Kaelan Holt was everywhere on the ice Saturday night.
The CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins rookie forward was on pucks never missing an assignment defensively and was buzzing and creating scoring chances offensively in the team’s 3-1 win over the top-ranked Battlefords North Stars at Affinity Place. To top it off, Holt also scored the Bruins game winning goal at the 41-second mark of the third period.
Lynnden “Pastachak made a really good play,” said Holt about his fourth goal and ninth point of the season. “He hit the D-man and I supported him, turned it around and Darcy (DeRoose) ended up with it. I cut in front and he made a great pass to me and I ended up burying it.”
The win ended a two-game skid for the Bruins (8-6-0-1) that included a 7-2 road loss against the lowly Melville Millionaires (4-11) at the Horizon Credit Union Centre last Tuesday and 5-2 home defeat to the Flin Flon Bombers (4-8-0-3) on Friday.
After a scoreless first period against the North Stars (13-2-0-1), Bruins captain Keegan Allison put the home side on the board first at the 9:22 mark of the second period when he poked the puck under the pad of North Stars goalie Ryan Rewerts from in close off a pass from behind the net by DeRoose. About 17 minutes after Holt’s goal, the North Stars made it close when Jake McMillen taped in a rebound under Bruins netminder Nathan Alalouf. DeRoose then scored the insurance marker into an empty net with 1:35 left in the game.
“It was a really good effort,” said Holt. “After coming off a disappointing loss (to Flin Flon) and not burying our chances and not playing as a team too much, I thought we had a really good team effort and ended up with the win. It was good to see.”
Chris Lewgood, head coach and general manager of the Bruins, said the team being able to get up for games against the top ranked teams in the SJHL while performing poorly against the lower tier squads comes down to an over-confidence issue. He said there may be a belief that they can skate past lower seeded teams and that has got to stop.
“We got to instill in them that they have to work every night,” said Lewgood. “I don’t think it’s a bad attitude or cocky. I just think it’s deeply ingrained that they’re confident against certain teams where maybe they need to have a little more respect for the league and understand there are no gimmes. There are no layups.”
