It was a busy end of the week for the Eagle Drilling Estevan Bruins, as the hockey club played three road games in three consecutive nights last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Estevan kicked off the trip with a 5-4 win in Kindersley on Wednesday. The Klippers held a 2-0 lead heading into the second period, where Ty Ariss, Matt Dochylo and Joel Kot all scored to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead.
Ariss notched his second of the contest in the third, before Kindersley tied the game with two goals of their own, setting up a crazy finish. Bruins' forward Ben Findlay scored with one second left on the clock with what has been called a "very fluky" goal.
"To be fair, their fourth was very similar to our fifth, so I guess what comes around goes around," said Bruins coach Karry Biette. "Findlay was skating the puck up the ice and as he went by the bench, we yelled at him that he had four seconds, so he got to the blue line and dumped it off then end boards, off the goalie and in the net with no time left on the clock."
Biette said the team turned and looked at him after the goal was scored, and he told them to get off the ice and into the dressing room before the goal could be overturned.
With one victory under their belt, the Bruins headed to Battlefords on Thursday, where another last second marker helped decide the fate of the game, however this time it didn't go in Estevan's favour.
Mark Cross gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead in the first period, only to have his club all but fall asleep in the second and first half of the third. The North Stars took advantage and scored three in the second and once early in the third to go up 4-1.
The Bruins finally woke up to score four goals in the latter half of the final frame. Kyle Johnson, Lucas Stubel, Troy Hunter and Ryan Andersen each tallied to lift their team to a 5-4 lead in the final minute, only to get a taste of their own medicine as Woody Klassen bulged the twine with less than one second left to send the game to overtime.
Blake Tatchell then beat Shea Cooper with 19 seconds left in the extra frame to give Battlefords a 6-5 win.
"We played fairly well in Battleford," said Biette. "We got behind the eight ball a little but were playing OK. It was just two breakdowns in the second period and both ended up in the back our net, but it was a close game. We battled our way back and had the game wrapped up until they scored with 0.3 seconds left."
From Battlefords, the Bruins travelled to Humboldt to take on a Broncos squad that was basically salivating to get another chance at the Bruins after Estevan trounced them 9-4 earlier this month at the Civic.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, Humboldt was well rested and showed why they were the top-ranked team in Canada for the better part of October. The Broncos used a five-point performance from Jeremy Boyer in a 9-4 victory over the Bruins.
Scoring for Estevan in that contest were Ariss, Justin Waskewitch, Dylan Smith and Tyler Spencer.
Despite the lopsided loss, Biette was not overly upset with his club's performance against the Broncos; after all it was there third game in three nights.
"We came out of the gates all right, it just got away from us in the end. They were rested and up and ready for us, and they owed us one."
The Bruins were also in action at home Tuesday night against the Yorkton Terriers. Game results were not available at press time.
