Seven is nice, but eight would be great.
The Humboldt Broncos can extend their season-high seven-game point streak to eight games on Wednesday at the Elgar Petersen Arena when they host the Estevan Bruins.
Three weeks ago, the Broncos were clinging to the final playoff spot in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL), but with their recent winning ways, now find themselves two points out 5th spot in the standings, and are six points of 4th place, which would mean home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Assistant Coach Carter Hansen says the team has been rewarded for their efforts recently.
“Our guys are playing the right way, getting on the right track here.”
He added, “I think we keep playing this systematically the right way, I think we’re going to get a lot of positive results.”
The Broncos are coming off a weekend where they outscored the Battlefords North Stars 15-5 in their home and home set. With the successful weekend, there were a lot of winners from Humboldt with the SJHL Weekly awards. Jacob Strizzi was named the MVP of the Week, Kye Benoche was selected as Forward of the Week, Ryder Knutson was tabbed Defenceman of the Week and Dazza Mitchell claimed the the Goalie of the Week award. Additionally, Mitchell was tabbed as the Saskatchewan Player of the Month for January.
Tonight’s opponents for the Broncos, the Estevan Bruins hold their advantage over the Broncos so far this season, taking two of three contests. Humboldt did win the last matchup between the two teams just before the Christmas break on December 20.
A lot has changed for the Bruins since then, including a coaching change, with Drew Kocur taking over from Jason Tatarnic last month. Since the move, the Bruins have gone 2-3-1 during that span and have fallen nine points back of a playoff spot.
Hansen says that the Broncos have been ready to handle a hungry Bruins squad.
“They have a whole new energy to them and they’re going to come in here, guns a blazing, obviously nothing to lose, so why go a 100 miles per hour and see what happens. So, we got to be ready for them, we can’t take them lightly for sure.”
Wednesday night’s game will mark the first time Broncos Cade Kennedy will face his old team. The former captain of the Bruins has been a positive force since arriving at Humboldt. After scoring five goals in 30 games with Estevan, Kennedy has already matched that total with the Broncos over the last eight games and has made an immediate impact for the green and gold at both ends of the ice.
Coverage for tonight’s game on Bolt FM begins at 6:45, with the puck dropping at 7:00.