The Power Dodge Estevan Bruins put two decent periods of hockey together against the Flin Flon Bombers, but their uneven second period was something they couldn’t recover from Sunday at Affinity Place.
The Bruins lost 6-2 to the Bombers after they surrendered three goals late in the period and one early in the third and stopped their winning streak at one.
“I think we kind of lost our game plan for the second period and it showed,” said Bruins captain Jake Heerspink, who picked up an assist in the game. “I feel like we came out really well in the first and we dominated for most of the game but a couple of mental mistakes in the second really beat us up and that’s all it takes in this league.
“We can not make those mistakes. We can’t lose our D-zone. We can’t shy away from our game and turn it into an individual effort.”
The Bruins tied the score at 1-1 when Tristyn DeRoose scored his second as a Bruin at 18:28 of the first period on a delayed penalty from Austin King-Cunningham and Heerspink. The Bruins outshot the Bombers 14-8 in that period and seemed to be playing just as well as in their dominant win against La Ronge but the wheels fell off.
The Bombers outscored the Bruins 3-0 in the second and outshot them 14-8.
“I think we lost our composure for an entire period,” said Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood. “(It was a) long string that cost us. We played really well for 40 minutes. We played well enough to put ourselves in a good position in the first and third but when you have a stinker in the second and you’re behind the 8-ball, you’re playing catch-up.”
By the time Eddie Gallagher scored his second goal in as many nights for the Bruins at 14:38 of the third period, the game was effectively a lost cause.
Lewgood said they have to trust the players to turn things around when things start going sideways on the ice like they did in the second period.
“(Sunday) We didn’t see as much of that,” he said. “Maybe going forward instead of trusting that’s going to happen we maybe shake things up a bit. But every scenario, every game is different. Maybe in hindsight we should have shaken things up in that third period.”
With that in mind, the Bruins will have a few days of practice to figure out the game plan before a pair of tough opponents in the Melfort Mustangs Friday and the Nipawin Hawks Saturday, with both games at Affinity Place.
“We’ve got four days of practice in prep for two teams,” said Lewgood. “We’ve got to learn from these games. We make some adjustments when it comes to how we approach certain scenarios but we focus on our game plan. We’ll throw some tweaks in there that are specific to our opponents but really it’s just back to work.”
Sunday, Jake Anthony and Grant Boldt combined for 27 saves in the loss.
