Broncos Spoil the Party, Shutout Blades 6-0 on ‘Thank You, Mr. Hockey Day’
It was ‘Thank You, Mr. Hockey Day’ on Sunday afternoon as the Swift Current Broncos visited the Saskatoon Blades on Sunday afternoon at the SaskTel Centre.
Hockey legend and Saskatoon native Gordie Howe was honoured in a special pre-game ceremony that included hockey icons Bob Cole, Bryan Trottier and members of Howe’s family speak about his life and legendary career. The game was featured live on WHL on Shaw TV.
This afternoon marked the second of eight meetings between the two East Division rivals this season after the Blades defeated the Broncos 5-1 in Swift Current on Friday night.
This time, the Broncos struck first as Tyler Steenbergen finished a nice tic-tac-toe play on the man advantage to give his club a 1-0 lead midway through the first period. Brandan Arnold added to the Broncos lead as he zoomed down the right wing and fired a low wrist shot by the far side of Blades goaltender, Brock Hamm with six seconds remaining in the first period.
Penalty killing was solid for the Broncos as they were a perfect 4/4 halfway through the middle frame before Calvin Spencer pounced on a rebound opportunity in the Blades crease to make the score 3-0. Broncos’ goaltender Travis Child was consistent through two periods, making 22 saves.
In the third period, the Broncos kept the pressure on the Blades. Import forward Aleksi Heponiemi made a smooth pass to Steenbergen who made no mistake and increased the Broncos lead to 4-0. Moments later, Tyler Adams crashed the net and buried his first goal of the campaign to give Swift Current a dominating 5-0 cushion.
Spencer then added the Broncos third goal in a span of 3:37 as he followed a loose puck and tucked it by Hamm to give the Broncos a major 6-0 lead.
The Broncos were in cruise control after that as goaltender Travis Child was steady with a 28 save performance to collect his first shutout of the season in the Broncos 6-0 victory.
Aleksi Heponiemi recorded four assists and now has five through his first two games.
Swift Current finished 2/5 on the power play and went 5/5 on the penalty kill. Shots on goal favoured the Broncos 31-28.
The Broncos move to 1-1-0-0 on the season and return to action on Friday when they clash with the Prince Albert Raiders on Friday, September 30th at the Art Hauser Centre at 7:00pm.
