The Eagle Drilling Estevan Bruins have clinched a playoff spot. A 2-1 victory over the Notre Dame Hounds on Saturday night at the Civic ensured the Bruins will be going back to the post season after failing to qualify last year.
After Jonathan Ceci made it 1-0 for Estevan halfway through the first period, the Bruins, not known for their low-scoring contests, held the Hounds scoreless until the 13:47 mark of the third when Todd Christian finally broke Shea Cooper's shut-out bid on the power play.
Just when it looked to be going to overtime, Ryan Ostertag put Estevan back in front 2-1 with fewer than three minutes remaining, and they were able to hold on for the victory. After the game, Estevan head coach Chad Leslie said he knew they would be in for a defensive battle against the Hounds, who are notorious for playing shut-down hockey and have one of the top goalies in the SJHL in Russell Abbott.
"The focus before the game was getting traffic and lots of pucks to the net, and just trying to get in front of him," said Leslie. "The first period he stopped everything he saw, so we tried to get a double screen going and tried to get a 10 foot screen and a 10 foot rebound guy so we did we what had to do, but we knew it was going to be ugly."
The win over Notre Dame was bitter-sweet for Cooper, who was understandably happy that he and his club clinched a playoff berth, but was a little upset he didn't get the shutout. He admitted after the game that he was indeed thinking about it.
"I was for sure. I knew they were going to come hard in the last five minutes of play and I was worried about when they pulled their goalie, but I was thinking shutout," Cooper said.
The victory gives Estevan 57 points, 14 more than the last place Hounds. Notre Dame can now only tie the Bruins in points, but cannot match their win total. While Leslie said it is nice to clinch a playoff spot, he's not satisfied just yet.
"With the team we've got, we expect a lot more; we're chasing down Kindersley right now and as unrealistic as some people think it is, we're in striking distance and we're going to push the pedal to the metal on Kindersley to let them know we're coming" said Leslie.
Estevan's win over the Hounds was their third in four games last week. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, they set out on a three game road trip where they got by Nipawin 7-2 and Melfort 3-2, before falling to Humboldt 5-1.
Ben Findlay, Josh Jelinski, Matt Dochylo, Jonathan Ceci, Cole Olson and Mark Cross each scored for the Bruins in the win over Nipawin. Dochylo and Dylan Smith bulged the twine in the shootout victory in Melfort, and Calder Neufeld had the lone marker in the loss to the Broncos.
The Bruins were also in action last night against Notre Dame in Wilcox; however game results were not available at press time. Details can be found at www.estevanmercury.ca.
Next up is a very important home-and-home series with Weyburn this weekend. The Bruins host the Red Wings on Friday at the Civic at 7:30, before travelling to Weyburn on Saturday. The two games will go a long way in determining playoff spots, as at press time, the Bruins held a one point advantage on the Wings in the Sherwood Conference standings.
"Every game is a battle here and we need all the points we can get," said Leslie. "We're not looking back, we're looking ahead and we're looking at those games to catch Kindersley. Obviously there's a bit of a rivalry with Weyburn and they've had our number a bit this year, but we're going to turn things around and change that."
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The Bruins were forced to make an emergency call up to goaltender Austin Wilvers of the Estevan TS&M bantam AA Bruins for Saturday's contest against the Hounds as Joel Danyluk was out of the lineup with an apparent combination of food poisoning and the flu.
Estevan was also without defencemen Ty Ariss and Lucas Stubel on Saturday. Both players have wrist injuries and according to Leslie, Ariss is day-to-day, while Stubel will be on the sidelines for approximately three weeks.
