The exhibition season in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League has come to an end, and the Grand Forks Border Bruins played their way to a 5-0 record in the pre-season.
The Bruins had three games last week, starting with a rematch in Osoyoos against the Coyotes, who the Bruins defeated at home the Saturday before 8-2.
The game tipped in the Bruins favour from the start, with Levi Astill scoring his third goal of the exhibition season in the first period, assisted by Justin Mol, putting the Bruins on the scoreboard first. In the second period, Astill and Mol had assists on Brandon Gray's power play goal early in the period, and JP Desabrais scored 40 seconds later to put the Bruins ahead 3-0.
The Coyotes regrouped quickly, with two goals from Austin Cooper and another from Mattieu Lessard before the period was out, tying the game 3-3 after 40 minutes. Brandon Gray had another power play goal in the third, with the Bruins going 2-for-6 with the man-advantage, but just 20 seconds after Gray's go-ahead goal Curtiss Gordon tied the game again for the Coyotes.
Neither team could capitalize in the final 10 minutes, which forced the game to overtime.
Just 34 seconds into the overtime frame, Levi Astill made a move 3-on-3, reminiscent of last year's playoff series in Beaver Valley, and put the puck behind Osoyoos netminder Hunter Arntsen to secure the win, 5-4. Alex Jessey had his first start in net for the Bruins, stopping 40 of 44 shots.
The Bruins travelled to Castlegar on Friday night to face the Rebels and once again came out strong in the first period. Nash Wassing opened the scoring mid-way through the period, followed by a pair from Tyler Burke, and another from Justin Mol, putting the Bruins ahead 4-0 through one.
Evan Calder picked up his first goal of the pre-season for the Rebels just over 4 minutes into the second period, but Mol responded with great positioning a minute later to score the Bruins fifth goal of the night, his second in the game. Rebels veteran Josh Gamble scored his first of the exhibition season in the third period, and the final score on Friday night was 5-2 Bruins. Russell Newman and Alex Jessey split the game in net for the Bruins, with Newman stopping 22 of 23 shots and Jessey blocking 7 of 8.
Saturday night, the hometown fans got their second look at the Bruins at the prospective Bruins roster, knowing full well that at the end of the weekend some roster moves or cuts would likely be made to get down to the required maximum 25 players.
As was the case in the first games of the pre-season, the Bruins once again demonstrated that fire-power was not a weakness in the current roster. Grand Forks' own Ben Edwards opened the scoring 7 minutes into the game with assists from Drake Olineck and Jace Koole, and before the period was half-done Theo Naidu scored his second of the exhibition season on a power play with assists from Levi Astill and Brandon Gray. Wyatt Olson scored the Bruins third goal (Astill, Edwards) to put the Bears ahead 3-0 at the first intermission. There was no scoring in the second period. The goal scorers from the first period doubled down in the third, with Olson getting his second of the game at 4:03, and Edwards adding a pair of power play goals - giving him a hat-trick - all while holding the Rebels at bay and finishing the game 6-0. Bruins veteran goaltender Matthew Dovichak was in the net, earning his second shutout of the exhibition season.
With exhibition games behind them, the Bruins will be focussing this week on the upcoming start to the regular season. Although not every player will find a spot on the roster waiting for them before next weekend, the calibre of play of each member of the team's exhibition roster has been laudable and any players who don't make the Bruins lineup are likely to turn up elsewhere in the league. The Bruins off-season recruiting this year has been nothing short of incredible, and fans will be most pleased with the team that coaches Dave Hnatiuk, Tayden Woods, and head scout Sonny Warrack have assembled.
The Bruins' Regular Season gets underway this Friday, September 20, at home at the Jack Goddard Arena when the Bruins host the Princeton Posse. A tailgate party will be held in the arena parking lot pre-game starting at 4:30 with food and activities to help prepare fans for the start of another exciting hockey season.
The Bruins host the Spokane Braves on Saturday night for the first battle-of-the-border of the year.