The Eagle Sky Estevan Bruins split their weekend series against the Kindersley Klippers, falling 5-4 in a closely contested Friday night matchup but bouncing back with a dominant 7-4 victory on Saturday.
Friday night’s contest was a close one, with the Klippers ultimately coming away with the 5-4 win. Interim head coach Drew Kocur said, "In the first period on Friday night, we gave up a couple of early goals. But throughout the game, we chipped away, and we were up for most of the game. Then we got into some penalty trouble down the stretch, and obviously didn’t go our way in overtime."
The Bruins rallied on Saturday. Kocur said, "Saturday I thought we balanced adversity and didn’t feel sorry for ourselves and got back to work. We had a great start again, scoring three in the first, you know, 12-15 minutes of the game and never looked back from there."
Kocur, who has been with the Bruins as an assistant coach since spring 2023, was recently named interim head coach after the team parted ways with former head coach Jason Tatarnic earlier this month. He explained the difference in his role, saying, "As the assistant, I was the guy they came to talk to about certain things, and the head coach is obviously the boss, making the tough decisions at the end of the day."
He said the transition has been busy but feels the team has handled it well. "I think the guys handled it fairly well, and as we saw the last few games here, they’ve worked really hard," Kocur said, adding that they are heading into the final stretch of the season with confidence. "We talk to the guys about just chipping away at things, trying to learn something every day. Obviously, we’d love to make the playoffs."
Looking ahead to the weekend, the Estevan Bruins are set to take on the Weyburn Red Wings in a home-and-home series. Kocur said, "Weyburn’s a great team this year. They play hard, play fast, and for us, it’s just about continuing to chip away at things here. Be prepared and play a full 60. It should be a good weekend."
"We’re just looking forward to the rest of the way, trying to get some more wins out of the way," Kocur added.