Game 18 @ Brandon

[Scout]

Game 18 @ Brandon
TONIGHT’S GAME: The Broncos and Wheat Kings get together for the first of 6 meetings this season…Last year the Teams split the season both winning 4 games.

The Wheat Kings won the lone pre-season game 4-3 back on September 8th at Westman Place in Brandon…Geordie Wudrick, Spencer McAvoy and Cody Eakin scored for the Broncos...Daniel Bartek recorded two goals for the Wheat Kings, while Jay Fehr and Sanfred King both picked up singles…Ian Curtis recorded the loss for the Broncos stopping 21 of 24 shots.

LAST GAME: The Swift Current Broncos moved into an East Division first place tie with Regina after skating to a 5-1 win over the visiting Pats on Tuesday night…The Broncos scored four unanswered goals in the final two periods, including three during a span of 11:05 in the third period…The Broncos had goals from Dale Weise, Erik Felde with his team leading 11th of the season, Michael Wilson, Keegan Dansereau and defenseman Ryan Molle with his first of the year…Jared Jagow scored the lone Regina goal on a first period powerplay…Travis Yonkman recorded his 8th win of the season with a 19 save performance…Pats netminder Linden Rowat took the loss allowing 5 goals on 30 shots…With the win the Broncos improved their record to 11-4-0-2 with 24 points, tied with the Pats, who have played one more game…The Broncos finished 2 for 9 on the man advantage, while the Pats went 1 for 4…The Broncos outshot Regina 30-20 in the contest…Next action for the Club is Saturday night when the Oil Kings come to town for the 4th meeting of the season.

NUMBERS: Erik Felde picked up a goal in Tuesday’s contest to move his points total to 22 (11 goals, 11 assists)…Felde leads the Broncos and currently sits tied in 4th place overall in the league point race…Captain Zack Smith picked up 3 assists against the Pats and is on a 4 game point streak…Smith has 6 goals and 15 assists on the season and is tied for 10th amongst WHL skaters …Keegan Dansereau has 19 points in 14 games (10 goals, 9 assists) …Michael Wilson is currently in 2nd place for the point lead amongst WHL defensemen with 19 points (2 goal, 17 assists)…Wilson also leads both the Broncos and the league for +/-, currently rated +15…The Broncos currently have 15 players that are sitting with a positive +/- rating…Netminder Travis Yonkman is currently rated 6th amongst WHL goaltenders with a 2.24 goals against average and a 0.913 save percentage to start the season…The Broncos are averaging 30 shots for per game…The team is scoring 3.9 goals per game while they are allowing 2.8 per game…The Broncos are an impressive 8-0-0-1 when leading after 40 minutes of play…Only 4 Broncos (Brad Hoban, Derek Claffey, and Joel Rogers) have yet to score this season.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The Broncos power play ranked 4th in the WHL and is currently operating at 21.1% …The team has scored 24 power play goals on 114 attempts… Keegan Dansereau has 4 power play goals, while Erik Felde leads the Broncos with 8 power play assists…On the penalty kill, the Broncos are currently ranked 18th in the WHL with an 78.7% efficiency rating.

ROSTER: The Broncos roster currently consists of 22 players (2 goaltenders, 7 defensemen, 13 forwards)…The team has 3 – 20 year old players, 7 – 19 year old players, 4 – 18 year old players, 5 – 17 year old players, and 3 – 16 year old players…By location, the Broncos have 4 Saskatchewan born players, 8 Alberta born players, 5 British Columbia born players, 2 Manitoba born players, 2 players from the Czech Republic, and 1 American player…The Broncos average age is 18 while their average height is 6’0.5” and weight 186.9 lbs.

[dagley]

Great game tonight, the Rookie line was spectacular tonight

[Big Ern]

Tough loss tonight for our team.

There were a few negatives for our club tonight. I thought one or two of our veteran defensemen were guilty of a few uncharacteristic plays in their own zone, which resulted in Brandon goals. I have felt comfortable with all defensemen the Broncos have on the bench so far in the season. But tonight, there were a few mistakes made. If you make mistakes against a speedy team like Brandon, they'll cost you. They may be the youngest team in the league, but have skill to burn when given the chance. I also thought our offense really didn't create enough chances in that third period. When down two goals throughout most of the period, pressure has to be applied...more than six shots on goal, which is all the Broncos mustered in that third frame. Although the three goals that were scored were beauties, our offense seemed to die late. For two periods the Broncos were in it, but the third period was frustrating, as was the end result.

Tomorrow is a chance to jump right back in it at home. The Edmonton Oil Kings have had a day to get in here and get comfortable, and will be an owly group coming in. However, I'm very confident our team will bring the best effort, as was not the case tonight. It should be an awesome night! Get your tickets ASAP.

LET'S GO SWIFTY!!!

Side Note:

I thought the turning point in the game was when McAvoy took a penalty in that second period. The Wheat Kings tied the game at three on the ensuing powerplay. I was livid with that particular penalty call. To me, it seemed like both players were minding their business, and they merely rubbed each other out on the boards. However, you can expect that playing Brandon with Kelly MacCrimmon on the opposing bench. He always seems to pull the strings with the officials, just like running a puppett. I was even more pissed off when all of a sudden, at the start of the third period, there's a penalty on the board to Claffey for roughing. ARE YOU KIDDIN' ME???!! Like, where did that come from? I thought about Kelly, and my question was quickly answered. The end of the game leaves me wondering if the Wheaties really got through a game with a mere three infractions.

WHOAAA!! Why am I ranting away here? That's hockey in these parts. Some things never change. LOL

Can't wait for tomorrow!

[sbtatter]

A most entertaing game where Bdn relentlesly forechecked their way to victory. Appeared as though Swift weren't at the races tonight. Shots were 39 to 27 for Brandon, and we hit 3 crossbars and one post! I like the way their captain fought Yeo after Yeo hammered one of their players, good leadership. I was disappointed in Felde, he didn't stand out. Wilson looks like a great offensive d-man. Weise and Yeo were pretty comical beaking at each other all night! Schenn outplayed his opposite rookie centreman Eakin so badly, Kelly Mac had Schenn's line out against all the Swift lines, I love our rookies. Why was Danserau a star? I only noticed him when he took the ten minute misconduct. I was chatting with a Bronco fan in the 2nd intermission and he was surprised at Brandon's speed and impressed with the top 3 lines scoring threat. I can see why Swift have scored a lot of goals this year, in the 1st period Brandon turned the puck over twice and Swift capitalized both times. Yonkman didn't look super strong tonight. Good to see the underdog Wheaties put one over the East leading Bronco's, fair to say that Swift were surprised at Brandon's speed. Also fair to say that with their speed and skill, Swift are going to win a lot of games this season, and score a lot of goals. The referee did not influence the outcome of the game at all tonight, Bdn needs to work on the PP big time.

[booboo]

I sincerely hope that the defencemen that Swift has can play better than they did tonight otherwise this team with oodles of offensive talent is not going anywhere. If you had watched this game without your rose colored glasse Ern you would have seen that the Wheats hit 4 posts tonight and I thought Yonkman played very well. They could have easily hit double figures tonight. Swift has some awesome forwards---lots of talent. One of the keys of the game was the fact that our young line vastly outplayed yours creating a lot of pressure and scoring the key 3rd goal. The intensity of this game and the pace were terrific. Swift has a very good team but suspect on defence.

[sbtatter]

Swifty's forward talent reminds me so much of last years Wheaties, and Wilson is like Kohn. Quite a few of their d-men just appeared to be too slow though tonight, a lot of the game 5 on 5 was played in their zone without Swift being able to catch up to the Wheaties. I'm sure they'll play better when we're in SC. I think they might have to trade a little offence to get a good steady dman like Boyle... I wonder how many goals they'll score this year, high powered for sure!!

[Scout]

Broncos dumped by Wheat Kings
SOUTHWEST BOOSTER SPORTS
The Southwest Booster


The Swift Current Broncos had their three-game winning streak snapped on Friday night in Brandon when the Wheat Kings handed the Broncos a 5-3 loss in the teams’ first meeting of six this season.

The Wheat Kings got goals from five different skaters including the game winner from Daniel Bartek with 22 seconds remaining in the middle frame in front of 4,000 fans at Westman Place.

The Broncos held the led in both the first and second periods but allowed three unanswered goals to close the scoring.

Matt Tassone scored twice for the Broncos, extending his point streak to four games with his fifth and sixth goals of the season.

Levi Nelson opened the scoring for the Broncos with his seventh goal of the season, extending his point streak to 10 points over his last six games.

Nathan Green, Tyler Dittmer, Scott Glennie, Bartek, and Andrew Clark scored for the Wheat Kings who improved their record to 10-7-0-1.

The Broncos, who came into the game on the heels of a 5-1 win over the Regina Pats on Tuesday night, failed to score on three powerplays while the Wheat Kings connected twice in five opportunities with the man-advantage.

Broncos netminder Travis Yonkman stopped 34 of the 39 shots that he faced to lower his record to 8-5-0-2 on the season.

Joe Caligiuri, who won 11 games for the Wheaties last season, turned aside 24 of the 27 shots fired his way to earn the win and improve his season record to 9-5-0-0.

The loss drops the Broncos record to 11-4-0-2 on the season and keeps the in a tie atop the Western Hockey League’s East Division with the slumping Regina Pats who fell 5-2 to the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday night.

Saturday night the Broncos will be back on home ice at the Credit Union iplex to host the expansion Edmonton Oil Kings. In their most recent meeting the Broncos handed the Oil Kings a 3-1 loss at Rexall Place on Oct. 27th.

[Scout]

Keen's Korner

Saturday, November 03, 2007
Wheat Kings Plan Parade Route, Order the Jackets...
Well, not yet anyways, as I attempt to turn the tables based on Wheat Kings General Manager Kelly Macrimmon's pre-game interview earlier today. (see post below).

Feel free to whistle the Harlem Globetrotters theme music to yourself as you read this post....

The Wheat Kings dumped the Broncos 5-3 Friday night at Westman Place in the first meeting of the season between division rivals.

The Broncos led 3-2 at one point in the 2nd period thanks to goals from Levi Nelson, and Matt Tassone who struck for a pair. That is where the fun stopped as Brandon capitalized on a few mistakes and outworked the Broncos most of the night for the win.

Brandon's top line can play. The Lowry/Clark/Dittmer line caused problems most of the night and were spelled off by an impressive young line of Calvert/Schenn/Glennie.

It appears at times the Broncos would rather just play "Sportscentre"hockey. That's my term for a team that wants to play all flash and dash but not do the other things like grind it out on the wall and win puck battles. Those workmanlike plays tend to never make the highlights do they?

Brandon played well give them credit, but the Broncos coaching staff was less than enthused on their effort.

And, quickly getting back to the Kelly Macrimmon interview. I don't want anyone to take it the wrong way. It wasn't exactly delivered in a fiery tone. Merely, tongue in cheek if you will. All our interviews over the past few years have had a similar feel. I just thought I would post some of the highlights considering the "blog plug" he threw in.

Broncos and Oil Kings...tonight from the i-plex. Don't look now but the Oil Kings have won three straight after wins over Calgary, Lethbridge and Everett. Pardon another basketball reference, this game by no means will be a "lay-up" for the Broncos.

Jon

[sbtatter]

That Kelly Mac interview was excellent, a good read!
I can see why you and Big Ern are so excited about Swift, how much spped and offensive talent is on this team? A boatload would be the answer! I also liked the overall size of the team and their willingness to hit. Also the speed of the forwards, and the willingness of players to stand up for each other. Eakin showed some speed and potential. Weise, Smith, Nelson, Tassone could play on my team any day. From what we've seen in Brandon, you have the most goal scoring potential of any team. I think Med Hat showed more team defence, and Calgary probably showed a little better overall than Swift, so I'd put you right behind Calgary at this point. Things I didn't like so much were the defensive lack of speed, and a couple of your players like Felde and Danserau didn't fight for the puck in the trenches a lot.

[Big Ern]

I sincerely hope that the defencemen that Swift has can play better than they did tonight otherwise this team with oodles of offensive talent is not going anywhere. If you had watched this game without your rose colored glasse Ern you would have seen that the Wheats hit 4 posts tonight and I thought Yonkman played very well. They could have easily hit double figures tonight. Swift has some awesome forwards---lots of talent. One of the keys of the game was the fact that our young line vastly outplayed yours creating a lot of pressure and scoring the key 3rd goal. The intensity of this game and the pace were terrific. Swift has a very good team but suspect on defence.

No big guy, I do not watch hockey through "rose-coloured" glasses. What I do however, is try to stay optimistic no matter the circumstances. I think I stated pretty clearly in the previous post, that Brandon played well. I also mentioned the negatives for our team, and why I thought we were not successful last night. Face it, every team has their off-nighs, and you can't win 'em all. I'll always post negatives that I saw in the game. What I don't do, is log on to this website and literally rip a team to shreds, like some do after drinking a few beers at games. Our team is 11-5-0-2 through the first quarter, a record which quite frankly, I am perfectly happy with. Also, out of 18 games for the Broncos, only 6 have been at home. So there.

[Bully73]

No big guy, I do not watch hockey through "rose-coloured" glasses. What I do however, is try to stay optimistic no matter the circumstances. I think I stated pretty clearly in the previous post, that Brandon played well. I also mentioned the negatives for our team, and why I thought we were not successful last night.I shouldn't put words in booboo's mouth, but I'm sure he was referring to your little rant blaming the game on the ref, with your turning point of the game comment. Other than the few defensive gaffes made by the Wheaties last night, mainly due to some very high skilled plays made by your team, the Wheaties were by far the superior team last night. And yes, every team is going to have off-nights and this was clearly one for your team as they didn't play a full 60 minutes.

For the record, I thought the call on the boards you referred to was possibly on the questionable side, but it wasn't merely a little rubbing as you called it. Schenn (I think that is who it was anyways?) was battling hard to get to a loose puck and both guys were interfering with each other a little bit. I believe what made Vetter make the call, however, was your guy more than rubbed Schenn into the boards at the end - it was a full bodycheck as your guy put Schenn into the boards (when neither guy had played the puck through their battle).

[booboo]

Thanks Bully----that is exactly why I posted my response to Big Ern the head chearleader for the Broncos. He was trying to give excuses for why the Broncs lost and the Wheaties won. It never fails to amuse me reading the very homer posts of the mentioned poster. Your team is good Ern but don't book your Mem cup tickets just yet.

[SuckItUp]

Booboo you are also a homer fan. Thats what cheering for you team is. Dont be ripping us in our forum for something that u and others do. I am a "homer" and damn proud of it. Big Ern will not change for you or anybody else. And he shouldn't.

[booboo]

What happened last night in Swift? I thought the broncs would have not much trouble with the oil kings. Report please. In spite of what I may have said about you Swift posters, I think you guys have a great team(the best in the East) and are probably a defenceman away from making a lot of noise this year. clrkth

[rx16]

I thought we dominated tonight but couldn't beat Archibald. Edmonton also got a bounce or two that went their way for goals. I guess thats the way it goes, some games you deserve to win but don't and others that you have no business winning, you win.