By Les Lazaruk
They knew what they had to do against Swift Current’s big line. Yet, the Saskatoon Blades didn’t have a good answer for what the Broncos were bringing.
The Broncos forward unit of Tyler Steenbergen, Glenn Gawdin and Aleksi Heponiemi combined for 11 of 16 scoring points, five of the six goals, as Speedy Creek trimmed the Bridge City Bunch 6-2 at SaskTel Centre. Steenbergen scored four times, the last four goals for the Broncos…including a natural hat-trick in the second period…Gawdin opened the scoring on the power play and added two assists while Heponiemi chipped in with three helpers as Swift Current improved to 4-0-0 to start the season…all games on the road.
“When you let guys of that ability (have) time and space, they’re going to find ways to burn you,” said a dejected Saskatoon head coach Dean Brockman. “I thought we had a great week of practice, but we took a really foolish penalty (early) and it just seemed to upset the flow of our game. When you have those things happen, it’s just not a good thing for us.”
Swift Current led 2-0 and 5-0 at the period breaks. Former Bridge City Bunch goaltender Logan Flodell lost his shutout bid to a Braylon Shmyr goal in the third period while Brad Goethals also scored for the 1-3-0 Blue and Gold…all four games played at SaskTel Centre. Friday’s attendance was 3,536. Kaden Elder scored the other goal for the Broncos, who out-shot the Blades 24-21.
“We didn’t do what our coaches told us to do,” explained Blades defenceman Mark Rubinchik. “No-one performed like we we should perform every night and I’m really sorry.”
Pacman Points – The Broncos have out-scored their opposition 23-9 in their first four games. The staggering output from the Steenbergen-Gawdin-Heponiemi line includes scoring 16 of their 23 goals, picking up 24 of 39 assists and recording 40 of 62 scoring points.
Gawdin’s three points allowed him to reach 200 for his WHL career.
Swift Current, who hosts Kootenay in their first home game Saturday, were 1-for-5 on the power play while the Bridge City Bunch were 0-for-2 on the man advantage…0-for-12 on the season. The Blades play their first road game of the season Saturday in Regina.
Joel Grzybowski stopped 18 shots in his first W-H-L start in goal for Saskatoon.
Cam Hebig played in his 200th career W-H-L game Friday night. All 200 were with the Blades for the 20-year-old centre and Saskatoon product.
Broncos scratches were defencemen Noah King and Connor Horning along with forwards Logan Foster, Owen Blocker and Arthur Miller. Miller was the fourth 20-year-old for Swift Current head coach Manny Viveiros. He dressed goaltender Flodell, captain and centre Gawdin and centre Connor Chaulk Friday. Viveiros has until Tuesday to get down to just three overage players on his roster.
Saskatoon scratches were goaltender Ryan Kubic, left winger Tyler Lees and right winger Matt Mosher (all sidelined by Lower Body injuries) while defenceman Jantzen Leslie plus forwards Arjun Atwal and Dryden Michaud were “coaches decisions.” With Kubic sidelined, the Bridge City Bunch had 16-year-old Nolan Maier backing up Grzybowski. Maier was called up from his home-town Yorkton Terriers of the SJHL.
Back on Tuesday, two players who had yet to see action in any of the Bridge City Bunch’s first three regular-season games were on their way to different teams. Defenceman Payton McIsaac, who doesn’t turn 17 years old until Boxing Day, has been reassigned to Sherwood Park of the Alberta Junior League. As well, 16-year-old forward Logan Doust is going back to the Vancouver Northwest Giants of the B-C Major Midget League. The moves leave the Blue and Gold with 25 players…16 forwards, seven defencemen and two goalies.
Also on Tuesday, sophomore Saskatoon forwards Chase Wouters and Michael Farren made their way onto the N-H-L’s Central Scouting 2017-18 Preliminary Players to Watch list in advance of next June’s draft. Both Wouters and Farren received “C” ratings, meaning they are expected to be chosen between the fourth and sixth rounds.
