The weekend went fairly well for the Westmoreland Bruins but the final period they played was probably their best.
The Bruins (2-12-0) lost 6-3 and 10-5 at home to the Swift Current Broncos (8-6-1) at Affinity Place in their first home games since October. The game was out of hand for the Bruins late Sunday but the players didn’t give up trying to score and play well.
“That’s what we’re going to focus on, the last period of (Sunday’s) game,” said Bruins head coach Kris Hollingshead. “Actually we played well alongside of them for two period (Saturday) too. The effort was there but it was the little things that ended up costing us.”
Jordan Marcotte scored with 1:03 left in the first period to tie the game against the Broncos, butSwift Current added a pair in the second. A shortanded goal by Rylan Williams of the Broncos made the game 4-1 at 8:35 of the third but the Bruins matched them goal for goal after that. Marcotte scored his second and Ty Hoste also scored before the end of the game. Tallan Howie was in net for Estevan for the entire game.
The series was the first home games for the Bruins since the weekend before Halloween. That time away from the ice helped the team rest and recuperate, as did the last two weeks away from even road games.
“It gave us a chance to heal up,” Hollingshead said. “Our captain (Carson Birnie) was out and we haven’t seen him for nine weeks and it was good to have him back in the lineup. Yesterday was the first time in about nine weeks that we had our full roster.”
The Bruins went into the third period down 8-3 and even further down 10-3 but quick goals from Hoste and Marcotte helped spark the Bruins to playing better for the rest of the game. Hoste had two in the game, and Tate Kasick scored the other.
But the Bruins have some work in front of them.
“We’ve got to get back to the basics and get the puck to the net and capitalizing on ur opportunities,” Hollingshead said. “We’re getting lots of chances and lots of first looks and the second and third shots, we’re not capitalizing on. We’ve got to learn to drive to the net harder and tie up pucks in front of our own net and helping our goalie.”
The Bruins play Thursday night against Weyburn (12-0-2) to close out their pre-Christmas schedule.
