Game 13 @ Brandon

[Scout]

Game 13 @ Brandon Wheat Kings

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Swift Current Broncos travel to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings for the first time this season.


The Broncos are coming off a 5-2 win at Moose Jaw last night...Jan Dalecky picked up 2 goals, Eric Doyle, Jordan Peddle and Keegan Dansereau had the other tallies...This is the second road game after 4 straight at home for Swift Current.

NUMBERS: Keegan Dansereau leads the Broncos with 7 goals and 4 assists for 11 points; he has points in 9 of the 12 games this year...Dansereau has 7 of his 11 points on the road…The Broncos are 4-1 on the road and 5-1 versus the East Division…Goaltender Mark Guggenberger is tied for the WHL lead in wins with 7…Matt Tassone leads the WHL in penalty minutes with 39…Eric Doyle is tied for 2nd in the WHL for top scoring defensemen with 11 points...He is also 10th in the league in plus minus, with a +10 rating…Jordan Peddle has 9 points good for 7th best in WHL rookie scoring…The Broncos have scored first in 8 of the12 games played this year…The Broncos are outshooting their opponents by an average of 32-27.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The Broncos power-play is 11 for 66, 16.7% and the penalty kill is 81%, giving up 11 goals on 58 tries.

ROSTER: The Broncos roster currently consists of 25 players...The team has 4 – 20 year old players, 6 – 19 year old players, 5 – 18 year old players, 8 – 17 year old players, and 2 – 16 year old players…Brad Hoban is back in Swift Current, he suffered a broken ankle over the summer...He should return to the lineup in the next week…Jesse Dudas is still with the Edmonton Oilers re-habbing from a knee injury, suffered at their training camp…Cody Eakin suffered a concussion and will miss this weekend’s games…Travis Yonkman is close to returning from a shoulder injury...Derek Claffey has been named the Broncos captain for the month of October.

DRAFTED BRONCOS: Ryan Molle (New Jersey ‘07)...Matt Tassone (Dallas ’08)...Geordie Wudrick (LA ‘08).



Scout

[Big Ern]

I didn't catch much of the game tonight due to the PA announcing duties for the Legionnaires (who picked up the 2-1 OT win) but was able to give it a quick look in the bottom corner of the computer every so often. Game audio and the monotonous voice of Wheat Kings' announcer Bruce Luebke went by the wayside and gave way to rink music at the i-Plex. So it was pretty hard to follow. Here's what I DID catch:

-it looked like the Broncos struggled to generate any sort of offense.

-17 players dressed tonight. Obviously the Broncos are battling injuries....big name injuries. Out is Matt Tassone, Cody Eakin, Travis Yonkman, and Ryan Molle. Joel Rogers, I would venture to guess, was out due to that leg incident in Moose Jaw last night. But where was Taylor Vause?

-I saw Jan Dalecky work extremely hard at times. I also saw James Martin and Eric Doyle, and Spencer McAvoy make some great plays in their own zone.

-the Wheat Kings scored the first goal at 19:59 of the third period. It was pretty goal. But that could be called a bad bounce....one second to go in the frame. That's always a momentum killer. I guess so are shorthanded goals though....the Wheaties' second tally happened with Keith Aulie in the box. Not good. Brayden Schenn got goals one and two. He's solid.

-Brandon is a very tough place to play. To start with, it's out in the middle of nowhere and most teams arrive there around 5:00 AM Manitoba time when they play the previous night. That's gotta be hard on any player. Secondly, the Wheat Kings are a great offensive hockey club. They are picked to win it all this year. I don't know how, but they're picked to do it.

-9-4 is an awesome record...and the Broncos have a week to rehab now. It could not come at a better time with injuries mounting like they are. No panic. Our team has done well.


If ANYONE watched the game themselves with audio...or was there...or listened to the Eagle 94.1 FM here in Swifty, could add a detail or two that would be awesome.

There is some great game info over on the Brandon forum from two or three Wheat Kings' fans. It's worth going over and reading it.

LET'S GO SWIFTY!!!

[Allin44]

Was at the game tonight, the score wasn't very indicative of the play. Brandon could have easily won 6 or 7 to 1 but that is a testament to how well your goalie played at times, and some bad bounces. I noticed your bench was short, also was wondering why Yonkman wasn't working.

Where we really got you guys tonight was the transition game, it seemed we forced a lot of turnovers at our blue line and came down 3 on 2 quite a bit, also managed to make a few nice stretch passes.

Your PK sure looked good tonight, very aggressive, doesn't let the opponent get set, and that's sure important against a team like Brandon, we like to run a pretty stationary PP and you guys were all over our guys all night on the PK and were effective.

Schenns SHG was a nice one, went down the ice had a guy with him, but wasn't going very fast, you knew from the red line in he was thinking nothing but shoot, and managed to snap a VERY nice shot above your goalie(god he seems bigger than the 6'2 hes listed at).

Not a real physical affair, Doyle had a few nice hits, our D was a little thin tonight as we had both Melnychuk and Erb out with injuries and traded MissCue to Med Hat earlier this week. I think our "bottom 4 d" tonight had about a combined year of WHL experience.

As for Brandon being a tough place to play because of the travel, imagine playing for them. Teams have to come here.. what 3 or 4 times a year at most(excluding playoffs), our closest game is 4 hours away, but I do understand where you are coming from, especially when SK is an hour behind MB right now.

Sorry I couldn't comment more on how you guys played or pick out specific players, I tend to just watch Brandons guys.

[sbtatter]

2 minor disagreements with Ern's post and an unbiased general game comment.

I think Lubke's commentating is right at the top of the dub, what you call a monotonous voice I call a very fair, accurate call of the game. Way better than that childish, homerism, biased nonsense a lot of our opponents have.

I noticed this quote on Keens blog
"I chatted with Mark Guggenberger when the team was loading up the bus. I asked if he was screened on both Warriors goals to which he replied in a light tone "of course I was... if I see it (the puck) I'll stop it."
The first thing I thought when Schenn sent that laser SH goal past him was "well, he saw that shot all the way from the top of the circle so shouldn't he have saved it!"

The score could have been a lot bigger last night, but you were missing a couple key cogs, so maybe the next game will be more indicative of how we stack up against each other. Your team speed is very noticeable though, your physical play was a lot less than last year (maybe b/c of who wasn't playing?), with the young team you have a 9 and 4 start is great, those points are so valuable so kudo's to your coaching staff and players for getting out of the gates so fast. Dudas adds so much to your team, unfortunate for him that he's always dogged by injuries. Danserau sure reminds me of Dittmer, an o/a who has so much talent but doesn't bring an "A" game every night, so frustrating for the team. I thought Doyle played a good game, your best player. I expected a lot from Peddle, but he was poor, maybe he had different linemates than normal because he looked a little lost out there.

[Flathead]

-17 players dressed tonight. Obviously the Broncos are battling injuries....big name injuries. Out is Matt Tassone, Cody Eakin, Travis Yonkman, and Ryan Molle. Joel Rogers, I would venture to guess, was out due to that leg incident in Moose Jaw last night. But where was Taylor Vause?

!!!

A short bench and some huge losses due to injury. Thankfully we don't play again until Friday. Anyone have any updates on these guys? Quite sure with Tassone, Eakin, Molle, Rogers and Vause in the line up the game would have been a lot more even at least. But every team has to deal with injuries and kudos to Brandon on playing a very strong game, after all they were projected to be where we are, at the top.

[booboo]

One thing about reading big ern is it always makes me laugh even when I am sad. Brandon in the middle of nowhere??? Who are you kidding?Swift isn't at the end of the earth but you can see it from Swift. Last nite had it not been for Gugggenburger the score would have been a lot higher. Swift does have some great skaters but no size(will hurt in the playoffs). Good take on Dansereau---floats around like Dittmer did last year.I wanted to see Eakin last nite as I know he is a real up and comer. No one stood out for Swift save the goalie and Doyle. We were missing some of our best d-men so the omisions were equal. clrkth

[sbtatter]

One thing about reading big ern is it always makes me laugh even when I am sad. Brandon in the middle of nowhere??? Who are you kidding?Swift isn't at the end of the earth but you can see it from Swift. Last nite had it not been for Gugggenburger the score would have been a lot higher. Swift does have some great skaters but no size(will hurt in the playoffs). Good take on Dansereau---floats around like Dittmer did last year.I wanted to see Eakin last nite as I know he is a real up and comer. No one stood out for Swift save the goalie and Doyle. We were missing some of our best d-men so the omisions were equal. clrkth

That was funny wasn`t it if Bdn is in the middle of nowhere what the heck does that make Swift....

[Link Dog]

sbtatter Quote:

That was funny wasn`t it if Bdn is in the middle of nowhere what the heck does that make Swift....

Regina 2 hours east, MJ 1 1/2 hours east, S'toon 2 1/2 hours north, PA 4 hours north, Med Hat 2 hours west, Calgary 5 hours west. We couldn't be more in the middle of this conference.

[Big Ern]

That was funny wasn`t it if Bdn is in the middle of nowhere what the heck does that make Swift....

Easy...I'm talking in terms of league travel. Where is Swift from other WHL markets? 2.5 hours from Saskatoon, 1.5 hours from Moose Jaw, 2 hours from Regina, 2 hours from Medicine Hat, and just over 3 hours from Lethbridge. What I meant by "middle of nowhere" is the location of Brandon compared to other markets in the league. That makes it a lot tougher to play there.

Secondly, I think you're all exaggerating a bit on the "possible offense.....what coulda' been" type of deal. "It could have EASILY been 6 or 7-1 in favour of Brandon??" Ummm...no. I rewatched the entire game...with audio this time, and I didn't see where Brandon could have blown it that wide open. The Wheaties' offense is good, but the Broncos are not Portland, and last night was no exception. Their defense and goaltending wasn't anywhere close to letting that happen. The final was 3-1. That's the bottom line.

Having said all of this, I thank each and every Brandon fan for their contribution to the thread....debate makes it interesting. lol

[sbtatter]

Easy...I'm talking in terms of league travel. Where is Swift from other WHL markets? 2.5 hours from Saskatoon, 1.5 hours from Moose Jaw, 2 hours from Regina, 2 hours from Medicine Hat, and just over 3 hours from Lethbridge. What I meant by "middle of nowhere" is the location of Brandon compared to other markets in the league. That makes it a lot tougher to play there.

Secondly, I think you're all exaggerating a bit on the "possible offense.....what coulda' been" type of deal. "It could have EASILY been 6 or 7-1 in favour of Brandon??" Ummm...no. I rewatched the entire game...with audio this time, and I didn't see where Brandon could have blown it that wide open. The Wheaties' offense is good, but the Broncos are not Portland, and last night was no exception. Their defense and goaltending wasn't anywhere close to letting that happen. The final was 3-1. That's the bottom line.

Having said all of this, I thank each and every Brandon fan for their contribution to the thread....debate makes it interesting. lol

I think watching the game live trumps watching it on webcast, and trust me, our poor finishing made this one seem a lot closer than than it really was. We outchanced you by a long way, shame on us for not finishing them, an example is Green having 4 great chances and just not finishing. Kelly Mac has said finishing is a bit of a concern. But like I said, no wonder we were a lot better than you on the night, you were missing 2 good d and forwards, we were only missing 2 good d-men, so we should have dominated as we did. It was a game where after the 10 minute mark we never appeared in danger of losing..
As to who`s currently the better team, well, that`s simple, it`s the team with the 9 and 4 record, good for you guys.
Next time Swifty come to town make sure you show up Ern, i`m buying you a beer for being a very enthusiastic Bronco fan who is a very entertaining read!!