Sixteen-year-old Carsten Kayter is the first Humboldt Bronco to commit to post-secondary education this season. (Submitted photo/Becky Zimmer)

By Becky Zimmer

Broncos on the boom

Eight-game streak sees Broncos off to strong season start

Oct 7, 2022 | 1:14 PM

The Humboldt Broncos are now on an eight-game winning streak after a successful September in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

Following their home opener against Notre Dame on Sept. 17, the Broncos dominated a home-and-home series the next weekend against Melfort with a 7-4 win at the Northern Lights Palace and a 3-2 overtime win in their own barn.

The team only had a few days’ rest before heading to Warman for the SJHL Showcase where they faced La Ronge and Estevan. Again, the Broncos would dominate in a 10-3 early morning win over the Ice Wolves followed the next night by a nail-biting 5-4 win over the Bruins.

Playoff rewrite matches would finish off September and start a new month of hockey for the team as the Broncos faced a three-game weekend, first facing La Ronge in back-to-back nights before heading to Flin Flon for a Sunday evening at the Whitney Forum.

Despite the physicality of both these teams, the Broncos were prepared to go in as they once again got the W’s against the Ice Wolves with a 2-0 shutout on Sept. 30 and a 5-4 OT win on Oct. 1. The trip to Flin Flon saw much of the same as they would claim a 2-1 OT win, a redemptive rewrite of last season’s semi-final 4-1 series loss that ended their otherwise successful season.

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Broncos head coach and GM, Scott Barney, told northeastNOW he’s happy with player performance, especially with seven games, let alone seven wins, over a 10-day stretch.

“We’re getting on the right side of the scoreboard at the end of the night and getting our confidence going but it was obviously a grind of seven games in 10 days and then traveling up north. But I know it’s been a good week of practice and just kind of focusing, focusing ahead to La Ronge on Tuesday.”

Captain Ethan Zielke is making some waves this year at the top of the Broncos’ leaderboard with six goals and eight assists in the season’s first eight games, including the OT winner in Melfort and the game-tying goal in Flin Flon. Team newbies Ben Kotylak and Xavier Roy are also sitting high with 10 points apiece followed by veteran players Cage Newans, Alec Saretzky, and Lucas Ceccarelli.

Zielke is also sitting top of the SJHL leaderboard as well with Nipawin’s Alex Johnson sitting right below with his one goal and 13 assists in 10 games.

All in all, Barney sees balance throughout the lineup, he said, with strength in the pairings of Zielke and Saretzkey and Roy, Kotylak and Sam Marburg.

Barney also said they have been happy with the goaltending with Tristan Boileau and Benjamin Motew both spending time in the Broncos’ net.

Boileau earned his first shutout of the season against La Ronge and currently sits at a .919 save percentage.

The team also had some other good news come their way as Carsten Kayter committed to University of Nebraska-Omaha’s NCAA Division 1 program for the team’s first commitment of the season. Last year the team had 10 commits, the most of any other team in the league that season.

The Broncos now have a week-long rest before the Ice Wolves come to town on Oct. 11 for their fourth matchup out of five between the two teams this season.

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becky.zimmer@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @bex_zim