The Yorkton RawTec Maulers went 2-1 in three games this past week in SMAAAHL action, first defeating the visiting Notre Dame Argos 3-1 on Wednesday and rounding out the week with an 8-2 drubbing of the Beardy's Blackhawks on the road on Sunday.
Sandwiched in between the two wins was a loss, 5-2 to the defending National champion Prince Albert Mintos.
The 2-1 weekly record gives the RawTec Maulers a combined 4-6-0-0 record through 10 games and eight points, good enough to sit in a three way tie for seventh place with the Notre Dame Hounds (4-1-0-0) and Beardy's Blackhawks (4-5-0-0), two points back of sixth place Moose Jaw Generals (4-4-0-2) and four points up on both the Saskatoon Blazers (2-7-0-0) and Swift Current Legionnaires (1-7-0-2).
Victorious Thursday
On Thursday the RawTec Maulers hosted the Notre Dame Argos at the Farrell Agencies Arena for their second head-to-head meeting of the season with the Maulers winning the first meeting by a 3-1 score.
The second meeting proved to be similar, as the RawTec Maulers once again defeated the Argos 3-1.
Cole Keenleyside opened the scoring for the Maulers five minutes into the opening frame when he danced around the Argo defence before roofing the puck past Notre Dame netminder Dawson Weatherill for the only goal of the first period.
The Argos would score the lone goal of the middle frame when Dallas Farrell's shot eluded Mauler goaltender Rylan Palchewich to find the back of the net less than two minutes into the period.
The RawTec Maulers would retake the lead in at the 7:53 mark of the third period when rookie Derrick Budz banged the rebound past Weatherill for his first as a Mauler, much to the delight of his head coach. "I felt good for him (Budz)," exclaimed RawTec Mauler head coach Dan Cross. "He's always working hard on every shift. He's one guy that never takes a shift off so I felt good for him to be able to get his first of the year there, especially a game winner."
McKenzie Welke would seal the deal for the Maulers with seven seconds left in the game with an empty net goal to make it a 3-1 final in favour of the home squad.
Palchewich picked up the win, his second of the season, stopping 32-of-33 Argo shots while Weatherill was the hard luck loser turning aside 38-of-41 Mauler attempts in the loss.
Saturday sadness
Saturday afternoon saw the Maulers visit the Prince Albert Mintos at the Art Hauser Centre.
Just like Wednesday's game the Maulers came out flying, resulting in a quick McKenzie Welke goal just 1:38 into the opening frame.
Yorkton continued to dominate the flow of play, however a late Mintos goal by Brody Reimer with just over a minute remaining in the first period put the momentum solely in the Prince Albert corner.
The Mintos took the lead just 6:45 into the middle frame on a powerplay goal by Josh Roberts.
Another powerplay marker, this time off the stick of Jake Hobson, made it 3-1 Mintos, but a goal by Damian Bentz, his first of the season in his first game after coming back from suspension, made it a one goal game after 40 minutes of play. "That was good. And just for his confidence too," offered Cross when asked about Bentz's goal. "He's been working hard but not being in the lineup it's hard to be in game shape. So it's good for his confidence although it'll take him a few games for him to get back to full speed here."
3-2 was as close as the RawTec Maulers would get however, as the Mintos would put two more goals into the Yorkton net for a 5-2 final. Carter Phair took the loss in the Mauler net stopping 27-of-31 Minto opportunities while Derrick Hucul turned aside 23-of-25 RawTec Mauler shots for the win.
Following the game Cross said that the team put together one of their best first periods of the season, but were a bit demoralized after the first Minto marker. "It was one of those periods where you could have probably been ahead two or three nothing and it ends up being tied and then it kind of sucked the life out of us and gave them that little bit of an edge going into the next period."
Super Sunday
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers, much like they did against the Mintos the day before, put together a strong first period against the Beardy's Blackhawks.
But this time the Maulers were able to score seemingly at will, putting four pucks past Beardy's netminder David Thiel to take a 4-0 lead into the locker room after 20 minutes of play. McKenzie Welke scored twice in the period while singles came from Derrick Budz and Brennan Watson.
Rookie blueliner Tyler Stratechuk made it 5-0 Yorkton just past the midway point of the second period, however Beardy's got that one back thanks to a Connor Navrot powerplay goal with just over three minutes left in the frame.
The third period saw four goals get scored, all of which came in the last five minutes. First Yorkton's Logan Leslie beat Thiel. Ryan Rothenburger quickly responded for Beardy's to make it 6-2 Maulers, only to have both Logan Karakochuk and Koal Roberts bulge the twine for an 8-2 final.
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers will be tonight when they visit the Regina Pat Canadians.
The Maulers will be in action this weekend for a pair of neutral site games against the Moose Jaw Generals. Saturday's game is set for 3:00p.m. while Sunday's is scheduled to begin at 2:00p.m.
Both games are in Moosomin.
