Prior to last week, the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins hadn't lost at home yet this season.
But after a 2-1 loss in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League action to the Nipawin Hawks Friday and a 5-4 loss to the Yorkton Terriers Saturday, suddenly Affinity Place is no longer the friendly confines.
“It's pretty frustrating,” said Bruins captain Jake Fletcher after Saturday's penalty-filled battle with Yorkton. “I think we really wanted to battle back from (Friday) night. We knew what was at stake and we really wanted to get this win...
“We've got to work on our discipline, our highs and lows,” Fletcher said. “We were getting pretty emotional in the second and third because we thought there were some bad calls. We've just got to get better at that and bouncing back from adversity.”
On the positive side of things, the Bruins fired 49 shots at Yorkton goaltender Nolan Meier and were unwilling to give up the game in the third period, returning from two goals down to make it a one-goal game late on the strength of Jake Heerspink's power play goal at 14:58 of the third. On the other hand, they were shorthanded a whopping 14 times in the game, compared to the Bruins' six power plays.
“When we got to within one goal with a few minutes left, I think there was a bit of an energy surge,” said Fletcher. “Everyone kind of realized we were still in this game, no matter what happened with the referees. We did have a few good chances but we just didn't capitalize on them. That's something we'll work on as a team and those chances will go our way.”
The losses broke an eight game undefeated streak going into Friday.
“We just stay the course,” said Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood. “As a team we won some games this year and didn't take those wins into the next game with us. It's just as or more important that we leave these losses behind and focus on getting back to work on Monday and getting ready for Notre Dame on Wednesday.”
As for the officials on Saturday, Lewgood was reluctant to go into depth about his feelings for them but if Spencer Cave and Levi Schutz were a restaurant, they'd have gotten a bad review on Yelp and Lewgood would sooner never dine there again.
The final straw for Lewgood was at 8:13 of the third period, when there was an extra penalty assessed to Bruin forward Kaelan Holt as his teammate Aigne McGeady-Bruce had gotten a checking from behind penalty to put the team down by two players. Incensed with this and other penalties during the game, Lewgood hit the boards at the bench in an argument with the officials and got the heave-ho for his first game misconduct of the year.
“The biggest thing for me is that we need to handle adversity differently,” said Lewgood after the game. “I thought there was questionable penalty calls (Saturday) night and I think our guys wanted to walk the line a bit and it was almost like they were drawn to push the referees further. And we were undisciplined at times. But at the end of the day, it was one of the worst hockey games I've seen. It's probably safe for me to leave it to others to read between the lines as to why I think it was one of the worst hockey games I've seen here at Affinity Place.”
Heerspink, Isaac Embree, Matthew Chekay and Michael McChesney scored the Bruins goals Saturday, with Maxim Sidelnik stopping 30 of 35 shots. Zach Goberis was the Bruins' lone goal scorer Friday, with Matt Lukacs stopping 27 of 29 shots in the Bruins net.
The team's loss to Nipawin saw the team give up a 1-0 lead in the last half of the third period, the first one to a giveaway to Nipawin rookie forward Jake Trembley.
“There's a lot of things we need to be better at as a hockey team but we can't let a couple of losses overtake us,” Lewgood said. “The best way to prevent (giveaways) is to show them some video. Beyond that, you create habits. You create habits by doing things the right way and when they're not done the right way, there's action. We sit players who aren't doing things the right way. We bench them.”
