Midget AA Broncos clinch provincial title with shutout win
The Swift Current Abbey Resources Broncos capped a fairy tale season with a shutout win in front of a massive home crowd to win Midget AA Provincials on Wednesday.
The Broncos defeated the visiting Battleford Barons 2-0 in game three of the provincial championship series to finish the season with a 47-1 record.
The tension filled game was scoreless until midway through the final frame when veteran forward Matt Christianson blasted a slap shot past the glove of Cameron Taylor for the game-winning goal.
“Riley [Skarbon] took that shot, hit the shin pads, bounced right back out to me. I was just wide open so I let the shot go and it went it. I was excited for that,” explained Christianson.
Cash Arntsen added an insurance marker into an empty net to seal the win with 1:17 remaining on the clock.
Brad Nyen stopped all 27 shots he faced to earn the shutout. “It’s just pure excitement winning a provincial championship close to my hometown,” said Nyen, who finished with a 0.986 save percentage during his two appearances in the final.
The Broncos lifted the Jack Loveridge Memorial Cup trophy as the Midget AA provincial champions, becoming the first Swift Current team to do so since 1976. They won the opening 45 games of the season before dropping game one to the Barons on home ice.
“It’s awesome,” said rookie blueliner Levi Brewer. “We worked hard all year for this. Our dryland, we were conditioned well. We worked out asses off to get here. It was just an honour to win this here, with this crowd here, to win it at home, we couldn’t have scripted it better. It was an amazing season. It’s a surreal feeling right now.”
“It’s pretty exciting getting the win working so hard all season long for this,” added. Christianson. “It’s such a relief to work hard the whole season and come out with the provincial championship.”
The final game was played before well over 2,000 spectators at the Innovation Credit Union iplex.
“It’s pretty exciting to see everyone come out and support us like that. It gets us going, gets us excited. I think we just fed off the excitement in the arena and played our game,” said Christianson.
“The crowd was awesome,” added Brewer. “We didn’t know what we were going to get. We were advertising everywhere. This was the first time we ever played at the iplex and we got an awesome crowd. This is what they get for Broncos games. We couldn’t have got a better crowd and everyone was into the game. It was just awesome.”
The massive crowd added an element of pressure that neither team had likely experienced before.
“Oh yeah there was nerves. But it was amazing how many people showed up for a Midget AA hockey game. It was quite special,” said Nyen.
“To start I think on both sides there were definitely nerves,” added Brewer. “Once we got those out of our system we started playing good. We got shots to the net and we kind of took it to them.”
After a 47-win season, all three players pointed to the team’s work ethic as the defining factor in their success.
“It was work ethic. The boys worked hard on and off the ice all the time. That was pretty much it,” said Nyen
“We just worked hard,” added Christianson. “We were able, right off the first week we all clicked, no one was arguing throughout the year. It was a good group of kids and we were all just friends. We had three good lines. We all just kept going to work.”
“The biggest thing that sticks out for me is our work ethic and the way we never quit and we never give up,” concluded Brewer. “We have a deep team. We didn’t count on one line, we didn’t count on two defense, we didn’t count on one goalie. We counted on every player to get us that win.”