Due to the rain and icy roads on January 25, the Preeceville Pats midget and bantam hockey teams were unable to play at Canora Minor Hockey day and had rescheduled the games for January 30 at the Canora Civic Arena. The evening resulted in a win for the Pats midgets and a hard-fought tie for the bantam squad as the two teams continue to prepare for the upcoming playoffs.
The Pats midgets entered the game with a short bench knowing that they would need to be well conditioned to go the full game with fewer players than usual, stated Kirby Pankratz, head coach.
Yorkton Snap on Terriers opened the scoring on a weak turnover in the Pats defensive end only to have the Pats respond with a beautiful tic-tac-toe goal. The Pats potted one more to end the first period ahead by one, and then finished the second period up 3 to 1 on the Terriers. The third frame of the contest got physical and chippy, and the teams competed hard in the trenches.
鈥淲ith our short bench I wasn鈥檛 worried about keeping up the stamina for the 60 minutes, because our guys play with so much heart and intensity and they seem to thrive on the challenge," said Pankratz.
Preeceville dug in and battled through the penalty filled third period and took over the game, scoring four more times to finalize a 7 to 2 victory. Jacob Danyluk of Canora led the way, scoring a hat trick in front of the hometown fans.
Earlier in the evening, the Pats bantam team met the Yorkton RH Terriers in what was truly a back-and-forth affair.
Midway through the second period the Pats scored a shorthanded goal to go up by 3 to 0 and things were looking good. But then the Pats took back-to-back penalties and Yorkton got on the scoreboard during the resulting two-man advantage. The Terriers added goals in the last minute of the second period, the first minute of the third period, and at around the 15-minute mark of the third to go up 4-3. But just when things appeared bleak, the Pats players showed their grit and combined to score the tying goal with less than a minute remaining, resulting in a final score of 4 to 4.
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