What should have been a pair of road wins turned into a couple of costly defeats this weekend in Sasaktoon for the Yorkton RawTec Maulers (21-11-2), who are now tied for second with the Moose Jaw Generals (20-7-4) with 44 points mere days after taking the SMAAAHL lead.
Regina (21-7-4) continues to lead the way with 46 points while the Notre Dame Hounds (21-12-1) are just one point back of the Maulers in fourth.
The streaking Tisdale Trojans (19-9-4) ride a six game winning streak into fifth with 42 points, two up on sixth place Prince Albert (19-11-2) and nine points ahead of the seventh place Battlefords Stars (15-16-3).
Beardy鈥檚 (15-15-2) holds down the eighth and final playoff spot with 32 points, while the Saskatoon Blazers (14-18-1) and Saskatoon Contacts (13-18-2) are on the outside looking in with 29 and 28 points respectively.
The Notre Dame Argos (9-17-2) are 12 points out of a playoff spot in 11th, while the last place Swift Current Legionnaires (7-25-1) are well back with just 15 points.
The Maulers opened the weekend road trip up against the Saskatoon Contacts. The two teams skated through the first 20 minutes even, with both teams firing 10 shots at the opposing goaltender to no avail.
It wasn鈥檛 until just before the midway point of the second period when offence was found, as Saskatoon鈥檚 Quinton Ong put the puck past Jordan Schmuland for a 1-0 Contact lead.
The host Contacts would make it 2-0 less than three minutes later when Justin Ball鈥檚 fifth of the season found its way past Schmuland.
Third year Mauler forward Drayson Skulmoski cut the Saskatoon lead in half with 1:26 remaining in the second period. Skulmoski then tied the game with 7:29 left in the third when he again beat Contact goaltender Isaac LaBelle for the final regulation goal of the game.
Overtime solved nothing meaning the two teams competed in a shootout, where LaBelle stopped both Derrick Budz and Keenan Taphorn while Ball and Ong both beat Schmuland for a 3-2 Contacts win. Schmuland took the loss between the Mauler pipes stopping 41-of-43 shots while LaBelle picked up the shootout win turning aside 33-of-35 Yorkton attempts.
One day later and the RawTec Maulers were back in action, this time taking on the Saskatoon Blazers.
Kyle Bosch opened the scoring for the Blazers at the 9:02 mark of the opening frame to give Saskatoon a 1-0 lead.
Derrick Budz would even the score with 3:23 remaining in the first period, but the Blazers would regain their lead with less than a minute left as Mitchell Zambon snapped the puck past Maulers AP goaltender Nolan Maier for a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Two Yorkton power play goals early in the second period 鈥� one each by Kaleb Bulych and Tristyn DeRoose 鈥� gave the Maulers a 3-2 lead, but a pair of Blazer goals in the latter half of the middle frame off the sticks of Jordan Hudson and Jake Chartier put the Blazers back in the lead for the final time.
An empty net goal by Hudson with 1:11 left in the game made it a 5-3 final, as the RawTec Maulers dropped their second straight game to a sub .500 team. 鈥淏oth Saskatoon teams outworked us this weekend and that can鈥檛 happen,鈥� said an irate Mauler head coach Graham Garrett. 鈥淯nfortunately I think we get a little bit content and think we鈥檙e better than we are and think we don鈥檛 have to work hard and when we don鈥檛 work hard we get beat by low-end teams and that鈥檚 what happened to us.
鈥淵ou look at our schedule, we have six losses to teams that are .500 or less and that鈥檚 not acceptable.鈥�
Doubling the Hounds
Last Wednesday the RawTec Maulers hosted the Notre Dame Hounds in a battle of second place teams.
The Hounds found the scoreboard first on a Carson McManaman goal, but DeRoose and Carson Miller put the Maulers in the lead 2-1 later in the first period.
A Lucas Fraulin goal with 2:20 left in the first period evened the game at two, but two more Miller goals, one in the second and the other in the third, gave the Maulers the 4-2 win.
Schmuland picked up the win stopping 22 shots while Reid Cooper took the loss making 25 saves.
Up next
The Yorkton RawTec Maulers (21-11-2) have just one game this week and that鈥檚 tonight (Wednesday) as they host the league-leading Regina Pat Canadians (21-7-4). A win sees the Maulers tie the Pat C鈥檚 for first in the SMAAAHL. Puck drop is set for 8:00p.m. at the Farrell Agencies Arena.
