The Novice A Bruins after their tournament win in Prince Albert last weekend. (submitted photo)

Last weekend was a perfect weekend for the Moose Jaw Novice A Bruins.  They posted a 5-0 record and came away with the Prince Albert Tier 1 Tournament title.

“They worked hard and they faced some pretty tough competition,” said Russ MacDonald, head coach of the Bruins.  “They rose through adversity and had some fun all at the same time.”

The Bruins knocked off Humboldt 4-2 in the final, while also picking up wins over teams from Martensville, Regina, Shellbrook and Prince Albert.

“For novice hockey, they distributed the puck well, looking for each other on the ice and making smart plays, nice shots and finishing off strong,” said MacDonald.

A change to the Novice division in Moose Jaw has led to the Novice A team being used as a tier travelling team.  The Bruins have been playing exhibition games and will have a busy post-Christmas schedule with a tournament each weekend in January.

“We have the luxury of working with some pretty talented young players out there,” said MacDonald.  “We’re not really part of a league per say, so we’ve just been playing exhibition games and we’ve been pretty successful, mostly playing against teams from Regina area, Prairie Storm, Saskatoon and Lumsden.”

The Bruins have been showing some big strides in improving their game throughout the first few months of the season.  They’ve been working on the fundamentals of their game.

“What we want to do is nip any bad habits that they may have developed, the old way that we structured our novice division sometimes developed some bad habits,” said MacDonald.  “We’re just going to keep it on an upward trend, learning to distribute the puck well and do all the good things that you can accomplish with good coaching and good discipline, that’s the angle that we want to go with.”

The Bruins will be taking part in the Moose Jaw Novice Tournament in a couple of weeks with all the Novice B and C teams taking part.  They will be building towards the Black Aces Tournament in Saskatoon at the end of the season.

The Bruins play their final game before Christmas on Sunday when they head to Pilot Butte to take on the Prairie Storm at 11:45am.