For the first time since 2009, the Estevan Apex midget AA Bruins are headed to the South Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League’s (SSMHL) final. Estevan rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to defeat the host Melville Millionaires 3-2 on Sunday afternoon, and win the best-offive semifinal series in four games. The Bruins will now face the Yorkton Terriers in a showdown of the top two teams in the SSMHL during the regular season. Estevan had the best record in the regular season at 29-4-3, while Yorkton (28-4-4) was just one point back. The Terriers won all three meetings between the two teams this season. As for the semifinal, all four games between the Bruins and the Millionaires were decided by one goal. After defeating the Mills
3-2 in Game 1 on March 5, the Bruins edged the Mills 2-1 on Friday evening at Affinity Place. Jacob Palmer opened the scoring with 7:53 to play in the second period, and Jaiden Gervais doubled the advantage with a marker 9:36 into the third. Luke Nkwama’s goal with 6:10 to play in the third was the only Melville shot to beat Bruin goaltender Ethan Veroba. The Millionaires regrouped to defeat the Bruins 2-1 in Melville in Game 3 the following day. Dononvan Florek had both goals for Melville, including the opening goal of the game with 6:19 to play in the first and the winning goal with seven minutes remaining in the third. Jared Fornwald had Estevan’s lone goal, a marker that came with 6:12 remaining in the second. It left the game tied at ones until Florek’s second goal. Veroba was in goal for
that game, too. Nkwama and Florek scored 95 seconds apart in the opening three minutes of the first period of Game 4 to give Melville a 2-0 advantage. “Melville at the time, when they scored those two goals, they were on such an emotional high that we just had to stick with our process, and we knew if we did that, we’d be okay,” said Bruins coach Blake Jamieson. The advantage stood up until the 3:14 mark of the second period, when a Kale Martens goal pulled Estevan to within one. It appeared the series might be headed to a fifth and deciding game until the second half of the third period. Preston Audet scored with 9:20 remaining to tie the game, and Liam Rutten notched the winning goal with 3:33 to play. “We just started skating and put a tonne of pressure on them (in the final two
periods),” said Jamieson. Bryson Garton was in goal for the victory. While Game 5 would have been in Estevan, Jamieson is pleased to avoid a fifth game. The Bruins already have one five-game series under their belts, thanks to the first round matchup against the Notre Dame Hounds. “Obviously we wanted
to win in three straight, but we probably took Game 3 for granted a little bit, so we were happy to close it out in four,” said Jamieson. Game 1 against Yorkton is slated for March 18 at Affinity Place at 7:30 p.m. Game 2 is March 21 in Yorkton, and Game 3 is March 25 back in Estevan at 7:30 p.m. Game 4, if necessary,
would be March 26 in Yorkton, and Game 5 would be March 29 at Affinity Place at 8 p.m. “Yorkton is very similar to us,” said Jamieson. “They put lots of pressure on us, and they have good goaltending. So it should be one heck of a final.” The winner of the series will advance to the provincial final.
