Five days after a disastrous road trip, the Bruins are back in action tonight when they take on the Notre Dame Hounds in a neutral-site game in Assiniboia (NOT Watrous as originally indicated on the SJHL website).
It's obviously important for the Bruins to pick up a couple of wins this weekend heading into the Christmas break, not only for their own confidence, but because Yorkton and Melville each have a ton of games in hand.
You can expect Josh Jelinski and Connor Milligan to play large roles this weekend after getting their feet wet last weekend after returning from injury.
Estevan Bruins (18-18-0-1, 2nd in Sherwood)
After breaking out of a seven-game losing streak with two wins last week, the Bruins then lost all three games on a northern road swing last weekend. As Keith Cassidy says, it's a group with fragile confidence right now. Getting captain Jelinski back should help with that.
Tyler Paslawski has been pretty quiet on the scoresheet since coming to Estevan, so he's a guy who might be looked at to step up his play this weekend. Rookies Taylor Reich and Tanner Froese have been lighting the lamp on a regular basis lately and have been a big part of the Bruins developing some secondary scoring in the last little while
Notre Dame Hounds (13-19-0-3, 5th in Sherwood)
After getting off to a hot start, the Hounds have cooled off and now sit well back of the top four teams in the south. The Bruins have definitely had their number this season, hammering them in four of five games, with the other being a loss in Wilcox in September.
The Hounds haven't been much of a scoring team the last few years and this season is no exception. Their best player (in my opinion, anyway) is Carson Grolla, a dynamic offensive defenceman who can dish out hits and is third in team scoring. Leading the way up front are the likes of Todd Christian, Greg Ferguson and Brandon Millin.
Starting goalie Ty Reichenbach was one of the biggest stories in the league early in the season, but his numbers have dropped to 3.85 (GAA) and .878 (save percentage).
Trevor Cameron, who was a standout for the Hounds as a 17- and 18-year-old, was re-assigned by the Swift Current Broncos this week, but the Hounds dealt him to Surrey (BCHL).
