A wild finish and some last-minute heroics by Estevan TS&M bantam AA Bruins defenceman Carey Levesque propelled the team to a 7-6 road win over the Notre Dame Hounds at Duncan McNeil Arena on Saturday.
“We had a really good game from Carey Levesque,” said Bruins head coach Tom Copeland. “He had some beauties (and) especially the game winner. A (one-timer) off the middle of the point into the net. So, he was a big part of our power play on the weekend.”
Levesque's game winner with 1:02 remaining came 40 seconds after the Hounds' Blake Rasmusson tied the match while short handed. Rasmusson's marker came just over a minute after Bruins forward Riley Niven made it 6-5 with one of only three five-on-five goals scored during the game.
In total, the Bruins went six for 13 on the power play against the Hounds while also allowing two short-handed goals. In addition to the shorties, the Hounds also notched two goals with the man advantage.
Chase Gedak scored three of the Bruins power-play goals with Levesque potting the remaining other three including the game winner. Logan Nagel earned the win between the pipes by stopping 12 of the 18 shots directed his way, while Estevan peppered the Hounds net recording 50 shots during the game.
“We certainly carried the (play),” said Copeland. “We controlled the game for the most part, (but) just broke down defensively at times and they were able to take care of that.”
The Bruins (4-8-3) win was their second in row following a 6-5 comeback win over the Weyburn Crescent Point Wings in the Opportunity City on Nov. 23. The Bruins held the advantage during the match outshooting the Wings 49-32, but Copeland noted the actual total of shots directed at the Weyburn net was in the 85-90 range.
“We're missing far too much,” he said. “We've got two weeks off basically now before we go to Prince Albert (for a tournament). Some of these things we're going to start to see in practice. We're going to work hard on. It sounds dumb hitting the net, but learning how to score again and having confidence and not having to be so cute and pick corners and things like that. The one thing that we saw in Notre Dame that was really good was we had a great net-front presence and that's something that we've been harping on, so that's getting better. A couple wins in a row now, so hopefully we're starting to build on something here.”
