Thanks to a near perfect regular season record, the Yorkton Xerox Terriers will be the beneficiary of good old fashioned home cooking throughout the entire 2016 SBAAHL playoff run.
鈥淚t鈥檚 huge,鈥� said Xerox Terrier head coach Dan Cross on his team having home ice advantage for the entire postseason, adding that the reason the Xerox Terriers have home ice advantage is because of the work the players put in throughout the season. 鈥淭he boys, they worked really hard and they deserved to be in first place and now they鈥檝e got that home ice advantage because of that.鈥�
The Bantam 鈥楢A鈥� Xerox Terriers finished the 2015/16 SBAAHL regular season with a record of 25-1-4 鈥� their lone loss coming way back on Sunday, September 27, 2015, a 7-5 loss to the Estevan TS&M Bruins in their second game of the campaign.
Since then the Xerox Terriers have been unbeatable, going 24-0-4 in the regular season and 13-0 in tournament play to take the SBAAHL 麻豆传媒AV Division and SBAAHL regular season title for the third straight season.
But because of that success, Cross knows that every team they play will want to beat them not just to advance in the playoffs, but for the bragging rights that comes with knocking off the top ranked and two-time defending league champions. 鈥淲e kind of got a big target on our back, so everyone is going to be gunning for us here,鈥� mentioned Cross, continuing, 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to be surprising anybody and we have to be prepared for that.
鈥淎t the same time, we know we can win when we鈥檙e not playing our best because we stumbled a couple of times throughout the year and were able to prevail quite a few times when we maybe didn鈥檛 have that great of a start.鈥�
To combat the other teams, Cross says the Xerox Terriers will be relying more on their four returning players from last year鈥檚 SBAAHL championship team - forwards Zach McIntyre and Aiden Bulych as well as defenceman Carson Dereniwsky and goaltender Nolan Maier - than they have throughout the season. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 our leadership core right there and everyone is going to be looking to them to lead the way and hopefully they can because they鈥檝e got that experience of going through the whole playoff run from last year,鈥� suggested the Xerox Terriers鈥� bench boss, acknowledging the fact that Maier 鈥� widely regarded as one of the top bantam goaltending prospects in western Canada 鈥� will most likely have to steal a game or two in the playoffs should the Xerox Terriers want to go back to the Western Championships. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to be expecting your goalie to win you a few games throughout the playoffs so definitely having him in our net is a huge plus for us as Nolan definitely has that ability to steal a win for us, especially on the road, if we need it.鈥�
The chance for Maier to steal a win for the Xerox Terriers on the road will be as early as this Saturday as the Xerox Terriers will be travelling to Swift Current to take on the Swift Current Kabos Raiders in Game Two (Game One went last night, Tuesday, but results were unavailable at press time).
