After posting back-to-back shutouts against two of the best teams in the SJHL, it seemed like the Estevan Bruins might have been getting on a roll.
The Bruins had a chance to win their third game in a row on Saturday when the La Ronge Ice Wolves came to town.
Considering the fifth-place Wolves had played in Watrous the other night and now had to turn around for an afternoon game in Estevan, it was a big opportunity for the Bruins to salt away another two points on home ice.
The home side got off to a good start, taking the lead after a pretty strong first period.
But the second frame was their downfall.
Only 21 seconds after Tanner Froese scored to make it 2-0, the Ice Wolves responded at the other end. It was a classic case of handing the momentum right back after a goal.
And La Ronge kept it, scoring two more goals in the second period and riding their way to a 6-3 win.
There were two controversial potential goals in the third period.
First, Hudson Morrison thought he had scored early in the period to tie the game, but it was ruled the puck had not crossed the line.
I'm not going to pretend that I know whether it went in or didn't go in. It was very close.
The other, more clear-cut situation came with less than five minutes left on what became the game-winning goal by La Ronge. Curtis Martinu was clearly interfered with, so much so that in my photos of the goal, he's sitting inside the net with three Ice Wolves standing in the crease.
That one should not have counted, although Brett McNevin scored a no-doubter on a nice shot not long after.
Regardless, the Bruins squandered a great opportunity against a team they should have beaten.
Speaking of Martinu, what a performance for him last week. He stopped 42 shots against Notre Dame last Tuesday in his first SJHL shutout. Three days later, he made 33 saves against Humboldt for his second. The Bruins were heavily outshot in both games.
Martinu has been the team's best player all year long and he deserves to keep his starting job the rest of the way.
***
After the shenanigans in the NHL labour talks last week, I've tuned out the whole process even more than usual.
Both sides are using underhanded tactics and taking months to settle what other sports leagues have taken care of in a couple of weeks (see NFL and NBA lockouts in 2011).
Throughout last week's talks in New York, media reports told us that the process was very delicate and could easily go off the rails. Well, this was an unmitigated train wreck.
First we had Donald Fehr telling us a deal was imminent, going into detail on all the things the two sides were apparently in agreement on, in an attempt to put public pressure on Gary Bettman.
Of course, 10 minutes later Fehr returned to the podium to tell us that Bill Daly had put the kibosh on the latest offer, by voice mail no less.
A voice mail? Seriously? Bill couldn't have waited until Steve Fehr was off the phone to tell him? That's like firing a coach over the phone - you just don't do it.
But it didn't take long to see that Fehr's press conference was just a PR tactic. His hope was that fans would turn on Bettman. But in the process, he played with the heartstrings of a lot of fans, and especially the employees who are out of work because of this.
That's a terrible thing to do, and I lost some respect for Fehr that day.
On the other side of the coin, the NHL reportedly told the players that it wouldn't make a deal if Fehr was in the room.
You can't get much lower than that, trying to pressure a few players into making a deal on their own, without their leader - the guy whose job is to negotiate - in the room.
The NHL also stormed out of the meetings after demanding a yes or no answer to three things it wanted. The players tried to negotiate those points, and the meeting was over.
The league has gotten pretty familiar with labour negotiations. You'd think they would have realized that you can't just demand certain things and then take your ball and go home when you don't get them.
A deal will come when logic triumphs over emotion. They really aren't that far apart.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at [email protected], on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins blog at estevanmercury.ca/bruinsbanter. Were the Regina Pats icing a Junior B lineup on the weekend?
