A pair of shootout losses this past weekend to the bottom dwelling Swift Current Legionnaires have put a bit of a dent in the Yorkton RawTec Maulers鈥� hopes for a top four finish and home ice advantage through the first round of the SMAAAHL playoffs.
The Maulers鈥� first loss of the weekend 鈥� a 5-4 shootout loss on Saturday 鈥� saw Yorkton jump out to a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes on goals by Damian Bentz, Austin Shumanski and Tristyn DeRoose, only to have the host Legionnaires battle back to tie the game at three early in the final frame thanks to Carter Tangen and Hunter Lamb, the latter scoring earlier in the second period as well.
Kaeden Taphorn鈥檚 12th goal of the season gave the RawTec Maulers their second lead of the game, but a late goal off the stick of Ethan Regnier evened the game up at 4-4 and sent the game to overtime.
The extra frame solved nothing and sent the game to the shootout where Lamb and Regnier gave the hometown Legionnaires the win with a pair of shootout marker while DeRoose was the only Mauler to put the puck past Caleb Lumbard in the skills competition.
Lumbard picked up the win stopping 38-of-42 Yorkton shots while Jordan Schmuland shouldered the loss turning aside 30-of-34 Swift Current attempts.
One day later and the result was the same 鈥� a shootout loss for the RawTec Maulers, this time of the 4-3 variety.
Bentz, Tyler Stratechuk and Carson Miller all scored for the Maulers in the loss while Matthew Jones scored a pair for the Legionnaires and Lamb added his third goal of the weekend.
Once again DeRoose was the lone Mauler to score in the shootout as Derrick Budz, Brett Kemp, Damian Bentz, Kaeden Taphorn and Kaleb Bulych all failed to put the puck past Thomas Martineau while Hunter Lamb and Rin Beny tallied in the one-on-one competition for Swift Current.
Martineau registered the win for Swift Current stopping 33 shots while Schmuland picked up his second shootout loss of the weekend despite a 37 save performance.
The two shootout losses see the Maulers fall to 1-4 in the skills competition, however they can take solace in the fact that the shootout becomes non-existent when the playoffs roll around. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 done very well in shootouts, but in playoffs it鈥檚 overtime,鈥� said Mauler head coach Graham Garrett, continuing, 鈥淲e have some guys with experience there and guys that know how to win, so I think overtime will hopefully be better for us than shootouts.鈥�
The 5-4 and 4-3 shootout defeats leave the Maulers in second place in the 12-team SMAAAHL for the time being with a record of 25-13-4 for 54 points, two back of the league leading Regina Pat Canadians (26-8-4, 56 pts) but just one up on the third place Moose Jaw Generals (24-9-5, 53 pts) and two up on the fourth place Tisdale Trojans (24-11-4), all of whom have games in hand on the Maulers.
The Notre Dame Hounds 鈥� likely Yorkton鈥檚 first round opponents 鈥� sit fifth with 51 points and a 25-14-1 record, while the freefalling Prince Albert Mintos (20-17-2) are in sixth with 42 points.
The Battlefords Stars (19-18-3) and Saskatoon Blazers (19-19-1) round out the playoff position teams with 41 and 39 points respectively while the Beardy鈥檚 Blackhawks are currently on the outside looking in on the playoff picture with a record of 17-19-2 and 36 points. Meanwhile the Saskatoon Contacts are on the verge of being eliminated from playoff contention. The Contacts (15-22-2, 42 pts) sit in tenth place, seven points back of the final playoff spot with five games remaining.
Next action
The next action for the RawTec Maulers is tonight (Wednesday) as they host the Hounds. A win will see the Maulers move five points clear of the Hounds and give them the season series victory 鈥� Yorkton is 2-1 so far against the Hounds this season, beating Notre Dame 4-2 and 5-3 but losing 5-0.
