The CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins junior A hockey team lost 3-2 to the Weyburn Red Wings on Friday at Affinity Place in a game that featured one team that wanted the win more than the other did.
Chris Lewgood, head coach and general manager of the Bruins, said his players should be able to get up for these important matches against their Viterra Division rivals. He said the Friday game showed the Red Wings look forward to playing the Bruins a lot more than the Bruins do them and that has to change.
“They hate us more than we hate them and they hate losing more than we hate losing,” said Lewgood. “We got to change that mindset and our guys have to re-evaluate. We’ll look at the film and we just have to come with a little better mindset. It shouldn’t be that way, but (Friday) maybe it was.”
The Wings (7-1-1) got on the board first just over four minutes in when Weyburn’s Jeremy Lagler one timed a shot from the faceoff circle past Bruins goaltender Tyler Fuhr in an evenly matched first period that saw Estevan come out with an 11-9 advantage on the shot clock. A little rough stuff after the final whistle resulted in Weyburn being down one man to start the second.
As they showed on their one power play in the first period, the Bruins five-man unit of Owen LaClare, Jason Duret, Braden Oleksyn, Zach Douglas and Charles Manley failed to generate hardly any offensive pressure or shots on net. The same cannot be said of the Weyburn power play, who pounced on their only man advantage opportunity in the second frame when Aiden Teilborg roofed a shot past Fuhr to put Weyburn up 2-0. Estevan earned another man advantage a little over two minutes after Weyburn scored, but the power play unit once again had difficulty finding the net.
“We got to move the puck faster and break down their penalty kill, so we don’t have to shoot wide,” said Lewgood. “They’re missing the net because the other team is blocking lanes and taking away the lane to the net, so our guys have got to do a better job of moving the puck, breaking down the penalty kill and having clear lanes to shoot with.”
The Bruins (5-4-0-1) did not have an easy time finding the net again in the first half of the third period and failed to register a shot on goal until 12 minutes in. The final eight minutes featured a goal by Weyburn’s Carson Rose before Manley and Oleksyn scored late to make it 3-2.
Lewgood said Weyburn did a good job of clogging up the middle at the beginning of the third to limit the shots against, but his guys also weren’t playing hard enough. He said they have to make sure the second chances end up on their stick instead of the opposition.
When asked if the team should try to crash and bang a bit more to generate puck possession in the offensive zone, Lewgood said that is not who they are. He said they need to do a better job of penetrating the opposition, getting to the inside and creating.
“We got to play with some finesse, but it’s going to take hard work and creativity,” he said. “If we are working hard away from the puck we’ll create outlets for each other and if we use those outlets we should be able to get pucks to the net. And it’s probably going to be a rebound or going hard to the net. That’s where I think we lost possession a lot (Friday) was on second chances. I think they beat us to the puck a lot.”
