The Power Dodge Estevan Bruins have spent four of the past six days playing exhibition hockey games in an attempt to get ready for the start of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) season.
The club’s final pre-season tilt was a penalty filled 5-4 overtime loss against the North American Hockey League’s Bismarck Bobcats at the Civic Auditorium on Sunday. A total of 30 minor penalties, one major infraction and four 10-minute misconducts were handed out in the game with the home side capturing 18 of these calls.
“I was expecting a more disciplined game from our team,” said Bruins centre Zach Goberis. “We (don’t) want to play like that coming into the next week for our home opener. We wanted to play disciplined, but that’s how hockey games go. We had to practise special teams, so we might as well get it done now to get ready for the season. It worked out well I guess.”
The Bobcats’ Brandon Young put his team up first scoring on a snapshot from the high slot while on the power play 9:50 into the game. Kaelan Holt answered back on a Bruins’ power play a little over two minutes later by poking a loose puck in the crease past Bobcats netminder Will Ulrich.
The Bruins went ahead early in the second period on markers by Matthew McNeil and Cole Rooney before Young and Cooper Haar beat Bruins goalie Nathan Alalouf to even the score before the middle frame was up. The Bobcats’ Austin Junger briefly put his team out front 7:36 into the third period only to have Jason Miller even the score on the power play with less than 10 minutes remaining. Neither team found the back of the net through regulation and overtime leaving Harr to bury the winner in the shootout on a cross-crease deke high to the blocker side of Bruins backup goaltender Matt Lukacs.
Chris Lewgood, head coach and general manager of the Bruins, said the full pre-season set of games left the coaching staff with a big practice week of teaching and getting everybody on the same page before their season opener in Melville against the Millionaires on Friday. He confirmed the team has acquired goaltender Kurtis Chapman as the future considerations part of the Aug. 11 trade with the Olds Grizzlys for Landon Gross, but they have yet to hear anything from the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats about their intentions with the player meaning the Bruins’ roster is status quo going into the weekend.
“We’ll probably be at 25 guys when we head into the regular season,” said Lewgood. “It’s just a matter of if we see some guys from the Western League then we’ll have some decisions to make. So, right now we’re happy to go forward with this group we have here and wait and see what comes our way.”
Goberis said the pre-season has helped the new-look team bond really well and all of the guys are excited to begin action this weekend, which culminates with the Bruins’ home opener at Affinity Place against the Melville Millionaires on Saturday. He said there are still a few attention-to-detail things that have to be worked out, but the players are confident their gritty and blue-collar style of play will lead them through the season.
“Our team is going to be very hard working,” said Goberis. “We’re not going to be fancy like we were last year. We’re going to be a hardworking team, get in people’s faces and make the other teams work.”
