Over the course of both their season series and the first three games of their playoff series, the Estevan Bruins have developed a healthy respect for the transition game and quick-strike offense of the Humboldt Broncos. They got a painful and vivid reminder of it in game four on Tuesday, March 19.

Brayden Camrud scored a hat trick and Rayce Ramsay stopped 27 of 31 shots he faced as the Broncos hammered the Bruins 8-4 and took a 3-1 stranglehold on the series. Michael McChesney scored twice for Estevan, who were forced to pull Grant Boldt after he allowed four goals on 11 first period shots.

HIGHLIGHTS:

The Broncos started scoring early and never really let up. Drew Warkentine picked off a pass early in the first period and snapped a shot past Boldt for a 1-0 lead, and Humboldt’s offense continued like clockwork. Before the period was out, Michael Clarke had tipped home a goal on the power play, Reid Arnold pulled in on a breakaway and flipped in a backhander, and Logan Foster scored off a goalmouth scramble. The Bruins were in disarray.

A second period goal by Johnny Witzke temporarily brought order to the chaos. Witzke took the puck off the faceoff and fired it past a screened Ramsay to staunch the bleeding. But Camrud, who had already hit a goalpost in that period, opened up the wound again by sniping one past Kadin Kilpatrick, who came in to relieve Boldt after the first.

The Broncos appeared to put the game out of reach early in the third as Derek Patter one-timed home a pass from Foster off the rush. But then the Bruins began to push back. Michael McChesney got the ball rolling after Tanner Manz stripped Ramsay of the puck behind the net and fed him for the one-timer. Then, on nearly an action replay of the previous goal, and just 24 seconds later, Koop fed McChesney out front. McChesney blasted one between Ramsay’s legs to make it a 6-3 game.

The Bruins pulled even closer when Ryder Pierson’s shot fooled Ramsay off a 3-on-2 rush and beat him to the blocker side. But just as he did in the second period, Brayden Camrud stopped the Bruins momentum dead in its tracks.  Camrud dangled the puck between his feet to beat Jake Heerspink wide, then opened up Kilpatrick’s five-hole and slipped it through. Camrud added another one off a broken play in the Bruins crease on the power play, and that rounded out the scoring in a goalfest in Humboldt.

The Broncos lead the series 3-1 and can eliminate the Bruins in game five with a victory. That game is Friday night at Affinity Place with puck drop at 7:30. You can catch the game on Rock 106.  

GAME NOTES

The Broncos score four goals on Grant Boldt in one period for the second time this season. They also scored four on him in the 6-2 Bruins loss at the showcase. 

Brayden Camrud had three goals and two assists for his second five-point outing against the Bruins this year, after he potted two goals and three assists in a 5-3 win on October 6 in Estevan. He now has ten points in four games in the series, matching his regular season total in the same span.

Michael McChesney scored his first two goals of the playoffs. It was the second time this year the Bruins have struck twice shorthanded in one game, and the first time they’ve done it on the same power play. McChesney’s shorthanded goals came just 24 seconds apart. 

The two teams combined for 12 goals on just 60 shots, the most goals in a game the Bruins have played since they beat Melfort 9-4 in October during the regular season.