The Apex Bruins hadn’t gotten a lot of puck luck lately and Sunday afternoon’s game against Weyburn was no different.
With one game left in the South Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League’s midget AA regular season and a lot still to play for, the Bruins (21-12-2-0) played catch-up most of the game against the Red Wings (22-7-3-1) after falling behind early.
“Overall, I was actually really happy with our game, especially considering we’ve been struggling the last couple of weeks, just to find some consistency,” said Bruins head coach Robin Ulrich. “We’re really frustrated. We’ve got snakebit, I think that was evident here today. We hit a few posts. We had a couple of guys traditionally bury on chances just miss the net.”
The Bruins trailed early on a shot from Weyburn’s Kyler Douglas ten seconds into the game and Braden Birnie made it 2-0 only 9:06 into the game. However, the Bruins came back to tie on a shot by Dalton Schrader at 11:24 and then at 15:44 when Triston Sorenson read a Weyburn pass perfectly to steal the puck and bury it.
Weyburn got up 4-2 after the second period and no amount of crossbars and posts hit by the Bruins could solve the score until Dawson Schaff scored a shorthanded goal after pressure on a Weyburn defender who broke his stick gave him the puck.
The Bruins are now in fourth place with one regular season game to go — Friday at 8 p.m. against the Notre Dame Hounds. With three teams separated by one point between third and fifth place, who the Bruins play in the first round of the league playoffs will depend on the other team’s last regular season games. The first round of the playoffs is scheduled to be done by Feb. 28 and the league champion will advance to play the Centre Four Hockey League winner for the provincial final.
