The new month started off on the right path for the Humboldt Broncos as they locked up two points against the Millionaires in a 5-2 victory on the road Friday night.
The victory was built through a hard fought 60-minute effort with strong defensive awareness and scoring from five different players. The victory also started off the month of February string, after a Jekyll and Hyde January where the Broncos won three of their first four games, before losing five of the subsequent six.
Goal scoring machine, Spencer Bell opened the scoring with his 30th of the season on the powerplay. Bell is the third SJHL’er to cross the 30-goal plateau, and the powerplay goal was the first for the Broncos in the last 15 attempts.
Connor Thue (6) then found the back of the net with a point shot for his first goal since returning back from a 12-game absence just last weekend.
Melville countered quickly in the first period, tying the game with two goals in just 28 seconds. The first was fired off a left-wing shot from Brad Banach. The second, the Broncos looked as if they were caught off guard and left Flynn Maxcy alone in front of the net for a tap-in 2-2 tie.
At that point in the game Ben Motew allowed the two goals on just six shots, however, the second year netminder was on his A-game the rest of the way, stopping the next 15 shots faced.
Matthew Van Blaricom snapped a 9-game goalless drought late in the opening frame for his 23rd of the year and a 3-2- lead.
Ryder Knutson regained the Broncos’ two-goal lead in the second period with his 2nd of the season off beautiful setup passes from Pat Lanthier and Landon Stromme.
Boris Kofman, who also just returned from a three-game absence scored his third of the year to cap off the scoring.
For the 13th straight game, the Broncos failed to generate more powerplays than their opponent, however the penalty kill was fantastic, kill off all five times shorthanded.
On Saturday night at the EPA, the return game also produced positive results with a 5-3 Bronco victory. Spencer Bell got it going early with his 31st of the campaign. A couple of minutes later, Connor Miller followed up to put the Broncos 2 up.
The Mills’ never-say-die play got them back in the mix with a trio of goals to take the lead at the end of the second. The third period belonged to Humboldt with a Boris Kofman goal just a minute in. The Broncos put the power play to work once again, affording Jacob Strizzi a marker. Maric Mamic closed out the scoring with an empty netter in the dying minute of the game.
The Broncos are back in the win column and looking to maintain their position in the regular season home stretch in a home and home bout this weekend against the Melfort Mustangs.
with files from Discover Humboldt staff.