Their strength is growing.
The Humboldt Broncos got two more wins in away games last week in Melfort and Nipawin.
The Broncos took on their arch rivals, the Melfort Mustangs at the Northern Lights Palace in Melfort on December 7, and came away with a huge 9-5 win.
John Lawrence opened scoring for Humboldt at 2:03 of the first period, assisted by Mathew Backhouse and Robbie Ciolfi.
They strengthened their lead with another goal, this time by Ciolfi, at 14:05. Matt Glowa and Lawrence got the assists on that point.
In the second, the Broncos added a third point with a power-play goal by Josh Roach, assisted by Adam Antkowiak and Backhouse.
Being down 3-0 seemed to kick the Mustangs into gear, however, and they scored four times on Bronco netminder Matt Hrynkiw in the rest of the second period. They got two power-play goals at 6:30 and 8:06, then two even-strength points at 15:42 and 16:57.
That gave Melfort a 4-3 lead heading into the third period.
Undaunted, the Broncos came out flying in the third. Taylor Duzan scored the tying goal just 34 seconds into the period, then got the go-ahead point at 3:09. Assisting on those two goals were Andrew Johnston, Taylor Johnson, Roach and Kameron Ballas.
Ciolfi got his second goal of the night at 6:40 to make it a 6-4 game. He was assisted by Lawrence and Glowa.
Lawrence and Glowa assisted on the next point as well for the Broncos, scored at 8:59, on the power play, by Roach.
The score sat at 7-4 for a few minutes before the Mustangs got their fifth and final goal at 11:09.
Humboldt rounded out scoring with two empty-net, short-handed goals - the first by Johnston at 19:08, and another at 19:56 by Ballas, assisted by Duzan and Ciolfi.
Penalties were light on the Humboldt end, with just five in total, and just one major for fighting to Neil Landry, who dropped gloves with Avery VanBlaricom at 8:18 of the second. VanBlaricom got an extra roughing penalty at that time, in addition to five minutes for fighting.
Melfort recorded eight penalties in the game, including a penalty shot for the Broncos at 17:48 of the third. Shooter Andrew Herle of the Broncos failed to score on that shot.
The Broncos were three for six on the power play in the game, while the Mustangs were two for four.
There was a huge margin between the two teams in shots on goal - Humboldt recorded 55, while the Mustangs made just 28.
Ciolfi and Lawrence were named among the game's three stars.
Two nights later, the Broncos headed north again to face the Nipawin Hawks at their arena on December 9.
The game got off to a slow start, with no scoring in the first, and just one goal in the second, scored by Nipawin's Mitch Doell and assisted by Ryan Ostertag at 15:08, on Humboldt goaltender Deven Dubyk.
It took until the third for the Broncos to get rolling on the scoring end, but once they did, they were hard to stop. Oddly enough, they started scoring more, though their shots on goal dropped to six in total in the third period, from 28 in the first and second periods combined.
Humboldt's Josh Roach tied the game at one with a goal at 2:53, unassisted.
Then it was Logan Sproule who gave the Broncos their go-ahead goal at 7:51, assisted by Robbie Ciolfi and Andrew Johnston.
Finally, Taylor Duzan of Humboldt got the insurance goal on an empty net at 18:49, assisted by Johnston and Neil Landry.
Penalties were also light throughout the game, until its final minutes. A fight broke out at 18:55 between Humboldt's Brett Pisio and Nipawin's Dustin Skilliter. Both got five minutes for fighting.
Neither team was able to score on the power play, though Humboldt got three, and Nipawin, four.
Humboldt did out-shoot Nipawin 34 to 23 over three periods.
Adam Antkowiak was the lone Bronco to be named among the game's three stars.
