Bruins Weekly Winners

It was a quiet week for the Bruins as they split their two games last week. On Tuesday, the Bruins hammered the Notre Dame Hounds 9-2 and then the following night the Bruins were defeated by Yorkton 9-0. The two games capped off a busy stretch for the Bruins where they played 5 games in 6 nights.

Player of the Week
Calder Neufeld

The league leader in goals had a big game against the Notre Dame Hounds on Tuesday as he picked up his third hat trick of the season in the Bruins 9-2 win. Neufeld was on a roll last week as he also picked up a hat trick in the Bruins win in La Ronge on Oct. 22. It seems like Neufeld has recovered from his groin injury from earlier this month and is back to scoring at a torrid pace.

Rookie of the Week
Austin Yano

The rookie defenceman picked up a goal and three assists in the Bruins win over Notre Dame. Yano has the second most points for rookie defenceman this season. Yano continues to gain more confidence for the Bruins as he solidifies himself as the Bruins quarterback on the powerplay. As the season continues, Yano's role will likely increase.

Unsung Hero of the Week
Eric Baldwin

Baldwin spent the last week playing both forward and defence. Baldwin brought some energy to the forwards when he played up front and was rewarded with a goal and an assist in the Bruins win over Notre Dame. With Michael Hengen expected to get back in the lineup this week, Baldwin is likely going to remain on the blue line for the foreseeable future, but his play last week gives Keith Cassidy another option down the road.

The Bruins will have three games this week, the Bruins host Notre Dame in Carlyle in Wednesday, then they face Melfort in Estevan on Friday and they cap of the week with a road game in Melville on Saturday which will be broadcasted on CJ1280 and discoverestevan.com beginning at 7:20.

 

Catching Up With Former Bruins in Regina

Former Bruins |Troy Hunter (in front) and Joel Kot

It has been a quiet few days in Bruin land since the Bruins have been off since Wednesday's loss to the Yorkton Terriers. The Bruins took advantage of the week off by spending the weekend in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Bruins are back at practice tomorrow before spending the day in Carlyle on Tuesday as the Bruins host the Notre Dame Hounds on Wednesday night in Carlyle.

Like the Bruins, I had a couple of free days and after a busy week I mostly kicked back and relaxed. Although yesterday I spent the day in Regina where I watched the Riders get a win in their final home game of the season against the Hamilton Ti-Cats and then I watched the University of Regina Cougars lose to the UBC Thunderbirds 3-2 in overtime.


The Cougars feature three former Estevan Bruins, Troy Hunter and Joel Kot from last years team and Liam Brennan who played with the Bruins from 2007-09. Hunter and Brennan played on a line together, while Kot saw plenty of minutes on the blue line. None of the ex Bruins got on the score sheet, but Kot had a couple of chances, (actually one of his shots hit the goalie right in the mask which required some equipment repairs.) Hunter drew a penalty with some hard work late in the third but the Cougars were unable to connect on the powerplay.

I talked to all three ex-Bruins after the game and all of them are happy with things at Regina. The Cougars have spent a good chunk of the season on the road so I think all of the players are looking forward to spending some time at home.

I also spent some time talking to all three about Spectra Place and all of three have said they are hoping to make a trip to Estevan in the near future to get a first hand look at the new facility. All three also want to take a look at the Bruins dressing room and say hello to the man who made the dressing room possible, Gerry Aspen.

It was good seeing the former Bruin players and catching up with them and more importantly it was good to see the guys are enjoying the next stage of their hockey careers.

Bruins vs Terriers Preview

The  Estevan Bruins will wrap up the month of October with the team they played the most the Yorkton Terriers. 

Tonight's matchup with Yorkton will be the fourth meeting this month, the Terriers opened up the month with back to back wins against the Bruins, but Estevan rebounded in their latest contest on Sunday October 16, as the Bruins pulled out a 3-1 win in the SJHL Showcase. 

The Bruins are on a roll right now they picked up wins in six out of their last seven games, and sit on top of the Sherwood Conference with a 12-6 record with Weyburn right behind the Bruins with a 10-6 record. 

 Calder Neufeld continued his strong play as he scored another hat trick, his third of the season in the Bruins 9-2 win over Notre Dame. Neufeld leads the SJHL with 18 goals this season. Neufeld's linemate Dylan Smith sits on top of the points race in the SJHL with 31 points. 

The Bruins will be without Michael Hengen tonight as he continues to sit out with knee injury, he should be back in the Bruins lineup next week after suffering a knee injury last week. Matt Brykaliuk will be questionable after taking a hit to the head last night. 

After tonight, the Bruins will be off until next Wednesday when they face the Notre Dame Hounds in Carlyle.

In other news, the Bruins Tanner Froese and Matt Brykaliuk were on the Team West World Junior A Selection Camp roster that was announced today. Josh Roach and Riley Kieser of the Humboldt Broncos were the only SJHL players that were selected to the roster.

Bruins Hammer Hounds 9-2

The Estevan Bruins continued their recent dominance over the Notre Dame Hounds as they hammered them 9-2.

The Bruins did have a sluggish start with Ben Morgan opening up the scoring 4:01 into the opening period to give the Hounds an early lead.

The Bruins fortunate turned around thanks to the line of Matthew Dochylo, Josh Jelinski and Derek Whitehill, the trio's hard work paid off at the 13:05 when Dochylo scored his third of the season to tie the game at 1-1. 35 seconds later, the Bruins would take the lead with Derek Whitehill deflecting Austin Yano's point shot to give the Bruins the 2-1 lead. Before the end of the period Cole Olson scored his 5th of the season to give the Bruins a 3-1 edge after 20 minutes.

The Bruins took command in the second period scoring four times, Eric Baldwin who moved up to forward with an injury to Matt Brykaliuk buried a shot inside of the blueline to give the Bruins and gave the Bruins a 4-1 lead. Calder Neufeld then went to work as he scored a pair of goals back to back to extend the Bruins lead to 6-1, Taylor Reich added his 7th of the season to give the Bruins a 7-1 lead after 40 minutes.

In the third period, Neufeld completed the hat trick as he scored his 18th of the season to give the Bruins a 8-1 lead. Notre Dame would reply with Brandon Millin scoring to cut the lead at 8-2 and with 9 seconds Austin scored on a rebound after Ben Johnstone was denied on a breakaway to make the final 9-2.

Steven Glass had a solid game with the comfortable lead making 33 saves in the game. Despite scoring 9 goals, only one came on the extra advantage as the Bruins went 1 for 4.

After the game I spoke with Eric Baldwin who started the game on the blueline, but had to play forward with the injury to Brykaliuk. Baldwin also went into the dressing room after taking a puck in the ankle, but managed to come back and finish the game.

  1ericbaldwinoct25 by bruinsvoice


Just to refresh your memory about Baldwin and the Terriers, last game Baldwin took a hit from Brenden Poncelet and suffered an injury to the head. There was no penalty on the play but Josh Jelinski would drop the mitts with Poncelet later in that game. I'm not expecting any kind of head hunting or anything along those lines, but I do expect Baldwin and a lot of other guys to use that as motivation tomorrow night.

Like I said with Baldwin, the Dochylo-Whitehill-Jelinski line really got the Bruins out of the funk in the first with a pair of goals. The three did a great job in the entire first period of getting the puck inside of the Hounds end and controlling the play which gave the Bruins a boost after a slow start in their end.

Calder Neufeld his on a roll as he scored his second hat trick in the last three games to give him 18 on the season. Neufeld is rebounding after slowed down by a groin injury and it looks like he's back to 100%.



It didn't go on the scoresheet, but somehow the ref missed Ryan Ostertag setting up Neufeld with his second goal of the night. Normally I wouldn't give that much notice to that, but it was really clear that Ostertag gave Neufeld the pass which he deflected in. Hopefully the league officials will change the scoring because it was an obvious assist for #8.

The Bruins are back at it tomorrow night with a home game against Yorkton, catch it on the webcast once again opening faceoff is 7:30.

Bruins vs Hounds Preview

The Estevan Bruins will meet the Notre Dame Hounds for the third time this season as the two teams hook up at Spectra Place.

The Bruins are on a roll as they have won five out of their last six games including taking two out of three on the weekend from La Ronge Ice Wolves and Melfort Mustangs.

Heading into the game a pair of Bruins find themselves on top of the league leaders, as Dylan Smith leads the SJHL in points with 29, Smith had a big weekend as he was playing closer to home and picked up a goal and four assists in the final two games on the road trip. 

 Calder Neufeld heads into the game with the league lead in goals with 15 on the season, Neufeld regained the lead after a hat trick in Saturday's win over La Ronge, second in the league in goals is Dylan Smith with 13.

Ryan Ostertag found his scoring touch up north as he scored in Saturday and Sunday's game after sitting out Friday's game in La Ronge.
 

The Bruins are kicking off a stretch of home games as they will be at home for the 8 out of their next 11 games including next Wednesday's game in Carlyle against the Notre Dame Hounds. 

Bruins Forward Matt Dochylo thinks this stretch of the season will go a long way in determining where the Bruins will end up at the end of the regular season. "It's important for all these home games to pick up all the points we can, and come in January and February to look back these games and thinking how important it  was for us to pick up our home points for a playoff spot, home ice advantage, or even first place. These home games are really important for us."

As mentioned before the Bruins are facing the Hounds with the home team claiming a victory. The Bruins were in full control last time they met as they hammered the Hounds 9-1, there was also mini brawl the last time they played so it will be interesting to see if the teams play with short memories tonight.


Eric Baldwin should be back in the lineup tonight after sitting out on Sunday night in Melfort.

And I'll be doing the play by play for the webcast tonight beginning at 7:30. Here's the link for the webcast.

http://sjhl.neulion.com/sjhl/

Bruin Weekly Winners

The Bruins played four games this week with a home win against Melville followed by a split in back to back  in La Ronge followed by a road win against Melfort.  Picking winners was a little tough this week, but after this week I should be in attendence for the Bruins games for the rest of the year.

Player of the Week
Dylan Smith 1 Goal and 5 assists.

Smith moved back on to the top of SJHL scoring lead at 29 points as he picked up 6 points. Playing a little bit closer to home on the weekend, Smith responded with a couple of big games at the end of the Bruins road trip as he scored a goal and added 4 helpers in the wins over La Ronge and Melfort.

Rookie of the Week
Taylor Reich 2 goals 1 Assist

Bruins Head Coach Keith Cassidy has called Reich his "utility fielder" this season. Reich has bounced around from line to line this season, not because of poor play but rather because he plays so many roles in the Bruins lineup. Reich started off the week playing on the Smith and Olson line and responded with a pair of goals in the Bruins win over the Mils.

Unsung Hero of the Week

Tyler Kauk

One of the big reasons for the Bruins success early in the season has been the play of Kauk and Austin Yano on the blueline. Yano has provided the Bruins with plenty of offensive firepower while Kauk has been a rock on the backend. Kauk was a physical force in the Bruins win over Melville as he delivered a couple of solid of big hits. Kauk, not only hits hard, but he's also got a rocket of a shot from the point.

Bruins have a quiet week ahead, as they host Notre Dame tomorrow night and Yorkton on Wednesday night at Spectra Place and then they are off until next Wednesday as they face the Hounds in Carlyle.

Bruins Wrap Up Road Trip With 3-2 Win Over Melfort

The Estevan Bruins wrapped up their three game northern road trip with a 3-2 win over Melfort at the Northern Lights Palace.

Dylan Smith had another big night as he scored a goal and added a pair of assists to extend his lead in the overall point race with 29 points (13 goals 16 assists).

Ryan Ostertag scored for the second straight game, and Calder Neufeld added to his league leading total with 15th goal of the season to give the Bruins the win.

Brandon Stone made 19 saves for the win. The Bruins return home as they begin a stretch of home games as 8 of their next 11 games are at home with one of those home games in Carlyle. Some more good news is that tonight's road game was the final one that won't be broadcasted on CJ1280 and discoverestevan.com.

The next Bruins road game scheduled is Saturday Nov. 5 in Melville, but with the Bruins and Spectra Place hosting Doc Walker that night it looks like the game will be moved. If that game is postponed for awhile, then the next Bruins road game is Tuesday November 15 from Notre Dame.

Bruins..Elecs Football and MMA...A Busy Sports Saturday Recap

It was a busy Saturday in Sports in Estevan, the Bruins were in La Ronge for the second matchup with the Ice Wolves, the High School Football team were in Semi-Final action in Moose Jaw against Vanier and MMA took over Spectra Place as Hard Knocks Fighting 16 was held last night.

Starting off with the Bruins.

Calder Neufeld broke out of a mini slump with a natural hat trick in the second period as the Bruins defeated the Ice Wolves 4-1. Neufeld once again leads the SJHL in goals with 14, Dylan Smith had a pair of points to regain the SJHL lead with 26.

Ryan Ostertag had a goal and an assist and Brandon Stone made 47 saves to pick up the win for the Bruins.

The Bruins wrap up their three game road trip in Melfort tonight.

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 The ECS Elecs Football season came to an end yesterday as the Elecs were defeated by the Vanier Vikings 43-3.

The Elecs played their third game in the last 8 days and ran out of gas against the Vikings. Vanier scored on three of the opening four possessions to take a 21-0 lead.

The Elecs responded with a 30 yard field goal from Kyle Hovind to cut the lead to 21-3 but the Vikings would add a touchdown to make the score 28-3. 

On the first play of the second half, the Vikings would intercept Kolby Fleury's pass and returned it to the one yard line, the Vikings would punch it in to make it 35-3. The Vikings would add a late touchdown to make the final 43-3. 

The Elecs will be honored next week at the League Finals as Elijah Watchman claimed the Defensive player of the year award. The third straight year an Elecs player won the award. 

I spoke with Elecs Head Coach Marco Ricci after the game.

 Marcooct22 by bruinsvoice 

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Hard Knocks Fighting 16 was held at Spectra Place last night in front of about 2000 people last night. In total there were 10 fights including a featherweight title fight.  Here are the results

 Here are the results for the evening.

Derek Parker defeated Feliz Jimenez in the opening bout.

Andy Jack of Winnipeg defeated Ryan O'Kurly by tapout in the second round in a featherweight bout.

Zamir Safi of Lethbridge defeated Dillon Adam of La Ronge by tapout in the second round.

Ryan Feere of Winnipeg beat Craig Gaudry of Estevan in the first round by a tapout.

Leo Shoji of Lethbridge beat Travis Favel of Paynton by tapout in the first round.

 David Swanson of Winnipeg beat Agnes Deschambeault of North Battleford by a second round tapout.

 Kurt Bailey of Estevan defeated Evander Maskukaope in the third round.

Rod Busler claimed the featherweight title over Keith MacDuff by a second round tapout.

Estevan's Derek Daku knocked out Justin Schmit in the first round

Devon Smith of La Ronge knocked out Wade Baldwin of Estevan in 8 seconds.

Hard Knocks Fighting announced that they would be returning to Estevan on March 3. 

After the fights I spoke with Hard Knocks Fighting CEO Ari Taub. 

 Ari taub by bruinsvoice 

Here are some pics from the fights, I thought it was a great night at Spectra Place and I'm looking forward to the next set of fights on March 3.

Bruins Lose Road Trip Opener to La Ronge 4-1

The Estevan Bruins opened up their three game road trip with a 4-1 loss to the La Ronge Ice Wolves in La Ronge.

La Ronge jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first period, Pavlo Zerebecky and Aaron Enns scored for the Ice Wolves in the opening period.

The Bruins would cut the lead to 2-1 when Matt Brykaliuk scored his fourth of the season to cut the lead in the second period.  But less than three minutes later Tyson Valette scored his first goal of the season to cut the score to 3-1. Patrick Tran added a netminder to make the final.

It was a busy night for the goalies La Ronge’s Alex Rajotte made 45 saves to pick up the win for the Ice Wolves while Derek Tendler made 35 saves in the loss.

The two teams will meet Saturday at 7:30 in the second of their back to back matchup.

Bruins Begin Road Trip in La Ronge

For the first time this season the Bruins go on a road trip as they kick off a pair of matchups tonight with La Ronge and then once again tomorrow night the Bruins will meet the Ice Wolves before wrapping up the three game set with Melfort Mustangs.

I'm sure all of the players are excited about hitting the road and spending some time together away from Estevan. I know as a play by play guy, my favorite part of the job is traveling with the guys. I think the biggest reason I like traveling with the team so much is because I get to sleep in, usually I have to wake up at 4:00 when I'm working at the station but when I'm on the road it's much later than. With the Bruins it's always fun to be one the road because they're a bunch of great characters.  There's so many great stories I would to tell from previous road trips but you know the old saying, "Whatever happens on the road, should stay on the road." I'm so happy that these are the last 3 games where I don't travel with the team.

For tonight's game I would be surprised if Calder Neufeld and Eric Baldwin aren't back in the lineup. Keith Cassidy may elect to hold one or both out tonight, I talked with both guys on Tuesday and they each felt like they would be good to go for tonight against the Ice Wolves.

It will be interesting to see how Cassidy handles the goaltending duties this weekend. There's a possibility that all three goalies could play this weekend. Brandon Stone hasn't played in about 10 days, Steven Glass last game was on Sunday and Derek Tendler was in net on Tuesday in the Bruins win over Melville so all three guys should be more than rested for the weekend.

The Bruins have been lead by their 18 year old rookies over the past few games. Up front Matt Brykaliuk, Taylor Reich and Ben Johnstone and on the blueline Austin Yano and Tyler Kauk have been playing solid hockey and have taken a lot of positive steps over the past couple of weeks which is great news for the Bruins, these players are a big reason why the "reloading" phase for the Bruins is moving along much quicker than expected.

Opening faceoff tonight is 7:30, same time tomorrow night in La Ronge and then the Bruins wrap up the road trip on Sunday in Melfort.

Bruins Win 4th Straight Against Melville 4-1

Austin Yano provided the spark the Estevan Bruins needed as they beat the Melville Millionaires 4-1.

The first 40 minues of the game featured excellent goaltending by the Bruins Derek Tendler and Melville's Alex Wakaluk as both goalies kept the game scoreless through the first 20 minutes with each goalie making 9 saves in the first period.

It appeared the second would be like the first as it remained scoreless until 4 minutes remaining Allen Killback took a funny bounce of the backglass and did a wraparound and beat Tendler to grab a 1-0 lead.

Keith Cassidy shook up the Bruins lines in the third period, but it was Defenceman Austin Yano tied the game up as he went coast to coast undressing a Millionaire d-man and then deked out Wakaluk to tie the game at 1-1.

At 6:35 mark the Bruins would take the lead as Dominic Perrault's shot was knocked down in front by Taylor Reich who took the puck and found the back of the net to make it 2-1.

With 1:38 remaining the Bruins would put the game away as Josh Jelinski took advantage of a turnover and buried it top shelf to give the Bruin a 3-1 lead. With one minute remaining Reich would pick up his second of the night to make the final 4-1.

Derek Tendler made 28 saves for the win as he moves to 4-3 on the season.


After the game I talked to Yano and of course we had to talk about that unbelievable goal.

  Austinyanooct18 by blaineweyland


The 1993 year old Bruins continued to take a bigger role with the team as Taylor Reich found the scoresheet while Ben Johnstone and Tyler Kauk provided plenty of physical play. Kauk actually provided two hits in about 5 seconds although he did get called on the last one.

Derek Whitehill didn't get on the scoresheet, but I thought he played an excellent game providing plenty of agressive forechecking inside of the Mils end which created many turnovers throughout the night.

I've said before the stats don't reflect Derek Tendler's impact on the Bruins in the early part of the season, but Tendler played great making 28 saves in the win. Tendler looked comfortable throughout the night and it also helps the Bruins defensive play continues to improve.

Eric Baldwin and Calder Neufeld were held out of the lineup, but both players are hopeful they will be back in the lineup for Friday's game against La Ronge.

Elecs Move On To Semi-Finals

The ECS Elecs Football team live to see another day as they defeated the Swift Current Colts by a score of 21-9 to give them another shot of Vanier on Saturday.

The Elecs opened up the  scoring late in the first quarter as Dustin MacCuish took a handoff and ran it in from 70 yards to give the Elecs an early 6-0 lead.

ECS would extend their lead to 14-0 after Stefan Seipp took a screen pass and ran it for 30 yards for a touchdown. Seipp was only playing at fullback for the  second game in his career.

The Elecs defence dominated throughout the first half as they limited the Colt's offence to no points in the first half. The Colts would attempt a rally in the second half as kicked a field goal making the score 14-3.

In the fourth quarter from 20 yards out the Colts would gamble on a third down situation and they threw it in the end zone and the pass was caught by a Colt's receiver to make the score 14-9.

The Colts would have a chance to take a lead with 4 minutes as they regained the ball, but a fumble recovery from Chris Strongeagle prevented the Colt's from going anywhere.

Colton Bachorcik would score from three yards out to give the Elecs a 21-9 win. The Elecs got a strong effort from their defensive line as Seipp and Kyle Hovind combined to give the Elecs 5 sacks on the day.

The Elecs will now face the Vanier Vikings for the second time in 8 days on Saturday in Moose Jaw.

Football Elecs Begin Playoffs Today

The ECS Elecs Football team will be playing for the second in the last four days but today's game will have a lot more meaning as the Elecs host the Swift Current Colts in the first ever home playoff game in the Elecs short history.

The Elecs earned the right to the home playoff game after a pair of wins against the Colts this season, the Elecs beat the Colts in Week 1 at Swift Current 25-7 and then the Elecs held off a late Swift Current charge back on October 6 to pick up a 30-22 win.

Elecs Head Coach Marco Ricci believes the Colts will be using the momentum of the late fourth quarter rally to carry over into today's game. "They ended up executing very well in the fourth quarter the last time we played them so I'm confident they will be putting the ball up in the air so we have to tighten up our defensive coverage and we're expecting a tough matchup."

Last year it was a memorable 24 hours for the Elecs in the quarterfinals, the Elecs picked up their first win ever after they defeated the Colts in Swift Current, after the game the Elecs bus slid into the ditch due to icy roads. The Elecs weren't hurt but it did cost the team a day of preparation as they lost out to Vanier the following Saturday, that experience is why Ricci thinks it's important to have home field advantage. "The turnaround affected us quite drastically, so having homefield advantage for us will be huge, a home crowd cheering us on and it should be exciting as it's the first ever home playoff game for the Elecs in Estevan."

Opening kickoff is 3:45. The winner of today's game faces Vanier on Saturday.

Bruins Weekly Winners

Starting this week I'll be posting a weekly Bruins Award winners much like the SJHL Players of the week awards, but I'll give it to the top player, top rookie and unsung hero of the week.


Top Player of the Week

Matt Brykaliuk
3 Goals 1 Assist

It  was a breakout week for the 1993 players on the Bruins roster, but especially for Brykaliuk who contributed for the Bruins in a big way throughout the week highlighted by a 3 point night against Humboldt on Friday night.

Top Rookie of the Week

Matt Brykaliuk

This probably won't be the first time a rookie takes both player and rookie of the week. Both Taylor Reich and Ben Johnstone deserve some recognition for their efforts last week. Reich moved on to the top line with Cole Olson and Dylan Smith and picked up a goal and an assist in the win over Yorkton. While Johnstone got a pair of goals and provided plenty of physical play.

Unsung Hero of the Week

Derek Whitehill

Whitehill is starting to find the scoresheet after picking up a goal and an assist on the week, but Whitehill's greatest contribution to the team hasn't showed up on the score sheet. Whitehill is one of the few 20 year olds on the team so his leadership is very valuable to the team. Whitehill also provides energy and strong work ethic to the Bruins lineup. Head Coach Keith Cassidy said it best after the win against Yorkton, "Guys like Whitehill and Jelinski haven't exactly been lighting it up this season on the scoresheet, but take them out of our lineup I'm not sure how many games we would've won without those guys."

I'll add a defenceman of the week award when I hit the road with the team in a couple of weeks, I find it's too hard to name a defenceman of the week just by going off of score sheets.

Showcase Hangover and Broadcasting Update

It was a great weekend for the Estevan Bruins organization as they hosted the SJHL Showcase, and a big hats off to 200+ volunteers who made the weekend a huge success. Everything went smoothly this weekend, and all the visitors whether it was players, fans, coaches or scouts were blown away by the job of the Bruins organization and the volunteers.

I spoke with President Jeff Pierson this morning it will take a few days to calculate the final numbers, but added he was impressed by the number of people who came to the Saturday games without the Bruins in action.
Pierson added the next hockey event the Bruins organization could be targeting is the 2013 World Junior A Challenge, but the organization will have to sit down and do some planning before that happens.

Unfortunately I didn't do any play by play for the webcasts. I'm hoping to do some play by play for tomorrow night's game against Melville. The issues that have prevented me doing play by play are almost solved and I'm crossing my fingers I'll be live on the air tomorrow night on the web.

A lot of people have asked when do I hit the road with the Bruins and to answer that question is after this weekend's road trip I'll be with the Bruins for the rest of their road games for the rest of the season. But I'll post the broadcast schedule and I'll link it to the side of the blog today or tomorrow to keep it handy for everyone.

I will be adding a new weekly feature for the blog tonight so you can check it out later this evening. But as mentioned here's the Bruins broadcasting schedule. All games have pregames at 7:20 with 7:30 faceoffs unless indicated otherwise. Games can be heard on CJ1280 and online at discoverestevan.com

Saturday, November 5 @ Melville 

Tuesday   November 15 @ Notre Dame Pregame 7:50 Opening faceoff 8:00
 
Friday    November 25 @ Weyburn
 
Monday November 28 @ Kindersley
 
Tuesday November 29 @ Battlefords
 
Wednesday November 30 @ Humboldt
 
 
 
Sunday December 4 @ Yorkton Pregame 5:50 Opening faceoff 6:00
 
Tuesday December 6 @ Melville
 
Friday December 9 @ Flin Flon
 
Saturday December 10 @ Flin Flon
 
Sunday  December 11 @ Nipawin Pregame 5:50 Opening faceoff 6:00
 
Friday December 16 @ Notre Dame  


Friday December 30 @ Weyburn
 
 
 
Sunday, January 1 vs. Weyburn Pregame 5:50 Opening faceoff 6:00
 
Friday January 6 @ Melfort
 
Saturday January 7 @ Nipawin
 
Sunday January 8 @ Humboldt Pregame 5:50 6:00
 
Friday January 20 vs. Kindersley
 
 
 
 
 
Thursday, February 2 @ Kindersley
 
Friday, February 3 @ Battlefords
 
Saturday February 4 @ Kindersley
 
Friday February 10 vs. Kindersley
 
Saturdat February 11 vs. Humboldt
 
Friday February 17 @ Weyburn
 
February 18 vs. Weyburn
 
25 games in total with 5 home games after New Year's Day.

Bruins Close Off Showcase With Win Over Terriers

The Estevan Bruins finally solved the Yorkton Terriers with a 3-2 win over the Terriers

Taylor Reich opened up the scoring for the Bruins in the first as he skated on the line with Cole Olson and Dylan Smith with Calder Neufeld injured.

Yorkton would take the lead in the second with a pair of goals, but the Bruins rebounded with Ben Johnstone scoring to tie the game 2-2.

Then 50 seconds into the third Dylan Smith scored to out the BRuins ahead for good at 3-2.

Another strong game from Steven Glass who made 31 saves for the Bruins, as he backstopped the Bruins to a pair of wins on the Showcase Weekend.

Reich had a strong game playing on the line with Olson and Smith, Reich provided some grit to that top line, but more importantly he didn't look out of place. It looks like Calder Neufeld will be out on Tuesday with an injury so you can expect to see Reich playing on that line again.

With today's game the third one of the week between Yorkton and Estevan, it had a little playoff feel. In the second period, Eric Baldwin went down after taking a high hit that wasn't called. Baldwin needed some stitches but came back in the third period.

Josh Jelinski showed off why he was named the Captain as he dropped the mitts with Brendan Poncelet in the second looking for retribution for the hit on Baldwin, unfortunately Jelinski was penalized for 17 minutes since he took the instigator penalty but you have to like the way Jelinski stood up for his teammates.

After the game I spoke with Reich.

  Taylorreichoct16 by blaineweyland

Bruins vs Terriers

The Estevan Bruins will face the Yorkton Terriers for the third time this week at Spectra Place at 2:00 in the final game for both teams at the Showcase.

The Terriers won by scores of 4-1 and 5-3 earlier this week, both games were fairly close with Yorkton having a little something extra in each game.

It's been a big week for the Bruins Matt Brykaliuk who scored his first three goals in the SJHL, including a pair in the Bruins win over the Humboldt Broncos on Friday night.

Opening faceoff is 2:00.

A note about webcasting, hopefully it's good to go for today in terms of play by play, you should now be able to access the webast and play by play audio will be added by Tuesday's game against Melville if not today.

Bruins Close Day 1 With a Win

It was the perfect ending for Day 1 of the SJHL Showcase for the Estevan Bruins as they beat  the Humboldt Broncos 5-3 in the final game of Day 1 of the Showcase.

The Bruins got the only goal in the first when Tanner Froese scored his 5th of the season to make it 1-0. The Bruins and Broncos only combined for 12 shots in the first period.

Things would open up in the second with 5 goals, the Bruins scored three of them as Dylan Smith, Derek Whitehill, and Matt Brykaliuk all scored. Brykaliuk would get his second of the night late in the third to ice the game for the Bruins.

It was a breakout game for Brykaliuk who now has scored 3 goals in his last 2 games, in training camp a lot of the Bruin veterans were impressed with Brykaliuk and some thought he could end up being the best 1993 player for the Bruins.

I spoke to Brykaliuk after the win against the Broncos.

   Mattbrykaliukoct14 by blaineweyland


I also caught up with Josh Jelinski the new Bruins Captain after the game. I talked to him being named the Captain and as well the Showcase weekend.

   Joshjelinskioct14 by blaineweyland

The Showcase weekend is really a great event with all of the SJHL personalities inside of one rink. I wasn't able to make it to the rink for the most part on Friday, but I'll likely be at the rink on Saturday and Sunday.

Just want to give a quick mention on what great ambassadors the Estevan Bruin players really are, after earning a hard earned win the Bruins went down to the Legion Hall to take part in the United Way Telethon. The boys sang a couple of tunes, but more importantly showed their support for a great cause.

Showcase Preview

It's a  very busy weekend in Estevan along with the United Way telethon the Energy City is hosting the SGEU SJHL Showcase this weekend beginning at 11:00.

All 12 teams will be play two games over the next three days, giving a chance for scouts from all over North America to see all of the SJHL players. For Estevan, this will be a chance for them to showcase it's brand new arena Spectra Place and also it's a chance to showcase the booming city of Estevan. CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins President Jeff Pierson is looking forward to Showcase weekend. "The word Showcase is applicable to many avenues here, the premise is to showcase the players, but on top of that we're just thrilled to showcase what I believe is one of the top if not the best rink in Junior A hockey in Spectra Place and to showcase our city as a whole."

Along with the 33 hour United Way Telethon the Energy City is hosting the 3 day SGEU SJHL Showcase beginning today. Pierson can't thank the volunteers enough for their help. "The way people stepped forward to the point of where we have extra people in case of emergency is unbelievable, I think the biggest thing you take out of this is when the next event comes, it bodes so well with the support from the community."

Pierson believes the Showcase will become the first of many great events that the Bruins and the City of Estevan could host inside of Spectra Place, he noted the World Junior A Challenge and the Royal Bank Cup are two events that he could see the Bruins and the City putting future bids for.

The Showcase will begin this morning with Weyburn and La Ronge at 11:00, followed by Melfort and Notre Dame at 2:00, Yorkton and Battlefords at 5:00 and then the final game of Day 1 will feature the Humboldt Broncos and Estevan Bruins at 7:30.

I'm looking forward to catching up with several people including players, broadcasters, SJHL Coaches especially La Ronge's Bob Beatty, I'm not going with the Bruins to La Ronge next weekend so I will definitely say Hi to Bob who I have known for a long time.

I won't be able to catch much action today because of the United Way Telethon and ECS Football game, but I will be there for the Bruins-Bronocos game tonight, and then all day Saturday and Sunday I will be at the Rink this weekend, look forward to seeing you there.

Inside the Bruins Locker Room. WOW

Bruins Locker Stalls





The Wheeled B entering the room

 Cole Olson at his stall

Matt Dochylo at his stall

WOW!!!


If this isn't the first word that the enters your mind when you walk inside of the Bruins brand new dressing room there is something wrong with you.

I posted a few pics, but honestly I'm not sure there's any pictures can do any justice on how beautiful the locker room is.

Bruins Trainer Gerry Apsen has spent about 1,072 hours since about June 10 inside of the locker room making sure it was ready for his boys, the Estevan Bruins. Gerry is one of the most beloved figures in the  Estevan Bruins history and it was a very special night to see the Bruins move into the locker room.

I'll post the interview I did with Dominic Perrault, a 20 year old player who has been with the Bruins while the locker room was being built, we also talked about the Showcase this weekend.

And there was a media scrum with Gerry Aspen, the trainer for the Bruins who by the way handcrafted all of the locker stalls. Unbelievable, a job well done Gerry!


Dominic Perrault
  Domperraultoct13 by blaineweyland 

Gerry Aspen
  Gerryaspen by blaineweyland


The Bruins also have named the players who will be wearing the letters this season. Josh Jelinski will be wearing the C, while the 20 year olds Dominic Perrault, Derek Whitehill and Matt Dochylo will be wearing the A's.

I think there's no doubt Jelinski will make a great captain for the Bruins, I've said this many times but there's no player who works harder than Jelinski. Jelinski always plays like it's going to be his last shift, and always displays a hard work ethic. Jelinski is a vocal presence inside of the Bruins locker room and is always making sure the rest of the team stays motivated for the game.

Jelinski takes over the C from Troy Hunter, the two players were on the same line at the end of the season and I'm sure Jelinski learned a lot from Hunter, and I'm sure Hunter is more than happy to see that it's Jelinski taking over the C.

The one thing that should be noted when it comes to the Bruins and their leadership, the entire team believes they are leaders. All of the players have strong character and a great work ethic.

Looking forward to the Showcase, I'll have some kind of preview tomorrow morning. 

Locker Talk Tonight

Tonight on Locker Talk, I'm joined with #8 Ryan Ostertag, Me and Ryan talk about the start of the season for the Bruins, the first game inside of Spectra Place against Melville, the SJHL Showcase this weekend in Estevan.

We also take a look at his summer as he spent time in Northeast USA (Boston, New York, etc) Las Vegas, and Fargo.

Locker Talk can be seen at 6:30 Thursday night and 12:00 Saturday afternoon on Access7

Terriers Beat Bruins Second Straight Night

The Estevan Bruins battled back but in the end they fell in defeat to the Yorkton Terriers 5-3 was the final.

The Terriers jumped out to a 2-0 lead after Jeremy Johnson and Riley Paterson scored for Yorkton.
The Bruins would take the lead in the second after they scored three goals in a 2:59 span, Dylan Smith, Josh Jelinski and Matt Brykaliuk scored for the Bruins to give them a 3-2 after 40 minutes.

In the third with 4:15 remaining, Johnson scored his second of the night to tie the game at 3-3, with 2:54 remaining Brent Struble scored on the powerplay to get the lead 4-3, and with 43 seconds left Johnson completed his hat trick.

Steven Glass made 25 saves in the loss, the Bruins powerplay went 0 for 4 on the night.

The Bruins next action is tomorrow night when they face the Humboldt Broncos at 7:30 in the last game of Day 1 action of the SGEU SJHL Showcase. 

Bruins To Unveil Locker Room Tomorrow Night

Finally after months of waiting, the Bruins will open up the locker room tomorrow night just in time for the Showcase. Here is the official release from the Bruins.

The Can Elson Drilling Estevan Bruins are proud to announce that they will be unveiling the “Estevan Bruins Alumni Dressing Room” in the “Turnbull Redi- Mix Bruins Complex” on Thursday October 12, 2011.
This dressing room will be unlike any other in the country. Gerry Aspen, the Can Elson Drilling Estevan Bruins Trainer, began building the dressing room in June, 2011. He has built the entire room out of solid oak, with every detail being carefully thought out and prepared. Gerry has spent approx. 1000 hours building this dressing room, along with hundreds of hours put in by Head Coach Keith Cassidy, Assistant Coach Cole Zahn, members of the Bruins Alumni and numerous other volunteers. This room will be among the most impressive and unique facilities that Jr. Hockey in Canada has ever seen.
The unveiling of the room comes just in time for the SJHL Showcase, and the players are ecstatic.
“We know how much time and heart that Gerry has put into this dressing room, we can’t wait to see it, and it could not have come at a better time that just before the SJHL Showcase” said Bruins 20 year old vet, Matthew Dochylo.
The players will have their first glance at the dressing room on Thursday evening at 7:00pm. After the players have had a chance to see the room, at 7:30pm, the dressing room will be unveiled to its main financial supporters; after that, to the media. We would ask that all media waiting to see the dressing room wait outside the Bruins video room until they are called in.
We would like to thank all of the people who have supported the Can Elson Drilling Estevan Bruins during this transition period of moving into Spectra Place. This beautiful facility has been a rebirth for our team. With a positive attitude and the community supporting the team, the possibilities are endless.

Terriers Beat Bruins 4-1

The Yorkton Terriers were the last team to beat the Estevan Bruins in the Civic Auditorium and they became the first team to ever beat the Bruins in Spectra Place after a 4-1 decision.

The only goal in the first came from the stick of Jaime Vlanich who took advantage of a 2 on 1 and gave Yorkton a 1-0 lead. Jeremy Johnson made it 2-0 in the second, before Ben Johnstone took a beautiful pass from Michael Hengen and made it 2-1 after 40 minutes.

In the third Yorkton pulled away with a couple of goals to make the final 4-1. Brandon Stone played his first game for the Bruins after being sent down from Moose Jaw and made 30 saves.

In the end I thought the game came down to the third period, it seemed like Yorkton won more of the battles than the Bruins in the final frame and they were able to control the majority of the play.

Connor Milligan made his debut for the Bruins and was paired with Dominic Perrault, Bruins Head Coach Keith Cassidy felt Milligan had a strong debut on the back end, and he believes that Milligan and Perrault will grow and become a top shut down pair for the Bruins.

Brandon Stone made some nice saves, both Cassidy and other Bruin players have been impressed with Stone's work ethic in practice. I wouldn't be surprised with Stone getting the call for at least one more game over the next week. (The Bruins have 4 games in that span)

Matthew Dochylo sat out the game with a lower body injury, he could be ready to go for tomorrow night's game in Yorkton.

Two teams meet tomorrow night in Yorkton at 7:30.

Bruins vs Terriers Notes

The Estevan Bruins look to keep their perfect record at Spectra Place in check tonight as they square off with the Yorkton Terriers.

Heading into the contest the Bruins lead the Sherwood with a 6-3 record, while Yorkton is among the four teams that are tied for second with 8 points.

The last time these two teams played was back on Sunday September 25 when the Terriers edged out the Bruins 7-5.

The Bruins will be without Austin Daae for the near future as he's been recalled by Prince George of the WHL. With the callup of Daae and last week's trade of Chris Daniels, the Bruins have 13 forwards on the team.

Expect the lines to be the same as they were on Saturday night, with some possible changes to the blueline, with Connor Milligan probably playing tonight.

I'm expecting the goaltending duties to be split between Steven Glass and Derek Tendler over the next two days, Glass was in net for the win against Weyburn on Saturday.

Yorkton heads into tonight's matchup on skid dropping their last 3 including back to back losses to their arch rivals the Melville Millionaires on the weekend.

The Bruins and Terriers will be well reacquainted with each other after this week, the two teams meet Sunday at 2:00 as apart of the SJHL Showcase.

Opening faceoff tonight is 7:30.

Bruins Officially Make Moves

The CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins officially announced some moves over the long weekend as they try to address the back end.

The Bruins acquired defenceman Connor Milligan from the Camrose Kodiaks of the AJHL in exchange for future considerations. Milligan is a player, Bruins Head Coach Keith Cassidy is familiar with as he played with him as a 17 year old in Winnipeg.

Cassidy thinks Milligan will bring a lot to the Bruins blue line. "He's going to add some size and experience, and plus a right handed shot which is something which is good for us, I think this is going to ease some of the guys we've been getting a lot of milage out of. He and I have talked about it, he isn't trying to come in here and be Bobby Orr, he's coming in here to be a steady influence on the blueline and gives us some steady minutes, and his experience at the RBC Cup level will be invaluable to these guys, he'll pass on these guys what it takes to make it to that level when you have a chance to add a guy like that, you don't pass it up."

Expect to see Milligan make his debut for the Bruins tonight.

The Bruins also added another goalie, as the Moose Jaw Warriors have reassigned 1993 goalie Brandon Stone to the Bruins. Stone played 15 games last year with the Warriors.

Cassidy says that Stone has been working hard in practice since being sent down from Moose Jaw, he feels he's a good character kid. Cassidy thinks the most impressive thing about Stone is that he handles himself like a pro. It remains to be seen when Stone will step into the lineup for the Bruins.

The Bruins made some roster space for the two players by sending Ryan Crosson to the Pembroke Lumber Kings of the CJAHL.

It also appears that the Bruins will be without the services of Austin Daae for the time being as he's been recalled by the Prince George Cougars of the WHL.

The Bruins are back in action tonight when they host the Yorkton Terriers at Spectra Place, opening faceoff is 7:30.

Bruins Split Weekend Series With Wings 3-1

The young guns for the Estevan Bruins were the difference in their 3-1 win over the Weyburn Red Wings Saturday night at Spectra Place.

Tanner Froese opened the scoring in the first period at the 12:29 mark to give the Bruins the lead. Ben Johnstone followed that up with a memorable shift as he delivered a punishing hip check to Jack Kennelly and moments later buried a shot top shelf to make it 2-0 for the Bruins.

Taylor Reich scored 28 seconds into the second to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead. Coltyn Sanderson scored late in the second to make the score 3-1 which proved to be the final.

Steven Glass made 27 saves for the win, and all night Glass looked calm, cool and collected. He had no trouble moving side to side, and was picking up the puck well all night as he didn't look like he was out of position. With another home and home set on the way with Yorkton, I wouldn't be surprised to see Tendler and Glass split the two games.

Ben Johnstone played his best game in his brief SJHL career, Johnstone was a physical presence all night, along with the hip check I mentioned earlier, one of Johnstone's hits knocked out a piece of the glass at the penalty box.

Another line that showed a lot of good things was the Dochylo-Jelinski-Reich line , Jelinski and Dochylo are two of the hardest workers in the SJHL, and Reich will be among those ranks one day. All night they outworked the Red Wings, Dochylo also set up Reich for a goal, and if Bruins Head Coach Keith Cassidy elects to keep these three together, they could cause a lot of problems for other SJHL teams.

The Bruins will now move into another home and home set, this time with the Yorkton Terriers.

After the game I had a chance to chat with Steven Glass who picked up his third win of the season.

  Stevenglassoct8 by blaineweyland

Bruins Comeback Falls Short in Weyburn

For the second straight game the Bruins had a slow start to their game, with a lackluster effort in the first 40 minutes, before coming back with a spirited effort in the third period. The Bruins won 4-3 against Melville on Wednesday, but tonight the Red Wings held on to a 5-4 win.

Weyburn jumped ahead 1-0 early in the first period, and then they began to play their trapping style of defence as they tried to clog up the neutral zone has much as possible. It worked to the Red Wings advantage since the Bruins were kept in check. It looked like the Bruins would only be down after the first period, but with one second left Jesse Ross tossed a puck on net and fooled Derek Tendler to make it 2-0 after the first period.

The second period was like the first as the Red Wings scored two goals and lead 4-0 after 2. Keith Cassidy decided to change up his top two lines heading into the third, as Austin Daae moved up to play with Dylan Smith and Cole Olson, while Calder Neufeld played on the Derek Whitehill and Josh Jelinski line. The move paid off as Daae, Olson and Smith combined for 12 points on 4 goals. The Daae-Smith-Olson line were able to move the puck deep inside of the Wing's end and score all 4 goals within 5 feet of Kilgore.

Only three penalties, and two of them came from a fight, I'm expecting a more physical game tomorrow.

Rematch at Spectra Place is 7:30