A pair of weak efforts this past weekend resulted in two losses for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers, who now see their record fall from 9-2-1 to 9-4-1.
The Maulers now sit tied with the Regina Pat Canadians (9-4-1) for second place in the SMAAAHL, four back of the league leading Moose Jaw Generals (10-1-3) but just one point ahead of both the Prince Albert Mintos (9-3-0) and Tisdale Trojans (8-5-2).
Beardy鈥檚 (7-6-1) sits in sixth with 15 points, Battlefords (6-5-2) is seventh with 14 and the Notre Dame Hounds (6-5-1) round out the top eight with 13 points.
The Saskatoon Contacts (5-9-1) are ninth with 11 points, Swift Current (5-9-0) is tenth with 10 points, while the Saskatoon Blazers (4-8-0) and Notre Dame Argos (2-8-1) round out the league with eight and five points respectively.
Saturday
On Saturday the RawTec Maulers were in Duck Lake to take on the Beardy鈥檚 Blackhawks for the first of two road games this past weekend.
Things started out right for Yorkton in the game as they grabbed the lead just past the midway point of the first period when Kaeden Taphorn put the puck past Beardy鈥檚 netminder Kody Kushniruk for his fourth goal of the season and a 1-0 Mauler lead.
It looked as if that goal would stand as the only one of the opening frame, but with just one second left the host Blackhawks responded as Josh Sielsky found a way to put the puck past Jordan Schmuland to even the game at one.
A second Beardy鈥檚 goal late in the second period made it 2-1 for the home team when Austin Bill found the back of the net.
Brody Madarash made it 3-1 for the Blackhawks in the third period, but a Kaleb Bulych power play marker with 7:10 remaining in the game brought Yorkton back to within one.
Unfortunately for Yorkton a late third period effort with the goaltender pulled in favour of an extra attacker proved fruitless, as the RawTec Maulers left the Willow Cree Memorial Sport Centre with a 3-2 defeat. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 play well defensively and we gave up a couple of goals by giving them opportunities that they should have never got,鈥� said an unimpressed Mauler head coach Graham Garrett. 鈥淚t鈥檚 their building and they played with pride in their building and they worked harder and wanted it more than we did and in the end their goaltender made some big saves and helped them win the game.鈥�
Kushniruk stopped 32-of-34 Yorkton shots on the night for the win while Schmuland shouldered the loss turning aside 31-of-34 Beardy鈥檚 opportunities.
Sunday
If Coach Garrett wasn鈥檛 impressed with Saturday鈥檚 game, then Sunday鈥檚 effort left an even worse taste in his mouth as the RawTec Maulers came out flat in the first half of the game before trying to play catch up the rest of the way in a 2-1 defeat to the lowly Saskatoon Blazers. 鈥淭he first 30 minutes we came out and it was like we thought we didn鈥檛 have to play defence and we thought it would be easy,鈥� said Garrett, continuing, 鈥淭hey only had three wins and we took them too lightly. We were bad defensively in the first period and we had tons of turnovers that cost us momentum, a neutral zone turnover that cost us a goal, and then again not committing to playing defence and blocking shots and not working hard in the defensive zone led to another power play goal for them.
鈥淭heir goaltender played extremely well and we outshot them pretty heavily in the last 30 minutes but we fell behind in the first 30 and they held on.鈥�
Rylan Nivon gave the home town Blazers a 1-0 lead in the first period when he snapped the puck past Alex Geddes.
A Jake Chartier power play goal midway through the middle frame made it 2-0 for Saskatoon.
Carson Miller鈥檚 eighth goal of the season, this one shorthanded, cut the Blazer lead in half with 2:27 remaining in the game, however that鈥檚 as close as the RawTec Maulers got as they could not find a way to put another puck past Saskatoon goaltender Joel Grzybowski, who made 33 saves for the win.
On the flip side Geddes 鈥� who got the start in place of Schmuland 鈥� turned aside 17-of-19 Blazer shots in the loss.
Up next
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers (9-4-1) will take on the league leading Moose Jaw Generals (10-1-3) on Thursday in Moose Jaw before returning home for a pair of games against the Battlefords Stars (6-5-2) on Saturday (8:00p.m) and Sunday (2:00p.m.). Both games will take place at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
