As the SJHL season winds down, each game for the Eagle Drilling Estevan Bruins becomes more crucial than the last. After winning a pair of momentum-building home games over Yorkton and Nipawin early last week, the fourth place Bruins headed out on a three games in three nights road trip in Battlefords and Kindersley.
With three wins, Estevan could have surpassed third place Weyburn and put some serious heat on second place Kindersley, especially with two head-to-head victories. Three straight wins on the road against two good hockey
clubs is much easier said than done however, and the Bruins would have to settle for just one win out of three.
The trip started in Battlefords on Thursday night with a hard-fought matchup that saw the Stars narrowly escape with a 5-4 victory, thanks to a last-minute goal from Kyle Hall.
Estevan was able to open the scoring just four minutes into the first period on a goal by defenceman Dominic Perrault. Former Bruin Cole Gibson tied the game just two minutes later with his 15th of the season. The back and forth trend would continue for the rest of the game until it was tied 4-4 at the end of the second period.
The third was scoreless until Hall notched the winner with just 38 seconds remaining, handing the Bruins a very tough loss. In addition to Perrault, Ryan Andersen, Lucas Stubel and Josh Jelinski scored for Estevan. Shea Cooper made 27 saves and took the loss in goal.
From Battlefords, the Bruins travelled to Kindersley for back-to-back contests on Friday and Saturday. In the first matchup on Friday, the Klippers used two power play markers and an empty net goal to down the Bruins 4-2. Like their game against the Stars, Estevan struck first early in the opening period when Chris Daniels beat Kindersley goalie Sean Cahill at the 3:35 mark.
The Klippers answered with two first-period tallies of their own, and took a 3-1 lead into the third, where Andersen got the visitors within one with his 26th of the season. That was as close as the Bruins would get though, as Jonathon Sonntag found the empty net with just one second left on the clock to give the Klippers the 4-2 win. Joel Danyluk was solid in goal for Estevan in the loss, making 38 saves.
On the verge of coming home winless, the Bruins stepped up their play on Saturday and extracted some revenge on Kindersley with a 4-2 victory, not unlike that of the Klippers' from one night earlier.
For the third straight game, Estevan got on the board first thanks to a goal from Matt Dochylo just 2:30 into the first period. Kindersley's Sanfred King beat Copper shortly after to make it 1-1. The contest remained tied for much of the remainder of the first until Cole Olson restored the Bruins' lead on the power play at 18:25 mark.
Olson banged home his second of the evening early in the second to make it 3-1 for the Bruins; a lead they would hang onto until the dying minutes of the third when Jordon Hoffman responded for Kindersley, making it 3-2. Estevan would not be denied on this night however, and Daniels scored an empty netter with just over a minute left, giving the Bruins the 4-2 victory.
On Monday, Estevan coach Chad Leslie commented on his team's play over the weekend.
"The first two nights, I thought our D had a tough time moving the puck and getting things going," Leslie said. "In Battlefords, if you talk to Cooper, he would tell you that he'd like to have a couple goals back.
"We played very well on Saturday and the Friday night game I was disgusted with our play, but for us to still be there and have a chance in the end tells me a lot about our team."
Leslie went on to say he was "extremely pleased" with the Bruins penalty kill in the three games as they gave up just two goals in 18 shorthanded situations.
The Bruins were also in action on Tuesday in Melville, however game results were not available before press time. They return home this weekend for a pair of games at the Civic. Flin Flon will be in town on Friday, before the Bruins renew hostilities with Kindersley on Saturday. Both games are at 7:30 p.m.
