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| Photo courtesy of Todd Pederson: |
The Express now sit at 2-1 but the loss cost the Express their first opportunity to earn a berth in Saturday's championship game. Yorkton finished the round robin at 2-2.
It was a scoreless first period thanks in large part to Gordie Defiel. He made a number of grade A stops to keep his team in the game.
Yorkton broke through 4 minutes into the second in a wild sequence that saw Gordie Defiel make a spectacular save, then his stick found it's way two feet inside the blue line, seconds later the puck found the back of the net on a re-direction in front by Taylor Thomson over the glove of a sprawled out Express net minder.
The Express got it back less than a minute later when Joey Santucci playing in the spot of Ryan Rosenthal who didn't dress fired a wrist shot from the right boards that got past a surprised Kale Thomson.
Yorkton quickly went back on the attack only to be thwarted by more great saves by Defiel on breakaways and two on one breaks.
The Terriers power play on a set play re-stored their lead for good when they won a draw in the Express zone, quickly went D to D with Brady Norrish sending the puck across to twin brother Chase who zipped a pass back through the seam to Brett Boehm who scored his 5th of the tournament.
Dylan Johnson gave Yorkton some insurance 8 minutes into the third period when he beat Gordie Defiel with a wrist shot from the left wing. Then Chase Norrish capped off the scoring a 5 on 3 in the final minute of the third period.
The Terriers physicality and speed set the tempo and they fired 43 shots the way of the Express cage. Gordie Defiel was the biggest reason why the score wasn't more lopsided, despite being beat 4 times, he was spectacular all night long.
Coquitlam is now 2-1 at this event, but it could be fair to say that they haven't played up to their full potential for a full 60 minutes at the Western Canada Cup. They have just 6 goals so far with 3 of them coming in their first game vs. Spruce Grove.
Starting Thursday night with the Express final round robin game vs. Dauphin, they will need more offensive support throughout their line up. That is how they got to this Western Canada Cup based on their depth. Going forward in the remainder of the games at this event as the stakes get larger and larger this is the time for the Express to start to play their best hockey which hasn't quite been there so far.
The winner of Thursday's game vs. Dauphin will be a battle for first place and will finish with a 3-1 record and earn a berth in the championship game.
The early game will see Winnipeg play Spruce Grove which is a huge contest. The 1-2 clubs will battle for a playoff spot and the loser will be eliminated from the WCC.
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| Photo Courtesy of Todd Pederson: |
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| Photo courtesy of Todd Pederson: |
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