The Estevan Bruins played their second-last regular season game at home on Saturday night, hosting the Notre Dame Hounds in the back half of a home-and-home series.
The Bruins were looking to avenge a 3-2 loss on Thursday night in Wilcox and at the same time, deal a critical blow to the Hounds slim playoff chances.
The Bruins got the scoring started in the opening period thanks to the powerplay which went (2/5) in Thursday’s game. Just 8:11 into the game, Jag Phangura would fire a shot five-hole for his 16th of the season to make it 1-0, with Aleksa Babic and Keagon Little assisting. Notre Dame would score late goal to make it 1-1 after 20 minutes of play.
The Bruins would break the game open in the 2nd period scoring four unanswered goals to take a commanding lead. After his initial shot was stopped, Evan Forrest circled the zone and sent a seeing-eye shot from the point that was tipped by Sam McPeak to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 3:40. Gabriel Filion also assisted on McPeak’s 3rd of the season. After that, the Bruins would score three goals in under four minutes to go up 5-1.
At 8:48, Cody Davis stayed hot scoring his 19th of the year to make it 3-1 with assists to Kade Runke and Owen Miley. Then at 10:09, Gabriel Filion came in on a breakaway and picked top corner as his 10th of the year made it 4-1, assisted by Dan O’Neill and Kaelan Whittingham. Finally, after Runke drove the net and was stopped, Miley cleaned up the rebound for his 7th of the year to make it 5-1 heading into the intermission. Davis also assisted on the goal.
The 3rd period would start out penalty-filled with both teams getting in on the rough stuff. After several off-setting roughing minors, Ilia Chmelevski dropped the gloves and fought Notre Dame’s Evan Vanden Heuvel in a tilt that brought the crowd to their feet. After more penalties to Estevan, Notre Dame eventually scored on a 5-on-3 after several highlight-reel saves by Jackson Miller. But it wouldn’t be the last goal of the night, as Filion once again came in on a breakaway and scored his 11th of the year to round out the scoring at 6-2.
Jackson Miller (27/29) earned his 6th win of the year with a great performance at home, while Johann Tremblay-Kau (26/32) was tagged with the loss for Notre Dame. The Bruins went (1/7) on the powerplay while Notre Dame finished (1/8).
The Estevan Bruins (27-22-3-2) will now look ahead to their final home game of the regular season next Wednesday, March 8th as they host the Melville Millionaires (13-34-5-1). It’s ‘Ticket Redemption Night’, as fans will be able to bring any unused tickets from the regular season and redeem them at the gate. Puck drop is 7pm on Wednesday at Affinity Place.