The Giants return home following the 7-2 win over Victoria facing the Bronco’s who make their only trip to the Coliseum. The last meeting took place at the Credit Union I-Plex.
The Bronco’s have not played at the Coliseum since 2010 and currently sit tied for third in the Eastern Division tied with Moose Jaw with 29 points.
The Giants round out the BC Division managing 16 points through28 games. The Giants will have goaltender Payton Lee and Centre Thomas Foster represent team Pacific in the U17 Challenge. D-man Reid Zalitach will represent Team West and in his first full season Zalitach has played 14 games with the G-men.
While the Bronco’s have had a great trip, they (at times) reflect back on December 30,1986, the day they were on route to Regina to play the Pat’s.
While managing the icy roads the bus slid off the embankment, sending it airborne and flip on it’s side door. Knowing the conditions of the road, the driver was travelling at a controlled speed of 33 mph (53km/h), but the elements were in play and in a split second four players were lost and twenty-two were injured.
All had their jersey numbers retired and to this day the team still wears a commemorative patch in remembrance to them.
NHL’er Joe Sakic also played on that team and went on to record 60 goals.Bronco’s tender Stephen Myland grew up in Cloverdale and played his minor up to second year midget out of the small arena on 176th street.
His goaltending coach (for most of his career) is Ron Veit who has coached Kirk McLean and Carey Price to name only two. Stephen started playing goal about age six or seven and he just picked it up.
His Dad played Football in high school and Mom is the one that gives all the support to everyone. He ended up playing for the North Delta Devils after he came down from the Bronco’s as they still held his playing rights.
He enjoyed playing under Grant Armstrong who is not a scout for Victoria, following a stint with Portland and say’s that Grant “was very strong in keeping him focused on his game.”
The week was a whirl-wind for him as he joined the team in Kamloops as he was called up to play for the West Kelowna Warriors and has hopes on sticking with the club.
He mentioned that “playing in front of a large crowd such as in Swift at first was mind blowing, but it never get’s old.
He was happy to see Mom in the crowd, but Dad was unable to make it to this game.
The trip continues and following Victoria, they head up to PG, then down the yellow-head home (eventually) to play some games prior to the holiday break.
Stephen is a great young man to chat with and here’s hoping he has a long career with a game he loves.
