What a difference a week makes.
After struggling through much of the season on the power play the Broncos exploded for four man advantage goals in a 7-2 win over the Melfort Mustangs in game one of the Bourgault Cup in Melfort on March 16.
Bourgault Industries Ltd. was announced as the series sponsor between the Highway 368 rivals.
The Broncos, who gave up the game’s first goal, responded with an empathic message scoring three straight on three power plays.
By the time the game reached its midway mark the Broncos were 3-for-3 with the man advantage and led 4-1.
The green and gold added another power play marker in the third as the visitors finished game one, 4-for-8 with the man advantage.
The Broncos’ top line of Logan Schatz, Nick Shumlanski, and former Mustang Jaxon Joseph were dangerous once again as they combined for five goals, and five assists in the win.
Brayden Camrud and Jacob Leicht added the other goals for the Broncos, while Bryce Fiske chipped in with a pair of assists.
Former Bronco Tristen Elder did all of the damage for the home side as he finished with both Mustangs goals.
Elder actually opened the scoring for the Mustangs just 50 seconds in, seemingly giving the home side the early momentum.
Penalties soon became a problem for the Mustangs and the Broncos made them pay.
After the home side was called for too many men on the ice, Joseph made his former team pay scoring his first of the playoffs, just six seconds into the man advantage.
Broncos head coach Darcy Haugan noted he felt that goal was the key to the Broncos’ power play being so good.
“Obviously when you score six seconds into your first one it kind of gives your power play some life and some confidence and some belief so it was really critical for us and we were able to ride that momentum the rest of the night.”
Schatz gave the Broncos their first lead of the game converting on a Fiske feed for his first of the playoffs.
Schatz’s goal came 1:01 into the Broncos’ second power play, giving the visitors a 2-1 lead after one.
Joseph scored his second of the night just 57 seconds into the second period, again on the power play, to put the Broncos ahead 3-1.
Leicht then extended the Broncos’ lead to 4-1 with his first of the playoffs at 7:35 of period two.
That goal marked the end of the evening for Mustangs netminder Evan Plotnik, who was lifted in favour of Hunter Arps after giving up four goals on 17 shots.
That goal seemed to give the Mustangs a little life as Elder scored his second of the night a few minutes after the goaltending change, cutting the Broncos’ lead to 4-2 after two periods.
Despite the early successes on the power play, it was the final few minutes of the second period after Melfort made it 4-2 that Haugan felt was the turning point in the hockey game.
“We maybe look at our penalty killing as being the turning point. It’s lot of opportunities for momentum swings in playoff games and we were lucky to have enough of the key plays at the critical moments to preserve the win.”
That was as close as the Mustangs would come however, as Shumlanski and Camrud combined for three goals in a span of 1:45 in the early part of the third period, giving the visitors a commanding 7-2 lead.
With the five-goal edge in their back pocket, the Broncos shut the game down for the final 14:46 to emerge with the victory.
The win gave the Broncos a one game to none series lead over the Mustangs, and was their first SJHL playoff win since a 6-5 triple overtime win over the Yorkton Terriers in the SJHL league semi-final on March 28, 2014.
The win also marked Haugan’s first career SJHL playoff win as a head coach.
“Quite honestly I wasn’t even thinking about it. It is nice but we want 11 more. Looking back at the game 50 second in when they scored you’re just kind of wondering, uh oh, is this another night but credit our guys. We knew Melfort was going to come hard and we were able to answer back for sure.”
Also making a first was Broncos starting goaltender Jacob Wassermann, who turned aside 29 of the 31 shots he faced for his first career SJHL playoff win, as the Broncos outshot the Mustangs 33-31.
