The Yorkton UCT Terriers are not used to being the underdogs.
Yet that is a role they found themselves occupying from the moment they stepped off the bus at Winnipeg鈥檚 St. James Civic Centre for Game One of the Western Canada Bantam 鈥楢AA鈥� Championship on Thursday, April 2 until they loaded up after their final game of the tournament on Sunday, April 5.
And although the underdog UCT Terriers didn鈥檛 win the gold medal, or even the bronze, they did something that no Saskatchewan team has done in recent memory (other than last year鈥檚 UCT Terrier team).
They competed.
In fact, they competed so well that even in the games they lost they played better than their opponents for over half of the game.
Overall the UCT Terriers finished the round-robin with a 2-2 record, opening the tournament up with a 7-4 loss to the Rocky Mountain Raiders (Alberta) before falling 3-1 to the hometown Winnipeg Warriors (Manitoba) with both losss due in large part to weak first periods.
They then walloped the Brandon Wheat Kings (Host, due to losing to Winnipeg in the provincial finals) 7-3 before doing the seemingly impossible, edging defending and eventual repeating champion North Shore Winterhawks 7-6 on a last minute goal by Carson Miller.
The 2-2 record put the UCT Terriers in the bronze medal game where their old nemesis the bad first period once again made an appearance in a 6-4 Yorkton loss to Winnipeg resulting in a fourth place finish for the Saskatchewan reps.
Game One
The Yorkton UCT Terriers kicked off their 2015 Western Canada Bantam 鈥楢AA鈥� Championship tournament by taking on the Alberta champion Rocky Mountain Raiders.
And just like last year, the UCT Terriers once again started the tournament off on the wrong foot as Rocky Mountain鈥檚 Peyton Krebs snapped the Raiders鈥� first shot past Yorkton goaltender Nolan Maier and into the back of the net for a 1-0 Alberta lead just over a minute into the game.
The Alberta rep Rocky Mountain Raiders jumped out to a three goal lead on first period goals by Kale Clouston and Jackson Salt before Yorkton finally got on the scoreboard when Kaeden Taphorn beat Rocky Mountain net minder Riley Kell for Yorkton鈥檚 first goal of the tournament, a power play marker with 6:05 left in the period.
A late tripping penalty to Kaeden Korczak gave the Raiders a power play opportunity; an opportunity they didn鈥檛 let fall by the wayside as Zach Huber scored his first goal of the game just 10 seconds into the man advantage to give Team Alberta a 4-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.
The second period saw a renewed UCT Terriers work themselves right back into the game thanks to a pair of Zach McIntyre goals just over eight minutes apart that cut the Rocky Mountain lead to just one.
Unfortunately that鈥檚 as close as the UCT Terriers would get to a comeback as Huber scored his second of the game with just over a minute remaining in the second period to make it a 5-3 lead after two periods of play.
Krebs鈥� second of the game made it 6-3 for Rocky Mountain before Brett Kemp and Huber traded goals to make it a 7-4 final.
Maier shouldered the loss for the UCT Terriers turning aside 26-of-33 shots while Kell picked up the win stopping 16-of-20 Yorkton chances.
Following the game UCT Terrier head coach Graham Garrett felt that once his team got adjusted to the speed of the game, they more than held their own. 鈥淗opefully we take the positives out of here and understand that it was basically a 3-3 game after the first period,鈥� said coach Garrett. 鈥淥nce we got adjusted I thought that we had a ton of chances. Once we started getting pucks deep and we started to play our type of game we were very effective and dangerous.
Last year it took us longer to make the adjustments but today it took us one period, although all the things that we thought we might get exposed on we got exposed on in the first period and ultimately that was the difference in the game.鈥�
Game Two
The second game of the tournament pitted the UCT Terriers against the hometown Winnipeg Warriors in what ended up being a very defensive battle.
The first period saw the Yorkton UCT Terriers come out slowly once again while the Warriors 鈥� in the friendly confines of their home arena 鈥� came out firing.
Luckily Yorkton goaltender Dakota Berezowski was ready and waiting for the Winnipeg attack as he allowed just one goal - an early period marker to Peyton Malcolm 鈥� while stopping 11 more shots in the first period to keep Yorkton in the game down just one after the first period.
The second frame saw the Yorkton UCT Terriers come out stronger, outworking and outhustling the older Winnipeg club early in the middle period resulting in a Carson Miller goal to even the game at one apiece just 1:46 into the period.
It appeared as if the game would remain deadlocked at one through 20 minutes, however a giveaway in the Yorkton zone resulted in the second Warrior goal of the game with two minutes remaining in the period.
A Winnipeg power play goal in the third period off of the stick of Rylan Bittens rounded out the scoring in the game as the UCT Terriers dropped their second straight game of the tournament despite outplaying their opponents in the final two periods.
Berezowski took the loss for Yorkton stopping 22 shots while Brendan Benoit stopped 23-of-24 UCT Terrier shots in the win.
Game Three
The Yorkton UCT Terriers carried a 0-2 record into Game Three of the Western Canada Bantam 鈥楢AA鈥� Championship tournament against the Brandon Wheat Kings in dire need of a win should they want to continue playing meaningful hockey for two more days.
Meanwhile Brandon was also in the same boat, needing a win to keep their medal hopes alive after having tied Winnipeg earlier in the tournament 2-2 before getting hammered by North Shore 7-0.
Hulking blueliner Reid Perepeluk opened the scoring for the UCT Terriers just past the midway point of the first period when he took the stretch pass from goaltender Nolan Maier, crossed the Brandon blueline and wired the puck past Wheat King net minder Max Paddock for a 1-0 Yorkton lead.
A Maier giveaway five minutes later resulted in Brandon鈥檚 Lynden McCallum putting the puck past the Yorkton goalie to tie the game at one, but before the period was out the UCT Terriers regained their lead when Keenan Taphorn beat Paddock blocker side on the power play with eight seconds left to send the UCT Terriers into the locker room with a 2-1 lead.
A pair of Keenan Sperling second period goals expanded the UCT Terrier lead to three goals at 4-1 before Keenan Taphorn鈥檚 second of the game rounded out the middle frame scoring, giving Yorkton a 5-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.
Brett Kemp made it 6-1 Yorkton 2:19 into the third period and it looked as if it was all over, however Brandon鈥檚 Tate Popple responded just 13 seconds later to make it 6-2.
Six seconds after the Popple goal the red light went on again as McCallum netted his second goal of the game to cut the Terrier lead to three at 6-3.
But that was as close as the Wheat Kings would get as Kemp added his second goal of the game with 6:41 remaining in the period to put the nail in the Brandon coffin and seal Yorkton鈥檚 first victory of the tournament, 7-3 over the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Maier picked up the win stopping 23 Brandon shots while Paddock took the loss stopping 17-of-22 Yorkton tries before being replaced by Josh Scott who stopped 8-of-10 in relief.
鈥淚 thought our work ethic was a little bit better today. We were able to finish on our opportunities better than we did in the first two games,鈥� offered a happier coach Garrett following the win. 鈥淎s we get settled in here I thought our feet were moving way better, we were thinking the game way better. Our forecheck was way better and the guys created so much more opportunities and we were able to finish on those.鈥�
Garrett then offered up some comments on the player who eventually ended up getting the game tying and game winning goals: Keanan Sperling. 鈥淲e鈥檝e used Keanan up front and on the back end all season long,鈥� offered Garrett on his jack of all trades. 鈥淗e鈥檚 been that guy that鈥檚 kind of been a utility player that has been able to fit in wherever we need him and today it was great to see.
鈥淲e put him with a different line and they were able to create a couple of nice goals on a couple of nice shots and that鈥檚 good for him because he deserves it.鈥�
Game Four
With the Rocky Mountain Raiders defeating Brandon 6-4 earlier on Saturday the Yorkton UCT Terriers were guaranteed a spot in the bronze medal game meaning they had absolutely no pressure on their shoulders at all as they got ready to take on the pretournament favourite North Shore Winterhawks in their final game of the round-robin.
The B.C. reps got off to a strong start as Jackson Shepard snapped the puck off the crossbar and in to beat Yorkton goaltender Tyson Byman for a 1-0 Winterhawks lead just 1:10 into the period.
A Kaleb Bulych power play point blast drew the UCT Terriers even 4:29 into the first period, however B.C.鈥檚 Tyler Ho regained the North Shore lead just over two minutes later when he went flying down the wing and ripped the puck past Byman for the second Winterhawks goal of the game.
North Shore鈥檚 Luka Burzan made it a 3-1 game before the end of the period when he too found a way to put the puck past Byman and it looked as if the UCT Terriers were in trouble down two goals at the first break.
But someone forgot to tell the UCT Terriers that they were in trouble as they came out of the first intermission like a team possessed, forcing the Winterhawks into their own zone resulting in a Perepeluk goal to cut the lead to one just 2:47 into the period.
A Kemp goal with 12:33 remaining in the period drew the UCT Terriers even, however an unwarranted tripping penalty to Michael Coleridge resulted in a power play goal for North Shore as Shepard beat Byman for his second of the game.
Hudson Schandor made it 5-3 just 1:21 after the second Shepard marker but the never say die UCT Terriers once again battled back as McIntyre scored his third goal of the tournament, beating North Shore net minder Niklas Hoem to make it a 5-4 game with 7:05 left in the period.
Two minutes later and it seemed as if North Shore had restored their two goal advantage, however Byman did everything he could to prevent the puck from going in by putting his body on the line resulting in a save and an injury when a North Shore player crashed into the net, meaning Berezowski had to come in cold to man the net for Yorkton, which he did successfully for the remainder of the period, stopping all three shots he faced in the final five minutes of the second period to keep it the score 5-4.
At the start of the third period the UCT Terriers were given a bench minor penalty giving North Shore their seventh power play opportunity of the game. This time the Winterhawk power play clicked as Ethan Cap fired the puck past Berezowski for a 6-4 North Shore lead with 18:28 to go in the game and it seemed as if the Winterhawks, a team that was 63-5-6 heading into the game, were well on their way to their 64th victory of the season.
Only, they weren鈥檛.
A power play goal by Kaeden Taphorn with 11:46 left in the game cut the North Shore lead to one before Game Three hero Keanan Sperling evened the game up at six with his third goal of the tournament with 9:53 left in the game.
The Sperling goal seemed to light a fire under the UCT Terriers as Yorkton began to dominate North Shore in every aspect of the game. Unfortunately they could not beat Hoem, who stood on his head a few times to prevent Yorkton from taking the lead.
With time running out it looked like the two teams would skate to a very entertaining 6-6 tie, before Yorkton regular season leading scorer Carson Miller harmlessly put the puck on net from the point.
Or it would have been done harmlessly had Hoem seen it. However the North Shore net minder didn鈥檛 spot the puck until it was going past him to give Yorkton a 7-6 lead.
A lead they would hold on to for the final 37 seconds resulting in one of the biggest upsets in Western Canada Bantam 鈥楢AA鈥� Championship history as the Yorkton UCT Terriers downed the North Shore Winterhawks 7-6.
鈥淲e deserved to win. We deserved it more than they did,鈥� said the UCT Terrier head coach following the game, adding that nine times out of ten that final shot doesn鈥檛 even get to the goaltender. 鈥淚t was a seeing eye puck from the point. Carson just turned around and threw it on net and it went in.
鈥淲e definitely deserved it. Maybe the hockey gods kind of shine upon you when the kids work that hard and come together the way they did.鈥�
Bronze
The final game of the tournament saw the UCT Terriers take on the Winnipeg Warriors in a rematch of the second game of the tournament.
However the UCT Terriers would have to take on the Warriors without the services of head coach Graham Garrett and assistant coach Kim Maier, both of whom were kicked out of Saturday鈥檚 win over North Shore. Maier for arguing with the linesmen and Garrett because players from the team left the bench a few seconds too early to celebrate their win over the Winterhawks.
Unfortunately the combination of the lack of coaches and possible fatigue resulted in the UCT Terriers not carrying over the momentum from their 7-6 win over North Shore into the first period of the bronze medal game as the hometown Warriors scored four times in the first frame en route to a 6-4 victory.
Scoring for the UCT Terriers in the bronze medal game loss were Zach McIntyre, Reid Perepeluk, Kaeden Korczak and Keenan Taphorn.
Dakota Berezowski took the loss stopping 8-of-13 Warrior shots before Maier took over in net and stopped 9-of-10. Brendan Benoit got the win for Winnipeg stopping 25-of-29 Yorkton attempts.
The UCT Terriers now enter the offseason as the fourth best bantam team in the western provinces after their strong showing at the 2015 Western Canada Bantam 鈥楢AA鈥� Championship.
