Bruins face Rebels and major penalties
By Graeme Willson
The Grand Forks Border Bruins played on home ice Saturday Feb., 8th against the Castlegar Rebels. No matter how hard the Bruins tried, the Rebels kept throwing out the plays and won the game with a score of 6:2.
With methodically executed power plays the Rebels scored both the goals recorded in the first period. The first goal came in with 14:45 remaining in first period being scored by Matt Reed — his fifth goal this season — he received assists from Rebels’ Kody Disher and Aaron Petten.
Before spectators watched the second goal being scored by the Rebels, there were twelve penalties recorded on the ice — four penalties for the Rebels and eight for the Bruins.
Most of the penalties were for two minutes, however three of them were 10-minute penalties given for misconduct on two of the Bruins. The other was given to the Rebels’ Tyler Bryant during the last half of period one.
The two 10-minute penalties were given to Coleton Dawson and Jackson Purvis. They were only a couple minutes apart, leaving the ice wide open and undefended.
With 1:20 left on the clock, fans saw Rebels’ Aaron Brewer score the second goal in the first period. Teammates Jeremy McNeil and Ed Lindsey equally owned that second goal with executing beautifully the power play that gave the Rebels the final goal of period one.
From the moment the ref dropped the first puck in period two, it was clear the Bruins’ had stepped it up a notch from the excitement and noise from the spectators. They kept consistent plays and control of the puck from the start.
After a consistent six-and-a-half minutes with the Bruins owning the ice Bruins Connor Gross scored his teams’ first goal of the game.Teammates Max Newton and Lindsey were right there lending a pass helping Gross score the Bruins first goal.
When the puck dropped after the Bruins’ scored, the penalties started to amount with three given against players from the Bruins and two to players from the Rebels. All five players received two minutes each for their penalties.
At this point, there were only three minutes left in the second period and even though both teams were trying, no more goals were scored.
The Rebels saw an opportune time to take it to the net while Bruins had a player in the penalty box. They finished up the second period by scoring two more goals before the buzzer rang.
Rebels’ Hunter Jenerou scored his team their third goal with just a couple minutes left on the clock with assists from McNeil and Mike Bhatoa. With just over a minute left on the clock, Connor Beauchemin made his team’s fourth goal with assists from Disher and Petten.
Period three started out just like the prior one did with the Bruins hauling it big time and the fans going nuts with screaming excitement out of the stands. That all changed, when out of nowhere, Rebels’ Patten was able to take control of the puck slapping a long shot at the goalies net and scored their fifth goal in period three.
As in period one the penalties were really starting to add up with the total count of penalties given to both teams was 17.
Seven penalties were given to Bruins players and 10 penalties against the Rebels. During the mass penalty call Bruins’ Gross was taken out of the rest of the game at 10:24 left on the clock receiving five minutes for fighting and a 10 minute penalty for misconduct sending him off the ice straight to the change rooms.
Even with half the Bruins’ players out on penalties, Dakota Kittle led a power play scoring his team’s second goal with an assist from Nathan Cory. There was less than two minutes on the clock.
The three men on the Bruins team left on the ice were showing no signs of giving up and kept fighting back.
Then the buzzer sounded, adding another goal for the Rebels in what was an outstanding power play even though there were less men to overcome on the ice, Hunter Jenerou led the puck straight into the net while teammates Bryant and Bhatoa backed him all the way giving their team goal number six.
At that point with 48 seconds on the clock, the three players from the Bruins left on the ice knew it was over and there was no winning that game so they defended their goalie not to allow a seventh puck to make its way into the net.
“It is what it is,” said coach Kevin Flather. “But did you see those three guys left in the game work that ice? It was amazing never the less.” He added that the guys knew they shouldn’t have done what they did to get the big penalties and that they will work on that for future games.
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