Two teams, two cities, one rivalry, and while the winner of this year's series between the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins and the Weyburn Red Wings was no less intense in Wednesday night's matchup. In the sixth edition of this matchup since December, more was the line than before as the Bruins could clinch the top spot in the Viterra with just three more points. 

And just under five minutes into the game, TJ Irey made it look like they were going to do just that by sneaking into the middle of the ice and putting home the first goal of the game past Arik Weersink to take the 1-0 lead. Irey's scored 3 goals in his last 2 games.

That score would stand for a while before the flood gates would start to open up for the Bruins. Unfortunately, it was the gates to the penalty box.

Ben Hiltz scored the first power play goal for the Red Wings off a tip from the point shot of captain Mike Eskra just after the halfway mark of the period at 11:56. 

Hayden Guilderson of the Bruins would answer back quickly with a point shot through traffic that was labeled for the back of the net and a 2-1 lead for the Bruins.

That would be the last time the Bruins would hold a lead for the rest of the game as the Red Wings Jordan Kazymyra would put one passed Bo Didur, and Tyran Brown would add another power play goal before the end of the period to take a 3-2 lead for the end of the first frame. 

"Ultimately we took too many penalties, we were undisciplined and I often defend our team as a relatively disciplined team despite our penalty minutes," said head coach Chris Lewgood. "...but tonight was a night where we took penalties that weren't disciplined and it cost us two power play goals, and we weren't very good on the penalty kill either."

The second period was a much less offensive one than the first, although we did see a goal just three minutes in when Dryden Wust scored his first of the year for the Red Wings to make it 4-2. That's when tensions boiled over.

Just four minutes later, Jake Heerspink decided to get a spark for the Bruins going by dropping the gloves right at centre ice with Ben Hiltz. A fairly even matchup physically as Hiltz stand 6'2, 176 lbs while Heerspink weighs in at 188 lbs, 6'0, and they both through a few good punches on the Bruins logo before Heerspink landed three clean hits that sent Hiltz to the ice and both men to their locker rooms for the night.

"I just wanted to get some energy for the guys, the guy I fought is one of their top scorers, he's a good player, it's a good trade off to take both of us out of the game, so I didn't think I was hurting anything too much doing it," said Heerspink on his tilt.

Heerspink's spark he lit for his team would sit and smolder until the end of the period, but eventually a fire would like beneath his team. Just 1:42 in the third period, Jake Fletcher found the puck on his stick on the boards, sent a blind behind the back pass on to the tape of Guilderson, who fed a wide open Kaelan Holt in the slot who rifled a wrist shot over the blocker of Weersink.

Then, halfway through the period, Guilderson would get his third point of the night as he tied it up for the Bruins at 4-4. Bot teams would battle hard from there, with this being the only period the Bruins would out shoot the Red Wings, but it wouldn't be enough as Sean Olson would seal the deal for the Red Wings with just under two minutes to play.

The Bruins would push hard for the equalizer, but Weyburn would clear the puck out of their zone with four seconds to play for their first victory over the Bruins since February of last season. 

Coach Lewgood was quick to make sure that his team wouldn't make excuses for themselves. "I think the biggest thing is that we gotta do our share and tonight was the first time in the six games we've played these guys where we didn't do our share. They were no better tonight than they have been in the past, they had some players step up big time but for the most part the difference in the five wins and the one loss is our level of play."

Despite the loss, Bo Didur was again a highlight for the Bruins with 36 saves on 41 shots. On Didur, Lewgood said, "I thought Bo was really good on first opportunities, he made the first save every time. There's a couple times there where our defencemen weren't able to control the rebounds and he'd like to have a little better rebound placement, but when guys are getting so many shots, these guys can only do so much, their job is the first one and our defenders need to take care of the next one."

Didur added, "We're just focused on the win and the loss columns, so at the end of the day that's the only thing people really remember."

Another bright spot on the Bruins lineup was the 15 year old Alex VonSprecken as he played a lot more minutes than the last game he played with the Bruins. 

When asked about the rookie playing in front of him, Didur says "He's calm, he's collected, and he communicates really well and he's got a lot of confidence when he's out there."

The Bruins will get another crack at the Red Wings shortly, only one more sleep before they head off to Weyburn for episode six in the season series. You can catch the game on Rock 106, tune in 10 minutes prior to puck drop at 7:30 for the pregame show with Rob Mahon.