The Power Dodge Estevan Bruins are piling up the points offensively despite five of their top six forwards graduating in the offseason as they swept the Melville Millionaires in their first two games of the season.
The Bruins won 7-4 over the Mills in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League action at Affinity Place Saturday, one day after winning 5-4 in a shootout in Melville the night before, giving them a leg up in the early Viterra Division standings.
But it was the play of four defencemen who stepped up in the last 40 minutes as both Austin King-Cunningham and Jake Heerspink were tossed for fighting majors in the first period that really made a difference.
“I think a couple of times I went for some rushes and I got a little over-excited,” said Bruins blueliner Aigne McGeady-Bruce. “I was pretty tired after that but overall we just kept the shifts short and the rest of the team made it easy on us.”
Witzke also enjoyed the time on the ice in the game.
“I was happy with how our defence played tonight,” said defenceman Johnny Witzke. “Kudos to Spinks (Heerspink) and Kinger (King-Cunningham). They stood up for each other. I felt like we had the guys to finish the game and they ended up doing that.”
The Bruins jumped out to a 3-0 lead at 7:24 of the first period and seemed to be in complete control early. But a lapse that lasted half a period and saw the Bruins’ lead evaporate was rectified by the end of the period to the point where the Bruins had a 6-4 lead after 40 minutes. An empty net goal from Turner Ripplinger, his second goal of the game, salted the game away for the Bruins.
Witzke also scored a pair in the game also, while T.J. Irey, George Cathers and Michael McChesney each scored singles.
“I’m not trying to build up points, I’m trying to build up becoming a better hockey player,” said Witzke. “Tonight was just my night to help the team win.”
Irey is in a tie for the league’s scoring lead with Flin Flon’s Brandson Hein with seven points in his first two games.
Jake Anthony stopped 27 of 31 shots in net for the Bruins while the Bruins fired 23 at Colby Entz and Berk Berkeliev.
“Melville played hard and they didn’t go away,” said Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood. “The good news is we didn’t get scored on a lot this weekend for any reason we should be alarmed about. We had some breakdowns that were mental errors and things that come from playing hockey at this time of year.”
The Bruins had a much easier games against divisional opponents early last year that came from having a bevy of top-end scorers, and while they have players that can score, the games are already looking a lot different than last season.
“This year, having pretty grindy games will be good just to realize we’ve got to come out hard every game,” said McGeady-Bruce.
Lewgood said the Bruins have a different group of forwards this year but they will be capable of scoring this year.
“I don’t think it’s going to come as easily as it has in the past,” he said. “There’s no question we’ve got some firepower there and the guys that we need to chip in offensively are stepping up already.”
In the season opener. McChesney was the only scorer in the shootout after a close game that saw the teams knotted for most of the contest.
New captain Jake Heerspink scored a goal and two assists, offensive contributions matched by Irey, with Cathers and McChesney scoring the other goals for the Bruins.
The scores at the breaks were 2-2 after the first period, 3-3 after the second and 4-4 after the third period.
Anthony stopped 25 of 29 shots in regulation and overtime, and also all three shots in the shootout. The Bruins fired 40 shots at Entz.
“It’s a good start,” Witzke said. “It was nice to get a couple wins out of the way. Now we’ve just got to build up for Yorkton.”
The Bruins’ next action is Tuesday night at home to the Yorkton Terriers.
