The first two games of the best-of-seven north division semifinal between the Humboldt Broncos and the Melfort Mustangs hit the ice Friday, March 8 in Humboldt and Saturday night in Melfort.
The Mustangs got the jump on the Broncos Friday at the Elgar Petersen Arena, scoring a pair of goals in the opening period.
Humboldt outshot the Mustangs 13-6 but no player was able to beat netminder Jesse Wilkins.
The Broncos were at a full gallop in the second period, scoring a pair of goals less than a minute apart. The power-play line of John Lawrence, Cody Pettapiece and Kameren Ballas cut the Mustangs' lead in half at the 14:17 mark. This was Ballas' first playoff goal.
Having solved the Wilkins' puzzle, it was captain Neil Landry, set up by Cody Pongracz, who tied the game only 36 seconds later.
Despite outshooting the Mustangs 14-4 in the second frame, the score remained knotted at 2-2 at the end of 40 minutes.
The third period was fast and furious. The Broncos again dominated, outshooting the Mustangs 20-12, but neither team was able to beat the opposition's goalie, forcing overtime.
Melfort's Godric Tham got his third point of the night when he beat Matt Hrynkiw in OT.
The puck dropped Saturday night in Melfort and straight out of the gate the Broncos put the pressure on Wilkins. Emotions were running close to the surface as evidenced by the coincidental unsportsmanlike minors assessed to the Broncos' Rhett Blackmur and the Mustangs' Anthony Pickering only a minute into the game.
Skating four aside, the Broncos generated three excellent scoring opportunities off the sticks of John Lawrence, David Stumborg and Alex Forsberg but Wilkins denied them all. The Broncos continued to press, but Wilkins stymied every attempt.
With Melfort's Brandon Formosa in the box for roughing, the Broncos' power play had Wilkins scrambling, but he was unable to prevent Cody Pongracz from backhanding the puck under his outstretched glove.
Stumborg and Logan Sproule were key components in the power-play effort, giving Humboldt a 1-0 lead at the 14:39 mark.
A late penalty to Melfort's David Heath with 1:59 left in the period, brought the Broncos' power play back onto the ice.
Forsberg was unable to bury a loose puck in front of the Melfort net, but Sproule picked it up, sent it back to Stumborg, whose blast from the point was tipped by Dylan Fluter to make it 2-0 Humboldt with just under a minute and a half to play in the first. The Broncos skated into the locker room also holding a 21-10 advantage in shots on net.
Humboldt continued to dominate in the second. Whether on the power play or penalty kill, the Broncos were everywhere, generating scoring opportunities. If not for Wilkins, the score would have been 5-0 by the midway point of the period.
A defensive breakdown by the Broncos saw Melfort's Pickering left all alone in front of Matt Hrynkiw who lofted one high over the goalie's shoulder to cut Humboldt's lead to 2-1 at 11:41. Broncos' captain Neil Landry's reply to the goal was to fly down the ice and test Wilkins, who came up big, preventing the Broncos from re-establishing their two-goal margin.
Thirty seconds into the third, the Mustangs came close to tying the game but a huge toe-save by Hrynkiw kept his team ahead.
The pace was fast and furious and at the midway point of the third, following two big saves by Hrynkiw, the goalpost gods helped him out by seeing one go over his shoulder careening off the post rather than into the net.
Bronco Joe Davies picked up the puck after a blocked shot, beat Melfort's Matt Saunderson at the blue-line, skated in on his second breakaway of the game and hit the five-hole to give the Broncos a 3-1 lead with 7:10 left in the game.
Play intensified. Melfort pulled Wilkins with 1:45 to go. Seven seconds later, with the faceoff in Humboldt's end, after a Melfort timeout, Godric Tham beat Hrynkiw with 49 seconds left to make it 3-2 Humboldt.
But Davies, on yet another breakaway, deposited the puck into the empty net with 2.1 seconds left in the game to make the final score 4-2 Humboldt, tying the series at one game apiece.
"We played a pretty decent game," said volunteer associate coach Chad Ellison. "We have some holes in our game that we need to work on next week."
Ellison felt the second frame was not the Broncos' best period of play and said the guys were trying to be too cute in their play.
"Our defence is struggling a bit," he said. "We need to get back to a simpler game."
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series was played Tuesday, March 12 back in Humboldt.
