The Estevan Bruins met the Yorkton Terriers for the final time in the 2017-18 season on Wednesday, January 24, and found a disappointingly familiar result.

Ben Laidlaw made 40 saves on 41 shots and Mason Mullaney scored the winning goal as Yorkton downed Estevan 3-1 in Yorkton to earn a split in the season series. Both team wrap up the year 4-3-1 against each other.

The two teams played a scoreless first period thanks to some heroics from Laidlaw, who made 14 saves. The Terriers managed just three shots at Estevan’s net in the first, but escaped the period deadlocked at zero.

Drew Coughlin busted the game open in the second, taking a slap pass at the side of the net and tapping it past Matt Lukacs. Just moments earlier, Lukacs had made two saves on a breakaway and the ensuing rebound, but this time he wasn’t able to bail the Bruins out.

Kaelan Holt brought the Bruins back to evens as he took a back-door feed from Mark Edmands with a delayed penalty coming to the Terriers. Holt easily slipped home his 25th of the year to knot the game at one.

The time game wasn’t to last, however, as the Terriers replied on a delayed penalty of their own. Mullaney backed his way into the slot, then wound up and blasted one past a screened Lukacs for a lead the Terriers never gave up. Ben Solomon scored his first as a Terrier to round out the scoring in the period and in the game.

Estevan pressed in the third period but found themselves stonewalled by Laidlaw, who made 12 saves in the final frame to round out the action and earn first star of the game honors.

The Bruins have wrapped up their season series with Yorkton, making the Terriers the first divisional opponent the Bruins are done with this year. Estevan will have to regroup quickly as they face Humboldt on their turf in less than a week’s time.

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GAME NOTES

Estevan and Yorkton each finish with four wins, three regulation losses and an extra time loss against each other. The Bruins lost to Yorkton in a shootout on November 29.

The Weyburn Red Wings beat the Notre Dame Hounds 4-2 on Wednesday night, pulling back within two points of the Bruins for the division lead.

Kaelan Holt follows Zach Goberis as the second Bruins player to score 25 goals this year. He sits two back of Goberis, who leads the team with 27.