Benny Walchuk:
It’s time once again for the Yorkton Terriers Coaches Show on GX94. I’m joined by head coach and GM Emery Olauson following a split this past weekend to open your quarterfinal series against the Melville Millionaires. Coach, what did you take away from the weekend?
Emery Olauson:
You know what, I liked the way we played in both games, really. They were kind of carbon copies of each other, with Callum stealing the show Saturday night and Melville’s goalie, Spencer-Dahl, stealing the show Friday.
But overall, we’re generating chances, we’re playing in the offensive zone, and we’re earning power plays. I think as the series wears on, if we can stay at it and keep the pressure on, we’ll be okay.
Obviously, they have home-ice advantage now, so they get to pick matchups and have last change and things like that. It does change things a little bit, but we’ve been a good road team all year. We have to have confidence that what we’ve been doing in this series — and what we’ve done all season — will work again.
Benny Walchuk:
You mentioned special teams — they were a big factor in the opening two games. Melville gets a power-play goal in Game 1, and you guys respond in Game 2, snapping a stretch without one. I know it can get frustrating when you have chances but can’t score, but it must be nice to see the group stick with it and get rewarded.
Emery Olauson:
Yeah, you know what — in two games we’ve had about 40 shots on the power play. Our reminder to the guys is it’s like a bucket — you just keep dropping water into it, and you don’t know when it’s going to overflow. But when it does, with that kind of volume and those kinds of looks, we like our chances.
You’ve seen Courchesne all alone backdoor a couple of times, Zawadski with a gaping net, and Courchesne again across the crease just losing the handle. So we like where the chances are coming from, how they’re being generated, and how many there are.
But when you’re killing that many penalties, your goaltender has to be a very good penalty killer, and Spencer-Dahl has been up to the task so far.
Benny Walchuk:
You mentioned depth being important at this time of year. Your top guys have produced, but talk about that line of Mattias Schoffner, Jake Briltz, and Austin Horbachewsky — they were really strong Saturday, especially Briltz on the penalty kill.
Emery Olauson:
Yeah, well, when you score a goal five-on-three, it kind of cracks the game open. Obviously, Rieser has been making special plays all year for us.
But for Briltz to have the patience — most of the time, five-on-three, you’re just dumping that puck down and getting a change. You’re not expecting a play to be there. But he bought himself some time, gave Reaser a chance to get up ice, and made a great pass. Reaser finished it.
That line was effective. Horbachevsky’s got a heart of gold and plays with a ton of it. So does Briltz. And Schoffner has been chipping in however he can, wherever he can, all season long. We asked them to do a job, and I thought they did it very well.
