Estevan To Host 2012 Hall of Fame Ceremonies and other SJHL News

The SJHL Hall of Fame will be making a stop in the Energy City this year as the league announced today the 2012 SJHL Hall of Fame ceremonies will be held in Estevan next season. 

The SJHL Hall of Fame was first introduced in 2009 in Weyburn with ceremonies being held in Humboldt in 2010 and in Yorkton 2011. Each year the inductees into the Hall of Fame have ties to the city to where the ceremonies are taking place.  The Hall of Fame weekend includes a Hall of Fame game along with Hall of Fame ceremonies. A date for the SJHL Hall of Fame ceremonies still has to be set, as the league has said that it will be set sometime in early fall. 

Plenty of other changes were announced by the league earlier today. Starting in 2012-13 the maximum number of 20 year old players will be reduced to 8 and then in 2013-14 the maximum of 20 year olds will be reduced to 7. 

The league announced that the schedule will be reduced to 54 games next season with teams playing 40 games within their division and 12 against non conference teams, for example the Bruins will now play 8 games against Weyburn, Yorkton, Melville, Notre Dame and Kindersley and a home and home set with the Bauer Conference along with the two games at the SJHL Showcase. The league also announced that the SJHL Showcase will be held in Melfort on the weekend of December 14-16.

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League has agreed upon 3 year contract and a 1 year option with Sher-wood to be the supplier of Equipment and Sticks.

The Official Helmet Supplier will be Cascade Sports with the M11 the Messier Project, the helmet appears to be the helmet that will protect the players the best.

Training Camps are set to begin on September 5 for SJHL clubs; the league also announced that the majority of the games next season will be played on weekends to allow younger players to play in the league next year while focusing on their education.

Heartbreak to End Homestand for the Bruins

Through the first 48 minutes of last night's game it looked like the Bruins were going to cap off their six game home stand with a big win over Battlefords, but after a third period collapse where they gave up four goals, the Bruins are now looking for answers thanks to a 5-3 loss to the Northstars.

The Bruins took advantage of Battlefords playing their third game in three nights as they took the play to them in the first 40 minutes. There was so much to like about the Bruins play in the first 40 minutes. They played a strong physical game as they took the body to a tough Northstars team. The Bruins created a lot of chances offensively, and defensively they did a solid job shutting down an offensively gifted Northstars team.

But in the final 12 minutes of the third period, the Bruins eased off mentally and that allowed the Northstars to come back and score 4 goals to pick up the win.

Yesterday's loss puts the Bruins in serious danger of falling into the Survivor Series with Notre Dame, the Bruins trail Yorkton by 6 points in the Sherwood Conference with 8 games remaining. The Bruins almost have to win out to catch the Terriers, since the Terrier's have a magic number of 5 of clinching a Top 3 spot. (thanks to Craig Stein for that stat)

Last night Bruin fans were reminded that this is a young team, that has a lot of skill, grit and the talent to be one of the best teams in the SJHL. The biggest challenge over these next 8 games is to buckle down mentally, not allowing mistakes to cost them. If the Bruins can correct their mental mistakes, there's no reason why they can't make a post season run in a tight Sherwood Conference, even if they have to go through the Survivor Series.

The Bruins are off until Thursday when they kick off a three game road trip in Kindersley and you can catch the game on CJ1280 beginning at 7:20.

Bruins Close Homestand Tonight

The Estevan Bruins have beaten every team in the SJHL at least once this season with the exception of the Battlefords Northstars. The Bruins get their chance to beat the Northstars tonight as they Battlefords at Spectra Place at 6:00.

The Bruins will be wrapping up their six game home stand this evening with the Bruins going 4-1 in the first five games of the home stand. The Bruins won their last game in dramatic fashion against the Nipawin Hawk, Calder Neufeld scored with less than a minute remaining before Dylan Smith ended the game in overtime.

Neufeld said after the game on Friday that Battlefords would be a tough matchup for the Bruins, so they had to take advantage of the home ice and play a physical game and take advantage that the Northstars are playing their third game in three nights.

Tyler Ross picked up his fourth straight win for the Bruins, Steven Glass made his return to the Bruins lineup on Friday night as was the back up for the Bruins against Nipawin. Tonight's game will be the first time Zach MacLellan will get a crack against his old team. Opening faceoff is 6:00

Bruins Beat Hawks 3-2 In OT

The CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins had to pull out some dramatic flare on their way to picking up a 3-2 overtime win over the Nipawin Hawks extending their winning streak to four games. 

Both the Bruins and Hawks battled to a scoreless first period, there were plenty of penalties in the first period as the Bruins had four power plays while the Hawks had a pair of their own but neither team could take advantage of it. 

In the second period the Hawks would get on the scoreboard when Wheaton King’s pass went off a Bruin skater past Tyler Ross and gave the Hawks the early lead.  The Bruins got a bounce back as Tyler Poskus shot that went along the boards took a funny bounce to the front of the net and Calder Neufeld scored to tie the game. Darius Cole would score before the end of the period to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead.

In the third period there was no scoring until a minute remaining when the Bruins pulled their extra attacker and Neufeld scored to tie the game at 2-2 and sending it to overtime. 

In the extra frame, Zach MacLellan carried the puck in deep and put a shot on net, Dylan Smith took the rebound and scored his 33^rd goal of the season to make the final 3-2. Tyler Ross had 22 saves in the win.

The Bruins return to action tomorrow night when they host Battlefords at Spectra Place with an opening faceoff at 6:00.

Locker Talk Tonight With Dylan Smith

Tonight on Locker Talk I have a one on one interview the Bruins leading scorer Dylan Smith.

Of course we talk about the current state of the Bruins and their playoff stretch drive. We discussed the Bruins battle with  Yorkton and Melville for the second and third spots in the Sherwood Conference.

We also discussed issues like All-Star games both from an SJHL and NHL perspective as well we discussed Tim Thomas skipping out on the White House visit. (Don't worry it won't be a political debate)

You can watch Locker Talk tonight on Access 7 at 6:30 and the replay Saturday at 12:00.

Here's a little preview with Smith.

All Star Game Mock Draft with Cole Olson

Tomorrow night the NHL will hold their All-Star Game Fantasy Draft with Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara picking the two teams that will line up against each other on Sunday. I thought with a the draft I would have a little fun and do Mock Draft. (I'm read a lot of mock drafts for a lot sports when really they are useless), Earlier this afternoon me and Bruins Center Cole Olson did a mock draft for the All Star Game.

Olson selected Zdeno Chara and Joffrey Lupul's team because he's a Maple Leaf fan and couldn't stand having Alfredsson on his team. I didn't mind taking Alfredsson (along with Henrik Lundquist) since I can refer to my team as Team Alf. Everybody remembers Alf right?

I wonder if any of the Bruins would know who Alf is since he was on tv when I was a little kid.

Anyways he's the result of the mock draft.  We took out the rule where goalies and defenseman had to be taken by a certain round.
And you case you don't know I'm a diehard Flames Fan, so of course I'm taking Jarome Iginla with my first pick. 

1.Olson- Evegni Malkin
2.Weyland- Jarome Iginla
3. Olson- Steven Stamkos
4. Weyland- Claude Giroux
5. Olson- Pavel Datsyuk
6. Weyland- John Tavares
7. Olson- Patrick Kane
8. Weyland- Henrik Sedin
9. Olson- Daniel Sedin
10. Weyland- Marian Gaborik
11. Olson- Tim Thomas
12. Weyland- Dion Phaneuf
13.Olson- Erik Karlsson
14.Weyland- Shea Weber
15. Olson- Corey Perry
16. Weyland- Tyler Seguin
17. Olson- Phil Kessel
18 Weyland- Jordan Eberle
19. Olson- Kris Letang
20. Weyland- Jason Spezza
21. Olson- Marian Hossa
22. Weyland- Jon Quick
23. Olson- Keith Yandle
24. Weyland- Logan Couture
25. Olson- Jaime Benn
26. Weyland- Ryan Suter
27. Olson- Bryan Campbell
28. Weyland- Dennis Wideman
29. Olson- James Neil
30. Weyland- Jason Pominville
31. Olson- Carey Price
32. Weyland- Scott Hartnell
33. Olson- Alex Edler
34. Weyland- Kimo Timonen
35. Olson- Bryan Elliot
36. Weyland- Jimmy Howard
37. Olson- Milan Michalek
38. Weyland Daniel Girardi

So here's our teams

 

 Team Olson/ Team Chara

Evgeni Malkin
Steven Stamkos
Pavel Datsyuk
 Patrick Kane
Daniel Sedin
 Tim Thomas   
 Erik Karlsson
Corey Perry
Phil Kessel
 Kris Letang
 Marian Hossa
Keith Yandle
Jaime Benn
 Brian Campbell
 James Neal
 Corey Price
 Alex Edler
 Brian Elliot
Milan Michalek

Team Weyland/ Team Alf

Jarome Iginla

Claude Giroux
John Tavares

Henrik Sedin

Marian Gaborik

Dion Phaneuf

Shea Weber

Tyler Seguin

Jordan Eberle

Jason Spezza

Jon Quick

Randy Couture
Ryan Suter
Dennis Wideman
Jason Pominville
Scott Hartnell
Kimo Timonen
Jimmy Howard
Dan Girardi

There's a poll on the right, cast a vote on which team you think would win.