Friday night the Broncos definitely put up much more of a fight on the road but they couldn't out scrap the Hawks in Nipawin leaving with a 7-5 loss, their second straight of the new year.

Humboldt had four different leads and never actually trailed in the game until the third but overall it was Nipawin's veterans leading the way.

"There was quite a few mistakes but you know there was an effort tonight," Assistant Coach Brayden Klimosko lamented after the game on KMK Sales Broncos' hockey. "It was nice to see, there was some spark and that's something we didn't see last game."

"Anytime you score five goals that should be enough to win you a hockey game," he continued.

Connor Swystun opened the scoring with a seeing eye point shot on the power-play, Logan Schatz and Daniel McKitrick were credited with assists on Swystun's fourth.

Grant Baetsen tied it for the Hawks eight minutes later.

Corey Dambrauskas put Humboldt up again with his fourth 56 seconds after that, Andrew Thompson and Antonio Diapolo picked up the helpers. Diapolo was making his Broncos' debut, he is a regular with the Beardy's Blackhawks of the Saskatchewan AAA Midget Hockey League.

The Hawks responded again, Eric Bolden tied it just a minute and a half later.

Humboldt retook the lead with under three to play in the first, Trevor Posch snapped his eighth of the season past Michael Barabash making it 3-2. Schatz and Swystun each earned their second points of the period.

Just when it looked like the Broncos would take a lead to the break, Garret Dunlop was left open in front and snapped his 21st of the season past Ryan LaRochelle with just one second left on the clock.

The Broncos shook that off and regained the one goal lead again 7:02 into the second frame. Rock Ruschowski jumped on a Barabash rebound and fired his fifth goal of the season into a yawning net. Logan Boulet picked up his first career point with the green and gold.

Before the middle stanza was out, the Hawks would draw even again, Chase Thudium beat LaRochelle on another power-play at 16:07.

Nipawin would take their first lead in the third, Ian Wolkowicz slapped a point shot past LaRochelle making it 5-4.

The Broncos got that one back, Michael Korol converted a Schatz centering pass for his fifth of the campaign during a man advantage.

Thudium would get the game winner at 12:47 deflecting a wrist shot off a Broncos' defender before it careened past LaRochelle.

Bolden sealed it with an empty net goal with 10 seconds to play.

"There was a lot of good things that happened tonight and that's good to see," Klimosko added. "Now we have to build towards something, I believe the last game we couldn't build on anything positive and there was a lot of things that we could really say were good tonight."

LaRochelle finished 25/31, Barabash stopped 15/19 before he was replaced by Kristian Stead who stopped 9/10 to pick up the victory.

The Broncos scored twice in five power-play chances, Nipawin did the same in one less opportunity.

These same teams meet Saturday night in Humboldt to conclude their season series, the Broncos hoping to get their first win versus the Hawks in the back end of the home and home. The 50/50 is a guaranteed take home of at least $1,000.

You can hear more from Klimosko below.

Elsewhere in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Friday, Jarrett Fontaine led the way for the Weyburn Red Wings in his debut with them, he scored the lone regulation goal then the shoot-out winner in their 2-1 victory over Notre Dame. You can hear Fontaine's interview with Bolt FM's Clark Stork, a day after the 20 year-old Humboldt product was sent to the Wings.

The Battlefords downed Melville 4-1, LaRonge edged Estevan 3-2 in a shoot-out and Flin Flon nipped Melfort 6-5.