ESTEVAN - The Estevan Bruins gave up seven straight goals to the Pickering Panthers in a 10-5 at the Centennial Cup national junior A hockey championship, presented by Tim Hortons.
The teams traded goals in a highly entertaining first period. Olivier Pouliot, Nolan Jones and Mark Rumsey scored for Estevan. Jones and Rumsey's goals were on power plays. Dustin Hutton and Ian Martin had Pickering's markers.
Pouliot notched his second of the game while the Bruins were short-handed to get the Black and Gold a two-goal lead, but Lucas Littlejohn responded for Pickering a short time later. Dayton Deics power-play goal restored Estevan's two-goal advantage, but Pickering had quick goals by Ethan Doyle and Hutton to tie the game after 40 minutes.
The wheels fell off in the third. Jacob Partridge and Ian Martin scored early in the third for a 7-5 edge. Estevan did have opportunities to score, including a power play midway through the third. Then Pickering scored three times in the final five minutes of the game, with goals by Doyle, Hutton and Brett Henderson.
Hutton, Martin and Partridge each had three assists for Pickering.
Pickering outshot Estevan 36-31. Boston Bilous (Estevan) and Andrew Ballantyne (Pickering) were the goalies.
The Bruins are the tournament's host team and the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League champions. They dropped their first game of the tournament, 5-3 to Quebec's College Francais de Longueuil on Friday. Pickering won the Ontario Junior Hockey League title. They opened the tournament with a 9-2 win over the Red Lake Miners of the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
Prior to the game, the Bruins paid tribute to Adrian Sakundiak, one of the top players in franchise history. He was part of the team that won the SJHL title in 1985, and still holds some single-season records. He died from brain cancer in 2020.
Members of the Sakundiak family participated in the pre-game ceremonial face-off.
