The Estevan Apex midget AA Bruins fired 53 shots on the Lumsden/Bethune Lions net at Affinity Place on Saturday, but only three were truly memorable for the goalie who stared the onslaught down.
“The save that stood out the most is the one where I made the first save, made the second save, came out for the third save and actually fell over and the puck still ended up hitting me,” said Lions netminder Riley Christison about a second period flurry midway through the 0-0 draw. “It was just one of those nights where everything hit me.”
Christison had stopped about 25 pucks by the time he got hit with that second period chance with a majority of those shots and the 28 he faced afterwards being of the difficult save variety. The Bruins (19-4-2) controlled the play from the opening faceoff and notched quality opportunities throughout including a Dawson Schaff one-timer from the side of the net halfway through the first period that found Christison’s chest and a blast from the wing by Hunter Piche 13 minutes into the third period that the goaltender calmly gloved down.
“I had fun,” he said. “I was seeing the puck well through anything.”
Bruins centre Jacob Palmer enjoyed a number of chances to break the shutout with a shot from the hashmarks late in the second period and a wire off the post midway through the final stanza proving to be prime examples, but it was a chance late in the extra frame that he felt deserved a better fate.
“It was a rebound and I backhanded it and the other player came in and blocked it,” said Palmer. “They came in and crashed the net and protected it.”
Bruins goaltender Bryson Garton’s shutout attempt faced its biggest challenge shortly before Palmer’s overtime chance. With 1:40 left to play in the fourth period, Lions forwards Jacob Belton and Kade Klisowsky broke in on a two-on-one with the latter wiring a one-timer low corner from in close that Garton stopped with a quick pad save.
“It’s a tie against one of the better teams in the league,” said Christison, whose team moves to 5-14-2-2 with the draw. “You want to come into someone’s barn and take two points any night, but we’ll take one I guess.”
The 0-0 tie and 2-1 win over the Notre Dame Hounds (7-15-0-1) at Affinity Place on Sunday wraps up a successful nine-game home stand for the Bruins that saw the club go 6-2-1 over the past month and a half. The second seed in the South Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League plays seven of their final 11 regular season games on the road beginning with a return match against the Lions at Lumsden Arena on Friday.
“We did very well at home,” said Palmer. “Now we just got to go out on the road and win a couple of games there to get into first.”
