It was a win-win situation for the Humboldt Broncos last weekend.
The green and gold came back from their Christmas break to score two wins in their first two games of 2013, bringing their latest win-streak to six games.
Though both contests were closer than the 6-0 and 2-0 wins they scored over the Battlefords North Stars and Melville Millionaires before Christmas, the Broncos' play in the January games showed a team that can win under pressure.
The Broncos took on the Yorkton Terriers on January 4 in Yorkton and came home with a 4-3 win, despite being outshot 44 to 37.
With the SJHL's goaltender of the month for December, Matt Hrynkiw, guarding their net, the Broncos took an early 1-0 lead over the Terriers in the first period, with a goal by Adam Zbitniff, assisted by Dylan Fluter and Carter Page at 13:35.
The Terriers came back and scored a power-play goal at 9:55 of the second, but the Broncos took back their lead with a power-play goal of their own at 13:27, scored by Justin Lund, and assisted by Adam Antkowiak.
The Terriers tied up scoring with a goal at 18:59.
Seconds later, at 19:43, a brawl broke out, resulting in a glut of penalties to both teams.
Broncos Joey Davies and David Stumborg got five-minute majors for fighting with the latter also gaining a game misconduct, while their teammates Ryan Aubertin, Dylan Fluter and Rhett Blackmur got 10-minute misconducts.
The same penalties were awarded to five Terriers players as well.
The Terriers took the lead in scoring with a goal at 7:14 of the third, but the Broncos managed to tie the game at three with a goal by Antkowiak, assisted by Cody Pettapiece and Fluter at 15:26 of the third.
The game remained at a stalemate for the rest of regulation time, and for the five-minute overtime period.
Moving into a shootout, Yorkton's Derek Falloon shot first, followed by Humboldt's Joey Davies. Both failed to score.
So did shooters Patrick Martens of Yorkton, Antkowiak of Humboldt, Zak Majkowski of Yorkton, John Lawrence of Humboldt, and Jeremy Johnson of Yorkton.
Finally, Broncos' blue-liner and team captain Kameren Ballas broke the tie with a goal on Yorkton's Kale Thomson. That goal won the game for Humboldt.
While the Terriers won the shots-on-goal contest, the Broncos were better on the power play, going one for three, while the Terriers were one for four.
Antkowiak was named the first star of the game, and Fluter the third. Martens, who got a goal and an assist for the Terriers, was named second star.
Over 1,200 people attended the game in Yorkton.
In Humboldt two nights later, half that number of people came out to see the Broncos play the Weyburn Red Wings in their first home game of the new year.
The Wings wasted no time, scoring their first goal on their first run at Bronco netminder Michael Gudmandson just 19 seconds into play. They followed that up just four minutes later with a second goal to take a 2-0 lead.
The Broncos managed to halve that lead with a goal by Carter Page, assisted by Dylan Fluter and Cody Pettapiece at 7:19 of the first.
Adam Antkowiak thought he'd tied the game with 11 minutes left on the clock, but the referee disagreed, and the period ended with the score still at 2-1.
The Wings scored early in the second, at 4:14 and again at 7:55 to take a 4-1 lead over Humboldt.
It took a few minutes for the Broncos to get the puck by Weyburn goalie Nate Ferris again, but they did manage at 16:11 of the second. Ryan Aubertin, assisted by Cody Pongracz and Joey Davies, made it a 4-2 contest.
After two periods of chasing the Wings, the Broncos took control of the play in the third period.
John Lawrence took the score to within one with a power-play goal at 3:41. Then Pongracz scored at 12:41, assisted by Kyle Lipinski and Davies, and again at 16:57, assisted by Davies and Jeffrey Ness.
That put the Broncos up 5-4, a lead they held for the rest of the game.
Penalties were light on the Humboldt side throughout the game, with just three over 60 minutes, but the Wings spent more time in the box - seven penalties total over three periods.
Despite six power plays, the Broncos were able to score on only one. The Wings were zero for three.
The Broncos led the way on shots on goal, 36-26 over three periods.
The Broncos played at home again January 8, there are two home games this weekend, on both Friday and Saturday, January 11-12, and another on January 15.
