The Estevan TS&M bantam AA Bruins hosted the Swift Current Raiders at the Civic Auditorium on Saturday afternoon. It was a tightly contested hockey game, with the Raiders barely squeaking out a 3-2 victory thanks to a last minute goal.
Chase McKersie of the Bruins opened the scoring early in the first period before Swift Current's Tim Vanstone tied it up with a mere four seconds left in the frame.
With the Raiders holding a 2-1 lead in the third period, Kale Little scored for Estevan to tie it once again, but a last minute tally by Dawson Tangen gave Swift Current the 3-2 win.
A scary moment halted play with about six minutes left in the third when Estevan's Lynnden Pastachak went down with a serious injury.
"He went into the boards quite hard, and any time you're dealing with an injury like that - whether it's the back or neck - you have to take full precaution," said Bruins coach Jeff Yanko, who added that they were lucky to have qualified people on hand to stabilize Pastachak.
He had some numbness in his fingers, so the ambulance was called and he was transported to Regina for a CAT scan.
"Everything came back OK," said Yanko. "I think they diagnosed him with a severely sprained neck and some bone bruising. He'll be out for a minimum three weeks, and he'll see a specialist again after that."
Despite the loss, Yanko was impressed with his team's play, and said it was an excellent game to watch.
"It was a fantastic hockey game," he said. "It was 2-2 with 47 seconds left when they scored their third goal. It was a great game, all the kids played well. We had a couple of breakdowns in our own end but that's about it."
The Bruins (4-3-1) have two more games this weekend. They'll host the Prairie Storm on Saturday at 1:15 p.m. before heading to Weyburn on Sunday for a 5 p.m. contest against the Wings.
With the injury to Pastachak, Yanko said they'll have to look at some different line combinations to fill the void.
"We're blessed that we have a couple of kids that can play both forward and defence, and we're really expecting some of those guys to step up, and we think that they can." he said.
