Everyone loves a good parade, but a parade to the penalty box isn’t a welcome thing for most hockey players and coaches.
Such was the case for the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins who, on Saturday night, engaged of one of their own as penalties deserved and questionable led to a total of 127 penalty minutes and 19 power plays in a 5-3 win by the visiting Humboldt Broncos.
It’s the third loss in a row for the Bruins, who nonetheless played better than in the other two losses.
“I feel like our effort was there tonight but obviously it’s tough when you’re down two goals early like that,” said Bruins forward Michael McChesney. “No excuse, though. We’ve just got to fix all the little things.”
“I think the biggest thing we take away from this game is how well we played for most of the game,” said Chris Lewgood, Bruins head coach and general manager. “I thought our details were a lot better than in really any of the other games we’ve played this season. I think we took some penalties we can’t afford to take and we made some mistakes in the game that cost us but bounces didn’t go our way this game.”
The Bruins went down 2-0 after the first period and came back early in the second to tie it up on goals by Michael McChesney and Jayden Davis. The tie was shortlived as the Broncos got a goal from Josh Patrician on a 4-on-3.
The Bruins went down 5-2 after third period goals from Brayden Camrud, who had two for the Broncos, and Luke Lonneman, who fell on goaltender Jake Anthony as he chipped the puck over the line. McChesney scored with 7:12 on the clock to bring Estevan to within two but they couldn’t get the equalizer, especially having to kill a penalty to McChesney for a five-minute blow to the head major on a hit on Michael Clarke.
“I thought we deserved better in a lot of those scenarios but we also took penalties we can’t afford to take,” said Lewgood. “I thought both teams were dealing with a lot extra in that area and it was too much for us to overcome this time.”
“As a player I really didn’t think our discipline was that bad tonight,” said McChesney. “Obviously there were a few calls that definitely should have been penalties and … we’ve just got to control what we can control and keep moving forward.”
The Bruins weren’t able to get a lot of ice time to their third and fourth lines with the myriad penalty minutes issued in the game.
“It’s always tough when you’re always in the box but … you’ve just got to get back to work,” McChesney said.
Well over half the game was spent with one team in some sort of manpower advantage.
“There’s probably 2,000 people in the building tonight and I don’t think too many of them enjoyed that element of the game,” said Lewgood.
The game was the Bruins forward Bryce Platt, who slotted on a line with McChesney and Turner Ripplinger, and although Platt didn’t get any points in the game he proved a solid addition to the Bruins.
“I felt like (Platt,), TJ and JD (Jayden Davis) are all pretty much the same player,” said McChesney. “Platt’s got a little more size than the other two but they both grind and do other things. Obviously chemistry’s not all there but I thought we played pretty well tonight.”
The Bruins’ next action is Wednesday at home against the La Ronge Ice Wolves and face the Ice Wolves again Saturday.
