Strong Second Period Powers Terriers To Victory

It was a crucial victory for the Yorkton Terriers as they downed the Notre Dame Hounds 5-2. Tanner Sklaruk led the way with a pair of goals, while Logan Cyca had two assists, and Kael DePape made 23 saves in the win.

Despite a wild back and forth first period, there would not be any goal scoring until the dying seconds of the frame. A centering feed from Connor Nolan slid underneath DePape, where Kevin Anderson poked the puck loose for Will Dawson, who tucked it home with 18 seconds left to go in the first period. Austin Elliott was tremendous in goal for the Hounds in the first, making some key saves to keep the Terriers off the board in the opening 20 minutes.

The floodgates opened in the second period. Cyca dropped the puck off for Clay Sleeva, who stepped into the right face-off circle and wired it over Elliott to make it a 1-1 game. Yorkton took their first lead of the night. A Cyca pass to the blue-line found a wide open Tanner Sklaruk who sniped a shot over the glove of Elliott for his 10th goal of the season. Exactly two minutes later, Yorkton extended their lead. A seeing eye pass from Maddux Nollski picked out Tyson Janzen, who brought the puck into the face-off circle before firing it past the blocker of Elliott to make it a 3-1 Terriers lead. The Hounds wouldn’t go away. A weird bounce off the back glass careened in front of DePape’s goal, where Anderson jammed in the loose puck for his 28th goal of the season to make a one goal hockey game. It only took 22 seconds for the Terriers to respond. Skalruk received a pass from Greg Nelson, stepped around the Notre Dame defender before charging in on Elliott, sliding the puck past the Hound net-minder to make it 4-2. It was Sklaruk’s second goal of the game and his 11th of the season.

The third period saw several chances from both teams, including the game’s lone power-play going the way of the Notre Dame Hounds, only to be killed off by the Terriers. Zach McIntyre iced the game in the final minute of play, slipping the puck into an empty for his 19th goal of the year.

With the victory, Yorkton moves into a tie for 6th place with the La Ronge Ice Wolves, and with a single point, the Terriers will avoid playing the Humboldt Broncos in the first round of the SJHL playoffs. Yorkton will wrap up their season on home ice against the Weyburn Red Wings on Sunday night. The game will be on the GX 94 online only stream with the pre-game show starting at 7:20pm and play-by-play at 7:30pm.