For the third year in a row, the Humboldt Broncos are Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League champions.
The defending RBC Cup champs disposed of the Melville Millionaires in five games by downing the Mils 5-1 on Tuesday night to lay claim to the newly named Credit Union Cup.
The Broncos took advantage of a slow start by Melville as the Mils offered up a Humboldt powerplay just nine seconds into the game. Shortly after the penalty kill, Humboldt opened the scoring when Scott Schroeder slid a pass across the front of the crease to Steve Schroeder and he made no mistake.
Nick Keller took advantage of a defensive miscue to score shorthanded just two minutes after that to make it 2-0. It was 3-0 at the end of one as Joel Belair pounced on a rebound off a Nick Kalnicki shot.
Levi Lind gave the Mils some life early in the second, but that was quickly snuffed out when Casey Dion and Kelly Friesen took penalties at 5:36 to put their club down 5-on-3. Just seven seconds into the powerplay, Tanner Vandesype whistled one from the point that eluded Travis Bosch, and then Keller picked up his second of the game, also on the powerplay, at 7:04.
Humboldt scored their five goals on their first thirteen shots of the game.
Mathieu Larochelle wasn’t as busy as he was in the previous four games, but he held the Mils to just one goal for the fourth straight contest to finish up the series with a miniscule 1.38-GAA and .953-SPCT.
Matthew Kirzinger, who led all SJHL playoff performers with 8-goals and 14-points (he tied teammate Tanner Vandesype for the overall point scoring lead in the postseason), was named the SJHL Playoff Most Valuable Player.
The Broncos, for the second year in a row will play the Portage Terriers for the ANAVET Cup. Humboldt swept that series in four straight games a year ago. They’ll host games 3, 4, and 5 (if necessary) on April 21st, 22nd, and 23rd.
To see photos of the Broncos’ celebration:
http://www.sjhl.ca/multimedia_album.aspx?album_id=260&picture_id=4716&site_id=