The Yorkton Xerox Terriers bounced back from an unexpected loss in their second game of the season with back-to-back strong efforts, dismantling the Notre Dame Hounds 10-1 last Wednesday before doubling up the visiting Regina Monarchs 6-3 on Saturday.
The two wins five the Xerox Terriers a 3-1-0 record through four games in the Saskatchewan Bantam 鈥楢A鈥� Hockey League, two points back of both Weyburn and Estevan, who sit atop the 麻豆传媒AV Division with identical 3-0-2 records.
The Regina Aces are in fourth place with a record of 2-1-1, the Monarchs are fifth at 1-1-0, while Swift Current is sixth with two points and a record of 1-2-0.
The Pat Blues and Notre Dame Hounds each have one point and records of 0-2-1 while Moose Jaw (0-5-0), Melville (0-2-0) and the Prairie Storm (0-1-0) all remain winless so far.
Humboldt leads the North Division with nine points and a 4-0-1 record, closely followed by the second place Northeast Wolfpack at 4-1-0, third place Sask Valley Vipers at 3-1-1 and fourth place West Central Wheat Kings at 2-2-2.
Last Wednesday it took the Xerox Terriers over 10 minutes to find the scoreboard before Colby Vranai put the puck past Notre Dame netminder Ben Gibbon for the first Yorkton goal of the night.
What followed was a typical Xerox Terrier offensive onslaught, at Vranai鈥檚 first period marker opened the floodgates for three Yorkton goals in the second and six more in the third while the Hounds mustered just one of their own in an eventual 10-1 Yorkton victory.
Veteran netminder Nolan Maier registered the win, his second of the season, stopping all but one shot he faced for his second straight impressive outing with Gibbon taking the loss for the Hounds.
Vranai had two goals in the win while Aiden Bulych (two goals, two assists), Zach McIntyre (two goals, one assist) and Kishaun Gervais (two goals, two assists) also picked up two goals apiece in the win. Jackson Berezowski and Carson Dereniwsky chipped in with a goal and an assist each. 鈥淲e started out a little bit slow in the first period, but we鈥檝e got lots of shots on net and lots of quality scoring chances that we just couldn鈥檛 cash on,鈥� mentioned Xerox Terrier head coach Dan Cross. 鈥淓ventually the puck finally went in later in the game when the guys just kind of starting driving the net.
鈥淲e got some dirty goals on some rebounds and I think that built up a lot of confidence in us knowing that we could actually put some pucks in the net here.鈥�
That confidence carried over to Yorkton鈥檚 fourth game of the season against the Regina Monarchs on Friday night at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
McIntyre opened the scoring for the Terriers just past the midway point of the first period with his third goal of the season for the only goal of the opening frame.
Regina鈥檚 Erik Hauk pulled his team even when he put his first of the game past Yorkton goaltender Spencer Welke to make it 1-1, however that tie was short-lived as Vranai restored the one goal Yorkton advantage less than a minute later when his shot eluded Regina goaltender Jared Thompson to give Yorkton a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.
The third period opened with Hauk once again bringing his team even, turning and firing a loose puck past Welke to make it a 2-2 game.
Terrier captain Aiden Bulych then took the game over, first missing on a backhand attempt that just went wide, before scoring back-to-back goals just seven seconds apart to give Yorkton a 4-2 lead.
Vranai鈥檚 second of the contest made it 5-2 for the home side before Bulych capped off an incredible third period with his third goal of the game for a 6-2 Xerox Terrier advantage.
A late goal by Regina鈥檚 Parker Hendren made it a 6-3 game, however it proved to be too little, too late as the Yorkton Xerox Terriers improved their 2015/16 record to 3-1-0.
Up next
The Yorkton Xerox Terriers now take to the road for a pair of tough games, taking on the 麻豆传媒AV Division co-leading Weyburn Crescent Point Wings on Saturday afternoon in Weyburn, before visiting the other top 麻豆传媒AV team the Estevan TS&M Bruins Sunday afternoon.
