Terriers Ride Special Teams To Victory

Clay Sleeva had two goals and an assist, while Colby Vranai, Erik Boers and Tanner Sklaruk each had a goal and a helper, as the Yorkton offence exploded to a 6-2 victory over the La Ronge Ice Wolves. Special teams was a factor where the Terriers went 2/5 on the power-play and they scored their first shorthanded goal of the season.

It was a wacky, back and forth first period which saw both teams combine for five goals. Vranai started the party, steering home a centering pass from Boers to make it 1-0 Yorkton. The Ice Wolves tied it up on the power-play when Gavin Mattey slapped a rebound past Bradley Mistol. Yorkton retook the lead on a similar play from their first goal, this time Sleeva tipping home a pass from Nolan Wutzke. For Wutzke, it was his first point as a Terrier. La Ronge tied up the game, shortly afterwards. Mattey took advantage of a Mistol mistake, and fired the puck past the Yorkton net-minder before he could return to his goal to make it 2-2. 1:24 later, Yorkton regained the lead. Tyson Janzen found Sleeva in behind the La Ronge defence shorthanded, and Sleeva beat Xavier Cannon over the blocker for his second goal of the game.

The Terriers extended their lead early in the second period. Logan Cyca fought off an Ice Wolves defender and found himself on a two man breakaway with Kishaun Gervais. Gervais received the feed and buried the puck past Cannon to make it 4-2 Yorkton. The Terriers power-play joined the party with Parker Jasper’s back-door feed finding Boers, who beat Cannon for the fifth time in the night. The goal marked the end of the night for Cannon, who gave up 5 goals on 13 shots.

Seconds into the third period, the Terriers power-play struck again. Tanner Sklaruk fired a wrist shot from the point which found it’s way through a screen to make it 6-2 Yorkton. Vranai found himself in a tussle against Holden Knights, which saw the linesmen jump in quickly to break it up. With the fight, Vranai gained the Gordie Howe hat-trick, where he had a goal, fight and an assist.

Bradley Mistol made 20 saves in the win, while Dawson Smith stopped 10 of 11 shots in relief of Cannon. With the win, Yorkton is now tied with the Kindersley Klippers and Nipawin Hawks for 7th in the SJHL, both Kindersley and Nipawin have a game in hand on Yorkton.

The Terriers will battle those Nipawin Hawks on Saturday night at the Westland Insurance Arena. The game can be found on the GX 94 online stream with the pre-game show at 7:20pm and play-by-play kicking off at 7:30pm.