Despite losing upwards of seven players to Junior hockey at the end of last season, the Yorkton AAA Harvest hockey team continues to play like they are destined to achieve good things.
With the way things have been going lately for them, it is almost a shame they are officially off for the Christmas break.
It will however be a good time for some injuries to heal up a bit.
They also did what they were hoping to do going back to last week, and that was to finish up the year above .500. Yorkton sits in sixth place at 13-11-1. Tisdale however is sneaking up to them with 29 points, keeping hot on Yorkton's tracks with their 4-2 victory over the Swift Current Legionnaires Sunday afternoon. Yorkton took home three of a possible four points from the league's top club, the Prince Albert Mintos, including a convincing 4-0 win Saturday night on home ice.
"I told them after that game that if we play that way every night, we can be the champs," said Graham Garrett following the win.
"When you're on a roll (like this) you want to keep playing."
The only thing they could possibly be disappointed about on Sunday was that they lost on home ice in overtime for the first time this season. Landon Belchamber picked the corner on Kale Thompson with only five seconds left in OT. The night before (Saturday) was highlighted by a three point effort put forth by sparkplug forward Levi Cable, who has shown a knack for scoring some highlight-reel worthy goals.
He contributed two goals that night. Both came in the third period and ensured the Harvest two points in the standings.
He also set up Ben Johnstone for the game's opening goal, which turned out to be the winner.Head coach Garrett said he couldn't be happier about how the team is doing, and isn't worried about where the team sits in the standings, only as long as the team keeps playing the way it has, as of late.
Saturday's game proved to the Harvest that they can play with anyone, Garrett insisted."We know we can play with the best in the league," offers Garrett.
The work week began last Thursday night with a home matchup with Yorkton's arch-rivals, the Regina Pat Canadians where Cable struck midway through the middle frame from Kade Halabuza.The teams skated to a scoreless tie after one period.
Jared Martin evened the affair for the Pat Canadians at 16:30 of the third period.
But Dustin Minto scored the eventual game winner 1:30 after Martin's equalizer. Ryley Stefanyshyn, who wound up scoring a huge goal in Sunday's game against the Mintos, drew an assist, along with Kody Thue.
The Harvest looked to go 2-0 with opponents over the week, having beat Regina, now it was onto the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League's top club, the Mintos from Prince Albert.
Thirteen points separated the two teams heading into Saturday night's dance at the Farrell Agencies Arena. It ended up 小蓝视频 a case of the lower-ranked team dominating the first-placed team, says Garrett.
"I thought we dominated them. They played into our strengths. I'm really happy with the way we're playing."
Despite Saturday's one-sided affair, both teams showed up to play on Sunday and this time it was the visitors that got on the scoreboard first.
Landon Belchamber had a big hand in the game as he both opened the scoring and closed it with five seconds remaining in overtime.
The Mintos struck at least once in each period, including Belchamber's goal in overtime to beat the Harvest by a score of 4-3.
Cable and Stefanyshyn tallied in the second period after Belchamber scored to open the game, however Belchamber's teammates helped him out by scoring twice in the last 5:35 of the second period.
LUCKY GOALTad Kozun and Sawyer Lange scored to allow Prince Albert to re-take a one goal lead but with 51 seconds left in the game, Yorkton's Denin Boesch surprised everyone, including himself as he sent a shot into the Mintos' end just before leaving the ice for a shift change.
He said after the game that he didn't see Mintos netminder Taran Kozun leave his crease area to gain control of the dump-in shot.
Boesch's shot took a weird bounce off the boards and ended up rolling into the empty net.
"I just dumped it in and it hit the glass," Boesch said after the game, adding that he was just trying to get rid of the puck before a line change.
That goal he scored gave the Harvest the points advantage in the games with the Mintos, and showed that the team can compete with anybody in the league.
"Our compete-level, battle-level is completely high. It feels really good.
The Harvest now join the Terriers who started their holiday season following a 2-1 loss at Weyburn on Saturday night.
Yorkton starts the new year on Jan. 8 when they head north to take on Beardy's.
