It was not perfect but the Humboldt Broncos had another solid week in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League winning three of their four games to push their overall record to 5-1.
The week started off on Sept. 21 when they welcomed the Yorkton Terriers to the Elgar Peterson Arena.
The Broncos came storming out of the gate against the Terriers taking the play to them early and were rewarded with a goal less than a minute into the first period a Chris Van Os-Shaw put the Broncos in front just 47 seconds in.
Before the game was four minutes old Van Os-Shaw buried his second goal of the night to extend the Broncos lead to 2-0.
The Broncos continued carrying the play throughout the first period but were unable to find another goal as they outshot the Terriers 15-4 in the opening period.
Early in the second period Daniel McKitrick converted a beautiful feed from Logan Schatz during four-on-four action to give the Broncos a 3-0 lead.
After the McKitrick goal the Broncos found themselves on their heels a little bit thanks to a parade to the penalty box that gave the Terriers four straight power plays.
The Broncos killed off each of the first three power plays but could not escape to the end of the period with the three goal lead as Reid Anderson found the back of the net with 3:59 to play in the second period to cut the Broncos lead to 3-1.
A late Trevor Posch penalty in the second period and an early Stephen Wack penalty in the third period gave the Terriers a 5-on-3 power play. Brandon Sookro wasted little time putting the puck past Broncos netminder Garrett Mason to cut the Broncos lead to one, with the Terriers still on the power play.
The Broncos managed to kill the remainder of the Wack penalty off and regained control of the game as Laramie Kostelansky, McKitrick, Posch, and Dante Raposo scored goals in a 6:16 span to put the game out of reach as the Broncos skated away with a 7-2 win.
After a day off the Broncos returned to action on Sept. 23 when the Nipawin Hawks came to town.
The first period was relatively quiet for both teams but it was the Broncos who got on the board first as Parker Wakaruk scored on the power play with just 1.5 seconds left in the period.
The Hawks responded with a shorthanded goal off the stick of Michael Grant in the second period as neither team managed much offense.
The two teams played to a scoreless draw in the third period setting up overtime.
In the extra frame McKitrick picked the pocket of a Hawks defender at the Broncos blue line and raced in all alone on the breakaway. McKitrick made a nice move deking the goalie out and roofing a backhand top shelf to give the Broncos to 2-1 win.
After another day off the Broncos were once again right back in action on Sept. 25 when they traveled to Warman to take on the Melville Millionaires at the SJHL Showcase.
After a great opening couple of minutes the game quickly got away from the Broncos as the Millionaires scored three goals in 3:38 midway through the first period to take a 3-0 lead.
Wack got the Broncos on the board 2:07 into the second period but the Broncos could not get any closer as they dropped their first game of the season by a score of 3-1.
Making matters worse for the Broncos in the loss was captain Logan Schatz going down to injury.
Schatz is an integral part of the Broncos tea, but Head Coach Darcy Haugan says this is an opportunity for some other players to step up in his absence.
“You get opportunities throughout your life and the key and the challenge is to be ready when you get that chance and you better make the most of it when you do.”
The Broncos did not have long to stew on their first loss of the season as they were right back in action less than 24 hours later as they played their second and final SJHL Showcase game against the Estevan Bruins.
The Broncos once again jumped out of the gate very quickly as McKitrick scored his fifth goal of the season 2:19 into the first period to give the Broncos an early 1-0 lead.
Trevor Posch added to the Broncos lead at 12:06 as he converted a Brayden Camrud pass to make it 2-0.
The Bruins top ranked power play cut the Broncos lead in half just 2:21 later as Michael McChesney got the Bruins on the board.
Posch restored the Broncos’ two goal lead 1:57 into the second period on the power play when he scored his second goal of the game and fifth goal of the season.
Just 1:15 later the Bruins scored their second power play goal of the game to cut the Broncos lead back to one.
Bruins forward Kaelen Holt scored his league high sixth goal of the season at 7:20 of the second period to tie the game at three.
At 4:09 of the third period Michael Korol tipped a Wakaruk point shot past the Bruins goaltender to restore the Broncos lead.
The Broncos were hanging on in the dying minutes with the Bruins pressing for the equalizing goal. With time running out and the Bruins goalie on the bench for the extra attacker Holt struck again tying the score at four with just 17.5 second to play.
After the two teams failed to find the game winner in overtime the game went to a shootout.
Van Os-Shaw, Holt and Posch all scored on the first three shots of the shootout to give the Broncos a 2-1 edge.
Broncos goalie Carter Seminuk then stopped Lynnden Pastachak and Matt McNeil on back-to-back shots to give the Broncos a 5-4 shootout win over the Bruins.
After giving up a late equalizing goal, Haugan was very pleased with his teams’ ability to persevere and get the win, and was especially pleased with his teams’ effort after dropping their first game of the season.
“That wasn’t fun losing (Sept. 25) but we battled hard today and picked up the two points.”
Overall Haugan says there were a number of positives to take away from the week for his team but admits they still need to clean up their structure.
“They’re all really trying to get better and we’re trying to implement more structure into our game as we go on and they’re really buying in and there’s a real hungriness to win.”
Looking ahead to this week, the Broncos have two games as they travel to Melfort on Sept. 30 for a date with the Mustangs, before welcoming the Weyburn Red Wings to town on Oct. 1.
After a busy September, which included four games in six nights this past week, Haugan says the players will enjoy an off day on Sept. 27 before getting back to practice on Sept. 28 and 29 in preparation for their game in Melfort on Sept. 30.
