A series of trades just before the January 10 deadline left the Humboldt Broncos with just one 20-year-old among their ranks, but the moves seemed to rejuvenate the team.
The young team travelled to Nipawin to take on the Hawks on January 11, and came away with their first victory of 2011.
The Hawks got the first goal of the game, at 5:16 of the first period, thanks to Tyler Paskawski, assisted by Jeremy Peeke and Stuart Holland.
But once the Broncos got on the scoreboard, it belonged to them.
Taylor Johnson got Humboldt's first goal of the game at 8:01 of the second period, assisted by Josh Roach.
Then Brendon Fornwald got the go-ahead goal at 13:37, assisted by Ward Szucki and Pat Tran.
In the third, the Broncos added two more goals, the first from Szucki at 6:33 of the third period, assisted by Roach.
The final goal of the game was made at 7:57, scored by Matt Glowa and again, assisted by Roach.
The Broncos not only out-scored, they also out-shot their competition 33 to 28.
They also got more penalties than the Hawks, however. Slashing, tripping, hooking, roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct calls were made against the Broncos, while the Hawks were boxed for hooking, tripping, interference, unsportsmanlike conduct and too many men.
Neither team was able to score on the power play - the Broncos were zero for four, while the Hawks went zero for six.
Two of Humboldt's own made it on to the list of three game stars. Josh Roach was named the first star for his three assists in the game, and Szucki was named the third star for his play. Paslawski of Nipawin was named the second star.
