The Estevan Blue Sky Air atom AA Bruins fell just short in their attempt to come back from an early four goal deficit against the Mouse Mountain Wild at the Civic Auditorium on Sunday.
After Moose Mountain (3-13-1) jumped out to a 5-1 lead after 23 minutes on markers by Chase Robertson, Matty Fornwald, Blaise Jorgensen and Porter Barnett, the Bruins began to battle back getting pucks to the Wild net and pouncing on any rebounds. Bruins right wing Carter Hirsch started the comeback four minutes into the middle frame before defenceman Hayden Terrett made it 5-3 at the 14:10 mark of the second by deflecting a Carter Onrait point shot past Wild goalie Ty Fehrenbach.
Each of the teams engaged in an evenly played third period with both earning chances to light the light. The Wild's Ben McCarthy enjoyed the best opportunity 14 minutes into the stanza skating into the high slot from the wing and wiring a shot top corner that Bruins netminder Tyler Piper snagged with his glove. Onrait finally brought the score to 5-4 with a one-timer off a rebound from a point shot by Jayden Kuchinka with 34 seconds remaining, but the club could not notch the equalizer in the final seconds.
“The kids showed a lot of perseverance and a lot of perspective for 10 year olds as far as how to get themselves back into the game,” said Bruins head coach Chuck Lang. “That was good to see.”
The Bruins survived a Wild comeback attempt on Saturday when Moose Mountain notched three goals early in the third period to tie the score at 6-6. Onrait, with two, and Kade Phillips replied in the final 10 minutes to help the Bruins (1-11-1) to a long awaited 9-6 win.
Lang said the victory picked the whole team up and makes everyone want to push a little harder to put the puck in the back of the net. He said they'll need some big team efforts to get a few more wins as the team heads into the final month of the regular season.
“We're a fairly young team, so everybody is starting to come along now in their understandings of the systems and how the puck needs to move out of our zone and through the neutral zone,” said Lang. “We're starting to develop an understanding of how to cycle. As far as what I want to see (moving forward), I just want to see our kids pushing themselves every game.”
