The Yorkton UCT Terriers are one win away from winning their second SBAAHL playoff title in a row after taking Game One of their Best-of-Three SBAAHL final series against the Sask Valley Vipers 3-0 at the Gallagher Centre Sunday, March 22.
Keenan Taphorn put the UCT Terriers ahead less than two minutes into the game when his third of the postseason beat Viper goaltender Jake Davidson and it looked as if it might be a long night for the visitors, however Davidson quickly gathered himself back up and prevented the UCT Terriers from increasing their lead, turning aside the final 10 shots of the period to keep his team in the game.
Meanwhile Davidson鈥檚 counterpart Nolan Maier faced just three shots in the opening 20 minutes in a very one-sided period.
The second period was much the same as the first, with Yorkton coming out firing.
Davidson managed to stand his ground for the first few minutes, however the talented net minder simply could not keep them all out as first year bantam forward Zach McIntyre notched his fourth of the playoffs 3:58 into the middle frame for a 2-0 Yorkton lead.
Once again Davidson regrouped after the goal, preventing the buzzing Terrier forwards from putting another puck past him and giving his team a chance by keeping the game at 2-0 after two periods of play.
The third period saw the UCT Terriers put the nail in the Game One coffin as defenceman Kaleb Bulych burst down the wing and fired a shot five-hole that beat Davidson to round out the scoring in a 3-0 UCT Terrier shutout victory.
Maier picked up the 13 save shutout, his first of the playoffs, while Davidson shouldered the loss despite doing all he could to singlehandedly try to win the game for his team, turning aside 32 shots in the loss.
鈥淚 thought we played a great team game today,鈥� offered UCT Terrier head coach Graham Garrett following the game. 鈥淲e got to roll our lines and everyone did a great job tonight. I thought our defence closed the gap on them and their only offence was where they were trying to send a guy out of the zone and we didn鈥檛 give them that.
鈥淲e made that adjustment after the first period and I don鈥檛 think we gave them very much at all to create any type of positive momentum.鈥�
Not only was Yorkton dominant five-on-five, the UCT Terrier penalty kill was also in top form all game long, easily killing off all four Viper man advantages throughout the game.
In fact the UCT Terriers have given up just one power play goal in 32 chances this postseason, that coming back in the first period of Game One of the 麻豆传媒AV Division semi-finals against Estevan. 鈥淥ur penalty kill has been very good here in the playoffs,鈥� mentioned Garrett, continuing, 鈥淲e鈥檝e got guys that are committed to playing hard. Our fore-check, even on the penalty kill, is very good.
鈥淭hose guys that play that take a lot of pride in what they鈥檙e doing there so it鈥檚 nice to have guys that have the skill to be able to do that. It鈥檚 kind of a double-edged sword for us where we can create opportunities on the penalty kill but also give them nothing.鈥�
But while victory in Game One certainly seemed to come easy for the UCT Terriers, Coach Garrett is very aware that on Wednesday night they鈥檒l see the very best that Sask Valley has to offer. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e on the ropes now so they鈥檙e going to try and bring more of a game and put more pressure on us,鈥� suggested the UCT Terrier head coach. 鈥淏ut if we play the way we did today and shut them down and give them nothing offensively then we should do well.鈥�
Storm watch over
The Yorkton UCT Terriers eliminated the Prairie Storm on Tuesday, March 17 in Game Three of the SBAAHL 麻豆传媒AV Division Finals 5-4.
Reid Perepeluk opened the scoring for Yorkton in the first period before Kaeden Taphorn made it 2-0 for the hosts.
Prairie Storm leading scorer Colum McGauley cut the Terrier lead in half with under four minutes left in the first period, however a pair of late Yorkton goals, one each by Keenan Taphorn and Carson Miller, made it 4-1 for the UCT Terriers after 20 minutes of play.
Aidan McNabb made it a 4-2 score less than five minutes into the second period when he beat Maier, however Kaleb Bulych responded not long after by firing the fifth goal of the game past Riley Christison to make it 5-2 for Yorkton,
A late period goal by Prairie Storm鈥檚 Blake Hubick made it a two goal game heading into the third period where Austen Flaman made thing interesting, beating Maier for the Prairie Storm鈥檚 fourth goal of the game to cut the Terrier lead to just one
But that proved to be as close as the Prairie Storm would get as Yorkton won 5-4 and took the series two-games-to-one.
Next action
The next action for the UCT Terriers will be tonight (Wednesday) when they travel to the Warman Legends Centre for Game Two of the Best-of-Three SBAAHL Finals. Game time is set for 7:15p.m.
Game Three, if needed, will be at the Farrell Agencies Arena in Yorkton on Saturday, March 28. That game is scheduled for a 5:30p.m. start time.
