The Humboldt Broncos were good in the first period Friday night on road in Nipawin but it was a lackluster middle frame that led to a 4-1 loss to the Hawks.

Starts have haunted Humboldt all year long but meeting five of six between the Hawks and Broncos featured a different timeline, Nipawin used their only first period power-play to take a 1-0 lead to the first break. Tanner Thompson slapped his 22nd of the year past Garrett Mason.

The shots were 15-11 after 20 but just 2:15 into period two the home side had their crowd buzzing with a pair of quick tallies, Grant Baetsen beat Mason on a front door feed for his 14th of the year, Eric Bolden jammed a rebound Mason's left pad to make it 3-0 with his 12th.

Broncos Head Coach Darcy Haugan was not impressed with either goal, his frustrations pointed at the officials rather than his hockey club, Haugan felt the Hawks iced the puck off the opening face-off in the second resulting in the Baetsen goal, Mason and the Broncos argued the case he had the puck covered and the referee clearly couldn't see the puck but their arguments fell on deaf ears.

Josh Bly converted a brilliant Keegan Milligan feed for his 18th during another power-play late in the period to give the Hawks a 4-0 cushion going to the third.

"They came out with a flurry and that's what good hockey teams do," Haugan stated on the post-game show.

Despite the deep hole in a tough rink the green and gold kept coming in the third at least busting the shut-out bid of Kristian Stead who continues to dazzle, the Anchorage-Alaska University commit made 27 stops, just missing his seventh shut-out of the year. Logan Schatz beat him on a rebound for his seventh of the season at the 12:52 mark of the third from Trent Heitema and Trevor Posch.

"The big thing for us tonight I was really pleased by our emotion," Haugan continued. "I thought our third was probably the best, nothing wrong with our first but a little undisciplined."

The Hawks did have the special teams advantage, they were 2/6 with the man advantage, the Broncos were 0/4.

Mason took the loss making 39 saves.

The Broncos are back in action Saturday night when they travel to the Battlefords to face the Stars for the last time this season, the pre-game on the radio begins at 7:15, face-off is 7:30.

Elsewhere Friday night in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League the Stars doubled Melfort 2-1, Estevan cruised past LaRonge 8-3, Kindersley used overtime to slip past Yorkton 5-4, and the Notre Dame Hounds blanked Melville 5-0.

You can hear Haugan's complete post-game comments below.