The CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins came out on the short end of a high-scoring pre-season game in Virden, Manitoba, against the Oil Capitals Saturday.
The Bruins fell 7-6 in overtime to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Oil Capitals at Tundra Oil and Gas Place after storming back from three goals down in the final five minutes of the third period to force the extra session. On the 34th Oil Capitals shot of the game Cole Oliver snapped home the winner past Bruins’ goaltender Nathan Alalouf to end the getting to know you game for both teams.
“I don’t think structurally it was a really well played game,” said Bruins coach and general manager Chris Lewgood. “It was typical of this time of the year where teams are just getting organized and coming together, but for the most part we were able to identify differences in players and do the things that you do in an exhibition game. You use them to try and understand who you have as players and use live scenarios to teach the guys things, so from that standpoint it was really good.”
After a slow first period where only Oil Capitals’ player Carter Cowlthorp found the back of the net, the game opened up in the second. Virden’s Nolan Ross first put his team up 2-0, but new Bruins’ forwards Braden Oleksyn and Owen LaClare each notched an unanswered marker to tie it up heading into the third.
Oil Capitals’ skaters Tyler Kirkup, Torrin Grange, Nolan Ross and Devan Schram and Bruins’ forward Jason Duret stormed out for goals in the first 15 minutes of the final frame to make the score 6-3. It was all Bruins for the next five, with Ryan Duret, Zach Paxman and LaClare knotting up the game at sixes and forcing the extra period.
Lewgood said the high scoring second and third periods came down to the bounces starting to go the way of the skaters instead of the net minders. He said after the initial 20 minutes, players just started getting more comfortable on the ice, stopped squeezing their sticks so much and finished off their chances.
The two-goal effort by LaClare could have been four or five with the way he was playing, noted Lewgood. The play of Keegan Allison, who picked up an assist on Oleksyn’s goal, and Zach Paxman also stood out for him, but there were many others that had a good game in the pre-season test.
The game “just helps to identify more what guys are capable of, what their strengths and weaknesses are and (that) will go into the notes,” he said. “Playing a good team like Virden is a good indication of what you’re going to see throughout the course of the season, so it helps quite a bit.”
Lewgood said no cuts came out of the game, but the team has added another body on the backend. He said 17-year-old defenceman Kobe Eagletail joined the team Saturday after initially trying out for the Western Hockey League’s Prince George Cougars.
“He’s a big strong young defenceman, skates well and hopefully adds a little bit of physical presence,” Lewgood said of the six-foot, 190 pound rearguard who tallied seven goals, 23 points and 164 penalty minutes in 38 games split between the Heritage Junior Hockey League’s Banff Bears and Canadian Sport School Hockey League’s Banff Hockey Academy Prep team last season.
