The Estevan Century 21 bantam A Bruins will start a new rivalry with the Weyburn bantam tier 2 John Hulbert Construction Hitmen next week in the first round of the provincial playoffs.
The Bruins, whose roster is filled with members of the Moose Mountain Hockey League’s Estevan Flames, Estevan Knights and Estevan Bears, will play the Hitmen on Feb. 1 at Weyburn’s Crescent Point Place before coming back to Affinity Place to play the club’s first home game of the season on Feb. 8. The first round series will be a two-game total points' match.
“It’s going to be a very interesting series because they have no idea what we’ll bring,” said Bruins head coach Kyle Mulligan. “They have no idea of who we are. They can’t do any pre-scouting on us because we don’t play in a league, which in my opinion is a good thing for us. For them, they play probably 30 games together and they practise together twice a week, so they have their advantages to them playing together all the time.”
While the Hitmen compete regularly in the Regina Bantam A Hockey League, the Bruins will head into the provincial series with a 4-4 record. The club earned that mark at an early December tournament in Swift Current and early January competition in Yorkton.
After suffering a 3-2 loss to Muenster on Jan. 8 in their first round-robin game of the Yorkton tourney, Mulligan said the team came back with a strong effort to earn a 7-2 win over Regina on Jan. 9. In the first round of the playoffs, the Bruins walked out to a 3-0 lead after two periods to Yorkton before the home side replied with six unanswered in the third to win 6-3.
“We learned some lessons as a team and we had some growing points as we lost that game,” said Mulligan. “We came back on Sunday morning and regrouped in the consolation game and put forward a very strong effort and had a decisive (7-2) win against Moose Jaw.”
Mulligan said the bantam A program is different than what people usually find in the Estevan Minor Hockey Association as the club plays no league games. He said this poses several challenges including such issues as the kids having to create a bond of trust with each other fairly quickly as well as the team building their own identity, but the two tournaments have helped them make strides towards accomplishing those goals.
“These kids have probably been on the ice more this year than they were in any year they’ve played hockey because we have practices with our team (and) they have practices with their own club teams,” he said. “They’re playing with their club team, they’re playing with our team and, you know what, it’s been a very positive thing for Estevan Minor Hockey and for our program to be doing it the way that we’re doing it and I’m really looking forward to getting into the provincial play-downs next week.”
