The Estevan Westmoreland Coal peewee AA Bruins captured their second-straight home tournament championship with a 4-1 win over the Regina Tigers at Affinity Place on Sunday.
“It feels good this year to do it again,” said Bruins goalie Jackson Miller, who came 33 seconds away from posting a shutout in the final. “I think we’ll have some positive minds moving forward and some confidence maybe it’ll give us, so we can play better against other teams and maybe have a little bit more confidence in ourselves to win games.”
The Bruins came out slow against the Tigers, which beat them 5-4 two days earlier on the first night of the tournament, but seemed to gain their stride five minutes into the opening frame. Bruins forward Ty Hoste capitalized on the momentum 8:34 in sliding the puck between Tigers netminder Dylan Jekurdiak’s pad and the post on a wraparound to put the home side up 1-0.
Mason Fichter gave the Black and Gold a two-point lead about seven minutes later firing in a rebound from the slot five hole before Blayze Siebert connected on a slap shot from the half wall with 2:18 remaining in the first period.
“Everybody was ready for this game,” said Bruin Carson Birnie. “We were in our positions and angling guys off and using our speed.”
Birnie said the Tigers boast a quick group of attackers and in an effort to contain them the Bruins resorted to some undisciplined play in the final two periods using their sticks instead of body position to slow them down, which resulted in a steady parade to the penalty box. He said their solution on the kill was boxing the Tigers out, making sure they couldn’t pass it up the centre and blocking shots.
After killing three straight penalties to begin the second period with the best Tigers chance coming on a Marshall Erichsen attempt in close only to have Mason Kukura block the shot and clear the puck out of the Bruins zone, Kaden Chrest put the home side up 4-0 with a drive to the net where he dragged the puck across the crease and slid it low glove side with 12:22 remaining.
The Tigers enjoyed significant power-play time in the third period, but they were unable to penetrate the Bruins defence that continually pushed them to the outside. With the Tigers pressing for a marker late, Sam Gremba finally broke the goose egg in the final minute picking up the puck at his own blue line, racing down the ice and deking to his backhand to score low glove side on Miller.
“It would have felt good to get (the shutout), but we still won anyways,” said Miller. “We had some good passing and some nice setups for the goals and one ripper from Blayze. That was a pretty good shot.”
