The Yorkton RawTec Maulers found themselves back on the winning side of the scoreboard this past weekend, as they proved to be horrible hosts, handing the visiting Battlefords Stars a pair of losses 3-0 and 8-2 in SMAAAHL action at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
The two wins improve the Maulers鈥� record to 11-5-1, good enough for 23 points and fourth place, just one back of both the Prince Albert Mintos (12-3-0) and defending SMAAAHL champion Regina Pat Canadians (11-4-2) and three back of league leading Moose Jaw (12-2-3).
Tisdale (9-5-2) are fifth with 20 points while both the Notre Dame Hounds (8-6-1) and Beardy鈥檚 Blackhawks (8-7-1) have 17 points for sixth and seventh.
Battlefords (6-7-2) sits in eighth with 14 points, three up on the ninth place Saskatoon Contacts (5-12-1) and four points ahead of tenth place Swift Current (5-11-0).
The Saskatoon Blazers (4-9-0) are in 11th position with eight points while the Notre Dame Argos hold down last place with a record of 2-8-1 and just five points.
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers took to the ice Saturday night looking to end a mini three game losing streak and did so in shutdown fashion, limiting the Stars鈥� offensive opportunities to less than a handful while putting three goals on the board in a 3-0 shutout victory.
Veteran forward Damian Bentz opened the scoring for the Maulers in the second period when he took the puck and flew down the right wing, snapping it past Battlefords net minder Lance Alm for a 1-0 Yorkton lead before being drilled into the boards by Stars鈥� defenceman Dawson Bacon.
Bacon would be ejected from the game while Bentz would leave initially before returning later on.
On the ensuing power play the Maulers showed their skill, passing the puck back and forth causing Battlefords鈥� forward Kenzie Arnold to take a hooking penalty resulting in a Yorkton two man advantage.
The Maulers made short work of the five-on-three power play as they broke down the Stars鈥� penalty kill before Tristyn DeRoose put the puck past Alm for a 2-0 Yorkton lead through two periods.
An empty net ensurance marker by a returning Bentz made it 3-0 Yorkton with 54 seconds left in the game as the RawTec Maulers ended their three game losing streak with a 3-0 shutout win.
Alm took the loss for the Stars stopping 24-of-26 Yorkton attempts while Maulers鈥� ookie goaltender Jordan Schmuland picked up the shutout 鈥� the first one in his SMAAAHL career 鈥� turning aside all 21 shots. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to see a kid that works as hard as Schmu (Schmuland) get rewarded with a shutout,鈥� offered RawTec Mauler head coach Graham Garrett, continuing, 鈥淗e didn鈥檛 have to do too much today, but he made those big saves when he needed to and that鈥檚 all your asking your goaltender to do; make that timely save and that鈥檚 what he did.
鈥淗e never gave them an opportunity to create any positive momentum and give them a chance to get themselves back in the hockey game.鈥�
The two teams once again hooked up at the Farrell Agencies Arena on Sunday afternoon, and while the score was different the result was the same as the RawTec Maulers once again handed the Stars a defeat, this time skating to an 8-2 decision over the Battlefords.
DeRoose got the Maulers on the board midway through the first period when he put the puck past Stars鈥� keeper Jake Taylor for the only goal of the first period, however the Stars would tie it early in the second frame when Jayden Nachtegaele finally managed to solve Schmuland, ending the Yorkton goaltenders shutout streak at over four periods.
The game would remain tied for just under six minutes until Derrick Budz regained the Mauler one goal advantage with his first of the night.
A Kaeden Taphorn power play goal three minutes later made it 3-1 Yorkton, however Kenzie Arnold鈥檚 second goal of the season cut the Mauler lead in half and after 40 minutes the RawTec Maulers led 3-2.
It took all of 27 seconds in the third period for the Maulers to regain their two goal cushion as Kaeden Taphorn scored his second power play goal of the game to make it a 4-2 game.
The second Taphorn goal also opened the floodgates as the Maulers scored four more times in the third period 鈥� twice off the stick of Budz and once more from DeRoose and Bentz 鈥� for a convincing 8-2 win.
Schmuland improved his record to 9-2-1 on the season stopping 20-of-22 Battlefords shots while Taylor took the loss, allowing seven goals on 22 shots before giving way to Alm (4-of-5 saves) for the final 12 minutes.
Following the game the Maulers鈥� head coach told Yorkton This Week that it was great to see the entire team come out and play two of their best games of the season after they went on a mini three game slide. 鈥淚 think coming off of three close games where we lost by one goal twice and two goals once, we really focused on how to win those games and that was great,鈥� mentioned Garrett. 鈥淎ll lines contributed and had positive shifts. They were doing what they needed to do and defensively I thought played their best two games of the season in these last two days.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have a lot of turnovers and we won a lot of one-on-one battles. We didn鈥檛 give up a powerplay goal this weekend. It was a great team effort. There isn鈥檛 one guy that you can pick out and say had a great weekend; it was all 20 guys as a unit great.鈥�
Up next
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers (11-5-1) will now host the Saskatoon Blazers (4-9-0) for a pair of home games this weekend (Nov. 21-22) at the Farrell Agencies Arena. Puck drop for both games is scheduled for 2:00pm.
