The defensive woes continued for the Grand Forks Border Bruins with a pair of double-digit-goal losses this past weekend.
The team lost 11-1 to the Nelson Leafs at the Nelson Community Complex on Sept. 30 and then lost 11-3 at home the following night to the Beaver Valley Nitehawks.
Ryan Bryant allowed four goals on 11 shots and was replaced by Nic Clark (who would stop 25 of 32 shots) at the 18:06 mark of the Nelson game while Jeremy Mandoli played the full 60 minutes, stopping 35 of 46 fired his way vs. the Nitehawks.
Once again, play in the defensive zone was the Achilles’ heel of the team in both losses.
“I’m at a loss for words,” explained Assistant Coach Matt Zamec after the Beaver Valley game.
“It was just a very poor defensive effort. I mean, it’s not that we can’t defend, it’s just that we don’t.”
However, Zamec was happier with the Border Bruins’ play in the opposing zone in Saturday’s game, as the team fired 30 shots at Nitehawks’ goalie Travis Beekhuizen and scored three times – Michael Mansfield, Austin Lee and Chris Critchley scored and Critchley had a three-point night.
“As far as our offense, as far as when we’re in (Beaver Valley’s) end, we could put the pressure on,” Zamec said.
“We generated some chances, we didn’t put away as many as we would’ve liked and offensively I’m not that disappointed but defensively as a team, we didn’t show up.”
Zamec said the team made bad decisions, were beat to pucks and outworked by the Nitehawks but said that he, the coaching staff and the board were confident that the team could turn things around.
Defenseman Brendan Jackson suffered a broken nose when hit by the puck on Saturday and while Zamec said that he required five stitches in his nose, he would be fine and wouldn’t miss any time.
Mandoli said he would love to have few of the goals back but he remained optimistic.
“Obviously when the score’s 11-3, you wish you could do better and help the team out but we’ll see what happens here. I have faith in the team, we’ll keep practicing and buff out some of the (rough edges),” he said.
“I feel confident in the team back there and I hope they feel confident with me and I’m looking forward to the rest of the year.”
The team heads into the Thanksgiving Day long weekend with three games in three nights (Thursday, Friday and Saturday).