That's Better!

There were four games on Saturday night in the SJHL and of course most of you readers were focused on the game in Estevan between your Wings and the hometown Bruins. The Wings were able to rebound from Friday's overtime loss at home by defeating the Bruins 4-3 in overtime in Estevan tonight.
Nick Needham picked up the winner at 2:17 of overtime picking up a loose puck in front of Bruins goaltender Guillaume Perusse and burying it past him for the game winner. Scott Doody picked up his second assist of the game on the winner. The Wings and Bruins exchanged early goals as Brody Haygarth put the Bruins on the board just over 2 minutes into the first period from Trent Rumpel and Kealin Wong. The Wings tied it 43 seconds later as Brayden Nargang got goal number six on the season with Josh Bray picking up the assist. Late in the second period, the longest 3.7 seconds of hockey I have ever witnessed occurred as Kyle Stroh scored for the Bruins with .5 seconds to go in the period (ahh ....... the old home clock advantage). Payden Benning and Kyle Ermel assisted on the goal. The Bruins took the lead 4:55 into the third period as Kyle Garagan banked a puck off of Kyle McConnell to make it 3-2 Bruins as Gabriel Carle assisted. Just under 4 minutes later, the Wings tied it up again as Eric Calibaba fired the puck past Perusse with Scott Doody and Kyle Haines getting the helpers. This of course led to Needham's overtime heroics. Kyle McConnell was strong between the pipes as he made 30 saves in the win. Guillaume Perusse had 31 stops at the other end for the Bruins. Apparently the Estevan crew decided that all three stars belonged to their team tonight. I would suggest that they and I must have been watching different games. In Weyburn last night, we did have the decency to reward Bruins defenseman Kealin Wong the first star. Oh well enough sour grapes - the good guys won. The Wings are now 7-5-1-1 while the Bruins move to 8-4-1-0. The Bruins lead the Wings by one point for second in the Sherwood Conference.

In Melville tonight, the Millionaires improved to 11-1-0-0 with a 5-2 win over the Melfort Mustangs, now 5-7-0-0. Kale Dolinski scored twice for Melville, including the game winner in the third period, to help push the Mils over the top tonight. Dion Campbell had a huge game as well as he scored twice and added a pair of assists. Daniel Hope also scored for Melville. Tommy Brown scored both Mustang goals and continues his good play as a rookie on the Stangs blue line. The final shot totals were not released but I can tell you that Kyle Cantlon was the winning goaltender while David Ritz was on the losing end for Melfort.

In Flin Flon, the Bombers made up for a Friday night loss by bombing the Kindersley Klippers 4-0. Carsen Chubak made 29 saves for his first career SJHL shutout. The line of Reid MacLeod, Dennis Kubat and Pierre - Luc Boucher was again deadly as they combined for 8 points. MacLeod had two goals, Kubat had a goal and two assists and Boucher added three assists. David Linsley also scored for Flin Flon. Ryan Nieszner started for the Klippers and took the loss as he stopped 28 of 32 shots in just under 50 minutes of play. Matt Weninger went the distance and stopped all nine shots he faced in the later part of the third period. The Bombers improve to 7-4-0-1 while the Klippers are now 6-4-0-0.

Finally, in La Ronge, the Ice Wolves outscored the Battlefords North Stars 7-4. Bruno - Pier Gosselin had two goals and two assists to pace the Ice Wolves attack. Jordie Johnston added a goal and two assists. Calvin Fiddler scored twice for the Wolves who also got singles from Floyd Cook and Jesse Bannerman. Jarrid Dowhay added three assists for the Ice Wolves. Brody Malek, Nickolaus Dvorak, Matt Restoule and Makstr Lacoursiere all scored for Battlefords. Barrett Penner and Tony Oak each had two assists for the Stars. Jonathan Jobin picked up the win in goal as he stopped 27 of the 31 shots he faced. Adrien Lemay stopped 26 of 33 shots he faced. The Ice Wolves improve to 5-5-1-0 while the Stars have hit double digits in losses and are now 2-10-1-0.

Saturday's Three Stars:

1. Dion Campbell - Melville Millionaires (4 points)
2. Bruno - Pier Gosselin - La Ronge Ice Wolves (4 point night)
3. Carsen Chubak - Flin Flon Bombers (29 saves, shutout)

There are two games Sunday night as Melfort is in Notre Dame and Kindersley is in Nipawin. The Wings return to action Wednesday night at home when the La Ronge Ice Wolves come to town. Game time as always will be 7:30.

- Brad M.