The Estevan Apex midget AA Bruins let their special teams play do the talking in a dominating 10-1 playoff win over the Notre Dame Hounds at Affinity Place on Saturday.
The Bruins take a 1-0 lead in the South Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League (SSMHL) midget AA semi-final series with the lopsided victory. The game was a 180 from the regular season when the Hounds (20-11-7 and third in the SSMHL) controlled the play going 2-1-1 against the Bruins (23-8-7 and the SSMHL’s second seed).
“Earlier in the season we blew a 3-1 lead (in a 3-3 tie Dec. 13 at Affinity Place), so we were able to learn from that,” said Blake Jamieson, head coach of the Bruins. “We’ve been playing really good hockey lately. Since the last time we’ve played these guys (a 5-4 loss Jan. 9 at Affinity Place) we’ve really improved.”
Estevan held the momentum in the early goings of the game, but didn’t manage to light the lamp until their first power-play opportunity when Colton Winton knocked in his own rebound to open the scoring. The Hounds’ Hardy Wagner tied up the game on a Notre Dame power play with 29 seconds remaining in the first period on a shot from the top of the faceoff circle that bounced off Bruins’ goaltender Cam Lavoie’s pad and in.
Bruins defenceman Brady Long got a wild second period started about two minutes in on a shot from the point that beat Hounds’ netminder Riley Kohonick. After Estevan’s Hunter Piche made the score 3-1 one second after a Hounds’ penalty expired five minutes in, Notre Dame took a number of undisciplined penalties leading to power-play markers from Mitchell Morrison and Winton. The Hounds got an opportunity to get back into the game late in the second on a 1:51 two-man advantage, but the Bruins shut the door by keeping shots to the outside and clearing any loose rebounds.
The Bruins continued to control the play in the third period with Cole Skjonsby scoring a power-play marker 17 seconds in on Hounds’ backup goalie Timur Shiyanov before Morrison notched his second at even strength 19 seconds later. Morrison recorded the hat trick with 8:41 remaining while the teams skated four-on-four, which was followed by Erik McKersie making it 9-1 a little over three minutes later with the man advantage and Winton finishing off the scoring with his hat trick marker on the power play with 3:45 remaining in the game.
Winton said the game was close and back-and-forth to start off, but their special teams play took it over in the second and third. He said their defencemen sacrificing the body to block shots on the penalty kill coupled with the offence burying their chances on the power play secured the win.
“We finally got to bury them,” Winton said about their six goals with the man advantage. “We had trouble with that at the end of the regular season. We’ve brought it in the playoffs now.”
Jamieson said their defence played a big part in the power-play prowess. He said they sent the puck to the net with traffic in front often and they’ll have to keep that up to get the series win in Game 2 at the Duncan McNeill Arena on Thursday.
“They’ve got the big ice there, so (we’ll need) just more of the same,” said Jamieson. We’ll have to “just be relentless on the forecheck and execute when we have chances.”
