The Yorkton Terriers made quite the splash across the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League last year when they made the league semifinal. To do so, they beat the top-ranked Nipawin Hawks in the quarterfinals in seven games.
Ryan Ouellette made 37 saves in that game to help the Terriers' move on. They ended up dropping their semifinal series to the Battlefords North Stars, who ended up winning the league.
After starting the season in the NAHL with the Minnesota Wilderness, Oullette is back with the Terriers and he's been fantastic this year with a 1.77 G.A.A and a .955 save percentage.
Several other Terrier plays from last year's team also returned to the club this year including their leading scorer, Chantz Petruic. The Moose Jaw native had 84 points last season (32G) in just 56 regular-season games to finish fourth in league scoring. He also had another 11 playoff points (5G) in 14 games.
This year, the Terriers are 11-9-1. That has them with 23 points and atop the Viterra Division by six points over the Weyburn Red Wings.
"Things have been going good. We had a really slow start, but we've added a few pieces and the motive in the room is to win a title," said Petruic. "Just about every team is going to go through a slump throughout the year so it was better that it happened to us earlier rather than later."
"Now that the slump is over, we can just worry about moving forward and winning some games," he continued.
The team finished with a 31-26-1 regular-season record last year. After the win against Nipawin in the playoffs, the club couldn't really ever get it going against Battlefords as they were shutout twice. However, this year's club offers up a few stars. Behind Petruic is where you'll find Jordan Guiney and his 21 points.
The team has also acquired Alec Zawatsky and he has 19 points (9G) in just 16 games. Zawatsky came to the team with 107 games of WHL experience where he scored 17 goals.
"We have good depth this year. We were a good team last year, but I don't think we had the scoring depth that we do this season," continued Petruic. "We're all buying in right now, sticking with systems and it seems to be working right now."
Petruic, who played 55 games with his hometown Moose Jaw Warriors has certainly been the main contributor to the team's success. He's played in all 21 games and he already has 43 points. That's nine more than any other player in the league. The incredible start to the season includes averaging 2.05 points per game. The next closest skater that has played regularly is Flin Flon's Alec Malo who's averaging 1.74 points per game.
Chantz has five power-play goals and 21 overall goals. The 21 tallies are four more than any other skater.
Last year's 84 points were his career-high. This year, Petruic is on pace to smash that with still two-thirds of a season left.
"I really tried to emphasize this summer to be the best player I could be and I took care of my body," said Petruic. "It's a good feeling to see the results. My linemates have also been fantastic, they've really helped me succeed. It's been really fun and I just need to keep it going to help this team win games."
"I've always been hard on myself since probably my first year in midget, I take a lot of pride in my game," he continued. "I like to be that go to guy. The team relies on me in certain situations and I like that feeling. I'll do whatever the coach asks me to do and I'll follow my strong suit and if I do that, then success will follow."
Being 20-years-old, this year is Chantz' last year as a junior hockey player. The goal, for now, is to win a championship with Yorkton, but the goal moving forward is to play at the next level.
"I've been in contact with a few teams around," added Petruic. "It's kind of fun to think about what could happen moving forward. I want to play post-secondary, where that is I don't know, but we'll see."
"For now, I'm just playing hockey here in Yorkton and pushing to win the league," he concluded.