Broncos Host Blazers

[Scout]

Keen's Korner

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Broncos host Blazers
The Swift Current Broncos host the Kamloops Blazers tonight in the 2nd meeting of the season between the two teams.

Back on October 5th, the Broncos edged Kamloops 2-1 at Interior Savings Center. Kamloops is in the middle of their six-game roadswing through the east division. So far they've lost in Brandon 5-2 and Moose Jaw 4-2.

Kamloops looks a lot different from the meeting early in the season No more Brock Nixon, Ryan Bender, Travis Dunstall Keaton Ellerby, Ryan White or Victory Bartley. Insert Devon Kalinski, Spencer Fraipont, Nick Ross, Mike Gauthier, Scott Wasden and Brady Calla.

The Blazers have dropped five in a row and could be on a collision course with the #1 seed in the Western Conference come playoff time.

Tomorrow night the Blazers are in Regina to play the Pats in a game set for Sportsnet.

The Broncos play game three of their six-game homestand tonight as they begin a busy week. So far the Broncos are 1-0-1 in a must win stretch for the club if they want to win the east division. They have a chance to pull within two points of Regina with a victory.

To think, a month ago the Broncos trailed the Pats by 12 points and sat 4th in the division. It looked like all was lost for a division title. Now it's their focus.

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Thanks to Cody Eakin and Ryan Molle for hanging out with us at the Modern Family Restaurant last night for our final edition of Best Western Monday Night Meet the Broncos.

A couple who have been season ticket holders for 20 years came in to have a chat. They just love Cody and the way the 16 year-old plays the game. The elderly lady was so excited to meet Cody and wish him all the best. She has seen a lot of players come and go through the years and for her to make the extra effort to come and meet Cody really speaks volumes to the kind of special player he is. It was a nice moment.

Thanks to Sherri for coming down and having coffee too. Get well wishes go out to Broncos billet Melinda Baum. Melinda had a run-in with some ice on her driveway and will be out of action with a bad ankle for awhile.

Jon

[Scout]

Game 64 vs Kamloops Blazers
TONIGHT’S GAME: Tonight will be the 2nd and final meeting between the Kamloops Blazers and the Swift Current Broncos this season.


The Broncos were victorious in the 1st meeting of the season beating the Blazers 2-1 in Kamloops on October 5th…Dale Weise scored both goals for the Broncos, while Erik Felde, Levi Nelson, Michael Wilson and Travis Yonkman pick up the assists…Yonkman stopped 22 of 23 shots for the win…The Broncos currently sit tied for 6th place in the Eastern Conference with Brandon, while Moose Jaw is just 2 points back...The team is 3 points behind the Tigers who are 5th...The Broncos can close within 2 points of idol Regina, for the East Division lead with a win tonight…Next action is Saturday night when the 2nd Year Chilliwack Bruins make their 1st ever visit to Swift Current.

LAST GAME: The Broncos were handed their 1st overtime loss of the season on Saturday night, falling to the Medicine Hat Tigers 3-2…Matt Tassone and Levi Nelson scored for the Broncos, while Michael Wilson and Keegan Dansereau both picked up a pair of assists…Broncos’ netminder Mark Guggenberger stopped 24 of 27 shots to see his record drop to 5-3-1-0...The Broncos were 1 for 2 on the man advantage, while the Tigers went 0 for 2…Despite the loss the Broncos outshot the Tigers 38 to 27.

NUMBERS: Zack Smith continues to lead the Broncos in the points department with 60 (19 G, 41 A)...Smith and Levi Nelson are both one goal shy of hitting the 20 goal plateau…Nelson extended his point streak to 4 games thanks to a goal against the Tigers on Friday night and now has 53 points this season…Keegan Dansereau picked up a pair of points Friday night and has now recorded 3 points in his last 3 games (1 G, 2 A)…Matt Tassone recorded a goal on Friday night and has picked up 3 points (2 G, 1 A) over his last 4 games…Jesse Dudas has recorded 4 points (1 G, 3 A) in his last 4 games… David Stieler has 4 goals and 6 points in his last 7 games...Michael Wilson picked up a pair of assists against the Tigers and is tied for 8th in points among WHL defensemen, while Eric Doyle (9 G, 36 A) is 6th…Erik Felde saw his 3 game scoring streak come to an end Friday night…Currently there are 8 Broncos that have hit the 40 point plateau this season, last season there were only 3 to hit that mark…The Broncos are an impressive 24-1-0-2 when leading after the 2nd period and 26-5-0-3 when they score the first goal of the game…The Broncos are 19-8-1-3 while playing in Swift Current this season.

MILESTONES: Zack Smith tallied his 100th WHL career point on February 13th…Bretton Stamler is 4 points away from hitting his 100th point mark in his career, while Keegan Dansereau is 2 points away from recording his 150th career point.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The Broncos power play is 13th in the WHL and is currently operating at 18.3%…The team has scored 64 power play goals on 349 attempts…David Stieler has 13 power play goals to lead the Broncos, while Eric Doyle has19 power play assists…On the penalty kill, the Broncos are 11th in the WHL with an 82.9% efficiency rating.

ROSTER: The Broncos roster currently consists of 23 players (2 goaltenders, 8 defensemen, 13 forwards)…The team has 3 – 20 year old players, 8 – 19 year old players, 5 – 18 year old players, 4 – 17 year old players, and 3 – 16 year old players…By location, the Broncos have 4 Saskatchewan born players, 10 Alberta born players, 3 British Columbia born players, 2 Manitoba born players, 2 players from the Czech Republic, and 2 American players…The Broncos average age is 18.2 while their average height is 6’0.5” and weight 188.9 lbs.

INJURIES: Jan Dalecky and Mike Brown will miss tonight’s game with concussions…Dale Weise is out with a shoulder injury, while Jesse Dudas is questionable with a knee injury.

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

[TwoBits]

Go SWIFT Go!!!! :clap: Keep the faint hopes of us PG fans alive. :D

[TwoBits]

Thank-You pbj Thank-You pbj Thank-You pbj

[Toswammi]

Other than the last 20 minutes (were we basically mailed it in....tough to play a game with the same drive when you already know you've won it) we owned last night. What a treat watching Dans, Levi and Tassone play last night. We where joking that Dans should go with pink tape every game, if it meant games like that one. Like usual we scored some highlight reel goals, mee thinks we are getting spoiled with those this year.
Anyhow another 60 mile adventure both Sat and Sun. Play all 60 in each and i have no doubt we will adding another 2 wins to our bottom line.

[Link Dog]

Play all 60 in each and i have no doubt we will adding another 2 wins to our bottom line.
I agree totally with this point but the question is if we play 60 minutes. Over the last 4-5 games I don't think that we have. We have a fast and skilled team but the reason we had success and had a good winning streak was 60 minute efforts of hardwork. Skill will only take you so far in the playoffs, it's the effort and desire that can put a team on the winning side of a seven game series. IMO it is harder to break bad habits (like taking a period off against an inferior team, sorry Blazer fans) than it is to form good habits (making your next shift your best shift). I know we have injuries to some key guys and that doesn't help and I'm confident that with the leadership on this team in the room,we will bring up the efforts so this team can continue winning. As for the fans, lets keep ringing those cowbells and rocking the iplex. Let's go Broncos!

[ointhecreek]

I agree totally with this point but the question is if we play 60 minutes. Over the last 4-5 games I don't think that we have. We have a fast and skilled team but the reason we had success and had a good winning streak was 60 minute efforts of hardwork. Skill will only take you so far in the playoffs, it's the effort and desire that can put a team on the winning side of a seven game series. IMO it is harder to break bad habits (like taking a period off against an inferior team, sorry Blazer fans) than it is to form good habits (making your next shift your best shift). I know we have injuries to some key guys and that doesn't help and I'm confident that with the leadership on this team in the room,we will bring up the efforts so this team can continue winning. As for the fans, lets keep ringing those cowbells and rocking the iplex. Let's go Broncos!
Couldn't agree more. The defense seems to be picking up bad habits anf giving up the puck alot and leaving the goaltenders out to dry. Even Felde, who has played pretty amazing offensively gave up the puck 3 times that I counted with no one between him and Yonks last night. Molle seems to have trouble clearing the zone. Don't mean to be to hard on the guys but they need to be more careful in their own end. Granted they pretty much had the game won, but I can understand why Yonks was a little peeved at the end of the game. Those very much preventable goals can't be very good for his GAA. Seems like in the 3rd period the guys were trying to get to cute, which they have been guilty of lately.
All that being said, Nelson, Dansereau, and Tassone were amazing last night and Felde made Ross look foolish. First two periods were very entertaining to watch. The third was frustrating. vc178

[Scout]

Broncos run away from Blazers
STEVEN MAH

The Swift Current Broncos rode their special teams success and a strong opening 40 minutes of hockey to a 7-4 win over the visiting Kamloops Blazers on Tuesday.

The Broncos led by period scores of 2-0 and 5-0 while converting three of 10 powerplay opportunities in the contest.

Levi Nelson paced the Broncos attack with a hat trick performance, including two goals on the powerplay. Nelson now has a career high 22 goals.

Swift Current also had a man-advantage goal from Matt Tassone.

Overage forward Erik Felde counted a pair of unassisted goals to reach the 25-goal plateau, one more than he scored as a 19-year-old rookie with Tri City last season. Zack Smith added a third period goal for the Broncos.

Kamloops, who did all their scoring in the third period after falling behind by a 5-0 margin, had a pair of goals from Scott Wasden, and single markers from Juuso Puustinen and Kenton Dulle.

Broncos goaltender Travis Yonkman turned aside 26 shots to collect his 28th win of the season. Blazers netminder Justin Leclerc yielded seven goals on 42 shots in the loss.

Nelson and Tassone's linemate Keegan Dansereau assisted on four goals in the contest.

"It was great. The puck was coming to me and I didn't even look for half of them. They just put them in, so it was nice," said Dansereau.

Dansereau played the game with pink tape on his stick in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Night. When asked if he would keep it on for the next game he grinned and said, "I might actually. You can see the puck better on it than you can on black."

Dansereau, Nelson and Tassone combined for 18 points over the past four games. Nelson explained that they are feeling good.

"Yes, especially tonight, it was a real good game for our line. Keegan Dansereau getting four assists, he is great heads up player with good hands and sees the ice well and it is fun playing with him. Same with Tazzy there. He adds a little bit of grit. We play good every night, complement each other, and feed off each other. We got lucky tonight and got a few points."

Nelson said it was good to get off to a strong start in the contest.

"We came out tonight and focused on our start because our first periods have not been that great lately. We had a pretty good first period and I think that we played a pretty good 40 minutes of hockey. The last period there I think that we thought we had it in the bag and guys just stopped doing the little things. It was a little bit ugly. That was not the way we wanted to finish off but we got the two points and that is all that counts."

Swift Current moved into sole possession of sixth place in the Eastern Conference by improving to 36-22-1-5, two points back of the East Division leading Regina Pats. The Broncos 78 points places them two points up on Brandon and Moose Jaw who are tied with 76 points.

The Blazers, who are 0-5-1-0 in their last six games, drop to 26-33-2-2, one point away from claiming the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

With only eight games in the regular season, this weekend the Broncos will host the Chilliwack Bruins for the first time on Saturday night followed by a visit from