The Estevan Bruins junior A hockey team saw their weekend road record fall to 1-2 after suffering a 5-2 loss to the Melfort Mustangs at the Northern Lights Palace on Saturday.
After the Bruins jumped ahead 1-0 on a Kaelan Holt goal just over a minute into the game, the Mustangs’ Miles Warkentine replied at the 8:01 mark to tie it at one heading into the second. In a sign of things to come, Estevan and Melfort were each called for five penalties in the first 20 minutes.
Chris Lewgood, head coach and general manager of the Bruins, said there were a lot of bizarre penalties in the game and the officials called everything. He said there was also a bit of frustration and animosity from players on both sides that helped add to the total, but that was basically two teams that have and will play each other a bit this season and each was trying to send a message and not back down.
Another quick Bruins goal started the second when captain Keegan Allison lit the lamp 25 seconds in, but that was followed only 27 seconds later on Mustangs forward Travis Mayan’s league leading 27th of the season. A power play marker by Justin Boyer at the 7:39 mark before Warkertine and Brett Kitt beat Bruins goaltender Nathan Alalouf before the next two-and-a-half minutes passed made the score 5-2 Mustangs heading into the third.
Lewgood said the quick second period goals were just some breakdowns that ended up in the back of their net. He said the decision to start Alalouf against Melfort (19-5-2-1), after Tyler Gutenberg started the night before in 5-4 away win over the Nipawin Hawks (15-11-2) and Tyler Fuhr manned the crease 48 hours earlier in a 3-2 road loss to the Flin Flon Bombers (11-12-0-4), was made because the coaching staff wanted to give each netminder some playing time in order to make a decision on their goaltending as the club moves forward.
“We’re doing everything we can to determine (who will be their regular starter) and what our goaltending tandem is going to be, but every game is an evaluation for that,” said Lewgood.
In total the Bruins had nine power plays against Melfort, but failed to capitalize on any. The Mustangs scored only once on their eight power plays. In the three-game road trip, Estevan finished with two short handed goals and one allowed on 15 penalty kills, while going without a goal in 18 power plays.
Lewgood said a good penalty kill comes down to attention to detail and hard work and their guys exhibit that consistently and were rewarded with the two short handed goals as a result. He said the power play just isn’t clicking and they are starting to look at different combinations and have made some changes to formations that they’re using, but they just have to keep working hard and eventually it will come and when it does they’ll have something to build on.
After playing Flin Flon, Nipawin and Melfort in three nights over the weekend, the Bruins (14-11-0-1) are heading back up north for another three-game trip against those foes this Friday to Sunday. Having to endure two three games in three nights road trips is just the nature of a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League schedule, said Lewgood, but that shouldn’t affect the team negatively considering they are able to gain valuable rest between the two.
“It’s nice to get back to the drawing board and see the same team two weeks in a row because you can learn from it and move forward,” he said. “Every team does them and they’re not easy, but there are no excuses. You got to go and play.”
