Division lead shrinking for Broncos
The Swift Current Broncos were only able to earn two weekend points from a pair of teams below them in the Eastern Conference standings as their East Division lead shrunk to only a single point after the weekend.
Friday, the Broncos got early contributions from a pair of former Saskatoon Blades in a 5-0 win over their former team. Nathan Burns and Brett Lernout each scored powerplay goals in the opening 5:38 against their former team and Eetu Laurikainen made 26 saves in his second shutout of the season. Burns scored only 1:30 into his first home game with the Broncos since being acquired on Jan. 1. He looked right at home centering the second line, finishing with two points and helping the Broncos kill all three shorthanded situations.
Lernout added a powerplay goal in the first period and also finished with two points against his former team. Coda Gordon, playing his first home game since November, had three assists to extend his point streak to four games since returning from injury. Graham Black also had three assists and now has 57 points in 41 games. Brycen Martin, Glenn Gawdin, and Jay Merkley all added goals for the Broncos.
Laurikainen improved to 14-11-0-4 with his sixth career shutout. Troy Tremblay made 32 saves while dropping to 5-15-0-2 for Saskatoon. Saturday, the Broncos suffered a 3-0 loss to the visiting Red Deer Rebels as their East Division lead narrowed to just a single point.
Haydn Fleury, Aspen Sterzer, and Presten Kopeck scored for the Rebels, who improved to 22-20-0-2. Laurikainen made 35 saves in the loss for the Broncos. Patrik Bartosak earned his third shutout of the season with 34 saves. It was only the second time the Broncos have been shut out this season.
“He [Bartosak] played really well,” said Broncos Head Coach and General Manager Mark Lamb. “He is the best goaltender in the league besides ours. It wasn’t like we played bad the whole game but we just had a couple guys that didn’t, our top guys didn’t outplay their top guys. We didn’t have everybody going.
“They just play hard. They play very structured and a simple game. We wanted to play an easy game,” Lamb added. “I think they just came out harder than us. They outworked us, they got pucks on net, they crashed and they banged and they played their game,” added Burns. Burns agreed that a slow start haunted the Broncos after coming out flying the previous night against Saskatoon.
“I think that was a huge part in the victory last night was that we came out and got up early. That really allowed us to kind of settle down and play our game and play the way we want to play. I think that was one of the biggest differences...”
“The difference was our powerplay really worked last night,” Lamb added. “We got that early and we had all kinds of scoring chances. This was a harder team to play against simple as that. Not knocking Saskatoon, but this team plays harder. When you play a team that is going to grind it out then you have to compete harder and we didn’t compete harder. We had some guys that did, but we didn’t compete hard enough through our line-up.”
The Broncos will open the weekend on the road Friday when they visit the Brandon Wheat Kings in an important division match-up. The Broncos led the Wheat Kings by just a single point coming out of the weekend. The Broncos have five of a possible six points against Brandon this season with two wins and a shootout loss with five games remaining in the season series.
The Broncos will also host the Kootenay Ice Saturday on the third Saturday Night Sellouts event of the season. The Broncos have one win, one loss, and a shootout loss as they head into the fourth and final game of the season series. They will also visit the P.A. Raiders on Sunday for their third game in as many days. The Broncos have three wins in four games against the Raiders this season but both teams have made considerable changes to their rosters since their last meeting on November 20.
Bronco Bits: Five members of the Broncos were ranked by NHL Central Scouting in the midterm rankings released Monday. Leading the way were defensemen Julius Honka and Brycen Martin in 13th and 20th respectively among North American skaters. Captain Colby Cave was ranked 73rd and defenseman Brett Lernout was 80th. Goaltender Landon Bow was ranked 29th among North American goaltenders.