Playoffs are about moments and the key to winning in the playoffs is taking advantage of those moments.
The Melfort Mustangs learned that the hard way as they failed to score on an early five-minute power play en route to losing 4-1 to the Humboldt Broncos in Game 3 of their Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League quarterfinal series in Humboldt.
The visitors received a five-minute player advantage just 3:08 into the opening period after Ryan Straschnitzki was sent to the showers for boarding.
The win gives the Broncos a 2-1 lead in the Bourgault Cup series.
A trio of Saskatoon boys led the way offensively for the Broncos as Kaleb Dahlgren, Brayden Camrud and Xavier Labelle each scored once and set up one other in the win.
Former Mustang Jaxon Joseph rounded out the scoring for the Broncos, notching his fifth goal in three games.
Tyler Heidt responded for the Mustangs.
After the teams combined for 18 goals in the first two games of the series, Game 3 reverted back to a more common style of tight checking, low scoring games in the playoffs.
That was none more evident that in the first period when the teams failed to find the back of the net, managing just 14 shots combined.
The Broncos wasted little time getting on the board in the second as Xavier Labelle snuck into some open ice in the slot, took a nifty feed from Camrud and beat Mustangs netminder Evan Plotnik to put the home side in front 1-0.
As the period wore on the Mustangs pushed harder and harder for the tie and were finally rewarded as Heidt pulled the Mustangs into a tie with just 30 seconds left in period two.
Heidt took a feed from Loch Morrison, raced passed all four Broncos on the ice during a stretch of 4-on-4, cut across the goal and tucked it in far side before Broncos netminder Parker Tobin could slide his pad across to make the save.
That late goal seemed to give the Mustangs life as they hemmed the Broncos into their own zone for long stretches of the early part of the third.
While the Mustangs had the puck for a large majority of the first half of the period, they could not do much with it and it cost them.
With time winding down, Dahlgren found himself in the slot with his back to the goal.
The 20-year-old fired a spinning shot towards the goal, which beat Plotnik on the blocker side to give the Broncos a 2-1 lead.
Joseph continued haunting his former club, as the 20-year-old added a power play marker 1:37 later to put the home side in front 3-1.
The Mustangs pulled their goalie hoping to cut into the Broncos lead, but Camrud hit the empty net on a shot from his own blueline to seal the deal, giving the Broncos a 4-1 win.
Plotnik was charged with the loss in the Mustangs cage, allowing three goals on 26 shots as the Mustangs outshot the Broncos 28-27.
As has been a common theme throughout the first three games of this series, special teams played a key role in the Broncos win as the Mustangs failed to score on six opportunities, while the Broncos managed to score twice on five man advantage situations.
Through three games the Mustangs are just 2-for-18 on the power play, while the Broncos sit at an impressive 9-for-21.
The Mustangs will look to pull back into a tie with the Broncos with Game 4 in Humboldt on March 21.
