The Estevan Bruins made their second trip of the season to Weyburn, and for the second time they saluted the crowd as road victors with a 5-3 win.

It was the closest tilt of the season yet between the two teams. Weyburn opened the scoring at 3:31 of the first period when Red Wings leading goal scorer Ben Hiltz banged away at a rebound in front and smacked it past a sprawling Bo Didur to give Weyburn the early lead. 

That lead lasted less than three minutes as Estevan pressed hard and got rewarded. Kaelan Holt fed the puck from the side of the net to the slot for Hayden Guilderson, who rifled his 15th past Arik Weersink to knot the score.

The Bruins stepped up the pressure and converted on their first power play of the night thanks to some slick puck movement by the Goberis-McChesney-Miller unit. Zach Goberis slid the puck to Michael McChesney at the top of the crease, who nudged it back to Arthur Miller for the tap in on the man advantage. It was the first of four power play goals by the Bruins.

Before the period was out, a knuckler from the point by Wings captain Mike Eskra snuck its way through traffic, pinballed in and out of a sea of legs, and deposited itself behind Didur to knot the score. The marker came with just 25 seconds to play in the period.

Undaunted, the Bruins stormed back in the second. Miller took advantage of another power play, hitting Mark Edmands in the slot with a pass from the corner. Edmands outwaited the sliding block of a Weyburn defender and rifled a shot high glove on Weersink to give the Bruins a lead they would never relinquish. 

Later in that period, Jake Fletcher made it 4-2 on another power play goal, this one a bizarre bouncer that went off a Wings defenseman and soared over the shoulder of Weersink, bouncing behind him and finding the twine. 

The third period brought the Wings some success on the power play, as Eskra scored another pinball goal, bouncing it off a pair of Bruins from the corner and in. That, however, was as close as the Red Wings got, as McChesney iced the game with an empty netter in the last ten seconds. 

The Bruins moved to 4-0 against the Wings this year in front of a hugely pro Bruins crowd, and will next face Weyburn on February 14 in Estevan. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

GAME NOTES

The win gives the Bruins a six point cushion on Weyburn atop the Viterra Division. They are 4-0 against the Wings this year.

Michael McChesney's empty netter gives him nine goals in his last eight games, going back through the SJHL showcase to his first game in January against Melfort. He has 23 goals and 23 assists on the year.

The Bruins went 4/6 on the power play, including McChesney's empty netter. They sit second in the SJHL with a 23.1 per cent success rate on the man advantage. Only Melfort (23.8) is better.

The win tonight moves Bo Didur to 6-2-1 as a Bruin. He leads the team with a 1.98 GAA and a .926 save percentage.

In four wins against the Red Wings this year, Estevan has not allowed the Wings a point. They have outscored them now 21-7 in those four contests. Arthur Miller, Michael McChesney, Tanner Manz, and Kaelan Holt lead the way with three goals each.