Two more games, two more wins.
The Humboldt Broncos won both of their contests this week, both of them played at home in the Elgar Petersen Arena, taking them to a 6-0 record this season and the title of the only undefeated team in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) so far this season.
But the wins didn't come without effort.
The Broncos won their game with the Yorkton Terriers by the skin of their teeth on September 29.
The Terriers scored first on a power play in the first period, and it took the Broncos until the latter half of the second period to tie the game up after several near-misses early in the period. Nick Keller of Humboldt scored at 13:16, bouncing the puck over the head of Terrier goaltender Devin Peters to even the score at one. Pat Tran got the assist.
In the third, the Terriers took back their lead with a goal at 1:28.
Justin Buzzeo of the Broncos evened the game out at two with a goal at 14:42 of the third, assisted by Tran and Spencer Braaten.
The game went into overtime, and 10 seconds before the five-minute period was up, Riley Gillies of Humboldt got the puck past Peters to give the Broncos a 3-2 win.
Penalties were minimal though there were four officials on the ice. Just six penalties - four for the Terriers and two for the Broncos - were called in the game.
Humboldt slipped a bit on their power play in this game, going zero for four, while the Terriers were one for two.
The Broncos out-shot the Terriers 36 to 28. Matt Hrynkiw played a solid game in net for the Broncos.
Buzzeo, Gillies, and Tran were named as the three stars of that close contest.
A few nights later, it was a different situation all together for the Broncos as they faced off against the Weyburn Red Wings, again on home ice, on October 2.
Humboldt won by a huge 10-4 margin, though in the first few minutes of the game, things were looking pretty even.
Weyburn scored the first two goals of the night at 1:53 and 4:32 before Bronco Jeremy Boyer, assisted by Justin Buzzeo, got the first point for the Broncos at 4:42.
Weyburn scored against at 5:51 to bring the score to 3-1, but from that point on, it was completely Humboldt's game.
Bronco Brenden Kotyk scored at 9:06, assisted by Adam Antkowiak and Josh Roach. Then Buzzeo got a point of his own, assisted by Boyer, at 11:09, to tie the game at three.
Humboldt took a one-point lead with another goal by Kotyk, Antkowiak and Roach at 12:59, then upped that lead to two with a goal by Spencer Braaten on the power plat at 17:53. Riley Gillies and Nick Keller got the assists.
In the second, Braaten upped the Broncos' lead to 6-3 with a goal 28 seconds in, again assisted by Gillies and Keller.
In the third period, Humboldt's Gabe Minville scored at 1:54, assisted by Boyer and Buzzeo, to make it 8-3, then Weyburn got their fourth and last goal of the night at 3:28.
Up by four points, the Broncos made it five with a goal by Chase Wharton, assisted by Dayton Shaw and Troy Gasper, on a power play at 12:09.
Ward Szucki, assisted by Boyer, added the Broncos' ninth goal of the night at 15:01, and finally, Roach had the last word with a 10th and final point for Humboldt at 19:44, assisted by Buzzeo.
Penalties were minimal, though a fight broke out between TJ Wees of the Wings and Gillies of the Broncos at 15:58 of the second period. Both got five minutes for fighting, but Gillies got an addition two minutes for instigating and a 10-minute misconduct.
In the third, Wees got two minutes for interfering with Bronco goaltender Andrew Bodnarchuk, and a 10-minute misconduct starting at 1:86. Szucki of the Broncos, meanwhile, earned a 10-minute misconduct and a two minute penalty for roughing after the whistle in the last minute of the game.
Humboldt was two for six on the power play, while Weyburn failed to score on any of the five PPs they were given.
Bodnarchuk stopped all but four of the 24 shots the Wings aimed at his net, while the Broncos scored 10 goals on 30 shots at the other end of the ice.
Boyer, Braaten and Buzzeo were named the three stars of the game.
Also last week, due to the four wins in four games they recorded early this season, the Broncos moved up the national Canadian Junior A Hockey League rankings. They cracked the top 10, going from number 17 to number eight.
The Flin Flon Bombers, the only other SJHL team in the rankings, fell from number four to number 11.
