After a weekend against the North Central Cougars the weekend before that wasn't anything to write home about, the Yukon Rivermen needed a big bounce-back against the Northeast Trackers, based out of Fort St. John, B.C.
They got it and the Rivermen's Yellowknife quotient made sure of that.
photo courtesy of April Desjarlais
The Rivermen were back in action in the BC Hockey Bantam Tier 1 Zone League last weekend against the Trackers and whatever they learned from the series against the Cougars seemed to work as the Rivermen were in with a shout in every single one of the three games they played.
Rivermen assistant coach Shawn Talbot said one advantage he had was knowledge of what was going to be on the other side of the ice.
“We played some of these kids before when we travelled to their tournaments as the (Yellowknife) Wolfpack,” he said. “There's a bit of history there and we knew some of the players and what they could do.”
The first game was an exhibition game of sorts and didn't count in the standings but it goes into the books as a win for the Rivermen – their first of the season – as they beat the Trackers, 6-5 in a shootout. The Rivermen could have won the game in regulation had it not been for some bad luck in the waning minutes of the third period.
“We're up 5-3 late in the third and they called a timeout and pulled their goalie,” said Talbot. “They ended up getting one lucky goal off a bad bounce and their second goal was a nice one so we ended up tied.”
Both teams ended up going to a shootout for fun, which went the way of the Rivermen.
“We're taking it as a win,” said Talbot.
Game two was another close one but the Trackers got the better of the scoreboard that time out, winning by a score of 5-3. Game three – the rubber match, if you will – was even tighter than the game two but it was almost a carbon copy of the closing moments of game one. Bad luck ended up costing the Rivermen late and they ended up on the wrong end of a 4-2 decision.
“We're tied 2-2 with two minutes left and we have the man advantage so the power play line is out,” said Talbot. “We had a puck bobble on us and they took advantage of it.”
The Rivermen ended up calling a timeout of their own to try and set up a play or two to claw their way back and Talbot said there were plenty of good chances but they weren't able to put the puck past the Trackers' goalie.
Even though they ended up dropping the back end of the series, Talbot said there was plenty to be happy about on the development side of things.
“We picked apart the weekend against the Cougars and worked on what we had to,” he said. “The power play was a big one and we did really well there. Our neutral zone fore-check was a lot better and we didn't give up a goal on the penalty kill. We wanted to be smarter defensively and the big goal was reducing the goals against and we did that. Lots of positives that happened.”
Andrew Carr was a monster on faceoffs, he added, winning two-thirds of all the draws he took.
“When you're winning faceoffs, that's more time with the puck so our puck possession was really good because of that,” he said.
Logan Cunningham and Taylor Catcher played well as a defensive pairing, said Talbot, and the top line of Carr, McKinley Talbot and Luke Kotaska were firing on all cylinders.
Not to mention Devin Vogel was doing his thing again between the pipes.
“He was facing lots of shots again and was turning them away,” said Talbot.
The weekend also saw two of the team's affiliate players – Harrison Simmons and Anthony Duhamel – join in to play and Talbot said they didn't look out of place at all.
“This was their first real test at the AAA level and it's good for them to experience that,” he said. “They're the future of the program so this will help them for next year.”
The Rivermen get a weekend off and then it's back to action in Whitehorse as they'll host Okanagan South for a three-game series beginning on Nov. 23.