The Estevan Bruins first long road trip of the season was teetering between bad and average entering play on Friday, September 28. The Battlefords North Stars pushed it past bad and into disastrous. 

Five different North Stars scored on a road-weary Bruins squad who stood their ground through the first period and folded in the second. Tanner Manz scored the lone Estevan goal but it was just a blip on the radar for an otherwise dominant night for Battlefords. 

The first period past as even as one would expect from two strong teams from the previous year who were expected to be strong again. The North Stars held the narrowest of shot advantages 11-10 and the Bruins had been carrying the physical play, led by Austin King-Cunningham who threw several crushing open ice hits. 

In the second, it unraveled quickly, however, and the Bruins were at least partially the architects of their own demise. Three straight turnovers led to goals against at even strength, shorthanded, and on the power play before the period was out.

Matthias Urbanski opened the scoring two minutes into the middle frame off a neutral zone giveaway. Urbanski and Regan Doig broke in 2-on-1, and Doig waited until the last possible moment to slide it across to Urbanski for the tap in. 

The Bruins had a chance to answer midway through the second on the power play but that opportunity turned sour as Owen Lamb took an errant pass from Jake Heerspink, skated in on another 2-on-1 and roofed a wrist shot to the blocker side.

The 2-0 goal was all the scoring the Stars would need, but they were nowhere near done. Macgregor Sinclair sniped a power play goal to round out the second period scoring and put the game out of reach.

Tanner Manz briefly restored some hope for the Bruins midway through the third, swatting in a pass from below the goal line from brother Tyson. The Bruins were within two and seemed to be clawing their way back, but Cody Spagrud brought that momentum to a screeching halt with another goal on a 2-on-1.   

Logan Spence and Urbanski scored later in the third but those goals were mere stats padding by the North Stars as the goal by Spagrud took the life right out of Estevan. The clock drained out and a weary Bruins team drove home, hoping to put a 1-3 road trip behind them. 

The next Estevan Bruins game falls on October 3 in Wilcox as they line up against the Notre Dame Hounds. That game will air on Rock 106.

GAME NOTES

The loss by Estevan was their worst margin of defeat since February of 2017, when they lost 8-2 to Notre Dame. It was also the second time in three games the Bruins gave up 6 goals. 

Estevan had previously won three straight games in Battlefords, all of which came in the playoffs. Their last loss had been in a shootout on February 1 of 2018. 

Tanner Manz’s goal was his fifth in the last four games in Battlefords. He scored his first career hat trick there in game two of the playoffs against the North Stars. 

The Bruins fall to 4-3 on the year after starting out the year 3-0. After scoring 20 goals in their first three games, they failed to score more than four in any game on the four game road trip and were limited to two goals or fewer in every loss.