The Yorkton Terriers have clinched the sixth place spot in their regular season standings, which secures them a bye to the second round of Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoffs.
The Terriers’ regular season came to an end after two games last weekend, both were against the Highway 10 rivals, the Melville Millionaires.
On Friday, the Terriers hosted the game at the Farrell Agencies Arena. A promotion put on by the Terriers with help from Haas Nissan called “Fill the Farrell” allowed fans in to watch the game for free.
A total of 2,188 people enjoyed the rivalry from the stands of the FAA.
The Terriers took the win on Friday, with a final score of 4-1. The first period saw a goal from each team, with Jared Legien scoring for the Terriers off of assists from Kevin Wolf and Dakota Odgers.
In the second, Shane Sherban scored with assists from Legien and Odgers. A few minutes later, Jordan Ross scored with assists from Sherban and Regan Seiferling.
And in the third, another goal came from Legien with the assists from Wolf and Ross.
In true rivalry fashion, the third period also saw a fight between Terriers’ forward Dakota Odgers and Melville’s Mitchell Torrens.
After the game, Terriers’ head coach/GM Casey O’Brien said it was a fun and exciting night.
“I hope tonight’s game will bring us more fans in our playoff run,” he said. “It was awesome in here.”
With a few key players out of the Terriers’ line up due to suspensions and injuries, O’Brien said it was a good time for other players who don’t see as much ice time to step up.
“We had Derrick Budz come up, we had Cody Illerbrun and Jordan Hudson step up and play great games,” he said. “When you have good team depth, you expect those other guys to step up and be persistent.”
O’Brien said he was happy with his team’s performance on Friday, saying they just had to reset for the following night.
“We have to go back in and win tomorrow,” said O’Brien.
And that’s what they did.
Saturday night’s game was held in Melville, and although it was a closer game, the Terriers still got the win without the home-ice advantage. The final score was 2-1.
Melville got the lead at the end of the first period, and they were able to hang on to it until the end of the second period. But then, Jared Legien scored off of a great pass from LJ Naccarato to tie the game.
In the third period, Dakota Odgers got the game-winning goal. Assists came from Jared Legien and Regan Seiferling.
The game saw very few penalties, but more than 1500 fans came to support their favourite team from either side of the rivalry.
Terriers’ goalie Nathan Hargrave played in net for both games on the weekend, and his performance earned him the SJHL Sasktel goalie of the week award.
These two wins gave the Terriers a total of 61 points to tie with the Notre Dame Hounds for sixth place. But the Terriers lead 3-1 in the head-to-head, so they get the edge up to claim sixth, while the Hounds finish seventh.
The sixth place finish will match the Terriers with the third place Estevan Bruins in the second round of playoffs. A full playoff preview will be in next week’s edition of Yorkton This Week.
