Estevan Bruins defeat Melfort Mustangs to split weekend games

Written By: David Willberg of SaskToday.ca

The Estevan Bruins picked up a split of their weekend home games with a 5-4 shootout victory over the Melfort Mustangs Saturday night.

Mikol Sartor opened the scoring for the Bruins 62 seconds into the first period, but goals by Nolan Doell and Dawson Leroux put Melfort up by one after the first period.

Eric Houk and Olivier Pouliot scored 35 seconds apart midway through the second to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead, but Doell replied a few minutes later to tie the game again.

Pouliot’s second of the game 11:45 into the third restored the Bruins’ lead, but Marco Lopez scored with 2:57 remaining to force overtime.

Neither team scored in the five-minute extra frame, and Sartor had the only goal for either team in the shootout.

Cam Hrdlicka made 16 saves for Estevan to get the win in goal, while James Venne stopped 21 for Melfort.

Estevan (18-5-1-1) will head up north for a quick two-game road trip, visiting the Nipawin Hawks on Tuesday and the Mustangs on Wednesday.