YORKTON TERRIERS TAKE HOME NATIONAL TITLE
REGINA — An improbable comeback helped the Yorkton Terriers come back to Saskatchewan with the RBC Cup.
The Terriers trailed the Carleton Place (Ont.) Canadians 3-1 with three minutes left in the third period of Sunday’s tournament final in Vernon, B.C., but goals eight seconds apart by Tanner Lishchynsky (at 17:12) and Dylan Johnson (17:20) pulled Yorkton even.
Derek Falloon then completed the comeback, scoring at 15:01 of the first overtime period to give Yorkton a 4-3 victory — and its first Canadian junior A hockey championship.
“We’ve been in that situation before and we knew we could do it,” Falloon said of rallying from the late two-goal deficit. “There was never a lack of belief on the bench.
“After we killed that penalty (which Johnson took at 14:05 of the third), we said, ‘OK, there’s still time,’ and we found a way.”
The reason they did, Terriers head coach Trent Cassan said, derives from the leadership of the team’s veterans.
“We’re never out of games,” Cassan said Monday after the team arrived at Regina International Airport. “For whatever reason, there just never seems to be a panic among the guys. There’s always that belief that we can fight back.”
“You know the job has to get done, so you go do it together,” added defenceman Brady Norrish. “When you stick together, you can do anything — and we proved that.”
After posting an SJHLbest 37-12-2-5 record in the 2013-14 regular season, the Terriers went 12-2 in the league playoffs.
Their post-season run included six victories in which Yorkton had to overcome deficits, including four straight in a semifinal victory over the Humboldt Broncos.
In Vernon, Yorkton dropped its first two games and then rallied with round robin victories over the Canadians and Dauphin Kings — each of whom led 1-0 before Yorkton came back.
A similar script played out in Sunday’s final.
“It seemed to just roll all season,” captain Devon McMullen said. “We’d get down and even in playoffs, especially against Humboldt, there’d be a couple of games where we’d get down two or three goals and we’d battle back.
“From then on, it just carried on. It’s the magic that teams get in playoffs and we just rolled with it.”
Falloon certainly had some magic, scoring the winner in each of Yorkton’s final two overtime games. He sniped in the extra session of Thursday’s 2-1 victory over Dauphin that put the Terriers into a semifinal and then ended matters Sunday.
Asked about his penchant for heroics, Falloon said he was simply in the right place at the right time.
“It’s hard to put into words what this is like,” he said. “It’s just an unbelievable feeling. I’m so happy for everyone — my teammates, my family and friends. I just love it.”
Daylan Gatzke also scored Sunday for Yorkton, which got 31 saves from Kale Thomson.
The junior A title gave Saskatchewan three national hockey championships this spring. Yorkton joined the Prince Albert Mintos (Telus Cup midget AAA) and Weyburn Gold Wings (Esso Cup female midget AAA) as Canadian titleholders.
It’s the first time an SJHL team has won the RBC Cup since 2008, when Humboldt turned the trick.
“(The SJHL) can compete with any league in Canada and we wanted to show that,” said McMullen, whose team reached the final with a 6-3 semifinal victory over the Vernon Vipers on Saturday.
“It was great to do it for Yorkton too because they’ve been a great community for hockey and for sports. They supported us for many years and it’s been the greatest support.”
A contingent of Yorkton fans travelled to Vernon for the tournament and others were at Regina’s airport Monday to greet the team. The support didn’t surprise Norrish.
“After the game, everybody looked at their phones and we all had 20 or 30 texts,” he said. “That just goes to show what the community does for the team and how much the team means to the community.
“That goes a long way. That’s why we made it so far.”