The Yorkton RawTec Maulers have moved to within one point of the sixth place Saskatoon Contacts thanks to a 3-2 shootout loss and a 4-2 win over the Saskatoon Blazers in the Bridge City this past weekend.
The Maulers, who have been stricken by illness as of late, also took on the Regina Pat Canadians at home last Tuesday (December 2) and lost by a score of 7-3.
The three results give the RawTec Maulers am 11-9-3 record for 25 points in the 12-team SMAAAHL, seven up on eighth place Moose Jaw (7-12-4) and just one point back of the Contacts (12-7-2).
Tisdale continues to lead the pack with an 18-2-2 record while Regina are just three points back with a 17-3-1 record and 35 points.
The Notre Dame Hounds (17-4-0) sit in third place with 34 points while the Prince Albert Mintos (13-5-5) and Battlefords Stars (15-6-0) are fourth and fifth respectively with 31 and 30 points.
Tuesday defeat
On Tuesday, December 2 the high flying Regina Pat Canadians, riding a five game winning streak, paid a visit to the Farrell Agencies Arena in the hopes of increasing their winning streak to six games.
They did just that as they took advantage of an under the weather RawTec Mauler club, beating A.P. netminder Carter Park seven times for a 7-3 Regina win.
The visiting Pat Canadians got on the board first in the opening frame when Conner Chaulk put the puck past Park for a 1-0 Regina lead.
Regina increased their lead to two less than two minutes later when, with Austin Shumanski in the penalty box for hooking, Riley Woods snapped the puck into the Mauler net for a 2-0 lead.
Yorkton鈥檚 McKenzie Welke cut the Regina lead in half with his ninth goal of the season not long after, however two more Regina goals late in the period, one each by Chaulk and Arthur Miller made it 4-1 for the Pat Canadians after 20 minutes.
Regina鈥檚 Miller would score two more goals by the time the game was over and Tyran Brown also chipped in with a marker of his own while veteran Mauler forward Damian Bentz was the only man that could solve Clarke Flegel the rest of the night, beating the Regina netminder twice to round out a 7-3 score.
Park shouldered the loss for the RawTec Maulers in the game, however head coach Dan Cross felt that Park played a respectable game, especially with the lack of preparation time he was given before his first career SMAAAHL start. 鈥淗e didn鈥檛 really have any time to prepare, maybe he had three hours if he was lucky to be able to prepare himself for this game and this was his first game,鈥� offered Cross on his emergency goaltender. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 expect a whole lot from him but I thought he played respectably.鈥�
Cross then went on to say that the team didn鈥檛 play all that well in front of Park either, which was understandable seeing as the majority of the Maulers were playing at less than 100%. 鈥淲e had a lot of illnesses here and we were missing quite a few key guys and honestly half our team is sick and you can tell,鈥� suggested the RawTec Mauler head coach.
鈥淲e played sluggishly all the way through but they fought through it and they finished the game and I thought they finished it in a pretty respectable way all things considered.鈥�
They did fight through it. In fact, some of the Maulers fought through the game in a literal sense as both Logan Casavant and Austin Shumanski were given five minutes and a game misconduct for dropping the gloves with a Regina opponent; something Cross said was a positive even if he doesn鈥檛 ask for that from his players. 鈥淪ometimes when you鈥檙e a younger team playing an older team they鈥檒l think they can take some liberties against us,鈥� said Cross. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not out there to try to goon it up or anything but definitely the boys are going to stand up when push comes to shove there and I thought they did a good job of that tonight.鈥�
Saskatoon weekend
On the weekend the Yorkton RawTec Maulers made the three hour drive up the Yellowhead Highway to take on the Saskatoon Blazers in a pair of road games, one each on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday鈥檚 game saw the Maulers come out of the gates slowly, allowing the host Blazers to grab a quick 2-0 lead through 20 minutes on goals by Evan Thomas and Brayden Camrud.
An early second period goal by RawTec Mauler A.P. defenceman Cody Dubas got Yorkton back into the game, however his goal looked to be the only one that the Maulers would score on the night until Logan Casavant found a way to beat Saskatoon goaltender Joel Grzybowski for his fourth of the season with just 25 seconds remaining to tie the game and send it to overtime.
The four-on-four, five minute extra frame solved nothing meaning the two teams went from extra hockey to a shootout. The shootout lasted five rounds before Saskatoon鈥檚 Brad Bigsby finally ended it, beating Yorkton netminder Carter Phair to give the home side a 3-2 shootout win.
鈥淚 think we deserved better than that,鈥� offered head coach Dan Cross following the game. 鈥淚 mean, you look at the shots from the end of the second period on and we outshot them 25-2. We just didn鈥檛 get the bounces.鈥�
The following night the two teams were back at it, skating to a scoreless first period despite high quality chances at both ends of the rink.
The Blazers would open the scoring early in the second period when SMAAAHL rookie Jake Leschyshyn took advantage of a defensive miscue by the Maulers and beat Phair shorthanded for a 1-0 Saskatoon lead.
However that lead was short lived as Yorkton forward Drayson Skulmoski found the back of the net, beating Grzybowski for his eighth of the season to draw the RawTec Maulers even.
The Maulers would take their first lead of the weekend just over three minutes later when Damian Bentz also beat Grzybowski to make it 2-1 for Yorkton before Taylor Elmy鈥檚 first of the season put the RawTec Maulers up by two with 8:53 left in the middle frame.
The two clubs would trade third period tallies, Saskatoon鈥檚 off the stick of Nathaniel Wingerak and Yorkton鈥檚 an empty net ensurance goal by Bentz (second of the game) to make it a 4-2 final and give the RawTec Maulers a hard earned and well deserved two points.
Phair picked up the win between the Yorkton pipes turning aside 31-of-33 Blazer shots while Grzybowski took home the loss, stopping 28-of-31 RawTec Mauler chances.
Up next
The next action for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers (11-9-3) will be this weekend when they travel to Swift Current to take on the 6-15-2 Legionnaires.
