The Estevan Bruins put on a show for their fans on Sunday afternoon by welcoming in the community for their team Skills Competition followed by a Community Skate with the Bruins, sponsored by Top Torque Services!
The players were split into two teams: Black and Gold. Each team had nine skaters and one goalie, with the players divided up to compete across six different competitions: Pass & Shoot, Breakaways, Accuracy Shooting, Hardest Shot, Fastest Skater Forwards, Fastest Skater Backwards, and Team Relay.
PASS & SHOOT – Each team had four shooters take six shots on either Cam Hrdlicka or Jackson Miller, with each team earning a point for every goal scored. Team Black edged out Team Gold in this competition 10-9.
BREAKAWAYS – Each team had four shooters take four shots on either Cam Hrdlicka or Jackson Miller, with each team earning a point for every goal scored. The last shot for each player had to be a “trick-shot”. Team Gold won this competition 6-1, giving Team Gold a 15-11 lead.
ACCURACY SHOOTING – Each team had four shooters take six shots on an empty net. Each player was required to follow the same order with their shots: Post – Crossbar – Post – Post – Crossbar – Post. A point was awarded for every accurate shot. Team Black won this competition 11-4, led by Ilia Chmelevski who went 5/6 on his attempts. Team Black retook the lead with a score of 22-19.
HARDEST SHOT – Each team had four shooters take three shots on an empty net, with their hardest of the three shots being recorded as their score. Only one point was awarded to the winning team for this event, which was won by Kade Runke who recorded the hardest shot at 92mph. Runke edged out Cody Davis on Team Black who recorded 91mph. Team Black continued to lead 22-20 with three events to go.
FASTEST SKATER FORWARD – Each team had four skaters sprint down the ice from the goal line to pylons set down past the far blueline. The fastest time recorded would earn their team a point in the event. Team Black would win this competition as Cody Davis recorded the fastest time, and Team Black would lead 23-20.
FASTEST SKATER BACKWARDS – Each team had four skaters, three defencemen each and one forward, skate as fast as they could backwards from the goal line to pylons set down past the far blueline. The fastest time recorded would earn their team a point in the event. Team Gold won this competition thanks to the fastest time recorded by Tim Tychonick. However, Team Black would take a 23-21 lead into the final event.
TEAM RELAY – The final event would be a team relay featuring all nine skaters for each team. Five points would be awarded to the winning team, so whoever won this event would take the whole competition. Each team would start opposite each other on the red line. Each player would have a stick with them and skate around pylons in a circle around center ice. At the end of one full lap, that player would hand the stick off to a teammate and that player would now repeat the lap. This continued until the final skaters raced to the red line, with Team Black crossing the line first and winning the 2023 Skills Competition by a final score of 28-21.
Following the Skills Competition, all fans in attendance were invited down onto the ice for a Community Skate with the Bruins! There were plenty of smiles and lots of happy fans enjoying an hour with the Bruins on the ice!
