The Estevan Bruins were challenged to respond to Wednesday's dreadful outing and they did on Friday, dominating the Kindersley Klippers in a contest that needed a shootout to decide.
Kindersley goalie Justin McDonald turned in a spectacular 57-save effort, but he couldn't hold off the Bruins forever and they won 3-2.
Calder Neufeld and Tanner Froese scored in the shootout for Estevan, and Brennen Bosovich scored for Kindersley.
Colby Daniels had the game on his stick but was stopped by Bruins tender Tyler Ross, who then Tebowed to celebrate the victory. It was hilarious.
Froese had forced overtime with 2:57 left in the third when McDonald got caught out of his net and Matt Dochylo fed Froese for the empty-netter. I'm not sure why Dochylo didn't get an assist. It was a tough one for McDonald to give up after the game he played.
Justin Lund had put the Klippers ahead with 6:40 to play on a deflected shot from the high slot.
After a scoreless first period, the two teams traded goals in the second, although the Bruins easily could have scored a few more if not for some absolutely brilliant netminding from McDonald. He was unquestionably the first star tonight.
Neufeld opened the scoring 54 seconds in on a rebound, and Austin McDonald responded four minutes later off a giveaway by Dom Perrault at the side of the net.
Stoughton's Dayton Picard was called up for his second SJHL game to fill in for Taylor Reich, and he looked quite good. Reich, meanwhile, had his shoulder evaluated yesterday and will be out 2-3 weeks, so he'll likely miss the entire Notre Dame series.
Austin Yano returned from a stomach flu, but he was injured on a hit in the second period and left the game. He's considered day-to-day until the team finds out more about his injury.
Check back tomorrow for interviews with Ross and Keith Cassidy.
