The Yorkton Terriers return to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoffs was a short-lived one.
The Terriers - who qualified as the 10th place team - showed their placing in the regular season dropping three straight in the best-of-five set with seventh place La Ronge.
Terrier head coach Trent Cassan said the Terriers never found a way to get on track. 鈥淩ight from the start to the series, or game one.鈥�
The Yorkton Terriers had been away from the playoffs for a year, and it showed as they opened their best-of-five series with La Ronge Thursday night in the Ice Wolves鈥� home arena.
It was a short-handed effort by Jared Blaquiere which started things for the home side.
Brendan Barron made it 2-0 with a powerplay goal at 3:22.
By period鈥檚 end Craig Pejkovic had added one, and Joel Blaquiere a pair to round out a first period hat trick for a 5-0 lead.
Cassan said the short-handed goal hurt in terms of starting a playoff series on the road, and that snowballed 鈥渋nto five in the first.鈥�
鈥淭hey (the Ice Wolves) came at us hard.鈥�
Cassan said the coaching staff talked about the playoffs being a different environment, but most team members had never been in that atmosphere at the SJHL level.
鈥淭here is talking about things, and then there is experiencing things,鈥� he said.
Barron and Cole Porter would add a pair of second period powerplay goals to extend the lead to 7-0.
Jared Blaquiere would be back for his second of the night at 5:59 in the third to finally chase Terrier shattering goaltender Jakob Severson after facing 38-shots.
McKenzie Welke would finally get the Terriers first playoff goal in nearly two calendar years scoring on the powerplay at 9:49.
Keenan Lugt added a second Terrier goal at 11:53.
But Porter would respond at 14:23 past Jordan Schmuland by then in the Terrier cage, rounding out a 9-2 win.
Kris Joyce was the winning netminder in facing 32-shots.
Things started off only slightly better the next night.
Brendan Barron gave the Ice Wolves a 1-0 lead 6:30 into the contest, but this time the Terriers stemmed the tide.
Carson Welke knotted the score for the Terriers at 9:32, and the tie would hold into the second.
Fifty-seconds into the second Jordan Ross scored to give Yorkton its first lead of the series.
It would be a short-lived lead as Matthew Painchaud tied the game 2-2 at 5:15.
Nakeo Lamonthe would restore an Ice Wolves lead at 17:51, and Blaquiere added a fourth La Ronge goal 50-seconds later.
There would only be one goal in the third period, as Painchaud added his second of the night, this one on the powerplay to round out a 5-2 win.
Severson was in the Terrier net again, facing 19-shots.
Joyce faced 20 in the win for LaRonge.
The series switched back to Yorkton Sunday, and early the Terriers put pressure on the visitors.
But Joyce came up big in the Ice wolves net, and got a couple of timely bounces to withstand the home side barrage early.
Barron put the visitors on the board at 7:55 of the first, with Porter making it 2-0 at 14:00.
In the second Braden Jakubowski struck 2:08 in, with Porter getting his second of the night at 5:29, and Jakubowski potting his second with a powerplay marker at 9:50.
Fourteen seconds into the third Nick Prouty extended the Ice Wolves lead to 6-0.
Jakubowski would complete his hat trick, and scoring with a powerplay marker at 12:23 to round out a 7-0 win.
Joyce would earn the shut-out turning away all 38-shots he faced, while Severson saw 33 in the loss for the Terriers.
鈥淚 thought we came out hard, we were physical, we had our chances,鈥� said Cassan.
But Joyce came up with a couple of big saves, and a bounce, or two went LaRonge鈥檚 way, and the tide turned.
鈥淛oyce is the MVP of the league for a reason,鈥� said Cassan.
Cassan said the Ice Wolves 鈥渒new the home team was going to come hard,鈥� and they weathered it, adding as such 鈥測ou need your goaltender to come up big, and he was.鈥�
The Terriers then gave up a couple of turn overs the Ice Wolves exploited for goals and the Terriers trailed 2-0 after 20-minutes.
鈥淲ith a younger team they maybe start to grip the stick a little,鈥� said Cassan.
Even after the second period, Cassan said they talked about working hard in the final period, but that is hard to do when the series is quite clearly in La Ronge鈥檚 hands.
Cassan said overall the Terriers were looking for some playoff experience, although the experience gained 鈥渨asn鈥檛 the one we were looking for.鈥�
But it did show the young Terriers 鈥渢he playoffs are just a different atmosphere than the regular season.鈥�
