After a skills competition dominated by the goaltenders, the Humboldt Broncos will return home from Melville with a 3-2 shootout win over the Millionaires on Friday night.

In the first half of a weekend home-and-home with the Millionaires, the Broncos would come out strong in the opening 20 minutes at the Horizon Credit Union Centre.

The Broncos would get the lone goal of the 1st period as Derek Patter backhanded home a rebound for his 2nd goal of the season to put Humboldt up 1-0. Shots on goal after the opening frame were 15-3 for Humboldt.

It wouldn't take long for the Broncos to add to their lead in the 2nd period. On a 5-on-3 powerplay, Kaleb Dahlgren finished off a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play for his Broncos'-leading 6th goal of the year to make it 2-0 just 90 seconds into the 2nd period.

Halfway through the period, Humboldt goaltender Jacob Wassermann would make what Coach Darcy Haugan called 'the save of the game', going cross-crease and flashing the leather to rob Melville forward Trevor Paradise, keeping the score 2-0 entering the 3rd period.

However, the Millionaires would claw their way back into the game in the final frame. Dayton Heino scored a powerplay goal in the first minute to trim Humboldt's lead to 2-1. Then with about 12 minutes to play, Paradise would get another chance to score and didn't miss, backhanding one past Wassermann for his 4th of the season to even the score at 2-2.

That remained the score heading into the final minute of regulation. That's when Connor Lukan came out of the penalty box and seconds later, was sprung in on a partial breakaway. Lukan's quick wrister beat Melville's Colby Entz...but not the post as the shot rang off the iron. Entz covered up the rebound and the two teams finished regulation tied 2-2.

In the 3-on-3 overtime, the Millionaires would get the best chance to end it with a breakaway from Cory Schillo. Schillo broke in from his own blueline, but could fake out Wassermann with a quick shot as the 18-year-old Broncos' netminder held the fort and sent the game to a shootout.

Neither team would score in the first two rounds of the shootout. Melville's Dayton Heino scored, forcing Broncos' captain Logan Schatz to also score to extend the shootout.

Each team would then get one shooter each until the game ended....and that happened much, much later than anyone anticipated.

Both Entz and Wassermann kept the shooters at bay until the 14th round of the shootout. After a Millionaire's miss, defenceman Stephen Wack pick the bottom corner to finally end it and give Humboldt a 3-2 win in Melville.


Humboldt (8-5-1) leapfrogs over Notre Dame for sole possession of 1st place in the Olympics Building Division with the win.

Both teams will face each other on Saturday night, this time back at the Elgar Petersen Arena in Humboldt, to close out the home-and-home. Game time is at 7:30.