It has been an eventful week for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers.
The SMAAAHL club played three games, winning two and losing one, edging the first place Regina Pat Canadians 3-2 on Thursday before losing to the Beardy鈥檚 Blackhawks 2-1 on Saturday and doubling up the Prince Albert Mintos 4-2 on Sunday.
The three results see the Maulers (20-10-1) move from fourth to a tie for second place with the Notre Dame Hounds (20-10-1) in the 12-team SMAAAHL, two points back of the league-leading Pat Canadians (20-6-3) but just one ahead of the fourth place Moose Jaw Generals (18-6-4).
Tisdale (17-9-4) is fifth with 38 points, Prince Albert (17-10-2) is sixth with 36 while Battlefords (13-15-3) and Beardy鈥檚 (13-13-2) hold down the remaining two playoff spots with 29 and 28 points respectively.
The Saskatoon Blazers (13-16-1) sit on the outside looking it at the moment with 27 points, as do the Saskatoon Contacts (12-17-1) with 25.
The Notre Dame Argos (7-15-3) are well back in 11th place with 17 points and the Swift Current Legionnaires (6-23-1) hold down last place with 13 points.
Queen City W
A two goal first period and a strong goaltending performance by Jordan Schmuland propelled the RawTec Maulers to a 3-2 win over the SMAAAHL leading Regina Pat Canadians Thursday night in Regina.
The Maulers got first period goals from Drayson Skulmoski and AP call up Josh Rohatynsky, followed by a second period marker off the stick of the returning Brennan Watson while Schmuland stopped 30-of-32 Regina shots, allowing only Carson Focht and Jake Heerspink to score in a game that head coach Graham Garrett felt was a good road performance. 鈥淚 thought we came out really strong and in the second period we took a little bit of a back step there,鈥� offered Garrett, continuing, 鈥淭he third period I thought we played well and shut them down and we were able to not allow them to create some of the offence that they鈥檙e used to.
鈥淭hat was huge and it was a solid win on the road especially against a top team like Regina.鈥�
Garrett also said that the addition of Brennan Watson to the lineup after a prolonged injury was not only a welcome site, but a big reason Yorkton came out on top. 鈥淏ringing a guy like that into our lineup with the experience he has in the league is great,鈥� said Garrett. 鈥淗e knows the guys that are here, has their respect already and has the respect of the players on the other teams and for him to score that winner, it鈥檚 like a storybook start for him and hopefully we can use him in the future as well.鈥�
Weekend split
A strong performance in 110 of 120 total minutes resulted in a .500 road trip this past weekend for the RawTec Maulers.
The trip began on Saturday evening at the Willow Cree Memorial Sport Centre in Duck Lake with the Maulers lacking a bit of discipline, taking two costly penalties which resulted in two Beardy鈥檚 goals, one late in the first period by Josh Sielsky and one late in the third period off the stick of Graehme Fiolleau and a 2-1 Yorkton loss.
Skulmoski scored the lone Mauler goal in the loss while Jordan Schmuland shouldered the loss, stopping 30-of-32 Beardy鈥檚 shots. Blackhawk goalie Kody Kushniruk got the win allowing one goal on 33 Yorkton attempts on net.
Less that 20 hours later the Maulers were in Prince Albert, where they rebounded from Saturday鈥檚 disappointing loss to put together what coach Garrett feels was their best performance to date. 鈥淚 thought we played a full 60 minutes and everybody was responsible for their job and they did their job extremely well,鈥� exclaimed Garrett. 鈥淭o a man it was probably our best effort as a team and consistent for a whole 60 minutes.
鈥淚n the third period we gave them very few opportunities to get back in the hockey game by shutting them down with our forecheck and our defence and to a man and as a team we played our best 60 minutes of the year.鈥�
Scoring for the Maulers in the game were Brett Kemp, Carson Sass, Drayson Skulmoski and Tristyn DeRoose while Erik Gardiner and Drake Teer responded for the Mintos.
Schmuland was once again in the Yorkton net and once again surrendered just two goals, stopping 29-of-31 Prince Albert shots while his counterpart Derrick Hucul stopped 25-of-28 Yorkton shots in the loss.
Up next
The RawTec Maulers (20-10-1) are in action tonight (Wednesday) against the Notre Dame Hounds (20-10-1) with the winner gaining sole possession of second place. Puck drop is set for 8:00p.m. at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
The RawTec Maulers will also be in action this weekend as they travel to Saskatoon to play the Contacts (Saturday) and Blazers (Sunday).
