On Friday night in Melfort, Broncos Head Coach Darcy Haugan was hoping for a strong start from his club which he got but in the end the Mustangs were too much as they cruised to a 5-2 win to push Humboldt to the brink of playoff contention.

Heading into meeting number five of the year between the two clubs, each team had a pair of home ice wins which held true again.

The Broncos did start strong and were rewarded for it, Andrew Thompson jammed a rebound past Richard Palmer opening the scoring just under four minutes in. Laramie Kostelansky and Michael Korol assisted on Thompson's fifth of his rookie campaign coming on the power-play.

The Broncos would continue to hold the early edge until they got into penalty trouble of their own.

Eric Sinclair slapped his 12th of the season past Ryan LaRochelle just prior to the midway point of the frame making it 1-1.

Just two and half minutes later Carter Hansen would make it 2-1 batting a rebound out of the air past LaRochelle for his fifth of the season.

The eventual game winner would come late in the period, Tristan Frei buried a Travis Mayan pass past LaRochelle making it 3-1 with under three to go in the opening stanza.

Despite the two goal deficit the Broncos didn't roll over and feel bad for themselves, they also received some sparkling stops from LaRochelle along the way.

One he didn't stop was Miles Warketine who snapped a perfect shot off the crossbar and in on a Mustang two-on-one making it 4-1.

Humboldt would draw back within two, Kostelansky rifled his ninth past Palmer just after a Mustang penalty had expired. AAA Midget call up Landon Markovitch earned his first career Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League point with one assist, Nikolas Malenica was credited with the other point.

The Broncos would allow the dagger late in the second period however, Frei converted an end board rebound on another Melfort power-play for his second of the night and 29th of the season to cap the scoring as the third went goalless.

They're at a level that it's tough for us to match," Assistant Coach Brayden Klimosko admitted on the post-game show.

He liked the effort from the team against the reigning champs who have now won seven straight and seem to be peaking at the right time.

"They were good, they really were. We looked at our average age tonight and it was 18 right on the dot, that's as young as you get. They played well and we competed hard."

LaRochelle was superb making 41 stops on 46 shots, upwards of 15 could be classified as above average chances. Humboldt generated just 16 on Palmer beating him twice.

The Broncos were 1/5 with the man advantage, the Mustangs scored on two of six opportunities, they were 2/3 through 40 minutes.

"Once they get that confidence they are a tough team to stop and you saw that here tonight," Klimosko added. "For the first 15 minutes we're right in that hockey game and you give them those two goals late and they get their confidence back so it's a team that thrives on that."

The loss, their 24th in a row away from the Elgar Petersen Arena left them 11 points behind Yorkton with just 12 available points left.

With their hopes hanging by a thread which could potentially snap Saturday Klimosko says this is no time to quit.

"If anyone is quitting that really shows what kind of character guy you are and exactly what kind of person you are and I don't want to be around people like that. I know I am going to be working everyday and hopefully the guys see that and we keep doing what we need to do to get out of this rut. It's going to be a one year thing, we're going to get out of this."

Saturday's game begins at 7:30.

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

Elsehere, the Battlefords kept Humboldt alive for at least a night by clipping Yorkton 3-2, the Terriers are in Kindersley Saturday. Nipawin edged Notre Dame 3-2 and Jarrett Fontaine picked up SJHL career points 100 and 101 with a goal and an assist in Weyburn's 4-1 win over the Melville Millionaires.