The Estevan TS&M Bruins' quest for the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League championship came to an early end on Sunday.
The Bruins were knocked out of the first round of the playoffs by the Melville Millionaires, losing 3-0 on Thursday and 4-1 on Sunday in the best-of-three series.
Estevan, which finished in fourth place in the SBAAHL's south division, will now head to the consolation playoffs. Their first series, against a yet-to-be-determined opponent, won't start until a week into March.
Bruins head coach Tom Copeland said his team's exit at the hands of the fifth-place Millionaires was somewhat surprising.
"I think we thought we'd probably fare a little bit better than we did. We didn't expect to score one goal in two games. They played a different style of hockey and they basically smothered us. Kudos to them, they did a good job. They're a great defensive team and they put a blanket on us," Copeland said.
On Sunday, the Millionaires built a 3-0 lead before the Bruins got on the board in the third period, and by that point the hill was too steep to climb.
Connor Baber scored for the Mils in the first period and Connor Pyne added a power play marker in the second.
Melville extended their lead early in the third on a goal by Rin Beny.
The Bruins got on the board two minutes later, as Cole Fonstad scored on a power play to make it 3-1.
Pyne's second goal closed out the scoring for the Mils later in the frame.
Copeland said it was hard to mount a comeback bid in the third.
"From there, it was tough. We weren't generating enough power play opportunities for ourselves in the series. If you're not getting in behind their defencemen and creating havoc for them, you're not going to get those power play opportunities. It could have changed the outcome of the series."
Still, he said Sunday's game was better than the opener for the Bruins, and it might have been a closer contest had his club not taken some risks in trying to score in the third period.
Copeland added that "you won't find a collection" of six defencemen in the league better than Melville's.
Thursday's game in Estevan was a similar story, as the Bruins struggled to convert on their chances.
"They stuck to their guns and they were good in transition. They outshot us for sure, I don't know that they outchanced us," Copeland said.
"There were a couple of chances we normally bury and for some reason, we didn't do that in the two games. You go dry in a three-game series and you can be done pretty quickly."
With a record of 17-10-4, this was the best season for the bantam AA club in recent years and Copeland said the expectations were high.
"We wanted to play right into the end of March and April, that was our thought process."
He added that having leading scorer Cole Fonstad play so much hockey at the Saskatchewan Games last week didn't help matters.
"Is that an excuse? No, it's not, because Melville had the exact same thing happen to them. (But) I would suggest our team feeds off of routine and habits a lot more than other clubs. Our top line was off a bit."
As for the consolation playoffs coming up, Copeland said his team would take the games seriously and shoot for the consolation title, while also giving some players more ice time than they got during the regular season.
