The Yorkton RawTec Maulers deserved a better fate this past weekend, outplaying the visiting Saskatoon Blazers in both games yet winning just one.
The weekend split leaves the Maulers with a 2-5-0-0 record and tied for eighth place with both the Saskatoon Blazers (2-4-0-0) and Beardy's Blackhawks (2-4-0-0), one point up on the Swift Current Legionnaires (1-5-0-1) and four points up on cellar dwelling Notre Dame Argos (0-5-0-0).
The Battlefords Stars (7-1-0-0) and Regina Pat Canadians (7-2-0-0) lead the SMAAAHL with 14 points each while Tisdale is third with a perfect 6-0-0-0 record to open the season.
Saturday's game saw the visiting Saskatoon Blazers jump out to a very early two goal lead when both Curran Reeve and Landon Markovich beat RawTec Mauler netminder Rylan Palchewich on the Blazer's first two shots of the game, one just 27 seconds into the game, and the other with 17:02 remaining the first period, causing Mauler head coach Dan Cross to call a timeout in order to calm his troops down.
Whatever Cross said must have worked as the Maulers came out of the timeout on fire, peppering Blazer goaltender Austin Swystun with shots.
The Mauler offence was rewarded for their persistence when, with 12:37 left in the period Maulers leading scorer Drayson Skulmoski beat Swystun to cut the Blazer lead in half with his third of the season.
First year Mauler McKenzie Welke drew the home side even with his first of the year just over three minutes later.
The Maulers then took the lead late in the first period when, with Saskatoon's Brad Bigsby in the penalty box for cross checking, Tristyn DeRoose beat Swystun for his second of the campaign to give the Maulers their first lead of the hockey game and send it into the first intermission 3-2 for Yorkton.
Turnabout is fair play as proven in the second period when Brennan Watson doubled the Mauler lead to two with his first of the season via the powerplay to make it 4-2.
But a Saskatoon powerplay goal by Markovich, his second goal of the game, made it 4-3.
Yorkton regained their two goal advantage before the end of the period however, as veteran forward Koal Roberts also got in on the scoring, netting his first of the season to make it 5-3.
The two teams traded third period markers, Yorkton's coming off the stick of Kylan Shea while Ashton Heidt scored for Saskatoon, to make it a 6-4 final in favour of the RawTec Maulers.
Palchewich picked up the win between the pipes stopping 30-of-34 shots while Swystun was saddled with the loss, turning aside 33-of-39 Mauler attempts.
Following the game Yorkton This Week asked head coach Dan Cross what exactly he said to his team during the 30 second timeout that he called immediately following Saskatoon's second goal. And while he didn't get into detail, he did have this to say. "We've got a young team and we needed to settle everybody down, settle our goalie down and they responded.
"They went out and played an excellent game after that. We outscored them 6-2 after that so what we said, worked."
Cross then mentioned that the work of his veteran players is starting to pay off and is not only showing in the locker-room, but on the scoreboard as well. "Our veterans really led us tonight and that's what we need, especially early in the year," offered Cross. "We need our veterans to be going all the time and they did. They kept the positive and showed some leadership and character in this game which is what we expect from them."
Sunday's game started off the same way as Saturday's, with the visitors jumping out to a two goal lead in the first period on a pair of goals by Reese Johnson.
The Blazers would add another in the second frame off the stick of Shane Sherban before riding the coattails of netminder Joel Grzybowski to a 3-0 victory despite being outplayed for much of the second and third periods.
""I was happy with the way we played in the second and third period. We showed a lot of character trying to fight back and not quitting," mentioned Cross, adding that the team started slowly and then suffered from some bad luck, ringing several pucks off the post instead of putting them in the net.
Up next
The next action for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers (2-5-0-0) will be tonight as they host the Notre Dame Argos (0-5-0-0) at the Farrell Agencies Arena. Puck drop is set for 8:00p.m.
