The CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins let their frustrations get the better of them in a 6-2 loss to the rival Weyburn Red Wings at Affinity Place on Saturday.
The two teams came out of the gate flying in the first period with both going back-and-forth offensively using a strong forecheck to gain pressure. The Red Wing got on the board first at the 5:48 mark when Cole Woodliffe beat a Bruins defender to a loose rebound at the top of the crease and deked to his backhand before depositing the puck past Estevan goaltender Daniel Wapple on the blocker side. Weyburn made it 2-0 with 2:26 remaining in the period on an odd-man rush where Jacob Wozney decided to keep the puck himself and fire it high short-side on Wapple.
“That was not a backbreaker by any means, but it’s certainly a momentum shifter,” said Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood. “I thought our guys started to get a little frustrated and maybe let some frustration creep in instead of being excited for the next shift.”
Weyburn went up 3-0 a little over a minute into the second while shorthanded on a pass out front by Braden Mellon to a wide open Elvis Jansons in the slot. After Wings’ leading scorer Aiden Teilborg made it 4-0, Bruins left-winger Jake Fletcher scored a shorthanded marker with 6:51 remaining on a dive into the crease to swipe in a rebound.
The Wings’ Carson Rose scored Weyburn’s fifth goal around 12 minutes into the third on a broken play in the neutral zone that resulted in an open break to the net. The tension on the ice mounted shortly afterwards with Estevan’s Darcy DeRoose and Weyburn’s Mike Eskra engaging in a battle near centre ice that ended with DeRoose earning a takedown, instigator penalty and the only fighting major on the play.
“There is a history with Eskra and DeRoose,” said Lewgood. “Darcy came out bleeding and Eskra didn’t throw a punch as far as I could see, so something had happened and Darcy went looking for him. So at the end of the day I think it’s just guys blowing off steam and taking it (out) on the other team.”
Bruins defenceman Tyler King made the score 5-2 while shorthanded with two minutes remaining before Weyburn’s Tyran Brown finished off the scoring on a two-man advantage with five seconds left to play. Estevan fell to 29-20-0-3 with the loss, while Weyburn moved to 34-12-5-4.
“We got some lucky bounces,” said Red Wings head coach and general manager Bryce Thoma. “We capitalized on some lucky bounces, some lucky breaks, and that’s kind of how I saw the game.”
Lewgood said the Bruins’ loss came down to missed assignments on defence by both the forward and defensive corps and the opposition doing a good job at taking advantage of that. He said Weyburn didn’t out-chance them by much in the game, but when they did get an opportunity they buried it.
The Weyburn win locked them into first place in the Viterra Division with two weeks left to go in the SJHL regular season. Thoma said every team wants to win their division at the beginning of the season, but now that they’ve accomplished the fact it doesn’t really mean much. Estevan’s head coach and general manager had the same opinion on the division leader.
“We knew a long time ago they were going to win the division,” said Lewgood. “It was too little too late. We plan on winning a bunch of our remaining games, but we knew they were going to keep winning, so we aren’t concerned with that at this point. Our concern is winning the games we have moving forward.”
