The Innovex Estevan Bears wrapped up four games in eight days on home ice at Affinity Place on Tuesday night, hosting the Yorkton Maulers in their first meeting of the 2026-27 season.
The homestand started with a 4-2 win over Notre Dame on October 27, followed by back-to-back losses to the Saskatoon Blazers (5-1 on Oct. 30, 6-4 on Oct. 31) over the weekend. With only one more home game scheduled in November (24th vs Regina), the Bears hoped to capitalize against Yorkton before hitting the road.
The Bears were a step behind Yorkton to start the game, with the Maulers outshooting Estevan 6-0 early until Yorkton opened the scoring with Nixon Coleman’s first career AAA goal at the 5:22 mark. After a powerplay for the Bears where they didn’t register a shot, the home team finally woke up at the midpoint of the period with two goals in 60 seconds. At 9:43, Benson Wallis one-timed his 4th of the season off a nice setup from AP winger Ethan Phillips, who earned his second assist in as many games as an injury-replacement for Carter Hryciuk. Then at 10:43 on their second powerplay, Jack Robinson deflected home his second of the season off a Jaxon Sedor point shot to make it 2-1 after the 1st period.
The floodgates would open in the 2nd period for both teams, but it would be the Bears jumping out to a big lead. At 4:13 shortly after killing off their first penalty of the game, Jax Hanson skated hard out of the offensive corner and powered his way to the front of the net and scored his 6th of the season to make it 3-1. After Hogan Hickman cut the lead to 3-2 with a backhander at 8:57, the Bears offence sprung to life with three goals in a 2:17 span. First, it would be the young Phillips at 9:43 snapping a shot past Yorkton’s Jaxson Schleper for his first U18 AAA goal, quite an achievement for the U15 AA Estevan Bruin player in his second game with the Bears in front of numerous family and friends.
Schleper would be pulled for backup Seth Bennett after Phillips’ goal, but the Bears kept pouring it on. At 11:21 off an offensive zone face-off, Taren Anderson grabbed the loose puck and beat Bennett glove-side to get his first goal of the season breaking a 12-game goalless drought. Then just 39 seconds later at 12:00, Casey Mitschke found a rebound for his 5th goal of the year to put the Bears up 6-2. Corban Friesen would get one goal back before the intermission at 15:31, but Estevan would lead 6-3 after 40 minutes.
At 7:40 of the 3rd period on their third powerplay of the game, Joe Watson came down the wing and ripped a shot top corner for his 4th goal of the year to increase the lead to 7-3 and that would end up as the final score.
NOTES: Jaxon Sedor had a career-best 4 assists in the game, while Landen Andrusiak increased his team-lead in points to 17 with 3 assists. Andrusiak turns 15 years old on Saturday before the Bears’ next game. Reid Kosior extended his impressive point streak to 8 games with an assist on Watson’s goal, Kosior now has 11 points (4G/7A) from the blueline during the streak. Orsen Poll missed his 4th straight game with an injury, while Carter Hryciuk has now missed two consecutive games.
The Bears (6-6-1) will play on the road for 7 of the next 8 games, starting with a weekend doubleheader on November 7th & 8th at the Rod Hamm Arena looking for revenge against the Saskatoon Blazers (6-2-2).
