Broncos poised to be a major force in WHL

Broncos RW Tyler Steenbergen (#17) circles past Pats C Matthew Bradley.

    REGINA, Sask. – The small Swift Current Broncos contingent could be heard loud and proud among the sellout crowd of 6,484 spectators on Sunday afternoon at the Brandt Centre.

    Come May, it is highly possible that small contingent could multiply into a massive amount of supporters, if the Broncos are able to win their first WHL championship since 1993 and earn a berth in the Memorial Cup. Regina hosts major junior hockey’s national championship tournament from May 18 to 27.

    On Sunday, the Broncos downed the Memorial Cup hosting Regina Pats 4-1 in what was viewed as an expected heavyweight WHL tilt. Both teams made a number of moves in the weeks leading up to the WHL’s trade deadline on January 10 to stock up for a lengthy playoff run.

    The Broncos have hovered near the top of the WHL standings all season and currently sit second overall with a 35-12-3-1 mark.

Netminder Stuart Skinner was a major addition to the Broncos.

    They are coming off an exciting playoff run last season, where they fell in a series deciding Game 7 to the Pats in the second round by a 5-1 score. Regina moved on to the WHL Championship series falling to the Seattle Thunderbirds.

    The Pats stocked up due to the fact they are hosting the Memorial Cup, and they hold the first wildcard spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 25-22-5 record. They sit two points up on the Saskatoon Blades (25-23-2-1) and six points up on the Prince Albert Raiders (20-20-7-2). The Blades and Raiders had one game and three games in hand respectively on the Pats.

    While the Broncos are deep on forward and defence, one of their key aces is netminder Stuart Skinner. The Broncos acquired Skinner in a blockbuster multiplayer trade on Jan. 9 with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, and the addition of the Edmonton product gave Swift Current a battle hardened playoff netminder.

Aleksi Heponiemi had a goal and two assists on Sunday.

    The 19-year-old Skinner helped power the Hurricanes into the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship series last season, where they bowed out to the Pats in six games.

    Skinner was outstanding on Sunday turning away 41 shots to back the Broncos victory. Arguably, one of his best saves came in the second period with the Broncos holding a 1-0 edge.

    Pats star captain Sam Steel made a perfect backdoor feed across the front of the Swift Current goal to linemate Cameron Hebig, who let the shot go as soon as the puck hit his stick. Skinner got across to deny the scoring chance.

    Skinner held the Broncos in during a sluggish start in the first period, when the Pats stormed out of the game to an early 8-1 edge in the shots on goal department. With Skinner keeping the Pats off the scoreboard, the Broncos had time to find their legs.

    With 1:15 to play in the opening frame, Broncos left-winger Beck Malenstyn, who was with the Calgary Hitmen last season, found a loose puck in front of the Regina goal and popped home the first goal of the contest to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead. Malenstyn’s tally during a spurt of four-on-four action changed the completion of the contest.

Glenn Gawdin scored his 40th goal of the season.

    The Broncos edge grew to 2-0 when centre Matteo Gennaro, who was also with the Hitmen last season, roofed home a turnaround shot past Pats netminder Ryan Kubic.

    Swift Current also showed the damage it could do on the power play. At the 5:31 mark of the third, Finnish import left-winger Aleksi Heponiemi converted a perfect backdoor feed from Gennaro to give the Broncos a 3-0 lead.

    After the Pats cut the Broncos lead to 3-1 on a point shot through a screen by defenceman Cale Fleury, the Broncos rounded out the game’s scoring with a beauty power-play tally from their top line of Heponiemi, captain Glenn Gawdin and star right-winger Tyler Steenbergen.

    On a tick-tack-toe passing play, Heponiemi and Steenbergen set up Gawdin on a perfect backdoor play, and the Richmond, B.C., product buried his 40^th of the season with 3:58 to play in the third. Heponiemi picked up his second assist of the night on Gawdin’s goal.
    The Broncos went 2-for-4 with the man advantage and killed off all three of the Pats power-play chances.

    Kubic made 31 stops to take the setback in goal for the Pats. The St. Andrews, Man., product didn’t have a bad game.

The Broncos fan contingent was loud and proud on Sunday.

    He was bested by a goalie in Skinner who can make the impossible looking save to take away a sure goal.

    The Pats fans in attendance on Sunday were vocal in their support of their team. While the support is there, they have to wonder if their club will turn into a squad that can best a side like the Broncos or the WHL leading Moose Jaw Warriors (39-8-1-2).

    The Broncos are built to gun for the Warriors. Due to the way the WHL’s playoffs are structured, it is unfortunate one of those two clubs will be eliminated at least in the second round of the post-season due to the fact they are part of an ultra-competitive East Division.

    Both the Broncos and Warriors would love to only make a short trip east down the Trans-Canada Highway in May to the Memorial Cup as league champs.

The Broncos expect to celebrate a lot of wins like they did on Sunday.

    With the fans that would be sure to follow from their respective centres, the Broncos or the Warriors would easily be considered a second home team, if either make it that far.

    The Broncos won their only Memorial Cup championship in 1989, when the event was held in Saskatoon, Sask. Their fans have to be giddy about the prospect of winning major junior hockey’s biggest crown in a Saskatchewan centre once again.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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