Couple of Upsets on Tuesday Night!

There were three games tonight in the SJHL as another week of action kicked off and a couple of surprise results.

We will start in Estevan, where the Bruins hosted the Notre Dame Hounds in the lone Sherwood Conference game tonight. The Hounds got on the board first at 3:23 of the second period as Rylan Schwartz got a power play marker from Chris Bratina and Kyle Ireland. The Bruins responded just under six minutes later as Liam Brennan picked up the goal from Niko Grose and Garrett Lasko, also a power play goal. The Bruins went up 2-1 at the 4:25 mark of the third as Riley Tetreault got the eventual game winner from Payden Benning and Kyle Ermel. This would complete the scoring for the night in a game dominated by the goaltenders. Karsten Felske, who was well rested coming into the game, picked up the win as he stopped 43 Notre Dame shots. Mark Currie was even busier at the other end as he stopped 48 shots. Either the shot keepers were being generous tonight or it was a wide open game as it is rare to see both teams with that many shots. The Bruins move closer to the pack in the Sherwood as they improve to 12-10-2-0 and only five points now separate first place Melville from the fifth place Bruins. Despite the solid effort, the Hounds fall to 7-17-1-0.

The Battlefords North Stars picked up a character win tonight as they surprised the Flin Flon Bombers 3-0. John Midtdal, Jesse Lebreton and Jason Walker (empty netter) scored for the Stars who held off a very good offensive team in the Bombers. Shaun McNulty chipped in with two assists against his former team. John Dalton, Nickolaus Dvorak and Kirk Moore also had assists for the Battlefords. Ryan Kerpan made 26 saves for his first career shutout. Carsen Chubak made 36 saves in the Bombers goal. The Stars improve to 3-20-1-1 with the win while the Bombers fail to gain on second place Melfort and fall to 13-9-0-1.

The other upset of the night was in Nipawin where the Hawks held on for a big 2-1 win over the visiting Humboldt Broncos. Blair Toms put the Hawks up on the power play in the first period with assists going to Torrie Dyck and Steve Mason. Jordan Schindel tied the game for the Broncos at the 7:00 mark of the second period with assists going to Brayden Klimosko and Mitchell Stretch. The Hawks got the winner on a late third period power play goal by Adam Schwark to seal the victory. Taylor Thiessen and Kyle Cowan assisted on the goal. Derek Kleinsteuber, the reigning SJHL goaltender of the week, had another great game as he stopped 45 Humboldt shots. Andrew Bodnarchuk got the start for the Broncos and made 24 saves.

Tonight's Three Stars:

* Derek Kleinsteuber - Nipawin Hawks (45 saves in win over Humboldt)
** Ryan Kerpan - Battlefords North Stars (26 saves for shutout win over Flin Flon)
*** Karsten Felske - Estevan Bruins (43 saves for win over Notre Dame)

A rare goaltending sweep. Mark Currie of the Notre Dame Hounds also deserved consideration tonight.

SJHL News: The Yorkton Terriers were delivered a blow on Monday when it was announced that forward Carter Smith was going to give another shot at the WHL, this time with the Red Deer Rebels. Smith has previous WHL experience with the Moose Jaw Warriors and Everett Silvertips. This comes at a tough time for the Terriers as they are also currently playing without the services of Bryan Hull, who is injured. It is expected that if things don't work out for Smith in Red Deer, he would then return to the Terriers.

Rumors that Flin Flon forward Dustyn Clegg had been traded to the MJHL turned out to be false, at least for now, as he played for Flin Flon tonight in North Battleford. There were rumors circulating that Clegg was headed to the Selkirk Steelers.

SJHL Wednesday:

Melfort @ Melville
Flin Flon @ Kindersley
Nipawin @ La Ronge

- Brad M.