There will be a new champion in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League this season.
Wednesday, the Humboldt Broncos completed their sweep of the La Ronge Ice Wolves with a 6-2 victory. The Broncos led by just 3-2 score in the third period, but turned up the pressure and scored three goals in the final frame to punch their ticket to the SJHL's Bauer Conference final.
The Broncos now await the winner of the series between the Battlefords North Stars and Nipawin Hawks.
Not only did the Humboldt Broncos win in four straight games, they did so with Colin Dzijacky winning the final game instead of their number one goalie Matt Hrynkiw.
Humboldt's Andrew Johnston and Jonathan Lawrence lead the Broncos in points with six in four games.
After La Ronge downed the Flin Flon Bombers in the survivor series, they knew they were in tough against the best team in the regular season and now end the season after losing 10 times to Humboldt this season, four in playoffs and six during the regular season.
Along with the top team in the Bauer Conference, the top team in the Sherwood Conference, the Weyburn Red Wings, also completed a first-round series sweep. The Red Wings skated to a 3-1 win Wednesday over the Estevan Bruins after going up 3-0 in the first period.
Weyburn's top scorer for the series was Coltyn Sanderson, as he had eight points in four games.
With four playoff series' completed, including the two survivor series, it has been the higher ranked team winning every series to this point.
Also Wednesday, Melville won with some late game heroics once again. With less than a minute remaining, Melville tied the game and 30 seconds later Ian McNulty scored the game-winning goal with 19:46 on the clock.
The Millionaires took a 3-1 series lead over Yorkton and will look to end the series Friday in Yorkton.
The road to the Canalta Cup, Anavet Cup and RBC Cup is long one for the 10 SJHL playoff teams. Across the country, already of the 133 teams in the Canadian Junior Hockey League that qualified for playoffs, less than 90 remain from the 10 junior hockey league playoffs. The SJHL, a league of 12 teams, has moved from 10 playoff teams to six and by Friday that number could reduce as two teams face elimination.
