The official game-time was three hours and ten minutes, including ice problems, shattered glass, and 13 combined goals.
It was easily the longest and craziest game for the Humboldt Broncos this season as they travelled to Weyburn on Saturday, December 3rd. Through all the adversity and momentum swings facing both teams, the Broncos came out on top with a 7-6 victory.
Crescent Point Place in Weyburn hasn’t been the friendliest of buildings for the Broncos in recent memory, only securing two victories in the past 5 years. The game on Saturday night started in the same fashion.
Weyburn took control of an early 2-0 lead with goals from Nicholas Kovacs and Elijah Anderson.
Humbodlt swung momentum back in their favour heading into the second frame with Matthew Van Blaricom’s 2nd goal of the season on the powerplay with 35 second left in the first period. The 16-year-old now has three points in his first three career games.
The second period proved to be a back-and-forth barnburner, easily the wildest throughout the year for the Broncos.
7 total goals were scored with each team regaining momentum and looking for any opportunity to find breathing room. Ty Mason (x2) and Jackson Hassman scored for the Wings. Tim Kim (x2) Connor Casparie, and Ethan Zielke added the goals for the Broncos. For Casparie, it was his first goal and first point of the season, breaking a 20-game pointless drought.
The 7 goals would have been crazy enough, however, Cage Newans and Jackson Hassman went into the corner boards at the 15:35 mark into the period, resulting in a panel of glass shattering all over the ice surface. This would roughly lead to a 45-minute delay as the ice crew cleaned the ice surface free of glass, while locating and resizing another panel to put back into place. Once the mess was cleared up, the Zamboni flood took place at this time and the two teams finished the second period and went right into the third period without an intermission.
In the third frame, the Broncos were able to find one more goal than the Wings. Alec Saretzky and Jacob Boucher scored for the Broncos, while Ryley Morgan capped off the scoring for Weyburn.
The Broncos heavily outshot the Red Wings 54 to 22, with Broncos’ netminder Hayden Dunford stopping 16 of 22, and Weyburn goalie Matt Shoephoerster turning aside 47 of 54.
The victory gives the Broncos back-to-back wins and improves their record to 17-7-1-0.
They will look for their first three-game winning streak since the beginning of October when they host the Notre Dame Hounds on Wednesday, December 7th. The Broncos are 3-0 against the Hounds so far this season.
