The Estevan Bruins win streak came to and end on Saturday night, but their consecutive games with a point continues after being on the wrong side of a 2-1 overtime loss to the visiting Yorkton Terriers.
Yorkton’s Chantz Petruic scored his 2nd goal of the game, and SJHL-leading 52nd goal of the season, 2:33 into overtime to lift the Terriers to victory after the Bruins heavily outshot Yorkton all night long, with the final shots at 57-26 in favour of Estevan.
Petruic got the scoring started at the 9:04 mark of the opening period as he received a pass from behind the Bruins net. Petruic fanned on his initial chance, but that allowed him to change the angle on Bruins’ goaltender Keenan Rancier and Petruic finished to make it 1-0 Yorkton.
It remained 1-0 after the 1st period and, despite the Bruins putting 18 shots on goal in the 2nd period, the score remained 1-0 heading into the final frame. Shots were 32-20 for Estevan after 40 minutes, with Yorkton’s Philippe Bond standing on his head in the Yorkton net.
The Bruins continued to throw everything at the Terriers net and at the 11:35 mark of the 3rd period, they would finally break the goose egg. Troy Hamilton grabbed the puck in the high slot, skated all the way into the corner and behind the net to beat his defenceman, came out front on the wrap-around and roofed a backhand shot past Bond’s glove to tie the game at 1-1. Tyson Manz and Griffin Asham-Moroz assisted on Hamilton’s 7th goal of the year.
Neither team would break the deadlock before the end of regulation and the two teams would be off to overtime for the first time in six meetings this season. After an early chance by Petruic, Bruins’ forward Asham-Moroz earned two high-quality scoring chances but was thwarted by Bond on both opportunities.
Shortly thereafter, Petruic picked up the puck in the neutral zone and went wide around the Bruins’ defenders. Petruic made a nice move and got a good shot off which was stopped by Rancier. However, the rebound fell into the crease and bounced off the stick of Tylor Ludwar trickling over the goal line as the bad bounce was the difference in a 2-1 overtime win for Yorkton.
Keenan Rancier (24/26) was tremendous once again in net for the Bruins, but the story of the game was Yorkton’s Philippe Bond (56/57) who bounced back after giving up 6 goals on 17 shots just five nights earlier during a 9-1 Bruins’ win in Yorkton.
Neither team had too many chances on special teams, with both Estevan (0/3) and Yorkton (0/1) being shut out on the powerplay.
This was the final meeting of the season between the Viterra Division rivals. By earning the single point, the Bruins’ (3-2-1) now hold the tiebreaker over Yorkton (3-3-0) if the two teams are tied in points at the end of the regular season.
With roughly six weeks left in the regular season, the Bruins (18-17-3-1) trail Yorkton (26-18-1-1) by 14 points for the Viterra Division title. However, the Bruins will have 8 games in hand on the Terriers when Estevan plays their next games.
The Bruins have 19 games left in the regular season and will next play the Weyburn Red Wings in a home-and-home weekend series on Friday, Jan. 17th (in Weyburn) and Saturday, Jan. 18th (in Estevan).