After playing some of their best hockey of the season in recent weeks, two games in Kindersley brought the CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins back to earth with a resounding thud.
The Bruins lost a pair of crucial games against the Kindersley Klippers on Saturday and Sunday, 6-1 and 4-2 respectively, squandering an opportunity to take a firm grip on fourth place in the Sherwood Conference.
Instead, the Bruins were sitting in fifth place, three points behind the Klippers, after Monday's 5-2 victory over the Battlefords North Stars.
"It's definitely tough because it's back-to-back games against the team in front of us. But I'm not taking anything away from Kindersley, they battled hard and were a very hungry team. It is disappointing that we weren't able to get any points out of those two games," said Bruins head coach Keith Cassidy.
The losses extended the team's losing streak to four games after they lost 1-0 to Nipawin on Thursday and 2-1 in overtime to Yorkton on Feb. 5, in a pair of extremely tight-checking games against top teams.
That streak was snapped Monday in North Battleford in a game that saw the team get two goals from Hudson Morrison and singles from Dylan Smith, Matt Brykaliuk and Calder Neufeld. It was a breakout effort for Neufeld in his ongoing recovery from an ankle injury, with three points.
Midget AAA netminder Brett Lewchuk was called up to make his first SJHL start and rose to the task, making 38 saves.
On Sunday, the Bruins fell behind 3-1 after the first period as the Klippers got goals from Giovanni Bombini, Stefan Seel and Colton Schick in a span of 4:13.
Dylan Smith scored for the Bruins at the 15:39 mark.
"Little things that hadn't been happening the last few games kinda crept back into our game," Cassidy said of Sunday's tilt. "Their first three goals were on rebounds. One was on the power play, but the other ones, we gotta be a little hungrier on rebounds."
Zach Douglas got the Bruins within one at 5:17 of the second, but Bombini scored the eventual winner just shy of seven minutes into the third.
There were other chances for the Bruins, such as a 2-on-0 on which Hudson Morrison and Tanner Froese failed to get a shot off, and a shot by Tyler Kauk hitting the post when it was 3-2.
"In both games, we outshot them. I take shots with a grain of salt but it's the chances that you generate and I thought we generated some good chances," said Cassidy.
The Bruins took a pounding on Saturday, with the Klippers scoring three goals in each of the first and second periods.
"We came out and had good pressure, we were doing the right things, and then they popped the first one and it seemed like everything else they threw at us went in (after that)," said Cassidy.
Beau Stewart, Kyle Davies and Bradley Buckingham scored for Kindersley in the opening frame, and Brandon Lauder, D. Jay McGrath and Jared Pilet added more markers in the second.
Tyler Paslawski had Estevan's lone goal with four minutes left in regulation.
Cassidy said it wasn't one of goalie Curtis Martinu's better games, although he added that Martinu has provided strong goaltending all season,
"I think he would tell you he wasn't on his game, but that being said, he's played a lot of good hockey for us. He takes a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, he's a stand-up guy and he wants to do his best for this hockey club."
Cassidy said the club needs to be stronger mentally.
"It's been our biggest challenge all year - it's the game between the ears that has to get better."
On Thursday at Spectra Place, Nipawin netminder Jordan Liem stole the show with a 36-save shutout.
Tayler Balog scored the game's only goal with 12 seconds left in the first period, deflecting a Jeff Datoff point shot past Martinu.
The Bruins dominated the last two periods, but weren't able to solve Liem.
"It was pretty frustrating," said Paslawski, who, along with linemates Morrison and Darcy DeRoose, generated many of the team's best chances.
"We played a great game and their goalie played exceptional. Marty played a hell of a game and it just didn't go our way."
Cassidy said it was a phenomenal performance by his team, despite not getting the win.
"I'll be honest with you, I think that's one of the best games I've seen played by an Estevan Bruin hockey club since I've been here," he said. "They played the game to a T. We were good in our own zone, we moved the puck well, we had speed through the neutral zone, we forechecked the heck out of them, we got good opportunities."
The Bruins return to the confines of Spectra Place this weekend, hosting the Humboldt Broncos on Friday and the Klippers on Sunday. Game times are 7:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively.
