UPDATE: Bruins vs. Klippers preview

Three days after a 7-2 win over the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox, the Bruins are back on home ice tonight for their first meeting with the Kindersley Klippers this season.

The Bruins will again be without several key players tonight. Connor Milligan and Josh Jelinski continue to skate but are still out. Eric Baldwin's injury from the hit he took from Marc-Andre Carre last weekend will continue to keep him out. Also, Matt Brykaliuk has an upper-body injury that also kept him out of Tuesday's game against the Hounds.

There may be a callup coming later in the day.

You look at the standings and you'd think this is an easy two points for the Bruins, but you can't safely predict any game in the SJHL this year, really. Case in point: the game against Melfort earlier this month where the Bruins almost blew it.

I spent the last three years covering the Klippers, but this is a much different team than the ones I knew. This will be my third look at them this year along with their two games at Showcase.

Estevan Bruins (15-9, 2nd in Sherwood)

The Bruins have cooled off a bit after their hot start, but to be fair, they've managed to win two of their last four games while dealing with some significant injuries. Having Yano back is a huge boost to their offensive attack as he can either start the rush with a great first pass or carry it up himself. He had three points in his first game back.

Some of the Bruins' secondary scorers are starting to heat up. The most obvious is Ryan Ostertag, who was one of their best players against La Ronge, scored a beauty of a goal and followed that up with two goals and an assist against the Hounds. If he can find a little more consistency in his game, he can be a dangerous threat. Also, third-year forward Michael Hengen scored his first goal of the year Tuesday. It was his first goal since Feb. 13, 2010, since he missed almost all of last year with a knee injury.

That line of Ostertag, Hengen and Johnstone was the Bruins' best against La Ronge and all three players figured in the scoring on Tuesday. The Bruins need them to keep it up.

Kindersley Klippers (6-14-2-1, 6th in Sherwood)

It's been a rough start for the Klippers after losing a lot of talent from last year either through graduation or trades, including a few that didn't bring anything back. The good news for them is they're only three points from getting out of the Sherwood basement. This game is the first in a six-game road trip for them, so they'll be motivated to start the trip on a good note, especially since they've lost five straight games, and eight of their last nine.

The line of Taylor Duzan, Jordon Hoffman and Jesse Mysiorek leads the way for the Klippers, although Duzan has spent some time injured and is off to, by his standards, an average start. Wheaton King and D. Jay McGrath are other players to watch for up front.

David Haaf and recent acquisition Troy Gedny are heavily relied upon on the back end, while Justin McDonald and Fraser Abdallah have split starts in goal.

With some strong veterans and a few talented rookies, it's a team that could probably be getting better results than they've shown, but that hasn't been the case so far.

I'll be doing colour for tonight's game alongside Klippers play-by-play man Brenden Ullrich.