The Estevan Westmoreland Coal peewee AA Bruins are off to the league final for the first time since 2009.
The peewee Bruins defeated the Yorkton Terriers 7-6 on Saturday afternoon in Yorkton to sweep the best-of-three South Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League final in two games. Estevan had won Game 1 4-3 in double overtime two nights earlier at Affinity Place.
Estevan will face either the Swift Current Broncos or the Weyburn Wings in the league final. That series is tied at 1-1, and Game 3 is scheduled for March 8 in Swift Current.
Game 1 saw the Terriers race out to a 3-0 advantage. Carter Dereniwsky tallied 24 seconds into the game, and Nikolas Gordon increased the advantage to two at the 7:50 mark of the opening period.
Then Jayden Halliday scored 10 seconds into the second period to give Yorkton the 3-0 lead.
Mason Kukura scored with 6:12 to play in the middle frame to pull the Bruins to within two. Kaden Chrest’s goal 6:16 into the third made it a one-goal game, and Jeremy Meredith tied the game with 6:33 remaining.
The opening 10-minute extra frame settled nothing. The Bruins killed off a penalty early in the next overtime period, and 65 seconds after the penalty expired, Mason Fichter scored to lift the Bruins to victory.
Jackson Miller was in goal for the Bruins, while Michael Malinowski was the goalie for the Terriers.
Coach Aren Miller said the team was nervous in the first game, as only four of their players had been in a peewee AA postseason game before, and they were also rusty, since they had a first-round bye, which meant 10 days off between the end of the regular season and their first playoff game.
“We practised harder. We did everything right, I thought,” said Miller. “And Yorkton played the three playoff games (in the first round), and I thought that was the difference.”
In Game 2, Yorkton once again scored twice early, with goals by Dereniwsky and Gordon 77 seconds apart before the game was eight minutes old. But this time, the Bruins responded quickly, as Carson Birnie and Boden Dukart tallied 38 seconds apart, leaving the game tied at 2-2 before it was eight minutes old.
The two teams scored four more times in the final five minutes of the first period. Grady Hoffman gave the Terriers a 3-2 lead with 4:44 to play, but Nathan Wagstaff tied the game with 2:34 remaining. It appeared the Bruins would carry the lead into the first intermission after Ty Hoste scored with 44 seconds left, but Jaxon Sperling responded 33 seconds later to tie the game again.
The second period saw the teams exchange goals, with Birnie scoring 7:49 into the middle frame, and Reid Pfeifer tying the game less than four minutes later.
Estevan took the lead for good in the third. James Mann made the score 6-5 just 3:16 into the period, and Boden Dukart scored the winning goal 4:11 later.
“We told the kids they had 20 minutes here to play their best and go to a league final,” said Miller. “I thought we were way better in the third period.”
Pfeifer scored his second of the game with 4:06 remaining, but Yorkton couldn’t beat Jackson Miller for the winning goal. Coach Miller noted Yorkton didn’t have a good scoring chance in the final two minutes after the Terriers pulled their goalie in a last-ditch effort to keep their season alive.
Malinowski was in goal for Yorkton.
Miller believes nerves were once again a factor in Game 2.
“We scored enough goals to win, but we made some bad plays in our own end that cost us some goals,” said coach Miller. “We were down 2-0 right away … and battled back again.”
The penalty killing was strong in both games, he said particularly during the overtime of Game 1, and Miller was pleased with how they contained Pfeifer and Dereniwsky when Yorkton had a man advantage. Miller said he is proud of the players, and the way in which they battled back after trailing in both games.
“It shows the character of our team,” said Miller.
