Bruins' playoff hopes helped, hurt by special teams
By Brad Brown
of The Mercury
The Estevan Bruins' special teams are a major reason the squad's Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff hopes could be squashed on Friday.
They have also been key in keeping the Bruins, mathematically at least, in the playoff hunt this long.
A season-long trend continued this past week as the Bruins allowed two goals on 18 opposition power plays but scored just one on 18 of their own, in losing two out of three games.
Thursday the Bruins rode Matt White's shootout goal to a 3-2 win over the visiting La Ronge Ice Wolves. Friday they hit the road for a 5-3 loss to the Weyburn Red Wings, and Sunday they were beaten 3-2 at Eston by the Kindersley Klippers.
"Their first one wasn't a goal, it was clear as day," Bruins head coach Karry Biette said of the goal by Kindersley's Johnny Calkins with one second left in the first period Sunday. "We had a bad turnover in the third period and other than that we played very solid ... we outshot them, we outworked them, and we outplayed them.
"If I could point the finger at anything, our power play needed to click and it didn't."
The controversy over the Calkins goal concerned whether or not the puck had crossed the goal line before time expired. The Bruins said no, referee Chris Crich said yes, and Estevan would fall behind 3-0 before Taylor Epp's second goal in as many games got the Bruins on the board.
"There was zero time on the clock and at the end of the day, whatever," said Biette. "You could argue until you're blue in the face. It was deflating, but at the same time I thought they responded OK.
"The best sign I've seen from this club, and we talked about it after the game, is there's no give up, no quit."
Mark Cross snapped an 18-game goalless drought, with an assist from Ty Ariss, on his third-period score to close out the scoring.
Sunday's game was the first for Ariss since serving a three-game suspension for incurring a match penalty Jan. 18 against the Notre Dame Hounds.
"Missing him was a big hole to try and increase other guys' ice time," said Biette. "You had to increase (Lucas) Stubel's ice time to the point where he's playing 28 or 29 minutes. (Brett) Rock was playing 25 minutes.
"Those big guys are good players, but they're 22 or 23-minutes-a-game guys. If you ask more of them, mistakes start happening and things start going in the back of your net."
Results from Tuesday's home game against the Melville Millionaires were not available at press time.
Prior to the game the Bruins' magic number was three, meaning any combination of three Melville wins or Estevan losses in regulation time would eliminate the Bruins from playoff contention.
Estevan's next game is Friday when they host former Bruin Chad Filteau and the Battlefords North Stars. Game time is 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Auditorium.