ESTEVAN - The Eagle Sky Estevan Bruins' playoff hopes took further blows during the weekend, as the Black and Gold lost three times in four days.
Estevan fell 10-4 to the Yorkton Terriers on home ice on Feb. 14. Their other two games were better, but still defeats: 6-5 to Yorkton the following night and 6-3 to the Weyburn Red Wings on Feb. 17.
Estevan (14-26-5-1) has now dropped seven straight games. With 34 points and 10 games to play, the most they can finish with is 54. They sit 10th in the SJHL standings, and the top eight teams make the playoffs. The eighth-place Kindersley Klippers have 48 points.
Estevan trailed the Terriers 3-0 after the opening 3:33 of Friday night's game, but the Bruins fought back and the score was 5-4 for Yorkton after the first period. Ewan Rennie had two of Estevan's goals, while Kanye Huang and Kieran Ronan also scored for Estevan. Yorkton took over in the second, outscoring the Bruins 5-0. Neither team scored in the third.
David Coyle finished with four goals and three assists for Yorkton, while William Leonard and Jaron Desnoyers each had a goal and three assists. Riley Cormier, Quinn Tavender, Carter Briltz and Thierry Laliberte also scored for Yorkton.
Terriers' goaltender Ethan Farrow made 39 saves.
Zach Shaughnessy and Beck Boiteau split the goaltending duties for Estevan, with each stopping 15 of 20 shots.
The following night, Estevan had a 3-1 lead at one point in the first period on goals by Rennie, Kaelen Whittingham and Steven Steranka. Yorkton fought back and had a 5-3 advantage by the midway point in the third, but goals by Chase Holt and Hayden Pimm less than a minute apart tied the game.
Briltz scored the winner with 57 seconds to play in the third. Estevan had one last chance to score while short-handed in the final seconds, but Yorkton's Callum Creig came up with a big save.
Boiteau made 37 saves for Estevan in the loss.
Vinay Junek scored twice for Yorkton, while Briltz had a goal and two assists. Desnoyers, Coyle and former Estevan U18 AAA Bear Jye Zawatsky also scored. Creig made 31 saves for the Terriers.
Estevan jumped out to a 1-0 lead against Weyburn when Rorey Elson scored 22 seconds into the opening frame. Jaxson Ruthven, Liam Fitzgerald and Luke Schraeder replied for Weyburn to give the Wings a 3-1 lead after the opening frame.
Brady Wilson scored twice for Estevan in the second, while Max Chakrabarti had a goal for Weyburn to leave the Wings up 4-3 through two. Cyprus Smith-Davis and Braigh LeGrandeur tallied for Weyburn in the third.
Shaughnessy made 39 saves for Estevan, while Angelo Zol had 27 saves for Weyburn.
The Bruins played the three games without top scorer Kent Moors, who left the Bruins to join the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the B.C. Hockey League. Due to the lack of arrangement in place between the B.C. Hockey League and Hockey Canada, the Bruins did not receive anything for Moors, who had 40 points in 39 games for the Bruins this season.
Estevan will host the Notre Dame Hounds on Feb. 21 and the Nipawin Hawks the following day. Both games start at 7 p.m.
