Game 45 @ Brandon

[Scout]

Game 45 @ Brandon

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Broncos look to move their winning streak to 4 games, for the first time this season, tonight as they battle the Wheat Kings in Brandon…This will be the 5th of 6 meetings between the Wheat Kings and the Broncos this season.

Brandon holds a 3-1 series edge thus far…Against the Wheat Kings this season Michael Wilson (0 G, 7 A)has 7 points, while Dale Weise (3 G, 3 A) has 6 points and Eric Doyle (2 G, 3 A) and Levi Nelson (2 G, 3 A) both have 5 points…Travis Yonkman has an .877 SV% and a 3.86 GAA versus Brandon…The Broncos sit in 4th place in the East Division, 1 point behind the Moose Jaw Warriors, 4 points behind the Brandon Wheat Kings and 5 points behind the Regina Pats…Next action for the Club is tomorrow night when they travel to Regina.

LAST GAME: The Broncos extended their winning streak to 3 games, for the first time since late October, with a 5-1 win over the Prince Albert Raiders…The Broncos were led offensively by Zack Smith who scored twice, while Geordie Wudrick, Matt Tassone, and Cody Eakin all recorded singles…Broncos netminder Travis Yonkman posted his 18th win of the season, turning aside 22 of 23 shots…The Broncos outshot the Raiders 33-23 in the contest…The Club finished 0 for 3 on the man advantage, while the Raiders went 1 for 4…However the Broncos did score 3 shorthanded goals, one in the 2nd period from Tassone and two in the 3rd period coming 9 seconds apart from Smith and Eakin…The win moves the Broncos one point behind Moose Jaw for 3rd place in the East Division and 7th in the Eastern Conference with a record of 22-17-0-5 good for 49 points.

NUMBERS: Zack Smith recorded 2 goals on Tuesday night against the Raiders to move his goal total to 17, a new career high…Smith continues to lead the Broncos in the points department with 45 (17 G, 28 A) and sits tied for 15th place in points amongst WHL skaters…Matt Tassone picked up a goal and an assist versus the Raiders. He has recorded points in 3 of his last 4 games (2 G, 4 A)…Levi Nelson is on a 3 game point streak and has points in 6 of his last 7 games (5 G, 4 A)…Eric Doyle picked up an assist Tuesday night against Prince Albert to move his point streak to 3 games. He now has 9 goals and 28 assists on the season and is tied for 3rd place in goals and points amongst WHL defensemen…Michael Wilson has been held off the score sheet in his last 4 games; however is still tied for 3rd place in the point race among WHL defensemen with 37 (4 G, 33 A) and is tied for 6th in assists among WHL skaters…The Broncos are averaging 29 shots per game, while scoring 3.3 goals per game…The Broncos are an impressive 15-1-0-2 when leading after 40 minutes of play and 16-4-0-3 when they scored first.

TRANSACTIONS: On Thursday’s WHL trade deadline, the Broncos sent 17-year-old goaltender Ian Curtis to the Prince George Cougars for 19-year-old defensemen Jesse Dudas and forward prospect Catlin Foley. In addition, the Broncos acquired 18-year-old goaltender Mark Guggenberger from the Portland Winter Hawks for a conditional 2009 draft pick…The Broncos also made a trade on January 9th, sending 20-year-old defenseman R.J. LaRochelle to the Vancouver Giants for future considerations and acquired 20-year-old defensemen Bretton Stamler from the Edmonton Oil Kings in exchange for a 3rd Round pick in the 2008 Bantam Draft…With the trades the Broncos roster now consists of 23 players (2 goaltenders, 8 defensemen, 13 forwards).

MILESTONES: Derek Claffey playedhis100th WHL game January 5th versus the Saskatoon Blades; while Eric Doyle is 2 games away from playing his 150th WHL game…Newly acquired Bretton Stamler has played 304 WHL games.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The Broncos power play is 9th in the WHL and currently operating at 19.3%…The team has scored 48 power play goals on 249 attempts…Dale Weise & David Stieler have 9 power play goals to lead the Broncos, while Michael Wilson has16 power play assists…On the penalty kill, the Broncos are 16th in the WHL with an 80.6% efficiency rating.

INJURIES: Ryan Molle will miss tonight’s game due to a knee injury.

DRAFTED BRONCOS: Ryan Molle (New Jersey ‘07)…Levi Nelson (Boston ‘06)…Jesse Dudas (Columbus ’06)

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A few thoughts from the keystone centre.
Surprised at the lack of emotion from some of your players. Felde, Danserau, Nelson all looked off tonight. I saw Danserau and Smith having several discussions on the bench after wayward passes. I really thought you guys would come out flying tonight, but maybe not scoring on those 4v PP's in a row (who says refs favour Mcrimmon??!!) hurt your team.
Saw more of Eakin, Dalecky and Wudrick tonight than other games here.
Weise was your best player. Dudas looks like a tough hombre also.
I'm glad to see Yeo take Weise to task for trying to run Glennie, and Aulie taking control when Dudas was going after Glennie. So funny to see Yeo and Weise (after a tie) continue talking in the PB, Yeo throws a water bottle, Weise throws a towel, they get tossed, but the talking continued office outside the dressing rooms!
Yonkman was up and down tonight, sometimes brilliant, sometimes flopping around.
When they were honouring soldiers from CFB Shilo before the game, Weise started banging his stick and getting his team mates to do the same, classy move to honour the soldiers.
So who was out injured for you tonight? We were missing our best forward and d-man (Clark and Boyle).
I thought your laziest player was Danserau by far. If you could get him motivated I think he'd be a 50 goal scorer. Like Schenn was at the game watching his brother.
And one last thing, what is up with that 'stache that Doyle is sporting??!!