It was a gallant effort, but the Yorkton Terriers fell to the Estevan Bruins 3-2. Tijs Vreys and Greg Nelson had the markers for Yorkton, while Caleb Allen made 20 saves in the loss.
Yorkton opened the scoring early in the first period. JD Hall pulled the puck out of the corner and found a wide open Tijs Vreys in the slot, who snapped a shot over the shoulder of Cam Hrdlicka. However, 1:30 later the Bruins found the equalizer. Ilia Chmelevski threw a centering pass to a wide open Evan Forrest, who potted his fifth goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1. The Terriers faced some adversity late in the frame. With roughly a minute to go in the first, Tijs Vreys was ejected from the game for a controversial checking from behind penalty, then moments later Quintin Unreiner was given a checking to the head penalty to give the Bruins a 5-on-3 power-play.
Estevan took advantage of the two man advantage moments into the second period. Alex Blanchard sent a blast on goal from the blue-line, which Allen got a large piece of, but not enough, as the shot trickled in. Both defences played stout defensively until the third period. After the Bruins thought they had scored, only for the referees to determine that there was goaltender inference on the play, the Terriers took advantage of an offensive face-off. Cade Van Brabant released a shot from the point which Hrdlicka stopped, only for Nelson to jam home the rebound, tying the game at 2-2. The Bruins restored their lead. After a defensive zone turnover, Logan Ziegler’s shot was stopped by Allen, only for Kade Runke to pop home the rebound, giving Estevan their eventual winning score of 3-2.
Yorkton will be back in action on Tuesday night, looking to snap their three game losing streak against Kindersley. The game will be broadcast on the GX 94 alternate stream with the pre-game show starting at 6:50pm and play-by-play at 7:00pm.