With one win and one loss in two home games over the weekend, the Eagle Drilling Estevan Bruins were able to gain some ground in the Sherwood Conference standings. Heading into play on Friday, the fourth place Bruins trailed Weyburn by four points. With the Wings losing both of their games over the weekend, and Estevan winning one of two, they're now just two points back, with two game in hand.
The Bruins welcomed the Flin Flon Bombers to the Energy City for the second time this season on Friday, and came ready to play against their rivals from Manitoba. Estevan opened up a 4-0 lead in the first period, chasing Bombers' starting goalie Randy Graham. Ryan Andersen, Jonathan Ceci, Lucas Stubel and Chris Daniels all found the back of the net behind Graham, with the latter two coming on the power play.
Flin Flon wasted no time getting on the board in the second period, scoring just nine seconds in as Devin Stillar beat Shea Cooper to make it 4-1. Matt Szpak answered for Estevan to restore their four-goal lead, only to see the Bombers add one more in that second stanza to pull within three.
It was in the third period that Flin Flon fought all the way back, eventually tying the game 6-6 with 31 seconds remaining. A crazy finish sent Bruin fans home happy though, as Ceci notched his third of the night and second of the period with just 11 seconds left on the clock to give the home team a 7-6 victory.
Though he wasn't thrilled with the way they got there, Bruins coach Chad Leslie said he was happy his team found a way to win.
"It was ugly," he said. "We came out hard, got up 4-0 and sometimes that can work against you. We started going east to west through the neutral zone and turning some pucks over instead of getting through there quickly; that happens and it bit us, but it didn't cost us so we just have to learn from it and never do that again."
After their big win over the Bombers, Estevan had an even bigger game the following night against the second place Kindersley Klippers at the Civic, knowing that a win combined with a Weyburn loss would put them into a third place tie. The Wings did their part, losing to Flin Flon 5-0, but unfortunately the Bruins fell to the Klippers 4-2.
For the first time in seven contests, Estevan failed to score first as Kindersley opened up a 2-0 lead in the opening period, despite some excellent goaltending by Bruins' netminder Joel Danyluk. With Danyluk keeping them in the game, Estevan pulled within one late in the first, when Ceci bulged the twine for his 22nd goal of the year.
Dylan Smith then tied the game at two goals apiece in the second period with a beautiful power play marker that beat Klippers goalie Sean Cahill. In an attempt to take the lead with 30 seconds remaining in the second, Leslie sent out five forwards for a face-off deep in the Kindersley zone with Ceci and Troy Hunter playing the point. Though the idea failed to pay off, Leslie said that's the kind of thing he's willing to try to gain some offence.
"There's the odd face-off play that we'll try and I felt pretty comfortable that if something went the other way, Huntsy does a decent job on the back-end I was just trying to get some offence going."
The game started to get quite chippy in the third period including a pair of fights, and it seemed to work in the Klippers' favour as they were able to score twice and take a 4-2 lead. As time wound down, the two clubs engaged in numerous scrums, including one right at the buzzer that took the linesmen a while to separate.
After the game, Leslie said it was just a few mistakes that cost the Bruins the hockey game, but he was happy to learn that they gained ground on Weyburn following their loss to Flin Flon.
"We made up ground, and regardless of the loss, I like the way the boys responded and we can only get better as we go forward," Leslie said. "We've come a long way and we're a lot more consistent and little scuffles in games like this only bring teams closer together."
Estevan is now in the midst of a three game road trip, including a tilt with the Hawks in Nipawin that took place last night. Game results were not available at press time, however details can be found at www.estevanmercury.ca.
The Bruins will also be in Melfort tonight and Humboldt tomorrow, before returning home to face the Notre Dame Hounds on Saturday. Game time is 7:30 p.m. at the Civic.
