Broncos win battle of unbeaten teams

By Matthew Gourlie

The Swift Current Broncos have found a simple winning formula this season.

The line of Tyler Steenbergen, Aleksi Heponiemi and Glenn Gadwin supply the goals. The rest of the team — led by their top-four veteran defencemen — clogged shooting and passing lanes to make life difficult for the opposition. And whenever something does get through, 20-year-old goalie Logan Flodell has been there to shut the door.

Tyler Steenbergen (photo-Darwin Knelsen)

That was the blue print again Sunday afternoon as the Broncos beat the Moose Jaw Warriors 4-3 in a battle of unbeaten teams.

The Broncos improved their record to 6-0 on the season, while the Warriors’ record falls to 5-1.

“This was kind of the first real test for our team,” Gawdin said. “We knew we were coming in to face a good team. We knew we were going to have a battle and that’s what we got tonight. So it’s nice to come out with the win.”

Gawdin had a pair of assists as Steenbergen scored his 13th of the season. Heponiemi opened the scoring and collected his 19th point of the season which leaves him tied with Steenbergen for the WHL lead.

The Broncos’ top line has scored 22 of their 32 goals on the season.

The trio couldn’t compliment each other better. Gawdin provides strong two-way play and a physical edge, Heponiemi’s 16 assists are a testament to his play-making and Steenbergen is on pace to easily eclipse the 51 goals he scored last season.

 

Glenn Gawdin

“We have probably the best goal-scorer in the league and arguably the best passer in the league, so for me I’m just trying to create some space for those guys. We’re all pretty smart players, so when someone’s open we’re making those plays,” Gawdin said.

“We’re building off of last year. We played most of the year together and that chemistry is just kind of clicking off of the start. They’re two easy players to play with.”

Trailing 3-1 heading into the third period, Moose Jaw cut the lead to a goal twice through Noah Gregor and Jett Woo. The lost Gregor for the final 7:03 because of a mouth guard violation.

“We knew we were in for battle tonight,” said Warriors veteran Tanner Jeannot. “There were a couple of mental errors and mistakes at the wrong times and they capitalized on them. We just have to keep working on them in practice and sticking to our game.

“They’re things we can take out of our game and I think we’ll have a better outcome next time.”

The eventual game-winning goal was disappointing for the Warriors as defenceman Dmitri Zaitsev made a blind back-hand pass of the boards in his own zone. Kole Gable pounced on the turnover and Connor Chaulk buried Gable’s rebound to put the Broncos ahead 4-2.

Jayden Halbgewachs’ fifth of the year was the Warriors’ first goal. Broncos defenceman Sahvan Khaira also scored.

Fifteen year old Daemon Hunt once again logged big minutes on the Warriors’ blue line playing in the top-four with Josh Brook, Colin Paradis and Chase Hartje.

Flodell finished with 31 saves and Brody Willms made 25 saves in goal for the Warriors.