Bronco’s Only Visit

The Giants return home following the first road loss of the season by a narrow margin of 7-5 loss to the Rockets in a game that saw the Giants up 3-0 after the first.

They allowed the Rockets to get back in the game giving up six unanswered goals but the late stages saw the Giants battle back making it a one-goal game, but simply couldn’t find the tying goal.

This is the only visit of the season by the Bronco’s who come to town with 2-4-0-0 record facing a 3-1-0-0 Giants team who are looking at making changes on and off the ice.

When it comes to changes off the ice the Giants do it up right, by getting involved in various charities throughout the lower mainland and surrounding area.

Something that is needed in today’s world of sports if any franchise is going to be a success and for the ones that fail, it’s normally due to a lack of off-ice involvement that turns fans off.

That alone is something that you would think teams, er-owners would and could figure out, but some are in the sport for two reasons, first being money and secondly being a tax write-off.

Either way, it sad to see sport goes this way, but lets remember it’s not just the minor level teams that go through this, it’s the pro teams as well.

The Bronco’s franchise was initially founded in 1967, the same year as Expo was held in Montreal and played seven full seasons there before moving the team to play in Lethbridge from 1974 to 1986.

They were known as the Lethbridge Broncos while there but later returned to Swift Current and played there from 1986 to the present day and it should be known that they won the President’s Cup in 1982-82.

The team won the Memorial Cup in 1989 and did have one coach (initials GJ) but was implicated in a huge sex scandle and that is something that everyone wants to forget.

The most tragic event for the Bronco’s was the Bus crash December 30, 1986, the Broncos’ bus crashed on the way to a game in Regina.

Four players on the team namly Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger, Chris Mantyka and Brent Ruff (younger brother of then-player and former Sabre coach Lindy Ruff) were killed in the crash.

Their jersey numbers were retired and the team still wears a commemorative patch in remembrance of the four players.

The rest of the team, led by future NHL star Joe Sakic who had a 60 goals season and despite the loss to his teammates, he played throughout the remainder of the season.

In a means to memorialise the players, the WHL awards the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy to the league’s Player of the Year, which is pure class by this organization.

This game see Ryan Kubic between the pipes for the Giants and his counterpart for Swift is Landon Bow with a .920 SV%.

The game featured rough play and goals coming 39 second apart, plus a couple of video reviews by the replay person, Mr. J. Potts who has officiated in the past.

When it comes to a Junior franchise it’s interesting to know that the Bronco’s Head Coach Mark Lamb played for the Nanaimo Islanders in 1982-83 managing 14 goals and 37 assists in 30 games.

In addition he has played for the Flyers, Oilers and the Canadians to name three clubs as well as having spent time in Germany for a season.

The Giants came up short losing by a 5-4 score to the Bronco’s who play next against Victoria Royals.

Final shots saw the teams trade 30 shots with Bronco’s Coda Gordon get first star with two goals and one assist.

Next up for the Giants is Prince George Sunday night at 5 pm.