It's very rare to see a team struggle early on before entirely taking over a game like the Estevan Bruins did on Saturday.
After a first period that saw the favoured Battlefords North Stars dominate on home ice, the Bruins gradually began to find their game in the second and completely turned the tide in the third, taking the game to the Stars en route to a 4-1 victory.
It was the most impressive outing I've seen from the Bruins in three years of covering them. It seemed like they were down and out as the Stars completely controlled the first 20 to 30 minutes of the game. They were in hostile territory. They were heavy underdogs. It would have been easy to concede Game 1 and hope to come back the next night with a better performance.
Not so. You could see the club starting to find their offensive mojo as the second period went on, and by the third, it was all Estevan. They dominated and exposed the North Stars like no team in the SJHL has done in the second half - other than perhaps the very same Bruins when they came back from a 5-1 deficit here on Feb. 8.
The turn of events last night had to be a huge boost of confidence for the Bruins heading into Game 2 tonight. No one else has done that to the Stars in the last few months and Estevan showed again that not only can they play with this Battlefords club, they can take the game to them.
So much of the playoffs is psychological warfare, and the B's deserve a ton of credit for not getting down and willing their way to victory.
It must be said that if not for the stellar play of Matt Gibney in the first period when the Stars were throwing everything at him, the Bruins likely don't win this game. He kept it a 1-0 affair after one - on a goal by Cam Blair where he took a feed from Regan Yew off a neutral zone turnover - and gave the Bruins a chance to come back.
Jeromy Corrigan and I commented on the broadcast last night that Gibney has really tightened up his rebound control in these last two games, after that might have been his one weakness in the early games against Flin Flon.
A big key in this game was the Bruins' power play finally getting on the board after going oh fer against the Bombers. The PP looked strong all night, and they finally broke through with two minutes left in the second when Nick Egan beat his man at the blue line, dished the puck down low to Corey Kosloski and he found Tanner Froese out front to put the puck into a yawning cage. There was no chance for Stars tender Michael Gudmandson.
That was a big goal heading into the intermission, and the Bruins built on it early in the third as Keegan Allison - one of their best players all night - gave them the lead three minutes in, as he took a feed from Kosloski on a 2-on-1 and Gudmandson was slow to get across.
Less than three minutes later, Kosloski made a heads up play when he fired the puck from a bad angle and surprised Gudmandson with a shot short side under the arm.
Froese closed out the scoring with his second power play goal of the night as he popped in a rebound from the high slot.
Final shots on goal were 40-30 for the North Stars, though I must say their shots recorded in the second period were way off. They were credited with 19 shots, where their overall shot total was in the low 20s for a bit and then suddenly jumped to 32, during a period when they weren't particularly pressuring the Bruins a lot.
I would expect the Stars to come back with a fierce game tonight after a demoralizing loss. Kevin Hasselberg is a coach of the year contender for a reason.
The fans in North Battleford deserve some credit as the attendance was 1,336, and I'd say that was about on the money. Between a midget AAA playoff game between the Stars and PA Mintos (in which Estevan defenceman Mason Benning and the Stars won the series), a charity hockey game with the Riders, and then the SJHL game, it was a very busy day at the rink and the support was solid.
Here are interviews with Keegan Allison and Chris Lewgood:
And as a bonus, here's how Jason Duret spent his post-game meal last night:
