Sunday, February 17, the Humboldt Broncos played their third game in four nights, this time at home at the Elgar Petersen Arena against the visiting Battlefords North Stars.
With Humboldt's strong home ice record, fans may have seen the outcome of this matchup as a foregone conclusion, but no one told the visiting North Stars.
The tone was set early as each team let their physical presence be known. At the 13:21 mark, a minor penalty for elbowing was called behind the play to Humboldt's David Miazga. The North Stars took only 14 seconds of their two-minute power play to score what turned out to be the game winning goal.
Humboldt's goalie Matt Hrynkiw made the initial save, but gave up an uncharacteristic big rebound that was pounced on by the North Stars' Blake Young to make it 1-0 at the 6:53 mark. Assists were given to Luke McColgan and Braeden Johnson.
The Broncos had back-to-back power play opportunities when the North Stars were called for high sticking at the 11:32 mark and goalie interference at the 13:14 mark. But the league's top power play was shut down as Battlefords' goalie Connor Creech was extremely sharp between the pipes. With some help out front, like the big hit defenceman Evan Ripley laid on Neil Landry to negate a scoring opportunity, the North Stars proved they were here to play.
Despite a flurry of shots in the dying seconds of the opening frame, Humboldt was not able to light the lamp and trailed 1-0 at the end of the first. They did however have a 13-9 shots on goal lead but went 0 for 2 on the power play and 1 for 2 on the penalty kill.
Only four seconds into the second, Humboldt's Miazga was assessed a four-minute butt-ending penalty. However, this time, the Broncos' penalty kill was stellar, negating the man advantage and allowing only two shots on net during the entire four minutes. Joe Davies and Dylan Fluter even orchestrated a short-handed opportunity, which Creecher denied.
The physical play intensified in the second and late in the second half of the frame, Humboldt's Miazga was on the receiving end of a forceful hit by the North Stars' Dillon Forbes. Miazga was slow to leave the ice. Battlefords was making Humboldt pay the price for touching the puck and generating offensive rushes.
At the end of 40 minutes, the 1-0 Battlefords' lead still stood and this time it was the North Stars who held an 11-9 margin on shots on goal during that period.
Despite numerous rushes and outshooting the visitors 9-3 in the final period, the North Stars' Creecher was not to be denied his shutout. He stood tall and recorded his second shutout win against the Humboldt Broncos at the Elgar Petersen Arena, earning him first star status of the game.
His teammate Young, the lone goal scorer of the game was named second star, and Humboldt's Hrynkiw was the third star.
The Broncos led 31-23 in shots on goal, but it was the North Stars taking home the shutout win.
