The Yukon Rivermen returned to the ice after a two-week break for their third home series of November, taking on the South Okanogan Knights. The Rivermen were without head coach Carl Burgess behind the bench for the three games as he served a suspension for an administrative error last year.

“I was on an administrative suspension,” said Burgess. “I brought some AP’s (alternate players) to help with some injuries last season and the final approval hadn’t gone through before we used them. It was a bit of a communication issue, but it’s an automatic coaches suspension.”

In the final game of the series, Sunday at Takhini Arena, the Rivermen lost 7-1.

The Rivermen were unable to generate any flow in their game as they took upwards of 15 penalties.

All three games were chippy and at the final buzzer of the third game, the officials had to separate the two teams before they began fighting. At this time it is unclear if the players involved will face supplementary discipline.

“It’s out of our hands,” said Burgess. “The refs will write up the misconduct and send them to B.C. Hockey and they will give us the final word, if there is any, will be sent to us.”

It was the first time the Rivermen had seen the Knights this season. Burgess says they were a good aggressive team.

The rough play that could be seen throughout the series is something Burgess says the team will continue to see as the season continues.

“It is the time of year, the honeymoon time of the first two months, getting ready, is over,” said Burgess. “It’s midseason, everyone is a little more grizzled, more tired, ready to compete, the grind is on and that shows.

“Hats off to the Knights; they play a really intense brand of hockey. It’s fun to play in, it’s fun to coach and it’s fun to watch. They are competitive players, they run hot, and that’s why there is penalties.”

It was a parade to the penalty box for the Rivermen, but Burgess says figuring out how to minimize the penalties taken is part of the learning process.

“This is development hockey and learning to maintain emotions is part of it, but we do expect them to boil over sometimes,” said Burgess. “Unfortunately it is part of the process, it is part of learning to work through the frustration and working on being prepared for these intense games. They are here because they want to be in the middle of the environment.”

On Saturday the Rivermen were able to get their first points of the season at the Canada Games Centre. The Friday games in the home series are considered exhibition. The Rivermen won 3-1.

“Things lined up, we had full commitment and full effort from all 17 players,” said Burgess. “We had a fantastic performance from our goalie Devin Vogel, who saw 51 shots and only let in one goal. That has a demoralizing effect on the opponent. We committed to our game and had a little extra self-discipline in terms of intensity and positional play and that was fruitful for us.”

Having played one of their better games of the year, Burgess says the lesson in the win is learning how difficult it is to be consistent.

“It’s hard for competitive players that are 13, it’s hard for competitive players that are 24 to do it day in and day out,” said Burgess. “That’s what they are learning, it’s a big lesson, its part of the process. We want to be better in the second half of the season than we are in the first. This is one of those things that each player has to learn on their own, and they have to learn as a team.”

The goal scorers for the Rivermen in the win were Sawyer Adams, Luke Kotaska and Andrew Carr.

In the first game of the series Friday at Takhini Arena, the Rivermen fell 8-2 to the Knights. Like their game Sunday, the Rivermen spent a lot of time in the penalty box, because of this the Rivermen were unable to generate much time in the offensive zone and unable to impose their style of play on the game.

The Rivermen’s goal scorers in game number one were Logan Cunningham and Kotaska.

The next games for the Rivermen will be played in B.C. from Dec. 7-8