Bruins End Road Trip With 5-2 Loss to Kindersley

The Estevan Bruins wasted a golden opportunity to gain some ground on the Melville Millionaires as they were defeated by the Kindersley Klippers 5-2 last night, giving the Klippers their first regulation win since November 26.

The Bruins and Klippers each had a slow first period as only registered four shots. The lone highlight came from Cole Olson. With the Bruins on the powerplay, Olson did a spin-o-rama back hand pass to Dylan Smith in front of the net who buried it for his 36^th goal of the season to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead after the first period.

In the second period, the score remained 1-0 until Colby Daniels banked a shot off a Bruins defenceman past Tyler Ross to tie the game at 1-1. For the Klippers that snapped a shutout streak of 117 minutes against the Bruins over the last three games. Daniels wasn’t finished as 5 minutes later scored to give the Klippers the lead. Before the end of the period Travis Geislinger extended the Klippers lead to 3-1. 

In the third period, the Bruins needed a spark to get back into the game and when they went on the powerplay with 13 minutes remaining they were hoping to cut the gap to one goal, instead Bradley Buckingham got a breakaway and scored shorthanded to put the game away at 4-1. Smith would deflect a Tyler Poskus shot past Brandon Stone late in the third period as the Bruins trailed 4-2 before Alex Laird added an empty netter to make the final 5-2. 

The Bruins ended their road trip going 1-1-1 and now sit four points back of Melville for third place with the Mils having a pair of games in hand. The Bruins allowed 5 valuable points slipped from their hands this week with regulation losses to Battleford and Kindersley and a shootout loss to the Northstars which may cost them the chance to finish out of the Survivor Series.

If the Bruins would win their remaining 5 games, Melville would have to get 7 points in their final 7 games in order to finish ahead of the Bruins. 

The Bruins are off until Wednesday when they host the Yorkton Terriers at Spectra Place at 7:30.