WARMAN, SK — The Yorkton Terriers appeared destined to complete an impressive comeback victory Tuesday night, but a stunning late rally from the Warman Wolverines turned a two-goal Yorkton lead into a 5-4 overtime loss.
It was far from the ideal start for the visitors, as the Wolverines struck twice on special teams before the game was five minutes old.
Trey Markus opened the scoring on the power play, getting a stick on a point shot and redirecting it past Callum Creig to give Warman the early advantage.
The Wolverines doubled their lead shortly after, this time while shorthanded. Payton Allard found himself wide open in the slot and made no mistake, beating Creig blocker side to make it 2-0.
Yorkton settled in as the period progressed but was unable to cut into the deficit, sending the Terriers to the first intermission trailing by a pair.
Shots were even at 7-7 through 20 minutes.
In the middle frame, the Terriers completely flipped the script, erasing the two-goal deficit with a four-goal offensive explosion.
Nathan Ramos got Yorkton on the board, burying his first SJHL goal off a setup from Mathys Morrissette to cut the Warman lead in half.
Things then got heated following a collision with Creig, as newcomer defenceman Sean Grohman dropped the gloves with Jordon Blanchette.
The Terriers continued to push, and Jake Briltz eventually pulled the visitors even, finding the back of the net for his second of the campaign off a feed from Austin Horbachewsky.
Yorkton wasn’t finished.
Newly acquired forward Alex Morrison gave the Terriers their first lead of the night in his debut with the Orange and Black, capitalizing after a relentless shift in the offensive zone for his first goal as a Terrier.
Just over a minute later, Aidan Vallance added to the onslaught after Dylan Brass dashed end-to-end before setting up the Grand Coulee product for his first goal of the season.
After entering the period down 2-0, Yorkton headed to the second intermission with a 4-2 advantage. Shots were even at 9-9 in the middle frame.
The Terriers carried that two-goal advantage deep into the third period and appeared poised to leave Warman with both points, but the Wolverines had other ideas.
With Warman shorthanded and its goaltender pulled for an extra attacker, Markus struck to cut Yorkton’s lead to one.
Then, just 15 seconds later, Markus delivered again, completing the hat trick and stunning the Terriers to force overtime.
Warman carried the momentum into the extra frame, where Theron Bensler finished off a setup from Markus to complete the dramatic comeback and hand Yorkton a 5-4 overtime defeat.
Despite the loss, the Terriers earned a single point after battling back from an early 2-0 deficit and scoring four unanswered goals in the second period.
They will battle the Kindersley Klippers Friday and Saturday on the road.
