The bounces didn’t roll the Estevan Westmoreland peewee AA Bruins way in their 6-3 loss to the Swift Current Southwest Terminal Broncos at the Civic Auditorium on Saturday.
“We played a complete game,” said Bruins head coach Aren Miller. “We told the kids after (this game that sometimes) you work hard and play well and lose and today was one of those games.”
The Bruins controlled the action early against the Broncos, but it was the visitors that got on the scoreboard first thanks to a net-front deflection by Swift Current’s Kalan Lind 12:21 into the opening period. The Broncos’ Brady Wilson made it 2-0 about three minutes into the middle frame with Lind potting the team’s third goal past Bruins netminder Talon Howie halfway through the contest.
Estevan’s James Mann brought his team to within two at the 13:26 mark of the second period by stealing the puck in the neutral zone resulting in a breakaway chance that the high-scoring forward made no mistake on by roofing the puck from in close on Broncos goalie Rylan Hildebrand.
The Bruins then stepped up the pressure only to have Broncos captain Jaydon Jessiman restore the three goal lead a little over two minutes later. The line of Mann, Boden Dukart and Ty Hoste went back to work early into the third period with Dukart notching the 4-2 marker on a net crash 4:28 into the stanza.
Swift Current’s Wilson and Dayne Feicht replied shortly after despite a determined push from the home side. The Bruins hard work finally paid off with 4:44 remaining on a Mason Kukura one-timer from the slot off a goal-line pass from centre Kaden Chrest.
“We just started crashing the net more,” said Chrest. “We couldn’t really get the bounces, but we did put a couple in.”
The loss, coupled with the Bruins 6-4 defeat to the Broncos (21-1) one day earlier, brings the club to a 14-7-1 record heading into the team’s three final games of the South Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League regular season. The Black and Gold will head to Yorkton this weekend to face the Terriers (11-11) on Saturday and Sunday before hitting Weyburn next Wednesday for a match against the Wings (9-11-2).
“Yorkton is a team that has beat us twice, so that will be a good test going into the playoffs,” said Miller. “We set our schedule up so we’d have some tougher games going into playoffs. It gets them battle ready.”
