Broncos stick to win column as SJHL regular season enters its final weeks

Currently on an 11-game point streak, Ceccarelli told northeastNOW that he’s feeling relaxed and comfortable on the ice as the season winds down. Going into the second half of the season, Ceccarelli said things started to take off with a healthy roster and lines that mesh.

With seven games left in the regular season, Ceccarelli said they are just taking it one game at a time as they wrap up the season fighting for second place.

“Right now we got a lineup and line combinations that are working for us so we’re just gonna roll with it and that’s huge going into playoffs. We’ll just keep going with that.”

Strength between the pipes has also been working in the Broncos’ favour with Benjamin Motew and Jared Picklyk both sitting at a 90 per cent save percentage going into March.

Between the two green and gold goalies, they only have six losses between them in 23 games with both coming in late in the season.

Tensions on the ice are getting high as the season comes to a close and Hansen said his players spent too much time in the box the last few games.

Out of 40 opportunities over the last nine games, the Broncos capitalized for 10 power play goals. However, they’ve been on the defensive more times than not with 48 penalty kills in that time, with 28 of those over the last four games, but have kept strong with only seven goals against.

Especially with the first three games in March being the most valuable; their first against second place rivals the Flin Flon Bombers with the next two against the Battleford North Stars, Hansen said those are both teams that are going to be hard to beat on their power plays.

“It’s something we want to clean up, for sure, stay out of the box, because we want to play five on five with those teams. If you give them too many chances on the power play it’s going to be ugly pretty quick.”

The North Stars have already clinched the top spot in the league and the Global Ag Risk Solutions, leaving the Broncos with an apparent second place in the division.

Who they will be facing in the first round of playoffs is still up in the air, Hansen said. Estevan, Nipawin, and Weyburn have been trading places for those sixth, seventh and eighth place finishes with only four games separating the three.

However, Hansen said they have their own battle to focus on as that Flin Flon home game will be the most valuable one coming up on March 1. Both teams currently sit at 71 points in the league with the Broncos having one more win in one less game over the Bombers.

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becky.zimmer@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @bex_zim

by Becky Zimmer

Broncos stick to win column as SJHL regular season enters its final weeks

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