The Estevan Bruins won for the fifth time in six games Wednesday night with a 5-3 victory over the Melville Millionaires at Affinity Place.
Owen Barrow opened the scoring 6:12 into the first period for Estevan, and Salvatore Collora doubled the Bruins’ lead with a goal at the 6:33 mark of the second. Collora has now scored in three straight games. The Bruins hit a post a few minutes after Collora’s goal, while Melville had a couple of breakaways in the middle frame that they couldn’t convert.
Six of the eight goals came in the third. Nathan Fox scored for Melville 30 seconds into the third period to cut the Bruins’ lead in half. Cody Davis responded on a breakaway 5:36 into the final period to restore the Bruins’ two-goal margin.
When Tim Tychonick scored 12:11 into the third, it appeared the Bruins had put the Mills away. But 23 seconds later, Nicholas Andrusiak scored to leave Melville down two again, and Zach Cain’s goal with 62 seconds remaining pulled Melville to within on.e
Jagjeevan Phangura scored into an empty net moments later to put the game away. Phangura now has goals in five straight games, and 11 points in six games.
Cam Hrdlicka, who was named the SJHL goalie of the week for the previous week, stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced. Kelton Pyne stopped 19 of 23 shots for the Mills. Pyne played for the Estevan Steelhaus U18 AAA Bears in 2020-21, and is one of six former Bears on the Mills.
Estevan (13-11) will host the Melfort Mustangs on Friday and Saturday night. Both games will start at 7 p.m. Melville will host the Notre Dame Hounds on Friday at 7 p.m.
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Hrdlicka was one of three Bruin players to win weekly SJHL player awards for Oct. 31-Nov. 6. Hrdlicka went 2-1 during the stretch with two shutouts, a 1.29 goals against average and a .962 save percentage.
Also recognized were forward Logan Ziegler (top rookie) and defenceman Aleksa Babic (top defenceman).
Ziegler had three goals and three assists for six points in three games. One of his goals came 11 seconds into the game on Nov. 3 against the Humboldt Broncos.
Babic had a goal and three assists for four points in three games.
