He’s only been with the Estevan Bruins for two weeks, but newly-acquired defenceman Kian Calder has made an immediate impact on the team and is getting noticed around the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL).
Kian Calder has been named as the SJHL’s ‘Defenceman of the Week’ for October 18th – 24th after posting 5 points (2G, 3A) in 3 games last week, helping the Bruins’ to two wins and an extra point in their shootout loss to La Ronge.
Calder had the primary assist on Caelan Fitzpatrick’s shorthanded goal against Flin Flon on October 20th. The goal tied the game at 1-1 in the 3rd period and led to a Bruins’ 3-1 victory over the league-leading Bombers. The next night, Calder scored his first goal with the Bruins against La Ronge on October 21st with the Bruins’ trailing 2-0 in the 2nd period, again helping the team come from behind and earn a point albeit in a 3-2 shootout loss. Then during the Bruins’ dominating 9-0 victory over Melville on October 23rd, Calder scored while shorthanded to make it 2-0 in the 1st period and added two primary assists for a 3-point effort in the victory.
Calder leads all Bruins’ defencemen in scoring with 7 points (2G, 5A) in 6 games since joining the team, and also sits tied for 8th among all SJHL defenceman despite playing less than half of the games of most of the players ahead of him. Calder and the Bruins’ will look to continue their hot play (3-0-0-1 in last 4 games) on the road this week with games in Battlefords (Tuesday), Kindersley (Wednesday) and a weekend home-and-home with Melville (away on Saturday, home on Sunday).
ST. ONGE NAMED RUNNER-UP
Estevan Bruins’ rookie forward Antoine St. Onge was also recognized for his strong play last week with the ‘runner-up’ mention for the SJHL’s Rookie of the Week award. Kindersley’s Tylin Hilbig (2GP, 2G/1A, 3PTS) was credited with the award.
St. Onge tallied 4 points (1G, 3A) in three games last week, including a 3-point effort in Saturday’s 9-0 win over Melville. For the season, St. Onge is scoring at better than a point-per-game pace (10 PTS in 9GP) and trails only Caelan Fitzpatrick (14 PTS in 11GP) for rookie scoring on the team. St. Onge sits tied for 9th overall in SJHL rookie scoring, though his points-per-game (1.11) is good for 4th overall.
And an honorable mention goes out from the Bruins’ to goaltender Boston Bilous, who was not named the ‘Goaltender of the Week’ or the runner-up for the honour. Bilous, who was named Goaltender of the Week earlier this year, was stellar with a 0.98 G.A.A., .968 SV% and 1 SO while going (2-0-0-1) last week.
