It took the Yorkton Xerox Terriers just two games to rid themselves of the pesky Estevan TS&M Bruins in the SBAAHL 小蓝视频 Division championship series and advance to their third consecutive SBAAHL league championship series.
The Bantam 鈥楢A鈥� Terriers doubled up the Bruins 4-2 in Game One of their Best-of-Three 小蓝视频 Division final series at home last Wednesday night before lambasting the Bruins 7-2 on Friday to sweep the series in two straight games.
Game One
It took the Yorkton Xerox Terriers just five minutes to display their dominance on Wednesday night, as first year bantam forward Jackson Berezowski gave the Terriers a 1-0 lead with his third goal of the postseason.
A Dawson Schaff power play marker late in the period brought the Bruins even and sent the game into the first intermission tied at one, however a pair of Terrier second period goals 鈥� one early off the stick of Ethan Evanovich and one late courtesy of Kishaun Gervais 鈥� gave the SBAAHL regular season champion Xerox Terriers a 3-1 lead through 40 minutes.
A Liam Rutten marker 2:17 into the final frame brought the Bruins back to within one, but an Aiden Bulych goal five minutes later restored the Xerox Terrier two goal advantage.
From there the Xerox Terriers buckled down defensively, giving the Bruins nothing but a sniff of offence as they took a one game series lead thanks to a 4-2 Game One win.
Nolan Maier picked up the win between the Xerox Terrier pipes, turning aside 29-of-31 Estevan shots while Bryson Garton was tagged with the loss, allowing four goals on 21 Yorkton chances.
Following the game Xerox Terrier head coach Dan Cross told Yorkton This Week that while he thought his team came out slow in Game One, once they found their legs they began to control the flow of play which ultimately led to the 4-2 win. 鈥淚 thought that maybe we were a bit sluggish in the first period, but we played the last two periods very strong and we owned the play,鈥� said Cross, adding that having Maier in net when the team starts off slow is a blessing. 鈥淚n my eyes he鈥檚 the best goalie in the bantam 鈥楢A鈥� league here, and when it comes to the playoffs that鈥檚 what you need - You always need solid goaltending and if we鈥檙e going to make a mistake and he鈥檚 there to back us up, what kind of confidence does that give to your team?
鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge confidence builder for everyone on the ice and on the team all the time to know that we鈥檝e got him in net to fix our mistakes.鈥�
Game Two
The Yorkton Xerox Terriers got a pair of first period goals from Zach McIntyre and one from Massen Ziola and never looked back from there en route to a convincing 7-2 win in Game Two of their Best-of-Three SBAAHL 小蓝视频 Division final matchup against the Estevan TS&M Bruins.
Also scoring for the Xerox Terriers in the victory were Kishaun Gervais with two as well as Jackson Berezowski and Ryder Korczak while Nolan Maier picked up his fifth win of the playoffs stopping 32-of-34 shots. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to see the puck finally start going in. We outplayed them in the first game but had a hard time scoring, so to get seven in Game Two was nice,鈥� suggested Xerox Terrier head coach Dan Cross. 鈥淥ur guys are in playoff form and they realize the task at hand and the goal ahead of them and the last game especially was just a matter of all of a sudden finding the net.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been controlling the play and we鈥檝e had lots of chances to score goals, but it was just one of those cases where they started to finally find the net and all three lines started producing and that explains the score at the end of the game.鈥�
With the win the Xerox Terriers now advance to the SBAAHL Championship series where they鈥檒l face the North Division champion Sask Valley Vipers, who upset the Humboldt Broncos two-games-to-one in the SBAAHL North final. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e a very balanced team and their offence can come from anywhere just like us, but we鈥檝e had success against them in the past and we鈥檙e confident that we鈥檒l come out ahead at the end of the series,鈥� said Cross when asked about his team鈥檚 next opponent, adding that the Xerox Terrier depth will play a big role in the end result of the series. 鈥淚 think if we can continue to get scoring from all three lines then we should be able to advance to Westerns.鈥�
Game One of the Best-of-Three SBAAHL Championship series was last night; however results were unavailable at press time. Game Two goes Friday night in Martensville with Game Three (if needed) Sunday afternoon at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
The winner of the series will advance to the 2016 Western Canadian Bantam 鈥楢AA鈥� Championship in Okotoks, Alberta, from March 30 to April 3.
