The Yorkton RawTec Maulers welcomed the defending National champion Prince Albert Mintos to town for a pair of SMAAAHL games this past Saturday and Sunday at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
A 4-3 shootout win on Saturday gave the Maulers a perfect 4-0 record in November, however a 5-2 defeat on Sunday ended the streak and left the Maulers with an 8-7-0-1 record and 17 points, good enough for seventh place, three back of the Notre Dame Hounds and five points ahead of eighth place Moose Jaw.
The Tisdale Trojans continue to lead the SMAAAHL with a sparkling 13-1-0-2 record for 28 points, while the Regina Pat Canadians and Saskatoon Contacts round out the top three with 25 and 24 points respectively.
Shootout Saturday
The Maulers carried a three game winning streak into Saturday's game against the visiting Mintos and made it four in a row thanks to some late game heroics by forwards Logan Casavant and Drayson Skulmoski, both of whom scored late in the third period to tie the game and send it to overtime where Casavant once again came up huge, scoring the lone shootout goal of the night to give Yorkton a 4-3 come-from-behind shootout victory.
But while the Maulers were victorious on Saturday, the game itself didn't start off too well for the home side.
Minto forward and Yorkton native Brett Harasymuk gave the visiting team a 1-0 lead with 7:35 gone in the first period. Four minutes later Jake Hobson increased the Prince Albert lead to 2-0 when his shot eluded RawTec goaltender Carter Phair and found the back of the net.
The scored remained 2-0 until the midway point of the second frame when the Maulers finally got on the board via a Tristyn DeRoose powerplay marker, his third goal of the season, to cut the P.A. in half at 2-1.
Harasymuk's second of the game with 5:33 remaining in the third period gave the Mintos a 3-1 lead; a lead that looked to be nearly insurmountable.
Nearly. A Casavant goal with 1:29 remaining and a Skulmoski marker with just 31 seconds left in the game, both with Phair on the bench in favour of an extra attacker, tied it at three and sent the game to overtime.
The five minute, four-on-four overtime period solved nothing meaning a shootout was needed to determine a winner where Phair once again stymied the opposition in the shootout, turning aside Prince Albert's Reed Gunville, Brody Madarash and Chris Van Os-Shaw while Minto goaltender Derrick Hucul nearly matched Phair save for save, stopping Cole Keenleyside and McKenzie Welke in the shootout but surrendering a goal to Casavant that would eventually win the game for the RawTec Maulers.
The 4-3 shootout win is not only proof that the RawTec Maulers are a dangerous team in the SMAAAHL this season, it also shows that the Maulers as a whole will not give up. "They got a two goal lead on us but we were working hard and eventually down the stretch they finally went in," offered Mauler head coach Dan Cross following the game. "It was a good win for us, especially because we had a four minute penalty, we were short-handed, down two goals with five minutes left and the guys dug deep.
"The last couple of minutes there with the goalie pulled we got a couple of goals and it was good."
The 4-3 shootout win increased the Mauler winning streak to four games, but perhaps more importantly the win came on a night where the Maulers remembered, with a moment of silence, long-time Mauler president, board member and friend Wayne Henley, who recently passed away.
In fact, those who believe in the supernatural might even believe that Henley had a hand in the Mauler come-from-behind victory. "That's a game where it looks like we're losing and then all of a sudden, miraculously, we win it and it kind of makes you wonder," smirked Cross, adding that the win was good, not only for the Maulers but for the Henley family as well, who were in attendance for the game.
Sunday loss
All streaks come to an end and the RawTec Mauler winning streak was not immune to that as the Maulers came out sluggish in a 5-2 loss to the Mintos on Sunday afternoon.
The Mintos got first period goals from Reed Gunville, Brody Reimer and Riley Sawchuk while the RawTec Maulers could muster just one of their own off the stick of McKenzie Welke, his seventh of the season.
Mauler leading scorer Cole Keenleyside cut the Prince Albert lead to one with the lone goal of the middle frame to make it 3-2, however a pair of Minto goals in the third period, one each by Gunville and Chase Tippett, made it a 5-2 final.
Rylan Palchewich shouldered the loss for the Maulers, falling victim to a team wide slow start, stopping 14-of-17 shots he faced before being replaced by Phair at the start of the second period.
Phair continued his excellent form as of late, stopping 18-of-19 Minto shots in relief to keep the Maulers in the game until the bitter end. "He's playing exceptionally well," offered Cross on his number one netminder, Phair. "He keeps us in some of the games there. We're not a high scoring team and yeah, to have a goalie like that it definitely makes it easier for them.
"Guys are able to make a mistake and not fish the puck out of the net every time so having him back there, it definitely gives them some added confidence for sure."
Cross also mentioned that although the Maulers four game winning streak was snapped, he isn't all that upset about it, saying: "We're going to move ahead. We won four games in a row and we're happy with that.
"You're not going to win them all. We gave this one to P.A. but we're going to have a good week of practice and come out hard against the Contacts next weekend."
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers (8-7-0-1) will be this weekend when they welcome the visiting Saskatoon Contacts (12-3-0-1) to town for a pair of games, one on Saturday at 7:30p.m. and the other on Sunday at 2:00p.m.
Both games are at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
