It was a disappointing week for the Humboldt Broncos.
The Broncos went out on the road this week with some momentum after picking up three of a possible four points. They return home licking their wounds after finishing the week 0-3.
The road losses keep piling up for the Broncos, as that is now 20 straight. The Broncos have just a single road point since Sept. 25 when the Broncos started the season 2-0 on the road. Since then the team has gone 0-19-1.
Their first game of the week came in Melville against the last place Millionaires. Like many times this season, the Broncos came out of the gate slowly and found themselves behind the eight ball early.
Cole Filler scored his first of two goals, 51 seconds into the opening period, leaving the Broncos to chase the game.
A power play less than two minutes later gave the Broncos a chance to get the game back even but they weren’t able to do so.
The Millionaires got a power play of their own at the 10:03 mark thanks to a Trevor Posch elbowing penalty. The Millionaires also failed to score on their power play and the score remained 1-0 after the first period.
The Broncos failed to score on another power play near the midway mark of the period. A minute and a half later, Andrew Thompson took a hooking penalty sending the Millionaires back on the power play.
Despite being shorthanded it was the Broncos who managed to cash in as Logan Schatz scored an unassisted shorthanded goal to tie the score at 1-1. The tie was short lived however, as Filler scored his second of the game, four minutes later to restore the Millionaires one goal advantage, 2-1.
That was the last bit of scoring for either team as the Broncos failed to convert on three more power plays in the third period and finished the game being outshot 39-28.
With the win the Millionaires pulled to within a single point of the Broncos for eleventh in the league and remained four points behind Yorkton for the final playoff spot.
The Broncos then traveled to southern Saskatchewan for a pair of weekend games, Jan. 22 and 23 against Weyburn and Estevan respectively.
Jan. 22 in Weyburn had a little more meaning for the Broncos as it was their first game against former Broncos Jarrett Fontaine.
The game started much the same way their previous game in Melville did, as it didn’t take long for the Broncos to find themselves chasing the game.
Tyran Brown lit the lamp less than three minutes in to give the home team a 1-0 lead. Then came a pair of opportunities for the Broncos to tie the game with back-to-back power plays at 5:34 and 7:37. The Broncos couldn’t generate much offensively and the power plays passed without a single goal.
The Red Wings continued pushing the play for much of the period and finally got rewarded as Mason Anderson scored a power play goal with three and a half minutes remaining in the period to extend their lead to 2-0.
At the end of the period the Broncos trailed by that 2-0 score and were outshot 22-4.
Logan Schatz scored his second goal in as many games just over eight minutes into the second period to cut the Red Wings lead to 2-1.
It didn’t take the Red Wings long to restore their two goal lead as Ian Parker scored a minute later. A minute after that the Red Wings found the back of the net again and the route seemed to be on. The Red Wings added another goal before the period ended and took a 5-1 lead into the intermission.
After being pummeled with shots in the first period, the Broncos were pummeled again as they were outshot 19-5 and trailed 41-9 total heading into the third.
Despite trailing 5-1 and being dominated in the shot department, the Broncos pushed back a little bit in the third period. Chris Van Os-Shaw, who scored his first goal as a Bronco and Logan Schatz answered a pair of Red Wings third period goals to keep the game from getting really ugly. The third period finished tied in goals, two apiece and shots 12 apiece, as the Red Wings outscored the Broncos 7-3 and outshot them 53-21.
The Broncos didn’t have much time to reflect on their loss to the Red Wings, as they were right back in action the next night in Estevan. Like their last two games the Broncos did themselves no favours early in the game as the Bruins scored twice before the game was two minutes old and lead the Broncos 2-0.
This time the Broncos pushed back scoring a pair of goals ten seconds apart.
The Bruins and Broncos traded another goal and before the game was ten minutes old the game was tied at 3. Estevan added two more goals on the power play and grabbed a 5-3 after the first period. The shot margin was a problem for the Broncos for the second game in a row as they trailed 22-8 at the break.
The second and third periods went no better for the Broncos as they were outscored 5-1. As the clock struck zero in the third period the scoreboard read 10-4 in favour of Estevan. The Bruins also held a sizeable edge in shots finishing with a 48-22 advantage.
Understandably Broncos Head Coach Darcy Haugan was not pleased with his teams effort over the weekend.
He attributed the struggles to a lack of focus among the players.
“It’s not skill set right now but it’s just a matter of will and want and we have to find a way to get that instilled in these players,” he said.
The Broncos finished the week being outscored 19-8 and outshot 140-71. Besides struggling defensively, one of the Broncos’ biggest problems this week was an inability to cash in on the power play as they finished the week 1/18.
Haugan attributed the struggles on the power play to inexperience.
“We moved Fontaine out and we have some new guys playing different positions so obviously it didn’t help us,” he said.
Haugan noted the power play wasn’t horrible the whole time however.
“There was times where we were good and times where we complicated things,” he said.
One of the lone bright spots for the Broncos was the play of newly acquired forward Chris Van Os-Shaw who scored twice and added two assists in his first two games as a Bronco.
Haugan said that Van Os-Shaw’s play has been good for the team and he hopes that he can help lead the teams turnaround.
This Week
After being on the road for three games last week the Broncos return home on Tues. Jan. 26 for a matchup with the third place Melfort Mustangs.
The Broncos then head out on the road for a huge matchup in Yorkton with the Terriers on Jan. 30.
With the season wearing down and the Broncos trailing Yorkton by three points, that matchup with the Terriers will either put the Broncos right back in the thick of the playoff race or it will put a significant gap between the two teams.
