The Yorkton RawTec Maulers are now mired in a five game losing streak, thanks to a pair of close losses last week, 2-1 at home to the Notre Dame Hounds on Wednesday, Feb. 4 and 2-0 on the road to the Moose Jaw Generals just one day later.
The two losses drop the RawTec Maulers record to one game below .500 at 17-18-4, good enough for a share of seventh and eighth place with the Generals (17-17-4) in the SMAAAHL.
The 38 points put them eight back of sixth place Prince Albert (20-13-6, 46 pts).
The Saskatoon Contacts (23-12-2) are 10 points clear of the Maulers in fifth with 48 points while the Battlefords Stars (25-12-1) and Notre Dame Hounds (25-9-1) share third and fourth with 51 points respectively.
The Regina Pat Canadians continue to lead the league with a 31-8-2 record and 64 points, three up on second place Tisdale (29-6-3).
The Beardy鈥檚 Blackhawks are on the outside looking in, seven points back of the Maulers and Generals with just four games left on their schedule.
The Saskatoon Blazers, Swift Current Legionnaires and Notre Dame Argos have all been eliminated from playoff contention.
Last Wednesday the Yorkton RawTec Maulers welcomed the Notre Dame Hounds to the Farrell Agencies Arena for a game that was rescheduled from Wednesday, January 14.
The first period saw both teams thwarted multiple times by the goaltenders, with Yorkton鈥檚 Rylan Palchewich and Notre Dame鈥檚 Reid Cooper trying to one up one another all throughout the opening frame, with both goalies making impressive save after impressive save.
However it was Palchewich that looked the best, channeling his inner Kirk McLean for a pair of two pad stack saves while Cooper surrendered the lone goal of the period when Yorkton鈥檚 Koal Roberts found a way to beat the Notre Dame goalie with just 51 seconds remaining in the frame to give Yorkton a 1-0 lead after one period.
The script for the second period was much the same as the first with Cooper and Palchewich turning aside shot after shot to keep the game at 1-0 Yorkton until the final minute of the period as the Hounds tied the game up on a Conor MacLean goal.
The third period saw Roberts nearly give his team the lead early on, only to have the puck clang off the post. Moments later Notre Dame鈥檚 Rhett Kingston beat Palchewich for what would stand up to be the game winning goal as the Yorkton RawTec Maulers fell 2-1 to the Notre Dame Hounds.
Palchewich stopped 36-of-38 shots in the loss while Cooper turned aside 27-of-28 for the win.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 the result we were looking for, especially at home,鈥� said RawTec Mauler head coach Dan Cross following the game. 鈥淚 thought we had a great start and played a good, solid game right through.
鈥淲e just had a couple of pucks bounce the wrong way for us and they ended up in the back of the net.鈥�
Cross also mentioned that recently his team just hasn鈥檛 been getting the puck luck that they deserve, as proven by the Roberts post early in the third period. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just one of those bounces,鈥� offered Cross, continuing, 鈥淲e鈥檙e talking a millimetre from it going in, yet it didn鈥檛. He hit it pretty solid and it didn鈥檛 bounce in, instead it bounced out and that鈥檚 just the way it goes. That鈥檚 hockey.
鈥淚t was a good hockey game. It was 2-1 and it was good hockey by both teams; that鈥檚 just the way she goes sometimes.鈥�
A day later and the RawTec Maulers were back in action, this time taking on the Moose Jaw Generals in Little Chicago.
The two teams skated to a scoreless first period; however the middle frame was all Moose Jaw as the Generals managed to beat Yorkton starting goaltender Carter Phair twice in the middle frame, one goal coming off the stick of Kyle Sargent and the other by Yorkton Terrier prospect and General leading scorer Branden Klatt to give the host club a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes.
It appeared as if the RawTec Maulers narrowed the Moose Jaw lead to one at 2-1 only to have the referee wave the goal off, much to the dismay of the Maulers. 鈥淲e actually had one called back early in the third period which obviously kind of threw us for a loop there a little bit,鈥� mentioned Cross, continuing, 鈥淭hat definitely discourages you a little bit when you鈥檙e having trouble scoring goals.鈥�
The waved off goal ended up being the only form of possible offence that the Maulers would generate on Thursday night. Final score: Moose Jaw 2, Yorkton 0.
Phair shouldered the loss stopping 20-of-22 shots while Churchbridge native Colby Entz picked up the 30 save shutout.
Up next
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers (17-18-4) have just five games left in the SMAAAHL regular season schedule, two of which are on the road and three of which are at home. Their next action will be tonight (Wednesday) when they visit the bottom feeding Notre Dame Argos in Wilcox. A win will guarantee the RawTec Maulers a spot in the 2015 SMAAAHL post season.
Yorkton will then welcome the Swift Current Legionnaires to the Farrell Agencies Arena for a pair of games this weekend (Feb. 14-15). Game time for the Saturday鈥檚 Valentine鈥檚 Day game is set for 7:30p.m. while Sunday鈥檚 game is scheduled for 2:00p.m.
