It was a bit of an up-and-down week for the Humboldt Broncos as they picked up two wins sandwiched around a blowout loss.
The week began on Jan. 28 with a 3-2 win in Nipawin against the Hawks. Humboldt held a 3-1 lead heading into the third period and was able to hold on for the win, with goals coming from Logan Sproule, Jarrett Fontaine and Kyle Oleniuk.
Given the team's recent struggles to score, finding the back of the net three times was a welcome change, even though the Broncos came out a little slow.
"I didn't think our first 10 minutes were great, but we haven't won in Nipawin in quite some time so it was a good effort," said head coach Dean Brockman.
Unfortunately the Broncos weren't able to carry over any positive momentum from the Nipawin game when they took on Yorkton Jan. 31 and were pummeled by a score of 7-0, the team's worst loss of the year. The Broncos outshot the Terriers, 33-26, but were unable to turn any of those chances into goals. In net, Cade Spencer had one of his worst nights of the year, stopping only 19 of 26 shots he faced. It was the second time in a week that Humboldt had been shut out by Yorkton (they lost 1-0 to the Terriers on Jan. 24).
"Nothing could go our way," was how Brockman summed up the Yorkton game, one that saw the Broncos give up a goal when a defenceman tried to pass the puck back to Spencer, only to see it dribble past him for a Yorkton goal. It was that kind of night, but the Broncos were able to move past it quickly.
Wrapping up their week, the Broncos returned the shutout favour the following night by blanking the Melville Millionaires 3-0. After two scoreless periods, the Broncos broke through in a big way with three goals in the final frame.
It began with Ryan Aubertin, who potted his team-leading 14th goal of the season past Melville goalie Richard Palmer.
Less than two minutes later Cody Pongracz made it 2-0, and David Miazga finished things off with a power play goal about seven minutes later.
As they have in most of their games this year, the Broncos outshot the opposition (34-29), though in this case they were able to capitalize on some of those chances. Outside of the blip against Yorkton, Humboldt has played well on their road trip and has a chance to finish it with a winning record if they beat Melfort tonight, a team they've won three of four games against this season.
"Your goal is always to be .500 or better on the road," Brockman said. "It's tough to play on the road, especially when it's cold and you're out there for a bunch of games in a row."
After returning from Melfort the Broncos will have only eight regular season games left. With six of those games at home, they have a chance to head into the playoffs with some positive momentum and to leave the memory of a bad January far behind.
"We haven't been fantastic at home since Christmas either, but it's big to have that many at home," Brockman said. "To not be on the road at the end of the season is great."
