The 2016 Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League (SBAAHL) playoffs came to a close for the Estevan TS&M Bruins at Affinity Place on Friday with a 7-2 loss to the Yorkton Xerox Terriers in the South Division Final.
Tom Copeland, head coach of the Bruins, said they were not mentally prepared to play the second game of the best-of-three series, which came two days after a 4-2 loss to the Terriers at Yorkton’s Farrell Agency Arena. He said that lack of preparation was evidenced by the team giving up the first goal 15 seconds in on a botched play off a defensive zone faceoff and the backbreaking goal that would put the Terriers up by four with three seconds remaining in the second period.
“We just weren’t ready,” said Copeland. “It’s been very rare that we’ve been not ready to play a hockey game, but tonight that was the case.”
After Zach McIntyre first got Yorkton on the board, Massen Ziola made it 2-0 a minute and forty-five seconds later when he poked in a puck that was dribbling along the goal line behind Bruins netminder Morgan Wanner. The Terriers seemed to control the play down low in the first period leading to the club’s third marker by McIntyre with a little over six minutes remaining.
“When they’re at home and they’re down a game, we know they’re going to come out strong,” said Terriers assistant coach Craig Matatall. “Our plan was to get on them early, use our speed, try to get the puck to the net and hopefully get a couple of quick goals, and we did.”
The Terriers’ Kishaun Gervais put them up by four a little over five minutes into the second, which got a reply from Bruins captain Mason Strutt nine minutes later on a rebound in close off a Liam Rutten shot. Gervais got his second of the night in the dying seconds of the middle frame, which was followed by markers by Jackson Berezowski and Ryder Korczak early in the third. Estevan’s Joey Meredith beat Yorkton goalie Nolan Maier with eight minutes remaining to finish off the scoring.
“They finished in second (place) behind us,” said Matatall. “They have a strong defensive team and we knew it was going to be tough to get pucks to the net and we were going to have to battle. They’ve got some really good speed up front and if we have the puck down low it takes away from their speed and their transitional game and that was our game plan. The kids tonight did exactly what we asked them to do.”
Copeland said all-in-all the coaching staff is proud of the team’s effort this season and the way they battled. He said they had a great effort in the opening game of the South Division Final in Yorkton and if they could take back a couple bad shifts in the second period of that one the team might have enjoyed a different result.
“They came together as a team,” said Copeland. “They played really well. They bought into the system. For the most part, they trusted the process and they never gave up, so it was good.”
