The Yorkton RawTec Maulers put an end to their five game losing streak with a 2-0 shutout win over the Notre Dame Argos last Wednesday night in Wilcox and in the process officially clinched a spot in the 2015 SMAAAHL postseason.
Several days later the Maulers once again found the win column, needing a shootout to dispatch the Swift Current Legionnaires 7-6 to move four points clear of the Moose Jaw Generals (17-19-4, 38 pts) for seventh place with a record of 19-18-4 for 42 points.
The Regina Pat Canadians currently lead the SMAAAHL with a 33-8-2 record and 68 points, one point ahead of second place Tisdale (32-6-3), however the Trojans have two games in hand on the Pat C鈥檚.
The Notre Dame Hounds (27-10-1) sit in third place with 55 points while the Battlefords Stars (25-13-1) and Saskatoon Contacts (24-13-3) are tied for fourth and fifth with 51 points each, a mere one point ahead of sixth place Prince Albert (22-14-6).
The Beardy鈥檚 Blackhawks (17-25-1), Saskatoon Blazers (13-28-1), Swift Current Legionnaires (9-27-3) and Notre Dame Argos (5-33-0) are all officially eliminated from playoff contention with 35, 27, 21 and 10 points respectively.
Winning Wednesday
Wednesday night saw the slipping Yorkton RawTec Maulers take their five game losing streak to Wilcox to take on the basement dwelling Notre Dame Argos, losers of their last 11 games.
Yorkton came out flying to open the game, using the bigger Olympic sized ice surface to their advantage; however Notre Dame鈥檚 Justin Gauthier appeared to be equal to the task, turning aside shot after Yorkton shot before Logan Casavant finally managed to find the back of the net on the Maulers鈥� final shot of the first when, with just 24 seconds left in the period, he beat Gauthier for his 14th of the season to give the RawTec Maulers a 1-0 lead.
Gauthier was up to his old tricks to start the second period, once again dazzling the fans in attendance with big saves to keep the RawTec Maulers from increasing their lead.
But unfortunately for Gauthier, he appeared to be the only Argo player prepared for the game as the rest of the team did nothing to help him out, resulting in Derrick Budz making it a two goal Yorkton advantage midway through the second frame.
The Maulers continued to pressure Gauthier immediately following the Budz marker, but the Argo netminder proved unbeatable the rest of the way in a 2-0 Yorkton victory.
However Gauthier, who stopped 41-of-43 Mauler shots, wasn鈥檛 the only goalie in the game that came to play.
Yorkton鈥檚 Carter Phair also brought his 鈥楢鈥� game on Wednesday, turning aside all 20 Notre Dame shots for his first shutout of the season.
In fact, Phair鈥檚 shutout is the first shutout for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers since Spencer Bomboir blanked the Regina Pat Canadians back on Wednesday, November 16, 2011, when he turned aside 24 Regina shots in a 1-0 Yorkton Harvest win. 鈥淚鈥檝e been in the organization for three years and that鈥檚 our first shutout so that was awesome for him,鈥� mentioned RawTec Mauler head coach Dan Cross when asked about Phair鈥檚 performance. 鈥淗e鈥檚 definitely been one of the top goalies in the league this year and he deserved to get this shutout on Wednesday.鈥�
Phair鈥檚 shutout also proved to be huge for the entire team as it not only gave them their 18th win of the season, but also clinched them a spot in the SMAAAHL playoffs. 鈥淲e鈥檙e back in the playoffs and it feels good,鈥� mentioned Cross, adding that now the team can focus on trying to build some momentum ahead of the postseason. 鈥淪eventh or eighth isn鈥檛 really our concern here, what鈥檚 more important for us is that we鈥檙e just trying to build some momentum here now.鈥�
Shootout Sunday
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers were back in action just four days after their 2-0 playoff spot clinching shutout win over the Notre Dame Argos on Wednesday.
This time their opponents were the Swift Current Legionnaires; a non-playoff team just playing out the rest of the schedule before the offseason.
Connor Odelein opened the scoring on Sunday three minutes in, beating Yorkton starting netminder Rylan Palchewich for a 1-0 Swift Current lead.
Yorkton drew even less than four minutes later when Logan Casavant put his 15th of the season past Caleb Lumbard, before Cole Keenleyside made it 2-1 Maulers with his seventh of the campaign.
Carson Sass鈥� first as a Mauler, scored via the power play, made it 3-1 Yorkton just past the midway point of the opening frame but a pair of Legionnaire extra man markers, one each by Gage Misskey and Brody Doepker, made the score 3-3 with 3:35 left in the period.
But just 46 seconds later RawTec Mauler forward Tristyn DeRoose gave Yorkton back the lead, chasing Lumbard from the net in favour of Chantz Vinck with his fourth goal of the season to send the Maulers into the first intermission leading 4-3.
A Swift Current goal by Tristan Hermanson early in the second period tied the game at 4-4.
The game would remain tied until the late stages of the middle frame when Damian Bentz put the puck in the back of the Legionnaire net for his 12th goal of the season and a 5-4 RawTec Mauler lead.
However that lead would not last long as Kevin Bendall scored Swift Current鈥檚 fifth goal of the season with just 37 seconds left in the period to make it a 5-5 game after 40 minutes.
The third period saw a change between the RawTec Mauler pipes. Carter Phair, fresh off of his first shutout of the season, replaced Palchewich in the Yorkton net, only to have one of the first shots he faced beat him as Odelein ripped the puck past Phair to give the visitors their first lead of the game with 15:31 left in the third.
Playing behind didn鈥檛 seem to faze the RawTec Maulers however, as the home team simply went back to work, pushing the play, resulting in Swift Current鈥檚 Tanner Brewster taking a hooking penalty with 13:14 left in the game, sending the deadly RawTec Mauler power play unit back on the ice.
It didn鈥檛 take long, 22 seconds in fact, for the Yorkton power play unit to tie the game for the fifth time as McKenzie Welke beat Vinck for his 16th of the season to finally round out the scoring throughout regulation, sending the game to a five minute, four-on-four sudden death overtime.
The extra hockey didn鈥檛 solve a thing, meaning a shootout was needed to decide who took home the extra point.
Yorkton鈥檚 Cole Keenleyside kicked things off by beating Vinck cleanly to give the Maulers a 1-0 advantage.
Phair then did his job, turning aside the Caleb Griffin shot. However his save was matched by Vinck, who stopped the Bentz attempt, giving the dangerous Odelein an opportunity to tie the shootout at one.
The talented forward took the puck at centre ice and went in on Phair, only to have the hulking netminder casually kick out his pad to deny the Swift Current sniper, giving Yorkton鈥檚 third shooter, Logan Casavant, an opportunity to end the game with a goal.
Casavant didn鈥檛 ignore the opportunity, deftly deking Vinck out of his pads before sliding the puck past the sprawling Legionnaire goaltender to cap off a 7-6 RawTec Mauler victory.
Following the game, coach Cross was quick to point out that while the team didn鈥檛 have the best game defensively, the more important thing is that they finally managed to put pucks into the back of the opposing team鈥檚 net. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been getting 40 some shots per game and we鈥檝e been having trouble scoring just one or two goals every game,鈥� offered Cross. 鈥淚t was just nice to start off the game and get four goals in the first period and it鈥檚 just good for the spirits of the guys too. They鈥檝e been squeezing their sticks but now they can relax a bit knowing they are back to scoring goals.鈥�
Next action
As of right now the next action for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers (19-18-4) is set for Thursday, February 26 at the Farrell Agencies Arena when they take on the Notre Dame Argos, however that may change as this past Saturday鈥檚 game against Swift Current was postponed due to weather (Swift Current was storm stayed in Regina).
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers will also be without four key players for their final three regular season games as the Welke twins Carson and McKenzie, as well as Carson Sass and Tristyn DeRoose will be away from the team as they represent Saskatchewan at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George, B.C..
