After a sound victory over the La Ronge Ice Wolves on Friday, the CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins passed up an opportunity to build off the win with a loss to the Kindersley Klippers the next night.
The Bruins got a strong showing from Matt Brykaliuk in a 5-2 win over the Wolves on Friday, but dug themselves a deep hole on Saturday in an eventual 5-3 defeat against the Klippers.
Holding games in hand on every team in the SJHL prior to the weekend and facing two teams in the bottom third of the league, the Bruins remain in fifth place in the Sherwood Conference, after temporarily moving into fourth on Friday.
Bruins head coach and general manager Keith Cassidy said the coaching staff can only do so much to get the players fired up for important games such as the one against Kindersley.
"The key is for those guys to find that sustained internal motivation. I think the guys have the heart to do it and those are the guys I want to go to battle with. Come hell or high water, we're going to find a way to show people what an elite team this can be," he said.
That wasn't the case on Saturday, as the Bruins fell behind 4-0 after two periods amidst a barrage of penalties and saw their third period comeback bid fall flat.
Although fans were not happy with the work of referee Nathan Wieler, who dished out 79 minutes of penalties - 59 to Estevan, 20 to Kindersley - Cassidy said his team didn't play well enough to win.
"You can complain about officiating when you put forth the effort to put yourself in a position to win the hockey game. Then you can complain about it," he said.
"If we'd had the effort that we had in the third period all game, then I'd be upset. But quite frankly, it was just so bad I can't even complain about it."
Colby Daniels buried a rebound five minutes into the first period to open the scoring for the Klippers.
Brett Printz added to that lead just 19 seconds later on a fluky goal. Printz dumped the puck in and Bruins goalie Curtis Martinu left his net to play it, but the puck ricocheted off a stanchion and into the net.
Cody McKinnon banged a pass past Martinu 11 minutes into the second period to extend the Klippers' lead.
Three minutes later, Bruins winger Roger Tagoona was given five minutes and a game misconduct for a hit from behind on Daniels. After some pleasantries were exchanged between the two teams, Daniels served a roughing penalty and scored on the ensuing power play to make it 4-0 Klippers.
"It was scrambly, chippy, not fun to watch, not entertaining hockey," Cassidy said of the first 40 minutes of the game. "Neither team did much of any interest out there and that was aided by the fact that there probably wasn't more than 30 seconds worth of continuous play."
The Bruins attempted a comeback in the third, beginning with a goal 18 seconds in when Austin Yano one-timed a Hudson Morrison feed past Klippers goalie Tyrell King.
Less than six minutes later, the Klippers replied when Connor Gay converted on a rebound on a power play.
The Bruins continued to push back though, with Darcy DeRoose wristing a shot home from the top of the faceoff circle at the 7:19 mark.
Austin Daae made it 5-3 less than three minutes later after knocking in a loose puck in the crease.
But that was as close as the Bruins would get, going scoreless in the final nine minutes of the period.
Cassidy said the team wasted an opportunity to solidify fourth place and need to play with more pride.
"We had games in hand on (teams) and we've gotta take advantage of it. There's no point having them if you don't go out there and battle for those points," he said.
"I want to see the guys be proud of playing for this hockey club and leave everything they can on the ice, because there are a lot of people in this organization who have sacrificed a lot of stuff for them to be able to be here and play hockey. They're parents, they're billets, the executive. A lot of people put a lot of effort into this and I don't expect anything less out of our players."
Shots on goal were 35-34 for the Bruins.
On Friday, the Bruins led 3-2 after two periods and held on for the win.
Braden Oleksyn got the scoring started for the Wolves midway through the first, but the Bruins responded with two goals 76 seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead after the first frame.
Brykaliuk, in his return to the lineup after missing five games with a shoulder injury, tied the game with a spectacular effort, toe dragging around defenceman Franklin Cook and scoring on a glove side shot as he was falling down.
"I wound up for a fake wrist shot and the d-man just kinda went down, so I luckily slid through there and I just shot it on net and it trickled in there," Brykaliuk said.
"It's definitely a confidence booster. I know one of those goals was an empty-netter, but just getting one goal in the first 10 games of the year and then getting two (on Friday), it's a great feeling," he added.
Daae put the Bruins on top shortly after at 15:54, walking out from the right corner and beating goalie Dasan Sydora to the far side on a power play.
Graham Smerek tied the game for the Wolves halfway through the second period, shortly after Bruins captain Connor Milligan blocked a shot with his foot, which led to him missing about 10 minutes of action.
Tyler Paslawski gave the Bruins the lead for good less than three minutes later on a rebound.
Hudson Morrison provided the home side some insurance on a power play goal from the right faceoff circle at 4:25 of the third, and Brykaliuk added an empty netter with 54 seconds left.
"I think he had a fantastic game. I think he showed all the stuff that he can do as a player. Now I want to see it each and every night," Cassidy said of Brykaliuk's play.
