The Yorkton Junior Bulldogs were that close to a three-peat as Tier II Junior B lacrosse champions.
They had fewer games to play this time around and had even fewer bodies to help them achieve the pinnacle of winning the title three consecutive years however some strange penalties and a depleted Bulldog lineup sent the defending champs home following a loss to the Saskatoon Steelers in the Tier II finals.
Yorkton made the trip to Saskatoon for the Prairie Gold Lacrosse League (PGLL) Tier II playoff with only 14 players, well short of the 20 they had signed up at the beginning of the year.
Not making the trip were: Dalton Bakke, Jeremy Haas, Kris Jewhurst, goaltender Travis Buckle, Brayden Kittler and Robbie Kaczur.
Despite playing shorthanded, Yorkton got off to a pretty good start. In the opening game, they went up against the Regina Rifles, a team that owned them during the regular season.
On May 30, Regina outscored Yorkton by six goals, cruising to an 18-12 victory and on June 20, it wasn't even close after Yorkton blew the game in the second period and were crushed like field tomatoes, 11-4.
When the playoffs rolled around this past weekend and the two teams met for the third time this year, nobody on Yorkton cared about those previous meetings. In fact this one needed overtime to decide a winner, which Yorkton prevailed by a score of 11-10."We played better," suggests Joe Choptuik, Yorkton Bulldogs' second-year coach.
That win put the 'Dogs into the Tier II finals where they met last year's Tier I defending champs, the Saskatoon Steelers.
Choptuik said there was a lot of waiting to play the game as there was a Bantam tournament held at the Kinsmen Arena over the weekend, along with the Juniors.
"We started off good," says Choptuik. "We were winning 2-1 after the opening period."
According to Choptuik, that lead did not last very long.
"They came back in the second period" and they scored three goals in the last two minutes of the third (period)."
He said it was tiring for the guys to be playing so much in a short period of time but added that he was happy with the efforts.
"We played well but not good enough to win and gave up a lot of fast breaks."
He did say that for 58 of the 60 minutes that make up any given game, "it was anybody's game."
It may have been a little consolation knowing that they were able to stand up to one of the PGLL's top teams over the past two years. The same Steelers team were crowned Tier I champs last year just after Yorkton had won their Tier II title.
