Written by Rory McGouran
“One period is not going to win you many hockey games,” said assistant coach, Cater Hansen following the Humboldt Broncos’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Kindersley Klippers on Friday.
Early growing pains of finding their identity seems to be the Broncos’ main struggle out of the season’s starting gates. No alarm bells need to be wrung quite yet considering they’re heading into Game 5 of the 56-game schedule following an offseason of tremendous roster turnover, including their head coach.
From the coach’s standpoint, they’ll need to find a way to string together consecutive periods of productive hockey to create their identity that was appearing to form over the first two games.
Young draft picks and future stars were bright spots on Friday connecting on the opening goal of the game. 2007-birth year rookies, Teigan Semchyshen (15th overall pick in 2022) fired a point shot that was tipped in by Rylan Hue (8th overall pick in 2023) for his second goal in as many games.
The Klippers countered with a pair of first period goals from Camden Cunningham and Rylan Wieler to take a 2-1 lead into the second period.
Broncos’ netminder, Ty Matonovich was terrific from that moment on, not allowing another goal until the overtime winner and stopping 40 of 43 shots in only his second career start.
Jacob Strizzi picked up his second goal of the season on another Broncos’ deflection in front of the goal crease, tying the game in the second period. The deflection came off the shot from defenseman, Orin Olson, who the Broncos acquired in a trade earlier in the week, picking up his first point as a Bronco.
In overtime, Humboldt controlled the puck for 1:45 straight, but weren’t able to penetrate the Klippers frontline, nor even muster a single shot. Then, a turnover led to a 3-on-0 breakaway that Will Christian tucked passed Matonovich, securing the extra point for Kindersley.
The Nutiren Division rivals will meet seven more times this season, starting with the rematch on Saturday, October 5th.
Humboldt’s busy weekend will then continue with a road game on Sunday, October 6th at 3:00pm in Yorkton.
