For the fourth time in two seasons, the Humboldt Midget AA Broncos will be raising a banner to the Uniplex rafters.
The Broncos repeated as Centre Four Hockey League champions on March 30, thanks to a dramatic 5-4 overtime victory over the Prince Albert Lite-Way Electric Thunder.
Trey Daelick's second goal of the night, at 7:17 of the extra frame, ended the thrilling ride in Humboldt's favour and lifted the Broncos' hometown faithful out of their seats.
Carter Yuzdepski got the play started with a pass up ice that sent Daelick and Logan Rieger in on a two-on-two rush. Rieger let loose with a hard, low shot from the left that caromed off P.A. goalie Tyler Gordon's pad and right to Daelick. He stuffed it in on the glove side as Gordon dove across in a last-ditch effort to make the save.
Too late.
With the victory, the Broncos won the series two games to one, giving them their second straight Centre Four League title. They successfully defended their Midget AA provincial title the previous week.
"It's almost surreal that we've been able to do this," Broncos head coach Dan Torwalt said. "To repeat as champions both in Provincials and now in our league - I don't know of another Humboldt team that's ever done that. There may never been another one again."
Daelick's overtime winner was an appropriate finish to a game that saw Humboldt continually look adversity in the eye. Once again, adversity blinked.
The Broncos never held a lead at any point in the game until the very end, but they never trailed by more than one, either. Every time the Thunder went up by a goal, Humboldt fought back to tie it.
Following a first period that saw the teams deadlocked at 1-1, P.A. took the lead three minutes into the second, when Austin Phaneuf slapped in a rebound under the glove of Broncos goalie Blair Miskolczi. That seemed to give the Thunder momentum, as they swarmed the Humboldt net and had the Broncos struggling to get the puck out of their end. But thanks to some solid goaltending by Miskolczi, the Broncos held firm.
They got the equalizer with 6:47 remaining in the second period, as Brett Blakely and Bantam call-up Reid Gardiner broke in on an odd-man rush. Gardiner lobbed the puck in off the boards and beat the Thunder defenceman around the corner, then fired a shot right on. Blakely skated hard to the net and buried the rebound past Gordon.
P.A. took the lead again before the period was out, however, as Lucas Anseth beat Miskolczi high to the stick side on a rebound off Andrew Zultok's shot from the slot.
Carter Yuzdepski tied it at 3-3 eight minutes into the final frame, slapping it in from the top of the crease following a scramble in front of the P.A. net.
Things looked bleak when P.A. took a 4-3 lead on a controversial goal with 9:14 remaining, and the Broncos could have easily lost their cool. Instead, they battled harder than ever, and were ultimately rewarded for their efforts.
The controversy occurred when P.A.'s Matt Anholt skated through the Broncos' crease and slew-footed Miskolczi, taking his feet right out from under him. The Broncos netminder found himself flat on his back and had absolutely no chance to recover as Phaneuf buried his second of the game into a wide open Humboldt cage.
There was no call on the play.
But karma has a funny way of evening things out in the end. The Thunder's somewhat less than sportsmanlike behavior finally caught up with them a few minutes later, as P.A. captain Nicolas Gueregueta blew his own gasket, first slashing Broncos captain Brandon Tkatch and then coming back for seconds with a crosscheck to the head while Tkatch was still picking himself up off the ice.
There was no question the referee saw that one, and he gave Gueregueta the gate with a slashing minor, a cross-checking major and a game misconduct. That gave the Broncos seven minutes of power play in the final 7:36 remaining, with the first two minutes being a two-man advantage.
Humboldt finally broke through for the tying goal with 3:01 remaining, when Jordan Gerwing stepped into the left faceoff circle and let fly a wrist shot. The rebound bounced out to Merit Meyer, who was Johnny on the spot and shoveled it under Gordon's pad to even things at 4-4 and set the stage for sudden death.
You know the rest.
Torwalt said maturity and experience were huge factors in the outcome of the series. With a dozen players from last year's Midget squad returning this year, the Broncos not only knew what it takes in order to win, but they also knew what pitfalls to avoid. Above all, determination and composure were key.
"After that slewfoot goal, we could have lost it right there very easily," Torwalt said. "But there was still a lot of time left. I kept reminding my players that if we just kept working hard, we'd get some chances."
In an attempt to regain momentum for the Broncos, Torwalt put out the checking line of Gardiner and wingers Ryan Gobeil and Scott Helmkay. The trio's energy and hard work helped spark the team.
"They went out and banged everybody," he said. "They physically hammered them.
"Then when their captain lost it on Brandon That gave us our chance. I give Brandon full credit for not retaliating. He took a real beating, but he took one for the team. We got a long power play out of that. It might have been nice to get more than one goal on that, but we got the goal we needed. And we kept the puck in their end for almost the whole time We started to wear them out. That was a big factor in the latter part of the game."
Torwalt - who won't be back as coach next year - said he's particularly proud of the way his players came together as a team, both this season and last.
"All season they played for one another, and they laid it all out on the ice," he said. "There were no prima donnas. They looked each other in the eye, and they never wanted to let their teammates down. There may have been more skilled teams in Humboldt over the years, but to win four championships in two years is really an accomplishment."
In addition to the leading the Centre Four League in most goals scored and fewest goals allowed, the Broncos did not lose on home ice all season. They were also one of the toughest teams in the province, yet they did not register a single fighting major all season. That's a testimony to their discipline, Torwalt said.
"There's such a fine line between winning and losing," he noted. "You've got to control your emotions, stay disciplined, and show real mental toughness. That's really difficult to maintain over an entire season.
"Even between Provincials and league playoffs (eight playoff series), we could have had a letdown at some point, but we were able to stay focused. And our maturity and experience carried us through."
