Highlights: 
 
The Estevan Bruins drove out of Battlefords with smiles on their faces and a 2-0 series lead after a 7-2 whipping of the North Stars on March 31. 
 
The Bruins got all their scoring done in two periods, with rookie forward Tanner Manz leading the way with a hat trick. Arthur Miller added a pair of goals, while Michael McChesney and Kaelan Holt added singles and Jayden Davis contributed four assists. Bo Didur made 25 saves in the win.
 
The seeds of the rout were planted early on when Manz scored just 18 seconds in. Davis won a footrace off the opening faceoff, busting in wide into the zone and feeding the puck out front to Manz, who made no mistake. 
 
On that goal there wasn’t much of a chance for North Stars goaltender Taryn Kotchorek, who was seeing his first action of the playoffs. Goals two and three, however, were more on his shoulders. On Manz’s second goal, Kotchorek got too adventurous outside his crease, and Davis stripped him. While he was able to get back into the net, he wasn’t able to stop Manz in tight as he rifled a shot high to the blocker side. 
 
Miller’s marker, a bad-angle shot that trickled in through a seemingly impassible hole, ended Kotchorek’s night just 11:08 in. His replacement, Grzybowski, got a rude welcome to the net when Holt scored off a goalmouth scramble to make it 4-0. Layne Young scored a 5-on-3 marker to put the North Stars on the board, but after a first period in which the Bruins outshot the home side 16-6, it was obvious who was in control. 
 
The Bruins asserted that control early in the second, with Miller’s second of the game just as a power play expired. Then McChesney stepped out of the penalty box, took a breakaway and showed off some quick hands, making four moves in rapid succession to open up Grzybowski’s five-hole and make it 6-1.  
 
As pretty as McChesney’s goal was, the goal of the night went to Manz, who completed the hat trick before the second period was out. Matthew Chekay had control of the puck in the offensive zone for an extended period and patiently waited for someone to get open. That someone was Manz, who made a nice move around a defender but got taken down on the back check. As he fell, he opened up the five-hole again, slipping it past Grzybowski for the final Estevan marker of the game.
 
Tanner Manz leads the flyby after a goal.
 
Parker Smyth added an academic face-saver on the power play in the third but it was little more than a prettying-up of the scoreboard for a North Stars team that lost their composure as the game went on. The score ended up 7-2 for Estevan, who take a 2-0 series lead home. 
 
The Bruins and North Stars play game three on Monday night at Affinity Place. Catch the game at 7:30 on Rock 106. 
 
GAME NOTES:
 
Arthur Miller’s two goals give him the team lead with five, just ahead of Manz and McChesney with four. McChesney leads the team in points with nine, matching his point total from last year’s playoffs.
 
Jayden Davis had his first four-point night as a Bruin, all four being assists. He now has five points in six playoff games on the year. 
 
The game saw a total of six five-on-three power plays, three for each team. Only one goal, Layne Young’s, came on the five-on-three.
 
The Bruins scored all seven goals at even strength after scoring three on the man advantage in game one. Battlefords scored both their goals on the power play.
 
Including the regular seasons, Battlefords had not lost two straight games at home since losing two overtime games to Flin Flon in the playoffs in 2016, the last of which they lost in double OT on April 9.