It was a slow start but a big finish for the Humboldt Broncos at the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) Showcase held in Weyburn over the weekend.
The Broncos faced the Nipawin Hawks on December 4 in their first game of the weekend. Despite out-shooting their northern rivals by 32 to 22, Humboldt still fell to the Hawks 6-2 in the contest.
Nipawin got off to a good start by scoring two goals on Bronco goaltender Matt Hrynkiw in the first five and a half minutes of the game. Mathew Spafford got the first point at 4:40, assisted by Jonathan Ceci; then Tyler Paslawski got the second point at 5:27, assisted by Spafford and Ceci.
Humboldt got within one of a tie with a goal at 12:20 of the first period, scored by Adam Antkowiak and assisted by Adam Zbitniff and Taylor Johnson.
In the second, Nipawin added two more points to their total with goals by Brant Remenda, assisted by Ceci and Paslawski at 10:43, and by Brendan Tash, assisted by Adam Reichert and Darius Cole at 12:02.
The Hawks brought the score to 6-1 with two more goals - the first at 8:08, scored by Ceci, assisted by Spafford, and the second at 11:16 on power play, scored by Jamie Johnson, assisted by Reichert and Ceci.
The Broncos added one more to their tally at 14:30 of the third period, scored by Josh Roach, assisted by Johnson and Neil Landry.
Penalties were scarce over the three periods. Humboldt received just two, both in the third period. Nipawin recorded six over three periods.
Humboldt went zero for six on the power play, while Nipawin was one for two.
Things went more the Broncos' way in their second game of the tournament, played at 11 a.m. on December 5 against the Notre Dame Hounds.
Humboldt kicked off the scoring with a goal at 2:02 of the first period, scored by Ward Szucki and assisted by Tanner Clark.
Notre Dame answered back with a goal of their own at 4:08, scored by Marcus Cheng and assisted by Carson Grolla and James Howden.
The Broncos took advantage of a power play to score at 13:30 of the first period. Matt Glowa got the point, assisted by Josh Roach and Justin Buzzeo.
Szucki then increased Humboldt's lead to 3-1 with a short-handed, unassisted goal at 18:35 of the first.
In the second, Notre Dame came within one of a tie with a goal by Ben Morgan, assisted by Howden at 11:47.
But Humboldt wasn't willing to give up their lead. In the third, they added to it with two more goals. The first of those goals came just 15 seconds into the period, on a power play, scored by Buzzeo and assisted by Jeremy Boyer and Roach.
Boyer then got a goal of his own at 9:11 of the period, assisted by Glowa and Kameren Ballas.
Final score: 5-2 for the Broncos.
Penalties were more abundant in this game. Humboldt recorded 10 while Notre Dame had nine - all were minor.
Notre Dame failed to score on any of the eight power plays they were given, while Humboldt score on two of their seven.
Andrew Bodnarchuk was in net for the Broncos, blocking all but two of the 20 shots aimed his way in the game.
Shots on goal were tied between the teams at 20.
