Coming off a pair of games that was likely their low point of this young SJHL season, the Eagle Drilling Estevan Bruins' players knew they had to respond with a much better effort this past weekend.
After two losses on October 22 and 23, Bruins' coach Karry Biette was frustrated with his club and their lack of a "60 minute effort." The Bruins had a week to sort things out through practice and team meetings before getting back to it in a set of home games against Nipawin and Kindersley.
However, when the Hawks came to town on Friday night, it was as if nothing had changed. Estevan came out flat, and fell behind 2-0 in the first period, and 3-0 in the third. Joel Kot finally got Estevan on the board with a power play marker halfway through the third, and goals by Ryan Andersen and Dylan Smith tied the game, sending it to overtime.
Estevan found themselves on the power play once again in the extra period, and this time Kot dished the puck to Justin Waskewitch, who cranked a one-timer past Hawks keeper Brody Hoffman, giving the Bruins the 4-3 victory.
Though they won, it wasn't the way they wanted to do it, and Biette was still looking for that buzzer-to-buzzer effort.
"Last night (Friday), it was the same old habits; playing as good as we have to, getting behind, and then taking a year off the coach's life and winning it in overtime," Biette said.
All joking aside, the Bruins knew their play against the Hawks likely wouldn't be enough to beat a better Kindersley squad the following night.
"We've had a lot of talks about coming out and playing hard for 60 minutes," said Smith. "We'd come out and play hard for one period or we'd take two off, and then play hard for the third, but he's (Biette) talked a lot with us about playing a full 60 minutes because when we do, there aren't many teams that can compete with us."
Those talks must have finally sunk in before Saturday's game against the Klippers because the Bruins came out strong and didn't let off the gas pedal until the final horn sounded in a convincing 6-2 win.
Mark Cross opened the scoring just 54 seconds into the hockey game, before Smith - on the power play - and Ben Findlay each tallied to give Estevan a 3-1 lead after the first period.
Braeden Adamyk scored for Kindersley early in the second to make it 3-2, but that is as close as the Klippers would come. Matt Dochylo answered later in the frame to restore the Bruins' two-goal lead after two periods of play.
After Andersen made it 5-2 early in the third, things got a bit chippy when Kindersley's Riley Down crushed Findlay at centre ice with a vicious blind-side hit.
Josh Jelinski took exception to the hit and immediately dropped the gloves with Down, as did Lucas Stubel with Jordan Hoffman.
There was no penalty on the hit, and when asked about it after the game, Biette said it should have been called.
"It was a check to the head," he said. "That's why we have the rule, right? We've got stricter rules than the NHL, and I've seen that hit in the NHL called every time."
Fortunately, Findlay was all right and his team responded by adding another goal in the final minute to go up 6-2. Smith potted his second of the night to go along with an assist and a fight for the Gordie Howe hat trick.
"That's the first one of my junior career, that's for sure," said Smith with a laugh. "It's nice to do different things on the ice to help out the team."
It was Smith's fourth game back after an ankle injury, and Biette was happy with his determination to get back on the score sheet.
"Smitty came back after his injury and didn't see the goals go in, but his effort level picked up, his compete level picked up, he was skating more and it doesn't happen overnight. He had been playing hard for us for four or five games and tonight he got rewarded for that hard work."
The Bruins were also in action on Tuesday night in Notre Dame; however game results were not available at press time. Their next game will be this Saturday when the host they first place Humboldt Broncos at 7:30 p.m.
