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Bruins beat Terriers to overtake division lead

As the Yorkton Terriers filed off the ice after their game with the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins at Affinity Place Tuesday night, they may have thought they deserved better.
Davis
Bruins forward Jayden Davis tries to break through a pair of Yorkton defenders Tuesday night at Affinity Place.

As the Yorkton Terriers filed off the ice after their game with the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins at Affinity Place Tuesday night, they may have thought they deserved better.

But Bruins goaltender Jake Anthony played what might have been his best game as a Bruin, shutting the door on 43 of 44 Yorkton (10-8-1) shots in helping the Bruins (11-10-0) win 4-1 over the now-former Viterra Division leaders.

“The boys were giving me a lot of shooting lanes to see,” said Anthony. “They were letting me see the puck and take the passing lanes and it was a pretty easy night in that department.”

The Terriers weren’t letting him off the hook and the powerful offence Yorkton had fired 31 shots in the first two periods at Anthony, who stood tall in the win.

“It helps get the mojo going. Near the end of the game it’s nice to just slow it down but it’s nice to get in the game with that,” said Anthony.

The number of saves Anthony made were impressive statistically, but Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood felt Anthony played a good game even without putting the numbers into consideration.

“For me, his rebound control, he just controlled that crease area very well,” Lewgood said. “He was one of our best players tonight and he credits the guys makingit easy tonight and I think that’s just him being humble. I think early on, he had to be really good for us and he was, and it gave us a lot of confidence going forward and we because a better team as the night went on.” 

Michael McChesney scored the first goal of the game for the Bruins by picking up a loose puck and firing it behind Yorkton goaltender Ryan Ouellette. TJ Irey made it 2-0 early in the second period but the game wasn’t out of reach at all and the Terriers kept up the pressure when Mason Mullaney scored at 15:55 of the period.

Bryce Platt and Turner Ripplinger scored goals 50 seconds apart in the middle of the third and the game was fairly out of reach.

“It was a little bit of pond hockey out there and I thought we did a relatively good job of keeping it tight on the inside,” said Lewgood. “We did give up some chances against but for the most part we did our job and kept their key gunners to very few scoring chances.”

The win within the division was a huge two points for the Bruins, who now take over the lead even though Yorkton has games in hand.

“This is a massive game because we get two points and take two points from them,” said Anthony. “It gets us in first place and every point counts down the line.”

The Bruins will now go on the road to play three games in three nights in the Global Ag Risk Solutions Division taking on the Battlefords Friday, Kindersley Saturday and Humboldt Sunday.

“We lost three games on our last road trip where we played relatively well…,” said Lewgood. “For the most part we’ve been playing really good hockey in our last ten (games). We’ve just got to keep that going. We’ve got to keep putting pucks to the net and keep trusting ourselves.”