ESTEVAN - The Estevan Great North U18 AAA Bears are heading to the playoffs.
The Bears defeated the host Swift Current Legionnaires 7-2 on Sunday afternoon in the regular season finale for both teams to clinch a playoff spot for the first time in franchise history. Estevan (18-19-7, 43 points) needed to win to make postseason; if they would have lost, the Saskatoon Contacts (19-21-4, 42 points) would have made the playoffs.
The win also snapped the Bears' five-game losing skid.
Estevan came out firing on Sunday, with Gunner Moore scoring twice in the opening frame and Marc Belanger adding to the lead with 69 seconds to play in the stanza.
Swift Current struck twice in the second to pull within a goal, but Jase McNichol scored for Estevan late in the period.
Estevan erased any doubt of a Swift Current comeback in the third, as Kobe Wotta, Carter Onrait and Cooper Flath scored.
Kaden Perron made 35 saves for Estevan, including 29 in the final two periods.
The night before, Estevan lost 4-1 to the Legionnaires. Belanger scored the Bears' lone goal less than four minutes into the first period.
The game was tied at 1-1 entering the third period, but Swift Current scored three times to pull away. The last goal was into an empty net.
Perron and Cole Ivey shared the goaltending duties for Estevan.
This season was the fourth for the Bears in the Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League. Their first season, in 2020-21, was limited to just a few games due to restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Estevan will now play the top-ranked Saskatoon Blazers (34-7-3, 71 points) in a best-of-five series to open the playoffs. Dates for the series have not been set. Saskatoon won three of four meetings between the two teams during the regular season, with Estevan winning a game in Saskatoon in December.
Saskatoon won the league title last season.
More to come.
