Winning streaks can end in many different ways. For the Humboldt Broncos, their four-game streak came to an end with a quiet whimper and a 3-1 loss to the Flin Flon Bombers the night before Halloween.
"It was awful," said head coach Dean Brockman. "I can't say there was anything about our game that I liked all that much."
The Broncos came into the game against Flin Flon having won four in a row on the strength of stellar goaltending, solid play on the blue line and timely scoring from the forwards. All of that, with the possible exception of goaltending (Cade Spencer stopped 32 of the 35 shots he saw), fell apart against the Bombers.
When a team goes on a winning streak there can be a tendency to relax, to think that the wins will just keep on coming.
"It can be typical of a team that wins four in a row to forget just how hard it was to win those four in a row," Brockman said. "I'm not sure it would have mattered what I said or did. The players tend not to hear you as well when you're winning."
After a scoreless first period, Parker Evans-Campbell opened the scoring for Flin Flon, followed 20 seconds later by a goal from Cameron Blair. Blair beat Spencer for the second time early in the third period, putting the Bombers up 3-0 and ending any hopes the Broncos might have had of extending their winning streak to five games.
With eight of 12 games in November coming on the road, dropping a home game stings a bit more than usual. Still, Brockman said there could be some advantages to getting away from Humboldt for most of the next month.
"Sometimes playing on the road can be a bit easier," he said. "You don't grip the stick quite as tight on the road."
The team continues to shuffle through various line combinations as Brockman looks for the perfect chemistry at both forward and defence.
"After a loss like that we'll probably shake things up a little bit," he said.
The Broncos will take the ice tomorrow night against the Melville Millionaires at the Elgar Petersen Arena at 7:30. Humboldt is second in the Kramer Division with a record of 8-7 and 16 points.
