Julius Honka came as advertised in his Swift Current Broncos debut.
The Finnish defenceman scored twice to lead the Broncos to a 5-4 win over the Moose Jaw Warriors on Tuesday night in the annual rookie game between the two teams to open the WHL pre-season.
"Handling the puck he's showing how much skill," said Broncos Coach/GM Mark Lamb. "He can really skate. We know he's going to do that. Wait until we get the team in front of him and get playing."
Post game interview with Broncos Coach and GM Mark Lamb
"What I like is he has fun out there. He plays with all kinds of passion, he's tapping his teammates on the pads and there was no way I could have kept him out of this game tonight."
Honka just got all his paperwork signed in time to play and was an immediate difference maker.
"He's definitely something else," Broncos defenceman Brycen Martin said. "Plays a European style hockey but wasn't afraid to get in the corners and battle it out. I'm pretty impressed he's a good player."
Interview with Brycen Martin
Martin helped out with 2 assists, as did Justin Spagrud, while Zac Mackay scored once and had 2 assists.
"It was pretty intense," Martin said. "Rookie games are always rough... everyone's trying to prove what they've got. It's an intense game, it's a lot of fun and I'm glad we came out with the W."
There was only a single fight and yet the teams still combined for 94 penalty minutes in a scrappy affair.
"I love seeing that," Lamb said. "That's just how we think now. It comes from our leadership. The people don't hear the guys on the bench and how they're talking in the dressing room."
Mackay opened the scoring for the Broncos on the power play as he took a feed from newly signed Brandan Arnold and put the puck off the post and in by rookie goalie Brody Willms. Despite getting outplayed all period, the Warriors responded as Josh Uhrich took a feed in the slot and beat Broncos netminder Travis Child to tie the game at 1.
Swift Current re-took the lead in the 2nd period as Bobby Zinkan re-directed a Martin point shot. The Broncos then got in penalty trouble and were outplayed before Moose Jaw's quick goals from Duperreault and Ryan Bowen gave them a 3-2 edge.
Honka made is first impact of the game late in the 2nd period as he one-timed a power play goal by Willms to send the Broncos into the third tied at 3. That's when Swift Current got back to their game.
"We played with a lot of passion and a lot of heart," Lamb said. "Lots of time when you play with a lot of fire you're going to get into penalty trouble and that's something you have to balance, but for right now I really like seeing what we did in the third period."
The Broncos scored their third power play goal of the game when Jake DeBrusk battled in front and knocked in the rebound from the Spagrud shot for the eventual winning goal. Honka broke it open even further on a tremendous 4 on 4 rush that he finished with a wrist shot into the top of the net.
Swift Current went 3 for 6 on the power play, while Moose Jaw was 1 for 8.
Connor McCarthy cut the lead to 5-4 late in the game and the Warriors had some pressure in the final moments before the Broncos were able to shut the door. McCarthy was also the centre of attention throughout the game as the Broncos appeared to grow frustrated with him and went at him several times after whistles.
Cole Bevan dropped the gloves with Uhrich in the game's only fight.
Child made 25 saves on 29 shots to get the win for the Broncos.
Swift Current played several 18-year-olds in the game, while Moose Jaw went with a roster of entirely 15, 16 or 17-year-old players. That didn't go unnoticed by the Warriors.
“I thought our guys played real hard, I thought they played real well, they competed, and in a rookie game like this, that's all you can ask for,” Warriros Coach Mike Stothers told Discover Moose Jaw after the game.
“The game was listed as a rookie game and one team actually played rookies and the other team didn't. I don't know if they don't have any rookies or they're just trying to break in their 95s.”
Swift Current didn't leave any previously contracted young players out of the game.
With the additions of a newly signed Arnold up front and Honka on defence the Broncos now have 19 forwards, 8 defencemen and 3 goalies on the their pre-season roster.
The game marked the start of the WHL pre-season which picks up for the Broncos as they head to Edmonton for the annual Oil Kings invitation. Swift Current plays games on Saturday and Sunday.
Tue, Apr 23, 1:00 PM
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