Near the end of the season Bruins still looking for first win of 2011
By Michael Wirischagin
The Grand Forks Border Bruins will certainly never be accused of being a team that peaks too soon in a hockey game. In fact it could be argued that if anything, they should be a team that is criticized for peaking too late. For if the Border Bruins had the luxury of only playing third period hockey they would have tallied three wins in their previous five games, but because they don’t have that luxury they are still searching for their first victory of 2011.
Grand Forks played their first of five games over the past two weeks on Tuesday, Jan. 18 as they travelled to Castlegar to take on the Rebels, a game in which they lost in convincing fashion, 5-1. The Bruins were outshot 44-19 in the tilt, tallying four shots in both periods one and three, and were out scored 2-0 in the third period. Keeping track at home? Mark that, 0-wins 1-loss for the Bruins in third period play. Zachary Thompson scored the lone GF goal. Following the loss to Castlegar, Grand Forks welcomed the Nelson Leafs to the Grand Forks Arena on Thursday, Jan. 20. Nelson jumped out to 3-0 lead before Thompson answered back for Grand Forks. The Leafs responded and took a 4-1 lead into the third period. Artsiom and Yan Kalashnikov scored for GF in the third, while Nelson added another to defeat the Bruins 5-3. Grand Forks won the third period, 2-1. Grab the score-sheet, Grand Forks now has 1-win, 1-loss record in third periods. Next in line to take on the Bruins were the Beaver Valley Nitehawks on Jan. 27 in Grand Forks. Grand Forks opened the scoring with a goal by Artsiom Kalashnikov but quickly gave up six straight goals heading into the third period. The Nitehawks took a 6-1 lead into the final frame and added two more markers. The Bruins tallied one more of their own, a goal scored by Thompson, but ended up losing big to B.V., 8-2. Grand Forks lost another third period, 2-1. Grand Forks third period record now stand at 1-win 2-loss, while their official record now reads 0-wins 3-losses. The Kelowna Chiefs, formally of Chase, were next to travel to Grand Forks to take on the struggling Bruins on Jan. 29. Kelowna scored twice before Yan Kalshnikov scored for Grand Forks, but followed that up by scoring another two to take a 4-1 lead into the final frame. In the third period, Grand Forks tallied three goals- another by Kalshnikov and two by Joey Cormano- while Kelowna was only able to pot two. Kelowna ultimately won the game 6-4. The Border Bruins won the third period, 3-2, and tied up their final frame record at 2-wins with 2-losses. In the B’s final game of the past two weeks, which was played this past Sunday Jan. 30 in Grand Forks, the Bruins faced-off against the Princeton Posse. Princeton jumped out to a huge lead before the Bruin were able to get on the board with two goals in the second period- one by Gary Mahesh and the other by Yan Kalashnikov- but Princeton scored again to lead 6-2 after forty minutes. The Border Bruins came out flying for third and final frame, scoring the period’s only two goals and winning the third period 2-0. Thompson and Randy Tosoff scored the two GF third period markers. If you are keeping track at home of the Bruins third period win/loss record, the final tally comes in at 3-third period wins and 2-third period losses, however the official record of the B’s over that five game stretch was 0-wins 5-losses. With only two weeks left on the Grand Forks Border Bruins schedule, the team will be looking for their first win of 2011 in one of their remaining six games on the campaign. On Friday, Feb.4 Grand Forks welcomes the Spokane Braves to town at 7:30, while on Saturday, Feb.5 and Sunday, Feb. 6 the Bears will travel to Spokane and Beaver Valley respectively. The final week of the Bruins schedule has Castlegar in town on Wednesday, Feb. 9, Grand Forks’ final home game of season at 7:30, with the Bruins closing out the campaign on the road with games on Feb. 11 and 12, against Golden and Columbia Valley. The Bruins record currently stands at 7-wins 36-losses with 1-overtime loss.
