Local news delivered daily to your email inbox. Subscribe for FREE to the rdnewsNOW newsletter.

Humboldt Broncos play to capacity crowd in Peace River

Sep 3, 2018 | 8:00 AM

PEACE RIVER — Character determines success.

These words were stated prior to puck drop between the Humboldt Broncos and the Grande Prairie Storm Sunday afternoon.

The statement was one which Peace River native and former Head Coach of the Humboldt Broncos Darcy Haugan was known for.

In front of another sold out crowd of 1,694, the former coach of the Broncos, along with the other 15 Broncos who lost their lives on April 6th, were honoured and remembered.

From when they hit the ice for warm-ups to the national anthem, it was an electric atmosphere at the Baytex Energy Centre.

The game itself was a high scoring, entertaining affair as well.

Grande Prairie would get off to a hot start with goals from Vincent Milot-Ouellet, and Alex Nordstrom to give the Storm a 2-0 lead.

However, the Broncos would claw their back with two goals of their own to even the game at 2 p.m.

Late in the opening stanza, Nordstrom would deflect his second of the afternoon into the back of the net from the high slot to vault the Storm back on top 3-2.

The Storm and Broncos would go back and forth in the 2nd period each scoring a pair in the frame, resulting in Grande Prairie carrying a 5-4 lead into the third period.

Unfortunatley for most of the fans in attendance there wouldn’t be a Broncos comeback on this afternoon as Grande Prairie would outscore the Broncos 4-1 in the final frame and earn a 9-5 win.

Despite the lopsided outcome, Broncos Head Coach Nathan Oystrick believed the game was much closer than the score indicated.

” I don’t know if it was a 9-5 game. They got a couple of bounces, and again I think we competed. Again, our D zone was a little sloppy, but we didn’t work on it enough. So that’s on me for not working on it enough.”

Even though the team fell to their counterparts from Grande Prairie, Oystrick believes their hockey club can take some positives away moving forward.

” We saw some really good things out of some players we weren’t 100% sure on. All in all, am I happy we lost 9-5? No. I think we can take some positives out of this, and we definitley have some teaching points which we can learn from. “

Moving forward, Oystrick and his staff have just 10 days to get their roster ready before their first regular season game.

When it comes to the event, Oystrick was adament that the experience of coming out to Peace River was great.

” It’s been great for me. Obviously Peace River put on a great event. Like I said last night, Darcy Haugan was the face of both of these franchises and the face of two communites. We are honoured and humbled to be here. Hockey aside, it was great to be here. “

The Humboldt Broncos will play their first regular season game on September 12th when they host the Nipawin Hawks.

The North Peace Navigators will play their home opener at the Baytex Energy Centre on September 22 where they will have a special memorial event to honour Darcy Haugan.