It's been one of the best seasons in franchise history for the Estevan Bruins. After winning 43 games in the regular season, the Bruins cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs before outlasting the Flin Flon Bombers in what was arguably the best Junior A final in all of Canada.

Now, the host Bruins will ride that momentum into the Centennial Cup at Affinity Place, hoping to win the city its first ever national championship.

"Right now our first goal is to finish in the top three, that guarantees you a spot in the quarter finals, and then maybe put yourself in a position for the semis," said Bruins head coach Jason Tatarnic.

"We're going to be facing some pretty good teams here, so we have our work cut out for us."

Estevan will go up against Brooks, Longueuil, Red Lake, and Pickering, beginning with a showdown against the Quebec champions tonight.

"Obviously there's going to be different styles played," said Bruins captain Eric Houk. "Our league some say is a more physical league, maybe some of the Quebec teams are more skilled, but at the end of the day teams surprise each other. We'll have to adapt to each other and that's just I guess the beauty of the tournament, and it's going to showcase a lot of different talents."

Bruins forward Keagon Little commented on going up against the Brooks Bandits, a team who is pegged by many to be the tournament favourite.

"Brooks is usually always good...they're going to be one of the top teams," Little said. "I think we've got to bring our A-game every game and just focus on Friday's game and go from there."

Playoff MVP Boston Bilous, along with sniper Mark Rumsey, who scored a league leading 39 goals in the regular, plus speedster Olivier Pouliot, who had 22 points in the playoffs, will be key cogs for Estevan through out the tournament.

All Estevan Bruins games will be on Rock 106, expect for a potential gold medal game, which will be broadcast exclusively on TSN.