Spanning the globe, the ABC Wide World of Sports program in the 1970s and 1980s offered viewers the chance to see the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
The TS&M Bantam AA Bruins offered people watching them both of those things in one location — Affinity Place. The Bruins beat league-leading Swift Current Broncos 3-2 in overtime Saturday night and them lost 4-3 to the Notre Dame Hounds in regulation.
“(Saturday) night we survived and competed hard,” said Bruins head coach Tom Copeland, who was suspended for the games. “We got good goaltending out of Zane (Winter) and didn’t allow the shots. We had a lot of the same (Sunday) but you can’t allow easy goals like that and win hockey games. We’ve got to compete harder.”
The Bruins allowed the first two goals of the game against the run of play. They were two of Notre Dame’s four shots on the period while the Bruins fired 19. The Bruins had 57 shots on net in the game Sunday but Copeland felt they weren’t getting a lot of second chances on Notre Dame goaltender Casey Johnson.
“We’ve got to get more bodies to the net, more second opportunities, more o-zone time,” Copeland said. “We can’t be one and done.”
Tayce Miller scored at 7:38 of the second to bring the Bruins to within one goal but a quick Hounds goal deflated the Bruins and then another marker with 1:23 to go in the period was too much to come back from.
The third period saw the Bruins try a bit of a comeback attempt with goals by Colby Cuddington and Clay McKersie, who scored the 4-3 goal.
“You can take all the perimeter shots in the world and the goaltending in this league is going to take care of that,” Copeland said. “You can’t wait for 50 minutes and decide you’re going to play the hockey game and win.”
Saturay, the Bruins’ Kaden Chrest scored a pair of goals – a shorthanded goal with 2:29 on the clock in the second period – to help stake the Bruins to a 2-0 lead. Although the Broncos tied it up before overtime, Colby Cuddington fed Turner McMillen on a breakaway pass and the Bruins became the third team overall to beat Swift Current this season. Winter stopped 33 shots in the win.
He wasn’t sure if the team was riding too high after their win over Swift Current.
“It’s a lesson, for sure,” Copeland said. “It’s a young team, 10, 11 first year guys and it’s a lesson. We’ll regroup in practice and get going.”
The Bruins hit the road on the weekend for their last pre-Christmas games. They go to Prince Albert to take on the Pirates Saturday and they’re at the Saskatoon Stallions Sunday.
