It was a year for the history books, though it did not end the way many had dreamed it would - with an RBC Cup championship won at home. The Humboldt Broncos played stellar hockey in 2011-12, finishing first in the league after the regular season, and winning every playoff round necessary to get to the RBC Cup not just as the host team, but as the ANAVET Cup champions. Their great play continued at the RBC Cup tournament, where they posted wins in all four of their round-robin games. Unfortunately, the season came to a crashing halt when they lost their semifinal game to the Woodstock Slammers in overtime on May 12.The silence in the arena at that moment said it all - no one expected the season to end that way. But it did. And the way the season ended was something head coach Dean Brockman was dealing with last week, as he worked on closing up this historic season. The goal from the start of the season was to win their way to the RBC Cup. They wanted to go through the front door, Brockman said.The Broncos' 2012 run for the RBC Cup actually began in January 2011, when Brockman traded a host of 20-year-olds at the trade deadline for futures. By fall, a lot of the trades that they had made from that previous season were coming to fruition as some talented 20-year-olds came to the Elgar Petersen Arena for training camp to start to fill some gaps left the previous season, and work with some of the talented players who remained on the Broncos roster from the previous season. The coaching staff was dealt a blow, Brockman told the Journal, when some of their futures were not willing to report to the club, deciding to go in a different direction. "That put us in a bit of a hole," Brockman admitted. Wheeling and dealing to fill those gaps continued through the fall months. Meanwhile, the players were busy getting to know their teammates on and off the ice.It took a while for things to gel, for the players to get to know one another, and that led to some ups and downs. In the first two months, they posted nine wins and 10 losses. Then in November, things started to improve. The wins outweighed the losses nine to three, and at the end of the month, the team started a win-streak that would last until late January."I think once we started, always the expectations are very high," Brockman said, looking back on those first few months. "We put those high expectations on ourselves."Their mediocre start was due, simply, to unfamiliarity - among the players, and between the players and the coaching staff. Things started to turn around when Brockman was called to help coach at the World Junior A Challenge in Langley, B.C. in November, he said."It was really good for me to get away from the hustle and bustle," he said, and it seemed to take the pressure off the players as well, from wondering if they were going to be traded.Assistant coaches Tim Klimosko and Murray Brookbank did a great job while Brockman was away, and when Brockman came back, he made some adjustments to their systems that applied to the strengths of the team. "The guys bought into the changes," he said, and from then on, they just got stronger. In December, the team was dealt a blow when they lost goalie Devon Dubyk to the Western Hockey League."The whole year was like that," Brockman said. "Just as soon as you got a set line-up, someone became available, or we lost someone, or we felt we needed some improvement."The hole left by Dubyk was filled by Colin Dzijacky before Christmas, and goaltending duties were split fairly evenly between the newcomer and longtime Bronco netminder Matt Hrynkiw for the remainder of the season. Forwards Taylor Duzan and Emrik Guillemette and defenceman Jonathan Parisien arrived in December, wrapping up a four- to five-month negotiation. But just into the new year, the Broncos lost Riley Kieser when he got pulled up to the Vancouver Giants. That meant the Broncos didn't have much flexibility for making trades by the January 10 deadline, Brockman explained, so they made no moves at all .Meanwhile, the win-streak started in November was continuing. Things seemed to be working on the ice. The team was climbing steadily in the rankings.The players and coaching staff had clearly bonded, and that could be due in part to what they came across while travelling home from a road trip to North Battleford on December 21. On the double-lane highway near the Borden bridge, the entire team watched as a truck passed their bus at a high rate of speed and smashed into the back of a semi."We saw it happen. We were the first on scene," Brockman said. No one was killed in the collision, but the driver of the truck was disoriented, Brockman said.The team did the best they could to deal with the situation until emergency crews arrived. Coach Tim Klimosko, trainer Brett McCorkell and player Ryan Marshall worked with the driver of the truck, while the rest of the team stayed on the bus. Brockman didn't want them in the way if the semi, which was on an embankment, decided to slip."For me, it put a lot of things in perspective," Brockman said. "It allowed me to loosen up and realize that hockey is just a game. Life is life."For the rest of the regular season, things kept rolling right along for the team. They had their share of injuries, but reached their goal of finishing first overall, with 42 wins, 11 losses, two overtime losses, three shootout losses and a total of 89 points.They had a few meaningless games at the end of the regular season which allowed them the opportunity to play some guys who hadn't been in the line-up for a while. They did get some time off before the start of the playoffs - about a week while the Bauer Survivor Series was going on between LaRonge and Flin Flon. The team used that time to get out of town. "The team decided to take a trip to Calgary to watch an NHL game," Brockman said. It was a bonding experience for players and coaches, and really helped build the team as they started their playoff run. The Broncos this year was a pretty unique group, Brockman said. Unlike other Broncos teams that made it to the RBC Cup under his direction, this team hadn't played hockey together for very long. "They came from different areas, different walks of life, different backgrounds," Brockman said. "But it was like they knew they were going to be together until mid-May anyway, so they just got along."Team play was an emphasis, as it always is under the Broncos present coaching staff. It's tough to beat a team that rolls four lines, the coaches have said in the past, and that's exactly what was happening with this team. "They were playing for each other," Brockman said.They played the LaRonge Ice Wolves in their first playoff round. They won Game 1 at home with no trouble, and a tight Game 2, also at home. Games 3 and 4 were played in LaRonge, and the Broncos ended up sweeping the Wolves in four games. "That gave us a lot of confidence, I think."Next up: the North Battleford North Stars for the Bauer Conference title. "We felt all along (they) were the second best team in the league," Brockman said. "We knew it wasn't going to be easy."Humboldt took a three-game series lead, then the Stars started to claw their way back into the series by winning Games 4 and 5. The Broncos came back to put the nail in the Stars' coffin in Game 6 of the series. "For our team, it was a case of growing and developing," Brockman said. "It was kind of fun to watch."In that series, due to the strength of the Stars, Brockman knew they would likely lose a few players to injury. And they did. "That's where our depth had to start to take over a bit," he said. In their next series, the Broncos took on the Weyburn Red Wings for the newly-renamed Canalta Cup, the SJHL championship trophy. Humboldt won Game 1 of the series, but then fell to Weyburn in Games 2 and 3."That was the first time we were down in a series," Brockman said. "Then it seemed like we were able to figure it out in that series. We were outplaying, outchancing and outshooting them."The Broncos won Games 4, 5 and 6, and were handed the Canalta Cup in Weyburn.That series was significant not just because it gave them another SJHL championship, Brockman said, but because it meant they were not going to have to find things for their players to do to keep busy until the RBC Cup started - they would be busy with the ANAVET Cup series. They always had plans B and C in mind in case they lost in any series, Brockman said; claiming that championship meant they could throw those plans away.The ANAVET Cup series - that last one to ever be played, as Hockey Canada is changing formats to a tournament next year - started strangely. Playing in Humboldt, the Broncos beat the Portage Terriers - their perpetual rivals in the MJHL, as they played them in 2008 and 2009 as well - 8-2 and 6-3 in Games 1 and 2. Portage was clearly off their game on Humboldt ice. Brockman expected the battle to heat up when they went to Manitoba for Games 3, 4 and 5, and it did. While the Broncos won Game 3, the Terriers came back to win Games 4 and 5. Then they stuck it out to win Game 6 in triple overtime.It all came down to Game 7, but after the marathon game the night before, Humboldt's depth made the difference, and they won 4-0. For the first time since 2003, they lifted the ANAVET Cup in victory at home."Some of that series was trying to rest some of our guys," Brockman said. "The series wasn't as meaningful as it would be if we were not hosting."Both teams were making it to the RBC Cup no matter who won the ANAVET, but losing would not fulfil the Broncos' season-long goal."It was important for the guys to win their way, getting to the RBC Cup through the front door," Brockman said. "That's what we'd been talking about the whole year."Through the ANAVET series, Brockman watched his team gather their strength, getting ready for the final push. "It seemed that our team was that much more composed, that much more ready," he said of Game 7. Less than a week after their ANAVET victory, the Broncos were on the ice at the Elgar Petersen Arena for the opening ceremonies of the RBC Cup. The next night, they played their opening game against the Woodstock Terriers, and won. They also won their second game over the Penticton Vees in overtime the next night, their afternoon game over the Soo Thunderbirds on May 8, and their final game of the round robin over the Portage Terriers on May 10. "We looked all right," Brockman stated. "I thought we bounced back from not (playing) our best in the ANAVET to playing some of our best hockey. They just got it to another level."Forward Andrew Johnston was one of those players who played outstandingly well at the tournament, scoring winning goals and claiming not only Player of the Game awards, but those of the top forward and top goal-scorer of the tournament on May 11. The Broncos went into semifinal play in first place, with their 4-0 record. Playing the Woodstock Slammers, they chose to play in the afternoon instead of the evening.That's a decision Brockman has gotten flack over, but one he sticks by."As a team, we made the decision to go with the afternoon game based on previous experience," Brockman explained. In 2008, his team played the evening semifinal game on Saturday, and didn't have a lot left in the tank for the final on Sunday."We were so flat for about one and a half periods of that game," Brockman recalls. Their thinking was, especially if the evening game went into overtime, the players would be better rested by playing in the afternoon the day before the final.It's not like he just made the decision that day, Brockman added. He had asked himself that question for months - what would I do?There was definite thought behind it, and other decisions they made, he noted, as they had had time to consider the pros and cons. While he stands by his decision about the timing of the game, what happened during those three periods and the 35 seconds of overtime remains somewhat murky."I'm a bit speechless about it," he said with a shake of his head. There was just something off about the whole day. "The hockey gods were not on our side that day," he said simply. "I do feel we played well enough to win... but that things were not aligned to go on."The officiating was questionable throughout the game - everyone in the stands could see that. A Humboldt goal was called off in the second period - a video replay later showed it was actually a goal - and a major penalty for checking to the head given to Humboldt in the third - again a video replay showed it was, at best, worth a two-minute minor - were turning points of the game. They allowed Woodstock to tie things up, and push the game to overtime, where a simple misstep and a loose puck in front of the Broncos' net ended the season for Humboldt. The eerie quiet in the rink following that goal says it all, Brockman feels. "It really spoke volumes for what had just happened."It wasn't the way anyone in Humboldt wanted the tournament to end for our boys."I really felt for our team, and our community that put on the best event I've ever been at. There are a lot of lessons there to be learned," he said. Eleven players are graduating from the Broncos this year - Robbie Ciolfi, Emrik Guillemette, Taylor Johnson, Ryan Marshall, Taylor Duzan, Andrew Johnston, Andrew Herle, Brett Pisio, Jonathan Parisien, Mathew Backhouse and Chase Wharton.That's a lot of strength to lose. But if all return, the Broncos have some strong players still on the roster - Adam Zbitniff, Neil Landry, Joey Davies, David Miazga, Adam Antkowiak, Josh Roach, John Lawrence, Matt Glowa, Rhett Blackmur, Kameron Ballas, Nathan Hudema, David Stumborg, Logan Sproule, Cody Pettapiece and both goaltenders - Matt Hrynkiw and Colin Dzijacky.Brockman isn't certain all the players will be Broncos next season. "Usually after a loss that major, I'm not sure who's coming back. It takes time for the sting to go away."There are also some futures and trades to settle up when the new season rolls around, Brockman said. Between 10 and 14 of his players should be back, he said.To sum up the 2011-12 hockey season: "When you think about it, we certainly had our trials and tribulations," Brockman said. It was a good year, he admitted. "But it was not a year to have a good year. It was a year to have a great year. That's part of the sting that won't go away."It was fun to watch his team and the Broncos organization grow, he said, and to watch as Humboldt hosted a great national tournament."All the people, the volunteers with the smiles on their faces, wishing us luck when we walked into the rink. That won't be forgotten. It proved that Humboldt is a great place."Brockman offered a general thank you to everyone involved with this past season, and the RBC Cup, with a special thanks to the Broncos scouting staff."The scouting staff does a lot of things for nothing and helps me out tremendously," he said.
