The Yorkton Terriers hit the Farrell Agencies Arena ice tonight, (Wednesday), in need of a win.
The local Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League franchise was down three-games-to-none to the Battlefords North Stars, meaning one more loss and the Terriers would be swept.
Quinton Loon-Stewardson would open the scoring at 5:10 of the opening period, and that would be all the Stars would need.
Battlefords netminder Joel Grzybowski would turn away all 31-shots he would face to secure his third straight shut-out and eliminate the Terriers from the playoffs.
While Grzybowski’s two previous shut-outs had been 1-0 affairs, this time the Stars would add some insurance in the third. Brett Gammer scored on the powerplay at 12:20, and Ryan Gil would round out the night at 18:18.
Ryan Ouellette would take the loss in the Terrier net facing 35-shots.
Terrier head coach Mat Hehr was disappointed in the series loss, but remained proud of his team.
“When you have the best offence to go cold it was the worst time,” he said, adding “I’m proud of every single person on this team this year.”
Throughout the game, and the series, the Stars kept much of the Terrier offence operating from the perimetres.
“They did a good job of that,” admitted Hehr, who added when the Terriers did generate a good scoring chance Grzybowski was up to the task.
Asked if he wished he had tried something different in the series, Hehr said “right now it’s so fresh” it’s hard to analyse, adding that will likely come in a few weeks.
The Terriers see several players graduating from Junior, and Hehr said he had a simple message for those players.
“They’ll always be Terriers for life. That’s been our motto,” he said.
In the other SJHL semi-final Estevan defeated Melfort 4-2 to even their best-of-seven at two games apiece.
