Skip to content

Grand Forks Border Bruins loss due to lack of intensity

The Grand Forks Border Bruins didn’t turn the keys to the ignition until the third period of last Friday’s home game against the Castlegar Rebels and subsequently lost 9-2.
44413grandforksGFGborderbruins110928-2
Grand Forks Border Bruins' forward Paul Herringer netted a pair of goals in a losing effort against the Castlegar Rebels last Friday.

The Grand Forks Border Bruins didn’t turn the keys to the ignition until the third period of last Friday’s home game against the Castlegar Rebels and subsequently lost 9-2.

Going into the first intermission, the Border Bruins had only managed four shots on net – they finished the night with only 18 shots while Castlegar fired 45 shots.

Grand Forks only had seven shots entering the third period but played its best hockey, out shooting Castlegar 12-2.

Head Coach and GM Brent Batten was not happy with his team’s play and brought the players back onto the ice for some drills after the game ended.

“It was a lack of intensity. The boys came out flat for the first two periods,” Batten explained after the game.

“They couldn’t generate any offense. Castlegar’s a really good skating team and (it) really controlled the pace of the game, which obviously at home is something we need to avoid in the future.”

As for the postgame skate, Batten said that if his team wasn’t going to put the work in during the game, they would put the work in afterwards.

There usually aren’t any bright spots when a team is outshot and beaten by a wide margin but goalie Nic Clark and forward Paul Herringer were lauded by Batten.

Despite allowing nine goals, Clark made 36 saves and Batten said that his netminder wasn’t to blame on all of the goals and in a number of instances, the players left Clark “hanging” for some of the goals.

“Nic came out and had a great game for us really. The score’s not really indicative of how he played,” Batten said.

Clark said that the team was a little weak on the puck during the first two periods but said he was happy with how the team finished.

“Personally, I think I should’ve had a few of those (goals) but on night’s like this, there’s not much you can do,” Clark explained when asked about his night’s work.

Herringer scored both goals for the Border Bruins and was voted the game’s second star but he wasn’t satisfied and said there had to be improvements made.

“When you lose like that, there’s a lot of stuff that I need to work on personally and we need to work on as a team,” said Herringer.

The Border Bruins will travel to Nelson for a game with the Leafs this Friday before returning back to Grand Forks the following night for a game against the Beaver Valley Nitehawks.



Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
Read more