The CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins let a win over the Kindersley Klippers slip through their fingers on Saturday at Affinity Place, instead suffering a wild come-from-behind 5-4 shootout loss.
“We just have to have a killer instinct and when we get up a couple goals we have to play the same way as we were to get up the couple goals,” said Bruins defenceman Zach Douglas. “We can't sit back and let them come to us.”
The Klippers' Daniell Lange helped Kindersley head home with the win when he swerved into the Bruins' zone during the second round of the shootout and snapped a shot from the faceoff circle top corner glove side on newly acquired Estevan goaltender Daniel Wapple. The shootout winner came shortly after he brought the Klippers to within one of the Bruins with a deflection past a sprawling Wapple with 59 seconds left in regulation. Kindersley's Branden Scheidl brought the game into extra time 46 seconds later on a shot short side on Wapple from in close off a pass out front by Lange.
“We've got a group that is very resilient and throughout the course of the year we've had a lot of these types of games,” said Klippers head coach Geoff Grimwood, whose team moved to 20-18-1-2 with the win. “We've got to find a way to start better, but our third periods have been very good.”
Estevan began the game flying with Jason Duret scoring his ninth of the season just 37 seconds into the first period. Bruins defenceman Tyler King made the score 2-0 with his first SJHL goal at the 4:24 mark of the first with a slapper from the point that found the top corner on Kindersley goalie Nathan Hargrave.
The Bruins' Darcy DeRoose potted his team leading 20th of the season on the power play 3:15 into the second when he batted a rebound over Hargrave's shoulder, who had gone down to make the initial save. The Klippers' Sam Binfet replied on the man advantage one minute later by poking the puck past Wapple after it had slipped out front.
Kindersley's Josh Bly scored the Klippers' second power-play marker a little over eight minutes into the third when he dangled past the Estevan defence before snapping a shot over Wapple's glove from the top of the crease. Tyson Predinchuk put Estevan back up by two with 1:20 remaining while shorthanded with a one-timer from Duret, before Kindersley staged the last minute heroics.
“We got to have a killer instinct and some of it is on the defensive side and some of it is on the offensive side,” said Chris Lewgood, head coach and general manager of the Bruins. “We can't play the third period the way we did and expect to win consistently.”
The Bruins (22-16-0-3) took eight penalties versus Kindersley leading to two power goals against, while Wapple faced 44 shots. Those numbers are exactly the same from the night before when the Melfort Mustangs (27-11-3-2) came back from two goals down in the third before eventually losing 6-5 on a shootout winner by Predinchuk. Melfort took five penalties and allowed 44 shots against on Friday, while Kindersely went down one man seven times and gave up 37 shots.
“We got three (points) out of four, but I don't think we played that good,” said Douglas. “We were lucky to get out of here with three points.”
