The Estevan Bruins played in their 3rd consecutive overtime game on Wednesday night, and were unable to earn the extra point in a 3-2 OT loss to the Melville Millionaires.
After splitting OT games against Nipawin (2-1 W) and Flin Flon (7-6 L) at home over the weekend, the Bruins looked to continue racking up points in the standings against Melville with less than a month remaining in the regular season.
The Bruins got off to a great start with a pair of goals from the role players in the lineup. Just 3:46 into the game, Daniel O’Neill converted a nice pass out front from Tim Tychonick to put the Bruins ahead 1-0. Kaelan Whittingham also assisted on O’Neill’s goal, his first of the season.
A few minutes later at the 7:04 mark, Keagon Little found the loose puck in front and kicked a pass over to Sam McPeak as he scored his 2nd goal this year to extend the lead to 2-0. Aleksa Babic also assisted on the goal, Babic’s team-leading 33rd assist of the year. Melville would score later in the period to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes.
After a scoreless 2nd period, the Bruins held onto the one-goal lead until late in the 3rd period. Then the Millionaires would tie the game up on the powerplay with less than 5 minutes remaining to make it 2-2 after regulation.
In overtime, the Millionaires won an offensive zone faceoff with Jaxon Martens beating Jackson Miller five-hole at the 2:59 mark to give Melville the 3-2 win over the Bruins.
Jackson Miller (28/31) was tagged with the loss for Estevan, as the rookie made his first start in goal since January 14th. Melville’s Ethan Rau (28/30) earned the win.
Estevan (0/6) was shut out on the powerplay while Melville went (1/5) on the man advantage.
Despite the loss, the Bruins extended their point streak at home to 10 games (6-0-3-1) dating back to December 6th.
The Bruins (24-19-3-2, 6th) will now hit the road for a weekend doubleheader against the Humboldt Broncos (31-12-1-0, 2nd) on Friday and Saturday night.
