Broncos fall behind on the road
The Swift Current Broncos found themselves down two games after falling behind by two-goal deficits during the first two games of the Western Hockey League playoffs against the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The Broncos trailed the best-of-seven series 2-0 heading back to Swift Current for games three and four Tuesday and Wednesday. Follow the series gameby-game at swbooster.com.
The Broncos were hoping to extend the series with at least one win at home to force game five in Medicine Hat on Saturday. Game six, if necessary, would be played Sunday back in Swift Current. Game seven is slated for Tuesday in Medicine Hat.
The Broncos found themselves in an early hole after a 2-1 loss to the host Tigers Friday.
Curtis Valk opened the scoring with 5:03 left in the first period for a 1-0 lead that would hold up into the third period.
Chad Butcher scored the eventual game winning goal 2:55 into the third period to make it 2-0 Tigers.
The Kamloops native was playing in only his second career playoff game and had only scored eight goals in 102 WHL games heading into the playoff opener.
Julius Honka scored a powerplay goal midway through the third period but that was the only time the Broncos could beat Marek Langhamer to fall behind in the series. Honka, who was recently named an Eastern Conference Second All-Star Team defenseman, scored in his first WHL playoff game after scoring 16 goals during his rookie season.
Langhamer picked up the win with 25 saves on 26 shots. Eetu Laurikainen made 28 saves in a losing cause for the Broncos.
The Broncos did win the special teams battle, finishing one-for-four on the powerplay while killing off all three Medicine Hat manadvantages.
The Broncos’ uphill trek became even more perilous with a 4-2 game-two loss the following night in Medicine Hat. Special teams were the difference as the Tigers scored twice on the powerplay and the Broncos finished zero-for-four on the man-advantage.
The Broncos made a spirited comeback in the third period to tie the game but Chad Butcher scored the game winner for a sec- ond straight game with 7:49 left in regulation.
The game was scoreless after one period as both teams were unable to capitalize on goalmouth scrambles.
The Tigers took control of the contest in the second period with two powerplay goals. Tommy Vannelli opened the scoring 3:30 into the middle stanza when he scored with one second left on a man-advantage. Miles Koules made it 2-0 when he scored at the tail end of a lengthy twoman advantage for a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes.
Jake DeBrusk got the Broncos on the board with 12:02 left in the third period when he fired from a bad angle and scored low to the blocker side of Langhamer to cut the deficit to 2-1. DeBrusk is following up on a strong rookie campaign that concluded with nine points during a five-game point streak to conclude the regular season
Nathan Burns tied it at 22 2:27 later when DeBrusk found him high in the slot and he beat an off-balance Langhamer to the short side with 9:25 left in regulation.
The Tigers replied 1:36 later when Butcher scored on a cross-ice pass from Markus Eisenschmid that left Laurkainen with no chance to get across the crease in time. Trevor Cox added an empty net goal with 2.4 seconds left on the clock to close the scoring.
“It’s disappointing that it takes us that long doing the little things like shooting the puck,” said Broncos’ Head Coach and General Manager Mark Lamb. “I thought we had some real good chances of outnum- bered chances but we tried to get too cute. We are in playoffs now, you just can’t play like that, you have got to get it there.”
He said there was little consolation in their comeback effort in the third period.
“Our team has been known to come back but in the playoffs that doesn’t happen very often, it is tight checking out there. You can be proud that we came back for a little bit but we have to win a hockey game. There is no tomorrow. It doesn’t matter what the score is, you have to win hockey games and coming back and tying it and letting them win doesn’t make it feel any better.”
Burns was in on all three goals during the first two games of the playoffs. “Yeah it was a good effort by us in the third period but when it comes to playoffs it doesn’t matter how close games are, you still lose and you are still down two nothing in the series,” said Burns, who was acquired from the Saskatoon Blades prior to the trade deadline. “There are no shootouts in the playoffs and I think we need to know that. Yeah we came close but we need to put in that extra effort.”
Laurikainen suffered the loss with 32 saves on 35 shots as he kept the Broncos in the game as they searched for their offensive touch.
Langhamer earned the win with 34 saves, none better than a blocker save off of Colby Cave after the Broncos’ captain had gotten behind the Tigers’ defense with 8:50 left in the second period.
Lamb gave full credit to Langhamer, the Czech goaltender who boasted a .952 save percentage through two games.
“He has played well and ours has played well too. It is a real battle out there and I feel bad for ours because we could do some more things in front of him to help him out.”
The Broncos had two full days to prepare for game three back in Swift Current.