The Yorkton Rawtec Maulers have hit the reset button, but the reboot wasn鈥檛 finished before their game against the Saskatoon Contacts over the weekend. The team lost to the visiting Saskatoon squad 6-1 on Nov. 17.
That score looks bad, admits new head coach Dalane Lamb, but the team played better than it would suggest.
鈥淭hey ended up scoring three late goals in the third period, in the last four minutes, but for the most part our guys responded very well for the first game after all of the changes.鈥�
The Contacts kicked off the scoring in the first, with Matthew Hodson scoring a power play goal, assisted by Evan Bortis. The final second of the second saw Hodson establish himself as a thorn in the side of the Maulers, with a second power
play goal, this time assisted by Josh Paulhus and Jacob Hoffrogge.
It was the Maulers who kicked off the scoring in the third, with Massen Ziola getting a power play goal of his own, with Rylan Donald getting the assist.
The Contacts responded with a goal from Mark Walchuk, assisted by Davin Griffin and Ty Albrecht.
Then came those final five minutes.
They began with Hodson finding the net again with his third power play goal of the night, assisted by Jaeden Mercier. Then came Riley Girod, with help from Josh Paulhus and Adam McNutt, and finally the scoring, and the game, was finished off by Davin Griffin, with assists from Jaeden Mercier and Michael Flaman.
While those final minutes were a low point, he believes the team responded well and had great morale through the contest.
鈥淓verybody was staying positive and the boys came out ready and prepared. I saw a lot of little positives that definitely came through.鈥�
The game came at the end of big changes for the Maulers, the main one 小蓝视频 Lamb moving to head coach.
鈥淚 was only able to get two practices in before the first game, but I was really happy with a lot of the positives that came out of Saturday鈥檚 game.鈥�
Before meeting the Swift Current Legionnaires twice this weekend, the team is going to focus on cleaning up their 200ft. game, focusing on things Lamb believes are little things in the game that turn out to be huge things in the be broad spectrum.
鈥淚鈥檓 a bit of a perfectionist and very detail oriented, so I鈥檒l be spending a lot of time on the little things. When I say the little things, they turn out to be major things throughout a game, or even a season on a weekend series.鈥�
The upcoming games will mean the team can鈥檛 take a break, said Lamb.
鈥淭hey work hard for 60 minutes, if we think we are going to take a shift off, we definitely have to rethink our mindset before we get out on the ice, because they鈥檙e going to come out on every shift harder than the last one.鈥�
The season so far has been a tough one for the Maulers, with only two wins over 21 games, but Lamb believes that with the changes 小蓝视频 made, it鈥檚 going to be an entirely different season.
鈥淚t鈥檚 maybe been a tough season up to now, but we forget about that season. We鈥檙e on to the new season, with a new mindset and new things happening.鈥�
The next games in that new season will be at the Farrell Agencies Arena, with the Maulers meeting Swift Current on Nov. 24 at 4:00 p.m. and again on Nov. 25 at 2:00 p.m.
