Calgary Herald

Broncos fight back to dump Hitmen

More than 14,000 vocal students pack Saddledome to cheer on the home team

- LAURENCE HEINEN

Backed by a boisterous hometown crowd, the Calgary Hitmen jumped out to a solid lead over the Swift Current Broncos on Tuesday.

In search of every point they can get their hands on in their quest to qualify for the WHL playoffs, the Hitmen weren’t able to build on that early momentum as they dropped a 6-4 decision to the CHL’s No. 4 ranked team at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

“It gave us a lot of energy at the start,” said Hitmen forward Jake Kryski of a 3-1 start in front of an energetic crowd that was comprised of more than 14,000 Calgary and area students on hand for the Telus Be Brave Anti-Bullying Game.

“The yelling, the chanting, ‘Go Hitmen Go’ was pretty cool to hear. It kind of shook the building a little bit, so it was a fun game to play in.”

Both Kryski and Dakota Krebs had a pair of assists for the Hitmen (19-35-7), while Jakob Stukel scored his team-leading 31st goal of the season and set up another.

“You couldn’t even really hear each other on the bench,” said Stukel of the atmosphere in the building for the game that started at 11 a.m.

“They were screaming. It was pretty cool. We tried to build off that. We played really well in the first period. We had a lot of jump, but it’s too bad we couldn’t get the two points.”

Much to the delight of the screaming onlookers, Stukel, Riley Stotts and Vladislav Yeryomenko scored in the opening frame to give the Hitmen a two-goal advantage over the Broncos (45-14-5), who then responded with two goals of their own in the second.

“It was an emotional game,” said Hitmen head coach Dallas Ferguson. “In the second period there, maybe our emotions were high, but our focus went to the stuff after the whistle and in between whistles. I thought in the first period, our emotions were in check and our focus was on our game. I think we got a little bit distracted in the second period.”

Unfortunat­ely for the Hitmen, that carried over into the final frame in which the visitors outscored the home side 3-1 to earn their second straight win and third in the past four outings.

“We kind of let off the gas and let them crawl back in the game, and then in the third, we just got a little too emotional, took some penalties that were unnecessar­y,” Kryski said. “And they ended up putting them in the back of the net, and it just kind of fell apart on us.”

After Flames prospect Glenn Gawdin scored a power play goal for the Broncos at 3:01 of the third, Carson Focht answered back with a short-handed marker at 12:06 to pull the Hitmen back into a 4-4 tie.

Aleksi Heponiemi then set up goals by Giorgio Estephan and Beck Malenstyn for his third and fourth assists of the contest to seal the victory for the Broncos, who went 2-for-7 on the power play.

“That’s a real good team, and their power play’s clicking along pretty high,” Ferguson said. “It’s never a recipe for success if you’re taking that many penalties against a team that’s as good on the power play as they are.”

MacKenzie Wight, Jacson Alexander and Tyler Steenberge­n also scored for the Speedy Creek squad, while goalie Joel Hofer picked up the win after stopping 18 of 19 shots he faced in a relief appearance of starter Stuart Skinner.

Hitmen goalie Nick Schneider did his best to keep the Hitmen in the game by stopping 28 shots fired his way.

After finishing up their sevengame home stand with a 3-4 record, the Hitmen will play the first of two road games Wednesday against the host Red Deer Rebels (22-28-13) at the Enmax Centrium (7 p.m., Sportsnet.ca/960).

“The next one on the schedule is always going be a little bit bigger than the one you just played,” said Ferguson, whose squad trails the Rebels by 12 points for third spot in the Central Division. “They’ve been playing well. We came in here and got two points from them (in a 6-4 win last Wednesday at the Saddledome), so it’s going to be important for us to be ready to play a good road hockey game and be competitiv­e.”

The yelling, the chanting, ‘Go Hitmen Go’ was pretty cool to hear. It kind of shook the building a little bit.

 ?? DARREN MAKOWICHUK ?? Students from schools across Calgary cheer on the Hitmen during the Telus Be Brave Anti-Bullying Game on Tuesday at the Scotiabank Saddledome. The Hitmen started fast, thanks in part to the young fans roaring their support from the stands, before...
DARREN MAKOWICHUK Students from schools across Calgary cheer on the Hitmen during the Telus Be Brave Anti-Bullying Game on Tuesday at the Scotiabank Saddledome. The Hitmen started fast, thanks in part to the young fans roaring their support from the stands, before...

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