Written by: Rory McGouran
In succession of a thrilling weekend set with the Melfort Mustangs, the Broncos were unable to drum up the same energy in Wednesday night’s 4-2 loss to the Weyburn Red Wings.
The first 50 minutes belonged to Weyburn. The final 10 was all Humboldt, but as Assistant Coach Carter Hansen said post game, “That’s the score you probably deserve when you play 10 minutes of a 60-minutes game.”
The storyline of the stanza was the goaltenders.
Dazza Mitchel and Ty Matonovich both got the start against their former teams they were swapped from in a December trade, and both had their moments. However, it was the former Bronco who pushed the upper hand, stopping 38 of 40 shots for his 5th win of the season. Mitchell, meanwhile, suffered his first loss against the only other team he’s played for in his junior career, turning aside 32 of 35.
The Red Wings scored two goals in the first period just 32 second apart. The first was a converted penalty shot by Jerome Maharaj and the second came when Braigh LeGrandeur whacked a bouncing puck out of mid-air into the top corner of the net.
Weyburn found another insurance marker in the middle frame when Wyatt Lacoste tipped in a Max Chakrabarti point shot to propel a 3-0 lead.
The Broncos finally beat Matonovich with Oakley McIlwain notching his 11th of the season on the powerplay with under 8 minutes to play in the game.
For the second straight game the Broncos scored with the goalie pulled. Marik Mamic completed a beautifully drawn faceoff play for his 22nd of the season that fed through McIlwain and Cade Kennedy who picked up the assists. They attempted to pull the goalie and look for the game-tying-goal, although never were able to control the puck off the attacking zone faceoff. Luke DeKay spoiled the comeback effort breaking the puck out off his zone and finding the empty net.
The Broncos were unable to move up the standings with the loss and remain in 7th place, just one point back of Battlefords.
Humboldt will now journey to the parkland region for back to back road games in Yorkton on Friday and Melville on Saturday.
