Too much time spent in the defensive zone, too many shots against and a number of tough penalty calls led the Estevan TS&M bantam AA Bruins to a 6-3 loss against the West Central Wheat Kings at Affinity Place on Saturday.
The Wheat Kings (15-11-2) pressured the Bruins from the get-go with high-scoring West Central forward Cade Hayes capitalizing on a one-timer from the slot off a Colby Ralston pass 1:06 into the first period. Hayes and Ralston combined for a near identical marker six minutes later before Eric Robbie put West Central up 3-0 about six minutes into the middle stanza.
The Bruins then found the back of the net thanks to a seeing-eye point shot from defenceman Carey Levesque. Estevan’s Riley Niven made it a one-goal game three minutes later by passing the puck to Chase Gedak for a shot in close, circling around the net and depositing the rebound past Wheat Kings netminder Cody Beswitherick.
Wheat Kings forward Carson Dobson potted the 4-2 marker at the 14:29 mark of the second period when he drove to the front of the net from the corner and fired a shot short side on Bruins goaltender Zane Winter. Turner McMillen got that one back two minutes later blasting a shot from the hashmarks into the top corner.
“The fourth one (Winter) wants back for sure,” said Bruins head coach Tom Copeland. “It’s something he’s struggled with. He’s a big kid, but he’s a first year goaltender and he’s still working on being strong and sometimes that means he’s not squared to the puck like he wants to be and that was a situation where he over-pursued it a little bit.”
The Wheat Kings led the Bruins 33-22 in shots after the second period, but the club would step up the pressure in the last frame. West Central peppered 19 shots on the Estevan net over the final 20 minutes, as opposed to the Bruins only hitting their target three times, and connected on two more markers courtesy of Garin Scherr and Caleb Bacon.
“We ran on energy there in the third,” said Copeland, noting they have three players out with injuries and another who played sick. “It’s tough for a smaller team to play that physical a team, so coming from the (North Division) they play us hard. Some tough calls went against us tonight and we killed a lot of penalties, too much D-zone time and it just wears on you after a while.”
The Bruins (7-16-3) currently hold the ninth spot in the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League (SBAAHL) South Division standings, but the team has a chance to move into the seventh position and a more favourable first round postseason opponent with a good showing at home this weekend. The Black and Gold starts the final weekend of the SBAAHL regular season with a contest against the Weyburn Crescent Point Wings (3-25) on Friday before playing the Regina Pat Blues (7-16-3) on Saturday. The team completes the trek with a game against the Regina Monarchs (17-7-4) at Affinity Place on Sunday.
“We want to go into the playoffs rolling and we’re going to need a little bit from everybody if we’re going to get that done,” said Copeland. “This is when playoffs start for us. We want home ice advantage and the ball is in our court.”
