The dam was always going to burst at some point for the Estevan Bruins. When it burst in Melfort on Saturday, October 27, the offensive flood drowned the Mustangs.

Seven different Bruins scored, with Jayden Davis and TJ Irey scoring twice, and Kadin Kilpatrick made 27 saves in his second SJHL victory as Estevan rolled over the Mustangs in a 9-4 win. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

The Bruins continued their pattern of getting plenty of shots, but this time the shots went in, starting in the first period with Turner Ripplinger, taking a drop pass from Michael McChesney and riffling it past Hunter Arps. Not long after, Eddie Gallagher took a rebound of a shot off the boards and solved Arps from in close.

The Mustangs got back within one on a goal by their leading scorer Justin Ball, but by the end of the period the Bruins had the two-goal lead back, and the Mustangs never got any closer than that. Irey scored his first off the rebound of a shot by Austin King-Cunningham, and then early in the second, he got goal number two on a perfect cross-seam pass to the back side of the net by Davis.

That ended Arps’s night, but his replacement, Jack Walters, had no better luck. Davis struck for his first of the night on a partial breakaway and Bryce Platt banked a shot in off of a back-checking Bode Donald to make it 6-2. 

The Mustangs got back within three right away at the start of the third, as captain Carson Albrecht chopped in a shot that bounced off the end boards, but the Bruins recovered yet again as Davis streaked down the left side on the rush and sniped the same corner Ripplinger had earlier to make it 7-3.

Estevan added two more goals before the night was out, with Jake Heerspink getting the first, one-timing a shot off of a Melfort defender and through Walters’s legs. Heerspink wasn’t done providing offense, feeding a slap-pass to George Cathers for a tap in to round out the Bruins scoring.

Melfort’s Collin Schmidt scored late in the third period on a breakaway but it did little more than pretty up the scoreboard as Estevan ran away with a 9-4 win.

The Bruins salvaged two points to end their road trip 1-3 and move to 2-0 on the year against the Mustangs. Estevan now returns home with a bit of a break before facing the Battlefords North Stars on Friday night. 

GAME NOTES

Jake Heerspink and Johnny Witzke are now the top two goal scorers among defenseman in the SJHL with four and six respectively. Witzke is second in the league with 17 points in 18 games.

The Melfort Mustangs had not surrendered nine goals in a game since November 25 of 2015 against the Battlefords North Stars. The last time they gave up nine at home was December 7 of 2011 against the Humboldt Broncos. 

Estevan put up 39 shots, marking their sixth straight game of 35 shots or more. They are 3-3 in that span, with two of their three wins coming at home. 

Turner Ripplinger’s ninth goal of the year ties him with Michael McChesney for the team lead. TJ Irey’s seventh and eighth goals of the year place him in second.