Hoisting a championship trophy is almost becoming second nature for the Yorkton Xerox Terriers, who won their third consecutive SBAAHL title with a 5-2 Game Two victory over the Sask Valley Vipers in Martensville on Friday.
But while the eventual victory indeed sealed the third straight SBAAHL title for Yorkton, the game did not start out the way the Xerox Terriers were hoping, as Viper forward Kyrell Sopotyk opened the scoring with 6:23 left in the first period to give Sask Valley a 1-0 lead in a period that was completely dominated by the Vipers, who outshot Yorkton 11-2. 鈥淲e got off to a slow start and Sask Valley came out hard and really got the jump on us. They had a good atmosphere in their rink and Nolan Maier played really well for us in the first period,鈥� said Xerox Terrier head coach Dan Cross, adding that Maier was the reason Yorkton was down by just one after 20 minutes. 鈥淲ithout Maier in that first period we would have been in a lot of trouble there.
鈥淭o only come out down one after the first period on the road, that was probably our saving grace.鈥�
The Vipers increased their lead to two just past the midway point of the second period when Sopotyk tallied his second of the night, but an Aiden Bulych power play goal from the top of the faceoff circle brought the Xerox Terriers back to within one at 2-1 with 5:27 remaining in the second period.
More importantly, the Bulych goal took the wind out of the Viper sails while giving momentum back to Yorkton, who took full advantage, scoring four unanswered goals in the third period 鈥� one each by Kishaun Gervais, Aiden Bulych, Ryder Korczak and Zach McIntyre 鈥� to take the series with a 5-2 Game Two win.
Maier registered the win stopping 19 Viper chances while Woodside took the loss making 20 saves.
The 5-2 win comes on the heels of a Game One win Tuesday, March 15 in Yorkton; a win that saw the Xerox Terriers jump out to leads of 3-0 and 5-1 before ultimately tasting victory with a 5-3 final score.
Kishaun Gervais had the first two goals for the Xerox Terriers in Game One and rounded out the hattrick with the fifth Yorkton marker late in the second period, while Aiden Bulych and Jackson Berezowski also scored in the win for Yorkton. 鈥淲e did what we needed to do, and that was come out hard and get an early lead,鈥� said Xerox Terrier head coach Dan Cross. 鈥淲e knew if we could get ahead of them that they would have a hard time coming back on us.鈥�
Cohner Saleski and Jerzy Orchard tallied for the Vipers in the loss, while Yorkton鈥檚 Nolan Maier picked up the win stopping 14 shots.
Carter Woodside shouldered the loss for Sask Valley making 17 saves.
Westerns
With the series win and third straight SBAAHL crown, the Yorkton Xerox Terriers now head to yet another Western Canadian Bantam 鈥楢AA鈥� Hockey Championship.
Joining the Terriers in Okotoks at the end of the month will be the British Columbia champion Burnaby Winter Club Bruins (B.C.), the Alberta chjampion Lethbridge Golden Hawks (Alberta), the Manitoba Champion Winnipeg Monarchs (Manitoba) and Rocky Mountain Raiders (Host).
Yorkton鈥檚 first opponent will be the host Rocky Mountain Raiders Thursday, March 31 at 9:00a.m. before playing the Burnaby Winter Club Bruins that afternoon at 2:30pm.
The Xerox Terriers will then take on the Winnipeg Monarchs on Saturday, April 1 at 11:45a.m., before wrapping up the round-robin with a game against the Alberta champion Lethbridge Golden Hawks on Sunday, April 2 at 11:45pm.
